Tag: bacon

Sunday Sup: Scallops

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 2 Comments

I cobbled together this meal earlier this week and it was madly tasty. I might have posted something similar before, who can remember.

Bacon Spinach Scallops

Cook 1/2 lb bacon in a large skillet over medium heat.

Start defrosting your scallops if frozen. (You know, colander with cold water running?)

Mince a shallot. Mince two garlic cloves (Or get out the premade equivalent.)I put this is a little glass bowl, ready and waiting.

Stir the bacon. Turn over the scallops in the colander.

Zest a lemon, juice two lemons, add 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes. I put this is a little glass bowl, ready and waiting.

Stir the bacon. Turn over the scallops in the colander.

Fish out the crispy bacon, set on paper towel to drain a bit.

Dry the scallops. Cook the scallops in bacon grease. Two minutes per side should have them opaque and slightly browned.

Remove scallops.

Add shallot and garlic to bacon grease pan. Stir round for a minute.

Add Lemon juice, etc mixture to pan, stir round and scrape up all the good bits on the bottom of the pan. Add 4 c baby spinach and stir to wilt, 1-2 minutes.

Add the scallops and bacon back and give everything a good mix.

This was too yummy for a picture to get taken but I do have macros for you….

1/4 the pan: 10.3 fat, 24 protein, 6.3 total carb, 4.3 net carbs.

 

Sunday Sup: Fun with Mozzarella

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

It’s no surprise to you, I’m gluten free. And I try to keep my grains to a minimum, gluten free or not. This often leads to me trying odd recipes.

Like this one from Our Paleo Life for a keto pizza crust.  I played with their recipe, of course. Mine goes like this.

Melt a bag of shredded moz (2 cups) in the micro, 45 seconds to one minute.

Add an egg, stir until the whole mess feels slimey.

Add 3/4 c almond flour and stir until sticky.

Pat out into a round on parchment paper, or a square, heck make a triangle, live dangerously.

Top and bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes. My fave is to top this with pesto, chicken, bacon, more cheese, roasted garlic, red onions. Yummy!

Having made this pizza a lot over the last couple of years, I didn’t blink too hard when I saw this recipe for Gnocchi.

Melt 2 cups shredded Moz in the micro. Add 3 egg yolks, one at a time, and make sure each one is incorporated before adding the next. Refrigerate for 15 minutes.

IMG_20171116_185459Scoop up a quarter of the “batter” and roll it into a log. Slice into 8-10 pieces. Drop into boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Fish out and top with sauce.

 

 

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I topped with an Italian sausage, spinach, and marinara combo. Can’t go wrong with that. Especially when you liberally add some parm. I swear I was Italian in a previous life. LOL

 

 

 

Of course, there’s always cheese sticks. I know. Gluten laded and fried to within an inch of their lives, I gave up traditional cheese sticks eons ago. And then I found this recipe.

Unwrap a cheese stick or six. Cut them in half. Freeze them for a couple of hours. At least 2 ideally.

Wrap each stick in a slice of bacon, covering all the cheese stick. Try to tuck the bacon in so to speak so it doesn’t come unrolled while frying. Place in a pan to grill the bacon. Turn the bacon wrapped stick as each side gets brown and crispy.

By the time the bacon is done the cheese is melted inside.

I like to serve these with honey dijon sauce. Whatevs. I can live with my weirdness. LOL

Enjoy the Moz!

 

Sunday Sup: The vegetable drawer pasta

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I know you are scratching your head. The vegetable drawer pasta. What?

Ok so I needed dinner for the fam. I hadn’t been shopping much. Things have been hectic lately. I won’t get into all that. I looked in the fridge and the freezer and this is what I came up with.

Preheat your oven to 400. Put parchment paper on a baking sheet. Now search your veg drawer. Pull out a few options that go together. I used heirloom grape tomatoes, orange bell pepper, and crimini mushrooms. Roasted them until the tomatoes are about to burst and the other stuff is soft, lightly browned, ready for consumption. 25 minutes in this case.

While the veg are roasting, microwave your spaghetti squash or start your water for real pasta. No judgement here.

Also start defrosting some fat shrimp in the sink.

Fry 1/2 pound bacon, in pieces, then pull the bacon and saute the shrimp in the bacon fat. Two minutes a side maybe less, watch for them to be opaque.  Pull the shrimp as needed so you can cook them all single layer.

Add the roast veg to the pan with the bacon fat and force your tomatoes to pop. It makes a kind of sauce with the bacon fat. If you’re using spaghetti squash, scrape it to make the long strands. Throw everything together (shrimp, bacon, veg, spag squash) and top with fresh Parmesan.

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Sunday Sup: Jalapeño Poppers

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I don’t know how I haven’t posted this one before. Maybe I just haven’t made them in the months I have been posting recipes? That could be possible. Anyway, Fourth of July I went to a BBQ at my back neighbors. They do this BBQ potluck and fireworks thing every year. Anyway, this year my neighbor asked me to bring baked beans. Ok, I made those, and I threw together a fruit salad, yes, that fruit salad on the recipe list.

But then at dinner, I almost got lynched. Where were the poppers? How dare I come without poppers?

Oh mi. So I made them that weekend.

Jalapeño Poppers

Grab some jalapeños. As many as you like. I usually make a huge batch because once I am prepping this mess, I might as well fill the pan.

If you have sensitive skin, use gloves.

Cut the stem end off, slice them in half, scrape out the seeds. Now I usually cut the jalapeño down to bite size but you can leave them as large as you like.

Fill the available space with cream cheese. Use good cream cheese. Not chemically laced Philly.

Wrap the pepper in bacon. I like to cut a strip of bacon in half the long way so that I can wrap it many times, thinly with little over lap.

Fill your rimmed cookie sheet. Bake at 250 for 3 to 4 hours. You want the bacon fully crisped and the pepper wrinkled into softness. I know 3-4 hours is a wide range but size of pepper and thickness of bacon will really effect cooking time. You’ll want to pull them out of the pan of bacon grease pretty quick after taking them out of the oven.

So I was pretty lax in numbers here. It depends so much on the size of the pepper. But let’s say 10 whole large peppers will take 12 oz cream cheese and a pound of bacon, give or take a little.

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Sunday Sup: Lazy Man’s Potato Skins

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

It’s been hot, for like 4 whole days we saw 80 plus. Woohoo.

But that means I don’t really want to cook. So what to make for family movie night, that’s like going to the movies, without running the oven. Hrm…

Lazy Man’s Potato Skins were born.

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I shop a lot at Trader Joe’s, but if you don’t have one locally, I am sure you can find something like this in your own local store. If all else fails, use tater tots, but you have to actually cook those so it kind of defeats the purpose.

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Ok so pop a hash brown on the microwave safe plate, pop it in the micro for 45 seconds. Flip it over. Add cheese (Gruyeres on this one) and bacon. Micro 30-45 more, until the cheese is melted. Top with sour cream.

 

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 If you want to get fancy….try with pesto chicken, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, and parm.

 

Sunday Sup: Secretly Lazy Dinner

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You ever have one of those days? You are just wiped out. And you don’t really have a good justification for it, you just are. So you know you have to produce some kind of dinner, because you don’t have a reason not to. Smiles. Secret weapon time.

I’m going to show you the pic first this time. Because the presentation is half of getting away with this dish. IMG_20170409_180442

Doesn’t it look pretty? You’d never know I spent 9 minutes on this.

Whip a box of Beechers Brown rice and kale gratin out of the freezer. (Plan ahead people.) Pop that in the micro for it’s 6 minute run. Chop some left over chicken or if you are me, grab that bag of precooked sliced chicken you always have in your fridge (just in case) and chop some of that. Pull out your bag of real bacon bites (Costco is amazing) and a really good quality parm. I get mine from River Valley Cheese.

When the micro dings, you have to pull off the plastic wrap and put it back in for 90 seconds. This is the perfect time to add a bowl of the cut up chicken so it warms too.

Combine chicken, Beecher’s dish, bacon in nice dish. Top with freshly grated parm.

Sunday Sup: Bacon Mac and Cheese

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I’ve made this recipe just enough times to have messed about with it into almost perfection. Therefore I can share it with you.

The original came from Jessica over at How Sweet Eats.

Gluten Free Bacon Caramelized Onion Mac and Cheese

Cut up a half pound of bacon and cook it in a nice large skillet, I used a wok.

While the bacon browns and renders all it’s yummy fat, thinly slice 2 medium onions. I cut the half moons in half again. This really about how much caramelized onion flavor you want. Use less, use more, your call.

Remove the bacon from the pan. Lower the heat to halfway between medium and low. Add the onions. Stir frequently for what will be quite a while. 20 plus minutes. When the onions are caramelly brown, they are ready for the next step.

In the mean time, start a pot of water to boil. Preheat oven to 375. Butter a casserole dish. I use a nice large one with a wide bottom, which makes for a thinner layer of mac and cheese but more crumbly topping per serving. I like the balance that way.

Add 1/4 c gluten free flour blend to the onions and stir until it thickens into a roux. 2 minutes maybe.

Add one cup whole milk. Stir constantly until the milk and onions are thick like pudding. Add 1 1/2 cups milk and combine.

Add paprika(1 tsp), nutmeg (1/2 tsp), 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, a 12 oz bag of mixed gruyere and swiss shredded cheese. Stir until gooey. Turn off the heat.

Add the bacon back in.

Toss your favorite gluten free pasta in the boiling water. Cook about half the time specified. I like Trader Joes spiral Quinoa and Rice pasta. Drain the pasta and add to the cheese goo in your pan. Mix gently.

Pour into prepared pan. Sprinkle gluten free bread crumbs and shredded Parmesan cheese all over the top for a crunch. Bake 25 minutes, until the goo bubbles and the parm and img_20161231_160957bread crumbs are golden brown.

 

PS. I’ve just been told this is amazing the next morning with eggs on top. LOL.

Sunday Sup: Dates

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 4 Comments

I realize this is a super easy recipe and if a dozen people hadn’t asked me what I did at the Sinterklaas party we had, I totally wouldn’t have bothered making this a Sunday Sup. But as it was, I was practically as grilled as this dish. LOL

Stuffed Dates

Buy some dates. Make a slice in the top the long way so you can pop out the pit.

Stuff the now empty space with goat cheese.

Wrap the dates in bacon.

Chill them until you are ready too cook them. Over night is fine if you are party prepping. Straight into the oven works too.

Cover a cookie sheet in parchment paper. Bake for img_20161205_12414520-25 minutes at 450. You want the bacon crisp.

Let them cool just a smidge so you don’t burn your mouth on ooey gooey amazing goat cheese.

That’s it. Eat em up.

Merry Christmas if you celebrate.

Sunday Sup: Stuffed Chicken

~ tahenryauthoress ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know where I got the idea for this one. It was definitely one of those “what’s in the house?” moments. Where I throw various things together and hope it tastes good. What you never do that? Liar. LOL
Next week’s recipe will be another “What’s in the house?” recipe and it happens to make an excellent side dish for this one.

Stuffed Chicken wrapped in Bacon

Start the oven pre-heating to 425.

Mince a couple of shallots. Add them to some EVOO in a medium skillet over medium ish heat. Roughly chop some mushrooms, I like Crimini, add those to the pan as well. Stir occasionally.

Microwave half a bag of frozen chopped spinach, or a box one, until the frozen is mostly knocked off. Add to the shallots and mushrooms until the mixture gets wet and then dry again. Continue to stir occasionally.

In the mean time butterfly your chicken breasts, four of them.img_20161115_171748 If you know how skip to the next item, if not read on. Lay the chicken breast on the cutting board flat side down. Grab the little flap and cut into it slowly from the inside out so that when you are done the flap is still attached to the breast but lays flat on the cutting board. Now you should have a big obvious mound. Cut from the middle out, dividing it in half so that when you are done, that piece is still connected but lays flat.

If the veggies aren’t dry yet, get down a baking dish, spray with oil, I like EVOO. Get out a package of bacon, open it, and loosen up the pieces.

img_20161115_171757Ok turn the heat off the veg. Add goat cheese to the pan, to your taste. I like it cheesy, so I add 5-6 ounces of goat cheese. Stir the cheese around until it melts slightly from the residual heat and you get a gooey mess. You don’t want it so melted it starts to separate or is hard to handle because next you’ll be putting it in those chicken breasts.

Get your assembly ready. Grab a chicken breastimg_20161115_171927 in one hand, put a spoonful of filling in the middle. Flop the chicken over on itself to make a chicken “taco.” Wrap the taco in two slices of bacon. Nestle it down into the pan. Sorry about the pic, I don’t have an assistant and somehow having only two hands wasn’t enough. LOL

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Slide the pan into the oven for 35 minutes.

Then up it to broil, high, for five more minutes so your bacon gets crispy. Now I’m hungry again.

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Sunday Sup: Cheddar Bacon Bread

~ tahenryauthoress ~ 1 Comment

It’s cold out there and that makes me want to bake. I made this bread for the first time last Christmas, in cute little snowflake covered paper rounds, then froze and shipped them to friends with cookies and fudge. Yeah, I’m one of those. LOL

I don’t know where this recipe came from. I found it on my recipe shelf, scribbled on a piece of note paper. shrug. So here’s my version.

Preheat to 350.

Grease or butter your loaf pan, unless using those cute paper cups then you’re good.

In a large bowl combine:

1 cup flour (if going Gluten free, I love Trader Joe’s Gluten free flour blend for this, Pamela’s is also good. If you use Bob’s Red Mill be aware that the bread will have a grainy texture although still taste good.)

1 teaspoon baking powder. Stir.

In a medium bowl, melt 2 tablespoons butter, then add one egg, and 1/2 c milk. (Don’t use non fat, use 2% or whole.)

Add the wet to the dry, stir until incorporated.

Now add at least 2 big handfuls of shredded cheese. I use a 4 cheese mix but you can use anything that goes with bacon and apples. Now add cooked and chopped bacon, 1/2 c maybe? But how can you go wrong with bacon? Now throw in one peeled and minced apple.  img_20161020_183410

Scoop the batter out into your baking dish(es) and slide it in the oven for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the dish. A toothpick inserted in the middle should come out clean when the bread is done.

Slice and eat. Repeat. Sorry I couldn’t help but take a little bite before I got the shot off.