Roasted Bacon Wrapped Green Beans

I am always trying to come up with new recipe ideas when it comes to how to cook veggies. I think most people find vegetables boring or don't realize all that you can do with them. This is a super easy and delicious recipe that I found on another cooking blog and had to share with all of you. Not only does this dish taste amazing, it also looks really cute when you put them on a serving platter. While some of you might be thinking that the bacon makes these unhealthy, that is simply not the case. This is a nutritious side dish that would go nicely with all sorts of entrees. I am serving this side dish tonight with some salad, mashed sweet potatoes and grilled bbq chicken breasts.

Original Recipe from "Meghan in the Kitchen...With a Baby On the Way" (http://meghaninthekitchen.blogspot.com/)

Roasted Bacon Wrapped Green Beans
Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients:
1 pound fresh green beans - cleaned and ends snapped off
6-8 slices of bacon - each slice should be cut in half
Black Pepper
Garlic Powder
Brown Sugar
1 tablespoon Light Margarine

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees
-In a pot, add water and bring to a boil
-Once water is boiling, add fresh green beans and blanche them for 3-4 minutes
-Remove from water and set aside for preparation
-On a non-stick baking tray or 9 x 13 casserole dish, spray some non-stick cooking spray on the bottom
-Grab between 5 and 8 green beans and wrap half a piece of bacon around the middle of the bundle and lay seam side down on baking tray/casserole dish.
-Repeat process until all green beans have been wrapped in bundles with bacon around each of them.
-Make sure you leave a little room in between each of the bundles on the tray/casserole dish.
-In a small saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and add 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Brush butter/brown sugar mixture on top of each piece of bacon wrapped green bean bundle.
-Sprinkle garlic powder and pepper on each of the bacon wrapped green bean bundles.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven. You will know when they are almost done by looking at the bacon. It will be cooked and the green beans will look roasted. You can put the tray under the broiler for a few minutes if you need or want to crisp up the bacon after roasting them for 15-20 minutes.

*Suggestions
-To make this dish a healthier version, I would use center cut/lower fat bacon or turkey bacon. I believe the turkey bacon would alter the taste quite dramatically but lower fat bacon would be just fine. That is what we use in our house.
-I also use the Splenda brown sugar blend, instead of regular brown sugar and it works very well.
-You could do other veggies with this recipe. I am thinking of trying out asparagus next time.

Enjoy! :)