As a bacon lover myself, I was especially pleased to find out just how many Primal or Paleo meal plans include the use of bacon in their recipes. This is important because of how much fat is in bacon. If your meal plans combine too many of the wrong carbs with fat, it’s a recipe for disaster. However, when you add bacon to the recipes I have listed below, you’ll not only be able to enjoy this tasty treat, but place it alongside other great foods so that your body benefits. Take that, bacon haters! Without further ado, here are my top 15 bacon-induced recipes that your body will thank you for later. The majority of these recipes are awesome because they don’t need a ton of prep (and they include bacon!).
Bacon Snacks:
1. Baked Bacon
A lot of people shy away from eating more bacon because of the mess. When improperly tended to, your apartment or house ends up smelling a little too much like bacon (like that’s a bad thing!). For those with more sensitive olfactory senses, take heart. Just take your favorite baking sheet, line it with aluminum foil, and layer out your bacon til the sheet is full. Place it in an oven at 400 degrees F for 30 minutes (check every 15 minutes and flip as desired). The clean-up time is reduced, and if desired, you can pour off the bacon fat for other recipes to enhance the flavor.
2. Bacamole
Some of the best recipes come from combining ideas from the places we eat with a little bit of our own imagination. To make bacamole, combine your favorite guacamole recipe (here’s mine from Nom Nom Paleo) with the addition of a few extra ingredients: bacon, dried cherries, and cooked corn. Chips are optional as shown.
3. Pumpkin and Bacon Burgers with Honey Drizzle
This recipe combines pumpkin puree, onion, spices, and honey for an outstanding flavor combination — all you have left to do is garnish it with bacon. Other options include cutting up the bacon and frying it in with the burger. It’s up to you. For added health benefits, use grass-fed beef which is high in omega 3 and reduces inflammation in the body. Simply combine the ingredients, fry it up in a pan, and garnish with drizzled honey over the burgers and bacon. Yum!
4. Sweet Potato Skins with Bacon
Whether as a snack during the next big game or an appetizer, who can resist potato skins? This recipe, put together by the Primal Godfather, Mark Sisson, substitutes the traditional potato with the nutrient-dense and low-carb sweet potato, and includes beef and, of course, bacon. The end result is a slightly sweet and memorable treat. After baking your potatoes for 50 minutes, hollow them out and, in a separate bowl, mix in cooked ground meat, spices, and bacon. Garnish with green onion and sour cream.
Bacon for Breakfast:
5. The McSOG Breakfast Sandwich
It would be a sin to show a recipe roundup without bacon for breakfast! For the McDonald’s lover in you, here’s a healthy version that has no flavor comparison. Mix coconut flour and egg for your “muffin” and then sandwich in layers of bacon, sausage, and your favorite style of eggs. It’s low-carb and high-flavor, without even having to go through the drive-thru. I’m lovin’ it!
6. Hungry Man Sweet Potato Casserole
Nothing’s easier to create in the kitchen than a dish using a crock pot. It’s easy here, once again. Once you’ve cut up some sweet potatos and onions, layer the ingredients from Paleo Pot‘s recipe into your dish. Pour the eggs over the mixture and then let the time and temperature take over. In less than six hours, you’ll have more than enough food for many breakfasts to come, as well as lunch or dinner if you so choose.
7. Bacon-Crusted Quiche
Who loves Grandma’s Apple Pie? How about Bacon’s Bacon Pie? The foundation of this dish is a quilted fabric of bacon love topped with eggs, coconut milk, sliced tomatoes, onion, spices, and, of course, more bacon. This recipe from FastPaleo can be reimagined with whatever vegetables or ingredients are around the house. Save some for Grandma — she might put an extra $10 in your next birthday card.
8. Savory Breakfast Casserole
As a cousin to the Hungry Man Casserole, this recipe from PaleOMG combines eggs, chorizo, shredded sweet potato, onion, hot sauce, and spices to create a beautiful oven-baked creation fit for a Royal Feast. Preheat to 375, add cooked ingredients, bake for 30 minutes, and call in sick to work after you eat the whole thing. If you didn’t garnish with bacon, darn — make it again!
9. Bacon Tomato Basil Frittata
Want to look crazy cool to your significant other? Go buy a cast-iron skillet if you don’t already have one. Now use it! Just combine 8-12 eggs and mix them up real good with some veggies and cooked bacon. Add in some onion and spices. Put the cast iron on medium heat and cover for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, uncover and put in your oven on 350 for 20-30 minutes. The result is a fragrant and gourmet way to start the day. Plus, you’ll have leftovers for the next morning! Bonus!
Bacon — It’s What’s For Dinner!
10. Bacon-Wrapped Honey Mustard Chicken
Super easy and outstanding on the tongue. All you do is cut your chicken breasts into strips, roll bacon around each strip, brush a mixture of honey and mustard over all the strips, and plop it into the oven at 425 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. It’s probably taking me more time to type this than it will take for you to fix it. Perfect for a fast dinner or a snack for the kids. Thanks to Jan’s Sushi Bar for this great idea.
11. Big O Bacon Cheese Burgers
Using Nom Nom Paleo’s Big O Burgers Recipe as a base, I add in some cheddar cheese along with the prescribed mushrooms and bacon, roll it up into patties. After cooking it on the stove top for 3-4 minutes on each side, I smother it with my favorite BBQ sauce. It’s not 100% Paleo, but it’s a decent cheat when you just feel like being a little decadent.
12. Sweet Potato Buffalo Chicken Casserole
This one literally needs no explanation for why you should fix it. Combine buffalo chicken with bacon and I’m yours. After dicing your sweet potato and chicken, toss in some olive oil, paprika, hot sauce, and salt and pepper. Coat it all, throw it into a casserole dish and bake for 45 minutes in a 400 degree F oven. Add green onions and bacon to garnish it all off.
13. Meatza
If you’re not familiar with Meatza, it’s simply a meat-crusted pizza with all the toppings you love, including the addition of bacon. Shape out your meat crust using ground beef and spices, cook it off at 450 degrees F for 10 minutes, add your favorite marinara sauce and toppings, then put it back in the oven some more. Easy, delicious, and yet another way to nibble on some bacon!
14. The Turkinator
We’ve all heard of the Turducken, a chicken inside a duck inside a turkey. Well, that’s all great, but it’s missing the bacon. Whether you want to do the Turducken or you just want to wrap that baby in bacon and call it good, I present to you the Turkinator — your choice of turkey, but with life’s most precious resource, bacon. A sample recipe and the weave can be found here.
Bacon for Dessert:
15. Bacon-Sprinkled Chocomole
Last but not least, I present the final recipe — fittingly, a dessert. Many people don’t know this, but singer Jason Mraz loves avocados so much, he has a farm. And a recipe. Mash up your avocados, add dates, raw cacao, and carob powder, along with agave nectar if you like. Then, top it off with bacon sprinkles. Save room, this dessert is totally filling. And fulfilling. Featured photo credit: Chris Isherwood via flickr.com
