Bring Home the Bacon

Note: Originally published on June 10, 2005. You can also bake the bacon at 350 degrees, if you’re willing to wait a bit longer. Also, I highly recommend grinding some black pepper on the bacon before it goes in the oven. For a breakfast treat, sprinkle brown sugar as well as black pepper on the raw bacon.

 

I’ve tacked on a recipe for a wrap sandwich I enjoy. You can have it as a straight BLT, but it’s better with the egg and cheese — sort of like a breakfast wrap.

 

The typical image of cooking bacon involves a spitting skillet on a hot cooktop. The bacon curls into little pinwheels as it contracts on itself. Some parts burn while the rest still looks raw. You splash hot fat on yourself when you try to turn it.

 

Oh, but you cook your bacon in the microwave? Sure, that’s quick, neat and easy, but I’ve always found the flavor leaves something to be desired. The bacon often turns brittle and dry, a shadow of its former greasy, meaty glory.

 

The trick to great bacon is to get your oven in on the act. How does that make this an easy upgrade, then?

 

Bacon prepared this way not only requires little effort (in both baby-sitting and clean-up), it tastes ridiculously good. You get the neatness of the microwave combined with the browning of the skillet.

 

To get even more mileage out of this upgrade, make as much bacon as you can fit on your sheet. Store the leftovers in a zip-top bag in the refrigerator for use in sandwiches and salads. It sure beats the anemic, expensive precooked bacon from the grocery store — now that’s a nice little upgrade.

 

 

1. Cover a baking sheet in foil. It’s best to use a small one you can cover entirely with one sheet so that the grease doesn’t leak onto the pan.
2. Lay out your bacon flat on the foil.
3. Shove the sheet in the oven.
   
4. Turn the oven on to 400 degrees. That’s right, no preheating required.
5. Let the bacon roast for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. I usually take it out when each slice has turned a nice overall brown. While it’s in the oven, you can check on it, but don’t touch it. You don’t need to! And if you leave it alone, it will keep its nice, flat shape.
6. Remove the bacon from the baking sheet. Lift off the foil, allowing the grease to pool in the middle, and crumple it up. Throw the mess away and put your clean sheet back into storage.

 

 

BLT Wrap Sandwich
Source: Colleen Fischer
Yield: 1 sandwich

 

• 1 tortilla
• Mayonnaise (or ranch dressing)
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Crispy pepper bacon
• Optional: hard-boiled egg, cheese

 

Spread the mayonnaise on the tortilla. Place the bacon on the mayonnaise, then pile other fillings on top. Wrap like a burrito and serve.

 

 

Download BLT Wrap Sandwich into MacGourmet.

 

Punchy Purple Chicken Salad

Note: This recipe was originally published on my old blog on June 12, 2005. Now some 20/20 hindsight — to poach chicken breast, place it in simmering broth (with an inch of cover) for nine minutes, then cover, turn off the heat, and let it rest in the hot broth for about 20 minutes, until it’s cooked through.

 

The red onion provides both the purple and the punch in this salad, which you might want to tone down with some lettuce, tomato and cheese on your sandwich. If you don’t like a strong onion flavor, try soaking the diced onion in cold water for about 10 minutes to make it milder (a tip often given by the Food Network’s Sara Moulton).

 

Another suggestion: This recipe (like any chicken salad recipe) would work well with leftover chicken or with chicken pulled from a rotisserie-cooked bird. Whatever you choose, be careful not to overcook the chicken like I did! I need a little more poaching practice, it seems.

 

 

Punchy Purple Chicken Salad
Source: Colleen Fischer
Yield: enough for two small or one big sandwich

 

• 1 cooked boneless, skinless chicken breast half, cubed
• 1/2 medium red onion, diced
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1/8 tsp celery salt
• freshly ground black pepper

 

Stir together all the ingredients. Allow it to rest in the refrigerator for a half hour or more for the flavors to blend.

 

 

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Omelet Sandwich

Note: I wrote this on June 21, 2005, for another food site I was toying with. It’s still one of my favorite recipes! If you’re looking to lighten it further, you can use turkey bacon, although it lacks something in unctuousness. Also, if you have trouble digesting hot sauce (cayenne often does a number on me these days), try picante sauce (which is a finely chopped salsa).

With a wedding to prepare for, it’s imperative that I start to clean up my eating habits. I’ve read that a wedding is often the only thing that kicks people into gear as far as healthy eating goes. The key will be keeping those habits after the wedding is over, naturally; the same article also noted that married people are heavier than single people. I have plenty of time (two years), but it’s healthiest to lose weight slowly anyway.

I’ve decided to try TV chefs’ recommendation to alter some of my favorite recipes to cut calories. My omelet sandwich seemed like the natural choice. I replaced the egg with a couple of egg whites (a savings of fat and calories without losing most nutrients) and the full-fat cheese with reduced-fat cheese (low-fat dairy products are supposed to enhance weight loss — at least the government is telling us so now).

Original recipe:
Two thick slices bacon: 80 calories, 6g fat
Two slices whole-wheat bread: 160 calories, 2g fat
Dash hot sauce: 0 calories, 0g fat
1 slice American cheese: 80 calories, 7g fat
1 egg: 70 calories, 4.5g fat
1 tbsp butter: 100 calories, 11g fat (8g saturated)
Total: 490 calories, 30.5g fat

Modified recipe:
Two thick slices bacon: 80 calories, 6g fat
Two slices whole-wheat bread: 160 calories, 2g fat
Dash hot sauce: 0 calories, 0g fat
1 slice 2% Milk American cheese: 60 calories, 4g fat
1 tsp spreadable butter with canola: 34 calories, 3.7g fat (1.5g saturated)
2 egg whites: 34 calories, 0g fat
Total: 368 calories, 15.7g fat

That’s a savings of 122 calories and 14.8g fat. I don’t generally like using unnaturally reduced in fat products, but the cheese here is still considered real cheese (albeit processed, but still real). It’s part of Kraft’s Deli Deluxe line, not the Singles line. As for the spreadable butter, it has as much fat and calories as butter but less saturated fat due to the canola oil. It has an advantage over margarine in that it has no partially hydrogenated oils, so it’s not an unnatural fat.

Also, the bacon in the lighter sandwich may have less fat and calories than stated, as I microwaved it rather than baking or pan-frying it. The paper towels soak up a lot of rendered fat.

Omelet Sandwich
Source: Colleen Fischer
Yield: 1 serving

• 2 slices whole-wheat toast
• 2 slices bacon
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 egg
• Hot sauce, to taste
• 1 slice American cheese

Cook the bacon, preferably by baking in a 400-degree oven for 10-15 minutes. Break each cooked slice in half. Toast the bread and put on a plate.

Meanwhile, heat a small skillet over medium-low flame. Melt the butter in the pan. Whisk the egg until foamy, then pour into the skillet. Stir the egg. As it begins to set, lift up cooked portions with a silicone spatula and tilt the pan to allow uncooked egg to flow underneath. Cook for about two minutes or until the egg is set. It may still look moist on top. Flip the omelet and slide it onto one of the bread slices.

Sprinkle the omelet with hot sauce if desired. Top with cheese slice and the bacon.

Notes:
Lower-fat version:

Substitute 1 teaspoon of butter or spreadable butter for the 1 tablespoon of butter (make sure you use a very slick nonstick pan), two egg whites for the egg, and reduced-fat 2% milk cheese for the regular cheese.

Nutritional information per serving:
Regular sandwich: 490 calories, 30.5g fat
Lightened sandwich: 368 calories, 15.7g fat

Download Omelet Sandwich into MacGourmet.