Sqirl’s Pesto Brown Rice Bowl

sqirl's pesto brown rice bowl // my bacon-wrapped life

Despite growing up in Los Angeles and going back 4-5 times per year to visit family and friends, I never seem to really make a dent in my list of restaurants I’m dying to try. Every trip we’ll maybe squeeze one new stop in, but the vast majority of the time, we end up defaulting to our family faves over and over again. Not a terrible problem to have, but when I saw that Jessica Koslow of Sqirl (maybe #1 on my must-try LA restaurant list) published a cookbook full of recipes from her restaurant, I decided to finally take matters into my own hands and bring a little LA to the Bay myself!

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Guinness Chocolate Cake with Toasted Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting

guinness chocolate cake with toasted coconut cream cheese frosting // my bacon-wrapped life

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!

As an ex-Chicagoan, I feel very strongly about this fun, festive holiday. Some of my favorite memories from my years in Chicago are St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with friends – going to see the green river, starting the day off with some beer pong at 10am, and walking down the streets surrounded by people absolutely spilling out of every bar. The first year we spent in the Bay Area, I woke up on St. Patrick’s Day weekend expecting everyone to be out and partying – instead, everything was totally silent! I realized quickly that I’d have to make my own St. Patrick’s Day fun out here – which is perfectly fine with me (I’m a little too old to be doing it up with a day full of green beer and Irish car bombs, anyways). I never miss the chance to celebrate with chocolate and booze – two of my very favorite things!

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Pitaya Breakfast Bowls

pitaya breakfast bowls // my bacon-wrapped life

Hi friends! I think I’ve just about recovered from our action-packed (and completely amazing) trip to Hawaii last month. Since I just did a travel post about our trip to Australia, I figured this time I’d pay tribute to our vacay by bringing a piece of our trip back via the kitchen. One of my absolute favorite things about Hawaii (besides the poke, the hiking, and the incredible views) is the abundance of amazing fresh fruit. I could never get sick of all the fresh mango and pineapple and guava juice! I think I started pretty much every day of our trip with either yogurt and granola and fresh fruit, or my new favorite discovery – pitaya breakfast bowls.

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Smoky Sweet Potato Bacon Breakfast Skillet

smoky sweet potato bacon breakfast skillet // my bacon-wrapped life

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to bring more “vacation” to everyday life – to purposefully take time to make the ordinary weeks feel special, and to develop little rituals of self-care and fun to break up the week. We’ve been trying to get in bed early to snuggle up with our books instead of mindlessly watching TV or scrolling through Instagram. We’ve been making more homemade cocktails to fancy up our Saturday night dinners at home. And perhaps my favorite new little ritual is that we’ve been having lovely little Sunday brunches – nothing fancy, usually just at home, but just taking the time to make a nice meal in the morning and linger over coffee and the newspaper. Somehow, dedicating time to cooking a real meal for myself and Brad on a slow weekend morning feels like the most decadent, lovely way to honor the weekend and make it feel special.

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