Meg Goes Nom Nom

Do you know what the first picture below is?

   Bacon.

Do you know what the second picture is?

   Cream cheese melting in hot bacon fat.

Would you believe me if I told you that the recipe for which I prepared these ingredients is from Cooking Light? Well, it is.

Last week I read an article online featuring Cooking Light’s “25 Best Budget Recipes,” and Bacon Pierogi Bake was one of them. This dish can be made for a mere $1.47 per serving, according to the site! Frozen pierogies are an item I have been wanting to try as well, so I decided to give this recipe a go. It was not until I actually began cooking that I realized how sinful some of the steps seemed – like cooking cream cheese in bacon fat!

But everything is in moderation (i.e., only two slices of bacon, and only three ounces of reduced-fat cream cheese), kids, and that’s what keeps the dish relatively low calorie and healthy.

To the oh-so-sinful bacon fat & cream cheese mixture, I added chicken broth, and whisked to create a creamy sauce. This sauce was then poured atop the frozen potato and onion pierogies (I used Mrs. T’s brand), followed by a layer of shredded cheese. Into the oven the pierogies went, for about 20 minutes. Here they are before being baked:

After removing from the oven, I topped the pierogies with the reserved, cooked bacon crumbles, scallions, tomato, and fresh black pepper. Plus my current favorite veggie: roasted Brussels sprouts on the side!

This dish was a winner! I would have actually preferred fewer, or no, scallions and tomatoes on top, though. I will definitely be buying more frozen pierogies in the future.

• Bacon & Pierogi Bake recipe from Cooking Light.
• My rating: 8.1/10

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Travel

I have been doing lots of travel research lately. We’ve received some fun dining ideas for next month’s brief Chicago getaway from friends and readers, so thanks!

Currently I am seriously researching flights for a possible international vacation this autumn. We shall see what happens, but I’ll keep you posted. I love planning trips but I tend to stress myself out immensely because, well, one could argue that I over-plan every.single.detail, and am never satisfied settling on an activity/destination/flight/restaurant until EVERY OPTION is considered and explored. It’s good and bad I guess! I really have not done a lot of international travel, so this is relatively new territory for me. The only other countries I have been to are:

• Canada – ballin’!
• Jamaica (x2)
• Cayman Islands <-hottest day of my LIFE!
• Belize

(I have like 8,903,209 pictures from these trips. Would those make interesting blog posts or does that make you feel like the Honey Badger [i.e., don’t care]?).

Speaking of planning and decision-making, I will leave you with a recent, favorite Pinterest find!:

I think I need to do this more.