I don’t know about you, but I love bacon! I especially love it in the mornings with eggs and pancakes. But, just as much as I love bacon. I hate frying it. The grease splatters everywhere!
With 3 little kids my saturday morning ends up looking like this.
4yr old climbs in bed with us at 5, husband sends her back to bed at 6. At 6:30 she’s returned to my side of the bed and wants hot chocolate. My opening and closing door has awakend the 2yr old who’s always afraid he’s going to miss something.
I get him up and head out to the kitchen with the two littlest ones. I hold the 2yr old so he doesn’t freak out in the 1.5 minutes it takes to heat up hot chocolates in the microwave. Yes, we do this every single morning. It takes the same amount of time every single morning. And still he thinks the microwave is going to drink his milk and eat his car cup.
They sit on the couch and watch their morning show on netflix. I make coffee. I sit on the couch with them and drink my coffee (actually, I sit down, get up to make little man another hot chocolate, sit down, get up and make the middle child another hot chocolate, sit down, get up and hunt for my coffee, sit back down, and finally drink my cold coffee).
I like to do a larger breakfast on Saturdays since we’re usually pretty busy once we get going.
I decide to make bacon, eggs, and pancakes. I start the bacon on a skillet on the stove. Which means that none of the kids can pull a chair up to the counter and “help” me because of the splattering grease. While monitoring the bacon, I mix up the pancakes, convince the children that I will indeed include chocolate chips in their pancakes, get some berry sauce started on the back burner of the stove (any berry will do, and the kids love it!), and then start actually cooking the pancakes.
About this time, I hear my husband hop in the shower, and my 6yr old appears and complains about how hungry and thirsty she is. The 2yr old wants to know if she can eat her pancake now and burns her finger when she tries to grab a hot one off the plate I’m setting them on. I check the bacon, calm her down, flip pancakes just before they burn, and then get her a plate with a pancake (cut up with syrup) and tell her to sit at the table with it, not the couch.
I start cracking eggs in a bowl to make scrambled eggs, little man who is insisting on hanging on my legs by now because he’s dying of starvation (2 hot chocolates are obviously not enough to tide such a tiny fella over for even 15 more minutes), complains because a bit of grease from the bacon splattered and got him. I hand him a cooled pancake to nibble on so I can actually cook and he takes it to the couch, eats half of it, and crumbles the rest.
Husband enters the room, showered and dressed and remarks that he wishes I would not let the kids eat on the couch. Because of course, both children are sitting on the couch eating instead of at the table. The 6yr old complains again about how hungry she is, but she doesn’t want to eat until the bacon is done.
The bacon is taking FOREVER! Pancakes are done, berry sauce is done, I start the eggs. Flip more bacon. A few minutes later, eggs are done and still the bacon is cooking. I dish up plates for everyone, everyone sits down to eat and I finally finish the bacon.
Husband picks through the bacon to find the crispiest pieces. I sit down at the table and the kids all ask for something to drink… And husband suggests that we should all hurry up and eat so we can go to some yard sales.
All that to say, I discovered that I can bake bacon. It’s way easier, and give me one less thing to manage in the mornings!
Baked Bacon
Oven at 375. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Spread the bacon out in a single layer and bake until done to your desired crispiness. Usually about 30 minutes for me depending on how thick the bacon is.
If you want something more than plain bacon, top your bacon with 1tbsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup brown sugar (mix them together first), then bake until done. For a delicious glazed bacon.
You’re bacon’s all done at the same time, and there’s no grease splattering all over your kitchen!
