Chive & Onion Scalloped Potatoes

Creamy, Scalloped Yukon Gold potatoes made with Chive & Onion Cream Cheese.

Ingredients:
1 (8 ounce) tub Chive & Onion cream cheese
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup milk
10 slices turkey bacon, chopped and cooked
12 Yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 onion, chopped
1 cup shredded cheese (your choice)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Cook cream cheese spread, broth and milk in saucepan on medium heat until cream cheese is melted and mixture comes to boil, stirring constantly with whisk.
3. Reserve 2 Tbsp turkey bacon for topping. Layer half each of the potatoes, onions and remaining bacon in 9×13 inch baking dish; repeat layers. Add cream cheese sauce; cover.
4. Bake 1 1/2 hours or until potatoes are tender, uncovering and topping with shredded cheese and reserved turkey bacon the last 10 min.

This is a delicious, full of flavor and easy side dish to go along with any of your favorite main dishes. If you don’t have or don’t like chive and onion cream cheese sub it with plain cream cheese. I brought this side dish to a get together and it was a big hit with all the guests, even the kids!

*Camala*

White Bean and Turkey Bacon Soup

Quick,White Bean and Turkey Bacon Soup, with Baby Spinach and Tomatoes.

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 ounces turkey bacon, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
2 (15 ounce) cans Great Northern Beans
2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups baby spinach, packed
grated parmesean cheese

Directions:

1. Place olive oil and turkey bacon in a large pot over medium heat, Cook 8 minutes or until almost crisp.
2. Add onion, celery and carrot; cook 5 minutes. Add garlic; cook 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, beans, broth, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes.
3. Stir in spinach. Ladle into soup bowls and top with grated cheese.

I really enjoy making soups, it is so fun for me to take ingredients I have, that usually need to be used and create a nice warm soup or stew. I also really enjoy eating soups as my meals, I think they are healthy and a tasty way to get some vital nutrients.

For convenience I used canned tomatoes and beans but this soup would also be great with fresh tomatoes and for the beans you could definitely use dry beans that have been pre-soaked. This soup is wonderfully delicious and for a complete meal you could pair a bowl of this soup with, crusty bread, your favorite sandwich or a salad.

*Camala*

Salad with Avocado and Strawberries

This Romaine and Baby Spinach Salad with Avocado, Strawberries and Turkey Bacon is so flavorful and beautiful.

Ingredients:
2 slices of turkey bacon, chopped
baby spinach
romaine lettuce
1/2 of an avocado, cubed
strawberries, sliced
feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:

1. Saute chopped turkey bacon in a pan until desired crispness, drain on paper towel.
2. Add desired amount of Romaine lettuce and Baby Spinach leaves to a bowl.
3. Add cubed avocado and sliced strawberries to greens.
4. Sprinkle on crumbled feta cheese and drained turkey bacon. Toss with desired dressing.

This salad is a beautiful salad to look at and a delicious and refreshing salad to eat. The combinations in this salad are fantastic, the saltiness and crisp texture of the turkey bacon with the sweetness of the strawberries, paired with the salty flavor of the feta cheese, then the wonderfully creamy avocado added in the mix. I didn’t add a dressing because I mixed it all together and the avocado lightly coated the greens and the juice from the strawberries made a perfect dressing for me. Enjoy this salad and make it your own!

*Camala*

Asparagus Spaghetti Carbonara

Asparagus Spaghetti Carbonara made with Turkey Bacon.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of asparagus spears, cut in 1 inch pieces
13 ounces spaghetti
2 Tbsp olive oil
5 slices turkey bacon, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 – 1 1/2 cup pasta cooking water
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat.  Add the bacon to the skillet and cook until crisp. Wash and chop the asparagus spears into 1 inch pieces.  Add to boiling water in large pot and boil for about 5 minutes or until tender.
2. Once the asparagus is tender remove from boiling water with slotted spoon and add to skillet, once all asparagus is in skillet, stir the garlic into the skillet. Add spaghetti noodles to already boiling water that had asparagus in it, add some salt to the water and cook until al dente while preparing sauce.  Do not allow noodles to cool since their heat is needed to cook the egg sauce.
3. While noodles are cooking, In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, cheese, and 1/2 cup of water from your pasta pot while stirring constantly to temper (warm up) the eggs without cooking them.
4. Drain noodles, reserving 1 cup of the pasta cooking water. Add 1/2 cup of pasta cooking water to skillet (the same skillet the bacon and asparagus is in) and cook until slightly reduced, about 1 minute. Add hot noodles to skillet, stirring quickly to coat, add egg mixture to skillet. The eggs and cheese will thin and create a velvety sauce that coats the noodles.  Stir in more pasta water if you want it saucier.
5. Season with salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste, serve immediately and hot.

This is my take on Carbonara, I don’t eat regular bacon because I don’t eat Pork at all, ever (it has been seven years since I had some of that “other white meat”). Sometimes I eat Beef Bacon but mostly stick to Turkey Bacon if I get into a bacon kick and decide to get some, I do enjoy turkey bacon when I decide to eat it. I had some turkey bacon and asparagus in the fridge I needed to use, so I decided to make Carbonara with Spaghetti and throw in some Asparagus. This dish is quite delish, some people get freaked out because of the thought of consuming raw eggs with Carbonara but the way I make this sauce the eggs aren’t quite raw. By the time this dish is done the eggs are pretty well heated and cooked:) This also is a lower fat version of traditional Carbonara sauce because of the use of the Turkey Bacon, Other than that I love the nice creaminess of the sauce and I tried to make it as simple and quick as I could, Enjoy!

*Camala*

TBLT Sandwich

Turkey Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich – A classic, made with Turkey Bacon.

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread
2 slices of cheese
mayonnaise
lettuce leafs
4 slices of tomato
3 slices of turkey bacon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Line a shallow rimmed baking sheet with foil. Place turkey bacon on foil and bake in preheated oven until desired crispiness ( I baked mine for about 15 minutes, I like it crispy). Drain on a paper towel.
2. Meanwhile toast slices of bread, once toasted place slices of cheese of each slice of bread (melt cheese on bread if desired, that’s what I did).
3. Spread each slice of bread with desired amount of mayonnaise (I spread the mayonnaise on top of the cheese because I melted the cheese on the bread). On one slice of bread (bottom slice), start your layers. Start with lettuce, tomato and then the turkey bacon. Place top slice of bread on turkey bacon and serve.

This sandwich is delicious, I don’t eat pork so that is why I use turkey bacon, I have also used beef bacon but I prefer to eat turkey over beef. I have added turkey slices and avocado to this sandwich as well, which is an equally delicious way to change the sandwich up a bit.

*Camala*