Fried vs Baked Bacon

The last time I went to fix bacon I decided that I was going to try baking it rather than frying it.  I heard and read of many people baking their bacon and the reviews were making me start to think twice about frying it.  However, I am have been a die hard bacon frying person only so making the change seemed so hard to do! I have picky eaters to worry about and just the thought of "change" seemed to haunt me. But I pressed on and made the effort to trying to bake some bacon!

In order to make the change over to baking the bacon,  I decided that I would fry half of a pound of bacon in my skillet.

I baked the rest of the pound of bacon in the oven at 400°on my Pampered Chef large baking pan(jelly roll style pan with edges to catch the grease).

(fried on the left, baked on the right)

Here is the results:

Fried:

• more greasy
• more crispy
• cooked to smaller pieces
• more wavy--not really flat for putting on a sandwich!
• had grease to clean up all over my stove!

Baked:

• thicker pieces
• flatter pieces that fit better on a sandwich
• crispy yet chewy
• less greasy
• less mess
• took less time and less watchful eye

Overall Results: The baked bacon got rave reviews from my family! My "picky eater" hubby raved about the baked bacon!!  He told me that he would appreciate it if I baked the bacon from now on because he enjoyed it so much.  He said that it tasted more like how the restaurants cook their bacon. My kids even could tell a difference between the cooking styles. They enjoyed it as well.

So this Momma is making a change in her kitchen!!  I am switching to baking the bacon!

This post is linked to: 

• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam!
  
• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
• Tuesdays at the Table over at All the Small Stuff!

Menu Plan Monday 11/22-11/28

Last week’s menu plans went well!  I was able to do my grocery shopping on Wednesday last week so I could finish my menu planning. It feels good to have a stocked freezer and pantry again so that meals are not so hard to plan.  

This week’s meals are simple meals aside from turkey dinner on Thursday.  As it stands right now it will be just my immediate family (hubby & my 5 kids) here for Thanksgiving.  Since it is just the seven of us, I will not be going to great lengths for a big spread of food but just what we would normally do for a big dinner.  I will also do a special dessert/treat on that day that I normally wouldn’t do if it was just our simple weekly dinner.   Things could change though as we talked to one of our pastors at church who is in charge of the college ministry.  We told him if there was any college adults that needed a place to go for Thanksgiving, our home was open for them to come and enjoy a home cooked meal!  If we have anyone come it will be just a matter of changing the amount of potatoes I mash and the amount of veggies I do because I have a 12 lb turkey that I am cooking!

For this week’s lunches that are for the kids and me except for Thursday and Friday! Unless we are having leftovers, our lunches are served with apple slices or carrot sticks along with fruit juice or water.  Hubby usually takes a dinner leftover along with various snacks for his work lunch so I don’t take the time to plan his lunches.  Hubby only has to work through Wednesday so lunches at the end of the week will be a little different from the usual fare.

I went shopping at the grocery stores and Sam’s Club on Wednesday!  I have enough food now in the house that I will make it through the next two weeks without too much trouble. I am really beginning to love this shopping every two weeks rather than the weekly trips.  Doing these every two week trips will be beneficial through the winter months because of the not knowing when I might not be able to make it during a week.

A special thanks to Laura-Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Need help with your menus; go check the over 300 other delicious meal plans that have been linked at Laura-Organizing Junkie's site or look down in my right sidebar for my menu suggestion lists!

Sunday (11-22)

Breakfast: eggs, sausage, hash browns, and donuts

Lunch: pizza  

Dinner: Wendy’s (after church)

Snack: snack basket

Monday (11-23)

Breakfast: cereal and donuts or banana bread

Lunch: homemade lunchables or sandwich and chips

Dinner: beef gravy served over egg noodles and peas for veggie

Snack: snack basket

Tuesday (11-24)

Breakfast:  waffles and sausage

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner:  chicken clubs served with fries and corn

Snack: snack basket

Wednesday (11-25)

Breakfast:  bagels and cereal

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner:  saucy chicken served with rice and green beans

Snack: snack basket

Thursday (11-26) HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Breakfast:  Pancakes and sausage

Lunch: leftovers

Dinner: roasted turkey, mashed taters & gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, homemade bread and easy pudding pie

Snack: snack basket

Friday (11-27)

Breakfast:  cereal and toast

Lunch: sandwich & chips

Dinner: pizza & fries

Snack: ice cream night

Saturday (11-28)

Breakfast:  Your Choice

Lunch: turkey leftovers

Dinner:  oven fried chicken, fries and corn

Snack: popcorn