bacon, Bacon, BACON ! !

What is with this sudden interest in bacon?  It has been around for ever.  Long before you or I were even a thought.  So why is it now such a 'fad'?.  The recipes pop up all over the Internet.  Bacon is being added where it has never been before. 

 Do you believe this - Burger King has a bacon sundae!  Yuck!  But they were not the first.  Denny's did it before, in test market areas.  Jack-In-The-Box came up with a bacon flavored milk shake; again in limited test market cities.  I even saw bacon themed t-shirts being sold.

I don't understand how this got started.  I am not a lover of bacon, tho i enjoy the smell of it cooking.  If a scratch n' sniff shirt was made, I might be interested.  But here's the facts, just so you know what you are putting in your body.

2 cooked slices of regular bacon has –

120 calories    80 from fat

Total fat  8 g

Cholesterol 21 mg

Sodium  4002 mg   OUCH !

Protein  7 g

Turkey bacon is just not the same, even the smell isn't really great.  But here's the basic info in it.   Just in case you bacon eaters decide to try healthy someday.

2 Slices of cooked turkey bacon has –

Calories   62

Calories from fat   40

Cholesterol   16  mg

Sodium   366 mg

Protein   5  g

Get the picture?   

Now that we have all the ugly stuff out of the way, let's look at some of the fun ideas that have been popping up on the Internet lately.  Some of these are quite creative.  I don't know anyone who has tried these dishes with the turkey bacon but I will most likely do that eventually and let you know how it goes.  

 

These are great little salad bowls.  You can make them any size you desire and have a foundation for.

This would even make a cute serving bowl, provided you added enough bacon to make it sturdy. 

I am wondering if the bacon could be cooked around a bread bowl and used for soup or salad.  What do you think?  Who is will to try this and share the results?

Here is another bacon bowl idea that takes it just a step farther.  

 I would imagine you could drop eggs on top of this and just let them cook, without turning, til they are done.  Or you could add scrambled eggs to the top and use the entire pan as a serving dish.  OR - you could slid the bacon out, when done cooking, onto a plate.   Then add scrambled egg, hash browns, cooked peppers or just about anything.  If you use a small pan, you could use this method for individual serving size for each person.  With a little garnish this would make a great party plate. 

And just one more, for the true bacon lover.  You simply roll the bacon, hold in place with a tooth pick.  Bake in oven until done.  You can use the stems from any artificial flower by just removing the pieces you don't want.  Wait until the bacon is cool before adding to the stems.  I imagine that a few of these little gems would look pretty neat on the side of a plate of eggs, potatoes and fruit. 

 

That's enough bacon talk for now.  Try some of these ideas or share your own.