Bacon-wrapped Chicken Tenders

I finally had a few minutes to catch up on reading some of my cooking magazines and made this the same night I pulled it out of  Everyday Food.  There was a whole section on bacon and since I'm a fan, you'll see a few more recipes posted before too long.  This was finished in less than 20 minutes for me...YEAH!

*8 fresh sage leaves (my plant is still going strong, so if you live nearby, stop by for some leaves)

*8 chicken tenders

*8 slices bacon

*1/2 tsp. extra-virgin olive oil

Place a sage leaf on each chicken tender, then wrap each with a bacon slice.  In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high (I skipped the oil because was all know the bacon has plenty...just preheated the pan). Add tenders, sage side down, and cook until fat is rendered and bacon is browned, about 6 minutes (mine only took about 3-4 min on each side).  Flip and cook until tenders are cooked through.  With tongs, transfer to a wire rack set on a rimmed baking sheet to drain.  Since mine cooked faster than I expected I was still waiting on my roasted potatoes, and just put the baking sheet in the oven (450) for about 5 minutes and even though I worried it might dry out the chicken, bless that bacon if it didn't keep it deliciously moist.  My 5yo told me she LOVED this chicken and could I make it again soon.

Loaded Potatoes

The man of the house and I were walking through Costco and saw some loaded baked potatoes in the freezer section that looked almost dangerously good. We decided to make some of our own and picked up a bag of their gigantic potatoes and turned them into the best potatoes we've ever eaten.

I started with 4 (huge) potatoes. Scrub them clean and pierce with a fork. Bake at 350 until tender. Ours were so large they took almost 2 hours to cook. While baking cook 6 strips of bacon (I'm a big fan of pre-cooked bacon), cool and crumble, set aside. Warm 1/2 c. milk, 3 TBSP. butter and 1/4 c. sour cream until melted and whisk to combine. Remove from oven, cut in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides and put in a mixing bowl. Reserve skins. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the potatoes and mix on low speed until well-combined and fluffy (but don't over beat or you'll end up with glue). Fold in the bacon and scoop back into the reserved skins. Sprinkle tops generously with shredded sharp cheddar cheese (we used about 3 cups for the 4 potatoes). Place on a baking sheet and put back in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until the cheese is good and melty. These were delicious! My hubby didn't even add pepper and he still declared them potato of the year. We'll likely make these a very regular part of our meal rotation.

We didn't have any green onions but I'm sure some finely chopped would make a good addition, stir in with bacon.

Pasta Mama

I've become a big fan of the Food Network show, The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Carlee and I often chat after episodes and compare notes on which dishes we need to try. We both agreed a recent dish called 'Pasta Mama' looked yummy. Right after the show I went to the restaurant's website to get more info about the dish.
It is evidently a breakfast dish, but it sounded a lot like pasta carbonara to me, so we enjoyed it for dinner. This is not what you'd call a light dish and the hubby and I agreed this would be a perfect carb-loading meal.

*5 oz. of pasta (about 1/3 lb. fresh or dry)
*2 eggs, beaten
*2 cloves minced garlic
*2 TBS. chopped parsley
*1 TBS. olive oil (or butter)
*1 TBS. water
*1 TBS. of fresh grated Parmesan
*¼ tsp. garlic powder
*¼ tsp. oregano
*¼ tsp. seasoning salt
*¼ tsp. onion powder

Prepare pasta – fresh takes 2-3 minutes; follow directions on packaging of dry pasta (Leftover pasta can also be used. Add at same time as it is added below and warm in pan with 1 TBS
hot water before adding eggs.)
Turn on stove on medium. Pour oil (or melt butter) in 10 inch sauté pan.
Add minced garlic and dry seasonings; sauté together 1- 2 min.Add parsley; add pasta with 1 TBS hot water (Make sure leftover pasta or cold pasta is hot before adding parsley or eggs)
Add beaten eggs and mix thoroughly. (I made 1.5 of the recipe and it was a bit tricky to add the eggs, tossing enough to cook, but not scramble the eggs and I ended up with 2 clumps of egg, so work quickly and turn down the heat a bit at this point)
Add Parmesan, cook through and serve. I also cooked up 4 strips of bacon and tossed in the pan with the cheese...YUMMY!

Turkey, Bacon Roll-ups

I learned a good lesson this week-if you have a can of refrigerated crescent rolls in your car on a very hot day for about 20 minutes, the can will open all by itself? Sometimes this can be a problem, but this week it resulted in a new and tasty dinner. My grocery store had crescent rolls on sale this week so I grabbed a few cans vaguely remembering a recipe I had recently seen using them. Of course, I couldn't remember what the recipe was, or the other ingredients, but I picked up the dough and headed home. When I got home to put the food away I realized one of the cans had exploded so I needed to use them right away. Taking quick inventory of the fridge here's what I came up with:

*1 can refrigerated crescent rolls
*spreadable cream cheese (I probably used about 2 oz-ish)
*1/2-3/4 c. cooked turkey, chopped into small pieces
*6 pieces bacon, cooked and crumbled

Spread dough out into individual rolls (big flat triangle). Spread each with a light layer of cream cheese. Cover each with turkey and top with crumbled bacon. Roll up and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Bake according to package instructions (mine was 375 for 12 minutes).
These were good enough that I'll likely make them again. Next time I'd add some finely chopped sun-dried or regular tomatoes. I'd figure one can would feed 2 adults and 2-3-ish kids.