ARUGULA SALAD WITH WHITE BEANS AND BACON

This salad is a copycat of my favorite salad from a neighborhood deli.  The exact description from their menu: arugula, pastina, cannellini beans, smokey bacon, walnuts, parmesan cheese, sherry vinaigrette.  I always order it without walnuts, because I firmly believe that nuts and fruit have no place in salads.  Also, I couldn't find a sherry vinaigrette anywhere, so regular balsamic took over dressing duty.  And finally, I realized I had a perfectly ripe avocado ready to be used, and everyone knows bacon and avocado are best friends, so I threw that on there after taking pictures.  The avocado was amazing and I highly recommend you also use one.

The lineup.  I baked the bacon, method here.

How cute is this little pasta?  Reminds me of couscous. 

This salad makes me so happy.

Ingredients

Arugula
Acini di pepe, cooked and cooled (or any tiny, pearled pasta)
Cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
Bacon, cooked and broken into bite sized pieces
Shaved parmesan cheese
Avocado
Balsamic vinaigrette, or any vinaigrette

Toss arugula in bowl with dressing.  Plate the arugula, then top with remaining ingredients.  Season entire salad with salt and fresh cracked pepper.  Vary amounts of ingredients based on your preferences!

OVEN BACON

Things I love: bacon and Martha Stewart.  Things I hate: the way my house stinks after I make bacon in the griddle and cleaning up after.  Thank goodness for Martha!  This isn't so much a recipe as it is a method.  If you like your bacon crispy and want to avoid grease splatter all over your stove top and counters, do as Martha says: Put the bake back in bacon!

It's simple.  Line deep baking sheets with parchment, lay the bacon down without overlapping, bake at 400 for 18 minutes.  I loved everything about it, except I think I'll line the pans with foil next time.  Parchment paper doesn't crumple as nicely as foil, so little droplets of bacon grease ended up on my shirt during clean up.  Oops.

Martha's method: http://www.marthastewart.com/264476/less-mess-bacon

ROASTED BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH BACON

Raise your hand if you hate brussels sprouts!  Okay, now put it down because I'm about to convert you.  People either love them or hate them, and it takes a great recipe to turn the haters.  This is most definitely one of those recipes.  It is super simple and super delicious.  Did I mention the bacon???  These are the only ingredients you'll need:

Clean your brussels sprouts and cut off the hard bottoms.  Cut the bigger sprouts in half, unless you have a gigantic mouth.  In a baking dish or pan, toss them with olive oil, then season with salt and pepper.  Mix mix mix.  Mentally prepare yourself for bacon time.  I read somewhere that if you rinse your bacon with water before you cook it, then it won't shrivel up!  This recipe sounded like it needed fat, soft bacon, so I rinsed four slices of thick cut bacon in cold water.  Then I cut them into inch sized pieces (get out those kitchen scissors!) and scattered them on top of the veggies.

Bake at 400 for half an hour, stirring once halfway through.  I put them under the broiler for a couple minutes at the end to give them a teeny bit more crisping.

Original recipe here