The Husband was trying to be a good man and cook me dinner one night. Dinner was bacon sandwiches. His version of a BLT is just bacon, bread and mayo. I appreciated it, gave him a hug and told him never to do that again.

I can’t eat that much bacon. I need balance. I need veggies!

So I’ve found a great way to store bacon when I know we won’t get to that much bacon in one sitting.

Well… Ok we COULD get through that much bacon in one night but we really don’t need to be doing that to our poor arteries.

I saw this method somewhere, I don’t remember and its been a while, but I LOVE it. The idea of individually frozen pieces of bacon just make my life better. And easier!

Take some parchment paper, and place a piece of bacon down. Fold over. Place another piece on top. Fold over. Place, fold, repeat, then freeze! Forgive the lack of picture, lighting has been weird lately with the weather/time changes.

This way you can pull out as many pieces as you need. Only have to unroll and stick them in the oven or pan. You don’t really need to defrost bacon, it just goes with the flow. Just store it in a freezer safe zip-top bag and squeeze out as you can. It’ll stay good for probably a few months, but then again I wouldn’t know since it doesn’t last that long in my house!

It’s an addictive substance that I am so glad is socially acceptable.

The one thing I really hate about cooking bacon is the splattering, popping and eventual burning flesh and running away from the angry grease. So I’ve been looking for a way to make bacon without the fear I have of the burny fleshyness.

And the time. It takes too long for the bacon to cook in my opinion.

So after watching so many foodie shows on TV I’ve decided to start baking my bacon. Awesomeness. I don’t have to worry about splattering grease on myself and it’ll have it all be cooked and done at the same time!

Mmmmm… Bacon…

I bought this nice and wonderful contraption at Kohl’s before Christmas, an oven safe cooling/baking rack, and it has truly been my favorite thing ever to lower the fat in cooking. It can handle up to 475F I believe, but you don’t really have to use this, you can just lay the bacon on the tray and it’ll work great also.

Always line your baking sheet with a large piece of heavy duty foil, this way you don’t have to do much clean up at all and you wont mess up your pans with all that bacon grease. To bake your bacon, always start with a cold oven. That’s my opinion at least. It seems to cut down on the splattering and grease craziness in the oven. It also helps your meat strips to lay flat.

Lay as much as you can in your pan without overlapping the bacon, the more bacon the better my life.

Cook the bacon at 375F for about 15-20 minutes or until the crispness that you want. Thin bacon cooks MUCH faster than thicker cut, so you really have to watch your bacon the first few times until you get the hang of it. It also seems to take a little longer to cook on the rack, probably because its not cooking in the grease.

There is a definite texture difference if you cook it on the rack rather than just on the pan, it still tastes great but it does feel different in your mouth. Cooking it without the rack will produce bacon very similar to cooking on the stove. Either way its great. I think I just like the fact that the grease is draining off as it goes. It probably doesn’t make much of a difference calorie wise but it makes me feel better.

I called my mom recently and got all of the recipes for food that I remember growing up. It’s something that I wanted to do before I forgot or before the recipes couldn’t be found again. That tends to happen.

There were a few changes I made to the recipe, you know me, I have to do things like that.

When I add oats to a recipe I tend to crush them first, make them slightly like bread crumbs so they can incorporate easier and not be as noticeable since they aren’t really there for texture. I decided to do half crushed oats, and half bread crumbs for the grains that were required. I also doubled the amount. There’s a few reasons why.

The recipe also called for 4 ounces of tomato sauce. Well the can I had was 8 ounces and I really couldn’t think of another use for the rest of the sauce, so I just threw it all in there with it.

I then added all the spices and eggs to hold it together.

Then comes the meat. This is the other reason why I doubled the tomato and crumbs mixture, I used the leanest beef I could find so the bread crumbs were to try and keep it moist since it could dry out easier. I wanted to use super lean sausage (its under the beef) but I couldn’t find it at the store, so I had to go for regular.

There really is one thing I hate about making meatloaf or meatballs, the smooshing of the meat into one conforming mass. Why? Because the meat is generally freezing cold from the fridge and it makes my joints hurt. I just have to remember to put it out 20 minutes or so before I make it so my hands don’t hurt.

And then onto the loaves. I lined a pan really well with foil, and even made a little “dam” of sorts so that the fat wouldn’t leak out onto the pan. Hey, I’m lazy and don’t feel like cleaning the pan. Deal with it.

Most people will make meatloaf and slather it in gravy or ketchup on top, but I don’t do that. Granted I love ketchup on my meatloaf, but I love it when the ketchup is icy cold and the meatloaf is hot. I love the contrast. Besides, the meatloaf is juicy enough as it is that it doesn’t REQUIRE any extra sauce. I just like the flavor.

Meatloaf
Makes 2 small, or one large loaf. Serves 8 total.

• 1/4 cup bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup instant oats
• 1 (8 ouce) can tomato sauce
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 1/2 pound lean sausage
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF
2. In a bowl, mix oats, bread crumbs and tomato sauce until all the bread crumbs are covered.
3. Add remaining ingredients and mix well using hands, until all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Form into one large loaf, or two small loaves. Bake for 1 hour for small loaves or 1 1/2 hours for a large loaf.