Bacon Fried Rice

My son made this fried rice in a class at the Junior High...minus the bacon.  When he asked if we could make it for dinner one night, we decided to add some bacon...and I'm telling you it was DELICIOUS!!

Seriously the BEST fried rice I have ever had!  You can add as much or as little bacon as you want...or even leave it out all together...BUT I think you should add some, the smokey flavor makes the stir fry...over the top!

Bacon Fried Rice

Ingredients:

1/2 T sesame oil

1 onion

4 T soy sauce

2 large carrots, diced or shredded

2 stalks celery, chopped

1/2 large red bell pepper, diced

1/2 large green bell pepper, diced

1/2 cup peas

4 cups cooked white rice

2 eggs, scrambled

1/2 - 1 package cooked bacon, chopped

Directions:  Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion and saute until soft, add 2 T soy sauce.  Stir in carrots, celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, peas and stir-fry another 5 minutes.  Add rice and stir thoroughly.  Stir in scrambled eggs, bacon and 2 T soy sauce.  Heat through and serve hot.

I baked my bacon and used one package, minus two pieces that didn't make it to the chopping board ;)

Baking Bacon

We are still working on finishing up the S'mores stuffed chocolate chip cookies at our house....still delicious!

Today we are talking about bakin' some bacon :)  Have you ever baked bacon?  I tried it a year or so ago and didn't have much luck.  I lined my baking sheet with foil, placed a metal cooling rack in and placed my bacon on the cooling rack...thinking that all the grease would drip through to the pan.  I guess a lot of the grease did drip through, but it took FOREVER for my bacon to bake and the cool rack was a pain to clean!!  So I gave up baking bacon for awhile.

My husband has been telling me about the most wonderful bacon that he buys at work that is 'baked'.  We decided to try it again and it was GREAT!!  This is what I did this time....

I lined 2 large baking sheets with foil and then placed a sheet of parchment paper on top of that.  I needed 2 pans to fit my entire package of bacon.  Place the bacon on the parchment paper close together, but works best if they are not touching...or the pieces might stick together.  Place your pans of bacon in a cold oven.  If you have 2 pans, place one in the top quarter of the oven and the other in the bottom quarter.

Turn oven on to 350 degrees.  When the oven is pre-heated, you will cook your bacon for 15-25 minutes...depending on thickness of bacon.  Mine was not thick cut bacon and took 15 minutes(plus the pre-heat time)...but it will vary depending on your oven.  I rotate my pans at approximately 8 minutes baking time.

When bacon is finished baking, remove from pan, drain and pat off grease with paper towels.  After a few minutes, you can roll up the foil and parchment paper and throw it out.

I LOVE baking bacon.  The bacon is not too crispy and not too chewy...it's perfect!!  I also LOVE that my house smells like yummy bacon for the meal, but not ALL day!!

Recipe for Buttermilk Waffles...here
Recipe for Strawberry Syrup...here

S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Have you seen the S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies around the Internet?  I first saw them here on the Picky Palate a couple of years ago.  I planned to try them then, but forgot about them.

 

I saw them again the other day...so the boys and I decided to try them out yesterday.  I used my own favorite cookie dough recipe and then put them together the way that Jenny did.

It made 6 huge cookies...seriously at least 2-4 servings per cookie...depending on if you are feeding boys or mom ;)  They are rich and you definitely need some milk ready for these, but the boys LOVED them!! 

I only had a couple that looked pretty, where the filling was not coming out...but they were all still yummy!  A few looked like the one above, but most looked like the one below :)  Actually I kind like the look of the one below.

S'mores Stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening, I use Crisco

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup instant oatmeal...to make them healthy ;)  I'm joking, I know that no amount of oatmeal could make these healthy.  I actually just like the texture the small amount of oatmeal adds.

~1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

2 Hershey Chocolate Bars, broken into rows of 3 bars

 6 large marshmallows, cut in half

2 graham crackers divided into 4 sections each

Directions:  Pre-heat oven to 350.  Mix shortening and both sugars until mixed together.  Beat in eggs.  Add vanilla, baking soda, and salt.  Mix until well combined, but not too long.  Add flour, oatmeal and chocolate chips.  Mix until combined.  

Layer a graham cracker quarter with 3 Hershey chocolate squares and 2 marshmallow halves.  Close with another graham cracker.  Top s’more with a large scoop of cookie dough.  Place in hands and place another large scoop on bottom then front and back sides as needed.  Form dough around s’mores.  This part will be mess :)  Place large cookies onto baking sheet and bake for 13-14 minutes or until edges are golden and centers are cooked through.  Let cool for 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack or serving plate.

Orange Julius

We LOVE Orange Julius at our house.  We especially love Orange Julius made with fresh oranges...recipe here. 

But....when we don't have fresh oranges in the house, this is how we make them.  Oh...and please excuse our 'new to us' old table.  It definitely needs to be refinished....maybe I'll get to that when/if the wind stops blowing :)

 Orange Julius

Ingredients:

1 12 oz container of orange juice concentrate

2 12 oz orange juice concentrate containers(above) of milk

1/2 - 1 cup of sugar, depends on how sweet you like it

1 large cup of ice(approx the size of cup in picture :))  ~3 cups of ice...it is easy to add more ice, if you don't add enough at first...not easy to add less once you have added it, SO start with less you can always add more :)

Directions:  Add all ingredients to your blender....and blend.

ENJOY!!

Quick, Easy, Healthy Breakfast

I know...you've all made oatmeal before :)....but I thought I'd share our favorite quick and easy breakfast.  Oh, and healthy.  I make this for my husband for breakfast nearly every Mon-Thurs @ 4:15am before he leaves for work.

With the sweetness of the bananas you don't need much brown sugar.  I really LOVE the crunch that the pecans add.

I'm going to tell you how I made it every morning.  I have a ceramic cook-top stove, so if you have something different...you will need to adjust the directions.

Oatmeal with banana and pecans

Ingredients:

1 cup water

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

1 banana

~1/4 cup chopped pecans

brown sugar

milk

Directions:  In a small pot bring one cup of water to boil over high heat.  When the water begins to boil, stir in 1/2 cup oats and turn burner off.  I move my pot off of the burner for 30 seconds to a minute to let the burner cool just a bit.  Then I put the pan back on the burner to continue cooking(with the burner turned off) while I do other things...like pack a lunch.  When the oatmeal is the desired consistency, pour oatmeal into a bowl, top with sliced banana, pecans, brown sugar to taste and desired amount of milk.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Mmmm....chocolate and peanut butter....I have nothing else to say, except....DELICIOUS!!

 Seriously Delicious!!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

recipe from my bag of Hershey Kisses :)

Ingredients:

• 48 Hershey's Kisses
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Additional granulated sugar

Directions:  Pre-heat oven to 375°F.  Remove wrappers from chocolates.  Beat shortening and peanut butter in large bowl until well blended.  Add 1/3 cup sugar and brown sugar; beat until fluffy.  Add egg, milk and vanilla; beat well.  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually beat into peanut butter mixture.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in granulated sugar; place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Immediately press a chocolate into center of each

cookie; cookie will crack around edges . Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.  Cool completely.

Makes about 48 cookies.

Or....if it is around Valentine's Day and you can get Reece's Peanut Butter Hearts, substitute the kisses for hearts.  Just be sure to let your cookie cool for ~10 minutes before you add the heart...or it will melt.