Skillet Green Beans and Bacon…and the Simple Things

I’ve started this post precisely one zillion times. How could it possibly take that many attempts to write up some simple Skillet Green Beans and Bacon? Because, to be honest, my mind has been occupied with lots of other things – national tragedies, tough stuff closer to home. It’s kind of hard to get going about green beans.

I don’t know about you, but I could use a good dose of perspective right about now. I recently found some in the form of photos captured by my kids. If you’re ever curious to know what the world looks like through the eyes of children, may I suggest supplying them with a camera. I finally downloaded the 212 photos that my 3- and 5-year old have snapped on their little Fisher-Price digital camera over the past year. The images, blurred by overexcited photographers, are…refreshing. The major themes are: selfies, toys, food on their plate, what’s on TV, the buildings we pass on the way to school and mommy (me). Really, it’s the simple things.

I thought I’d share a few of them here – no editing or cropping, these are the real deal.

Kidcam pics

Lots of scenes from the back seat…

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Artwork…

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View of the kitchen from three-and-a-half feet tall (this is how I remember my first kitchen growing up too – from cabinet level!).

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There are a bunch in there of me driving…

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We love FedEx…

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Important to remember the President and First Lady…

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He could play with play-doh for hours (and does)…

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The sugar pie my daughter suggested baking last summer (she was elated when a recipe subsequently appeared in one of my magazines – we baked one that day!)…taking-food-pics-580

More pics of me…

Like I said, my little guys are delighted by and drawn to the simple things.

Browsing the hundreds of photos on their kidcam allowed me to slow down, step out of my head for a moment and just appreciate the simple things in life. When I can manage to do that, I find I’m happier and I can look at situations going on in my world with greater perspective. I really needed that this week!

Since this is a food blog after all, and I wanted to leave you with a recipe, here are the Skillet Green Beans and Bacon I made over the weekend. With just three main ingredients, they definitely fit into our theme of “simple” today. You might even say that preparing this dish is almost therapeutic. There’s not a lot of thinking to do – you just slowly render the bacon fat, then caramelize the onions in it (another slow process you can linger over) and cook the green beans. Simple, yet worth your time to slow down and enjoy. 🙂

Skillet Green Beans and Bacon

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8 Comments

  1. Amy wrote:

    When Haley was 3, her Aunt Jen gave her an old digital camera since she had upgraded. Haley spent an entire year taking pictures of everything. We loved them so much, I made a collage of my 20 favorites and that was our holiday card for the year. Love this post….and the green beans.

    Posted 5.23.13 Reply
    • What a special card! That’s a great idea. I turned theirs into a photo book, waiting for it to arrive from shutterfly. 🙂

      Posted 5.23.13 Reply
  2. Chris wrote:

    Love the photos! I need to do that with my kids too – I am sure they have a ton of funny and refreshing pictures hiding on their devices! Sometimes we need to take a step back, slow down and appreciate the beauty around us. Your recipe looks great! My son would especially love the bacon. 🙂

    Posted 5.23.13 Reply
  3. Kalyn wrote:

    Very fun! I love the idea of giving them a camera and letting them go to work.

    Posted 5.24.13 Reply
  4. This looks delicious. I think I will make it for our dinner tomorrow. Thank you.

    Posted 7.16.13 Reply
  5. Donna wrote:

    My Sistah…I was searching for this recipe and I stumbled upon your blog.
    The pics (from the children’s perspective) are refreshing.
    Ahhh…the memories of days-gone-by…my ‘little-one” is grown AND married
    (smile)!
    Blessings to you and your family in late 2013 and into 2014!!!

    Posted 11.27.13 Reply
    • Wishing you wonderful holidays too, Donna – thank you! 🙂

      Posted 11.27.13 Reply