Bacon Meatballs

We came across this recipe: http://paleomg.com/superbowl-snacks-bacon-meatballs-mango-honey-mustard-sauce/ when hunting for SuperBowl snack food ideas. Bacon meatballs? Uh, yes please! We didn’t bother making the dipping sauce that was posted with it (mango honey mustard, head over to the link if you want that), but loved ’em plain. Or with BBQ. Or with ketchup. Or with spicy brown mustard. (I’m Team Plain myself, but everyone liked the meatballs no matter what they put them in.)

Ingredients

For the balls:

• 1.5lbs ground beef (or any other ground meat you see fit)
• 6 slices of bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces (we use Hormel Natural Choice)
• ½ yellow onion, diced
• 1 egg, whisked
• ¼ cup almond flour
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• ½ teaspoon chili powder (this is stage 2 for Feingold folks.. you could try just more cumin/black pepper for stage 1)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Put a large skillet over medium heat and add your diced bacon to it.
3. Once bacon has rendered some fat in the pan, add your onions. Mix together and poke at it randomly to make sure the bacon and onions don’t burn. Once bacon is cook through, add the bacon and onions to a plate with a paper towel on it to cool and soak up some excess fat.
4. Now add your ground beef to a large bowl, then add your cooled bacon and onions, along with egg, almond flour, and seasonings.
5. Use your hands to mix all that goodness up thoroughly.
6. Now roll into little bite size balls and place on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
7. Bake for around 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the meatballs.

Loaded Potato Soup

Well, our favorite mashed potato recipe makes quite a bit, so we always have leftover. While they’re good as just mashed potatoes again the next day, I stumbled upon a recipe that uses leftover mashed potatoes to make a delicious soup here. I’ll copy our version here just to keep all our favorites in one spot for us, but it doesn’t vary terribly much from the original. It is adapted to gluten-free, but it’s definitely not casein/dairy-free. That’s not an issue for us right now because the dairy-free one is quite anti-soup. Anyway, onto the yummyness..

3 cups leftover mashed potatoes
3 cups chicken broth (we use Pacific)
1 cup milk (Silk Almond Milk is what we usually have on hand, but regular works. Check list for Feingold approval)
2 tbsp butter (Land O Lakes is what we use here)
1/4 cup any gluten-free flour
onion powder to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tsp mustard (Gulden’s/HyVee spicy brown, Annie’s Dijon)
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated (Crystal Farms)
salt and pepper to taste

Toppings:
grated cheddar cheese
crumbled bacon bits (Wellshire, or cook/crumble your own Hormel Nat Choice)
chopped cilantro

Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Add the garlic and onion powder. Sautee a couple minutes. Stir in the dijon mustard. Add the flour. Stir for about a minute just to get rid of the raw flour taste. Stir in the mashed potatoes. Pour in the chicken broth and milk. Keep stirring until there are no more lumps. Cook for 10-15 minutes, occasionally stirring, until nice and thick. Add the grated cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted and incorporated into the soup. Season with salt and pepper.

Top potato soup with bacon crumbles, chopped cilantro and more grated cheese. This soup is deliciously thick, and warm, and cozy. And did I say delicious? Seriously, I’m not a soup person, but this soup.. I could eat it for days (except we never have leftovers. Which is funny, if you think of it, me wishing for leftovers of our leftover potatoes.. hehe..)

Bacon Ranch Slowcooker Chicken

Copy-pasted from this blog: We’ll like unhealthify it. LOL

Bacon Ranch Slowcooker Chicken
4 Servings

2 butterball turkey bacon strips, cooked and shredded
1 tsp minced garlic
1 package ranch dressing mix
1 10.75 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup (98% fat free)
1 cup fat-free sour cream
16 oz. chicken breasts
8 oz. pasta (I used rigatoni)

Combine the first five ingredients. Place chicken in slowcooker and pour sauce over the top. Cook on high for 3.5 hours. Serve over hot noodles.

Nutritional Information: 456 calories, 61 carbs, 5 fat grams and 36 protein grams.

Review: This tasted like it was SO bad for me! I loved how creamy it came out – it almost tasted cheesy even though I didn’t have cheese. I’m going to make this again immediately – wonderful comfort food! Edited to add 9/20/11: I’ve gathered some feedback via Pinterest and wanted to share: one reviewer mentioned that unless you really like ranch, the ranch flavor could be a bit overwhelming – she suggested not using the entire packet. Another mentioned that for them it was too salty, so using less of the packet may make a difference. We love it as is, but I saw these and thought they may help! And please, if you try it and have recommendations for making it better/changes for next time, feel free to post in the comments below. Thanks!

My own notes: Only 2 bacon strips? Craziness. Use the cream of mix recipe. Regular sour cream. GF pasta.

Chicken Bacon Mac Casserole

Again, copied from 1 orange giraffe. Let’s give this a go. It looks GREAT. No measurement though? This scares me. I’ll let Joshua try to make it first, even though I think I could do it once I know how much of each to put in.

Chicken Bacon Noodle Casserole
There are no exact measurements. Make it according to your family size.
Elbow macaroni, cooked (GF noodles)
Cream of Something soup, thickened (see mix recipe below)
cheddar cheese, grated
chicken, shredded
bacon, cooked and diced
salt and pepper to taste
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix to combine. Pour in a 13×9 inch baking dish. Cover. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until bubbling.

Ranchiyaki Chicken

Chicken, cheese, bacon, ranch dressing.. how many of my favorite things can be crammed into one dish? This little bit of wonder was nabbed from here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/06/crockpot-bacon-and-cheese-chicken.html

Ingredients

–2 T olive oil
–4-6 chicken breast halves, or equivalent bird pieces
–12 pieces cooked and crumbled bacon
–1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
–1/2 cup Ranch salad dressing
–1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions

Put the 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of your crock and spread it around.
Put the chicken in the crock on top of the oil.
In a small bowl, combine the teriyaki sauce and the ranch dressing. I dislike teriyaki sauce, but this tastes great. Scientific proof that, with enough ranch, ANYTHING can taste good.
Pour sauce over the top of the chicken. Add the shredded cheese and the crumbled bacon to the crock, getting between the chicken pieces, if you can.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 3-4. The cooking time will depend on how thick your chicken pieces are, and if they are fresh or frozen.

Other Tips
Put half the cheese in at the start, half on during the last half hour or so.
Serve with potatoes and use the sauce on top of those.