Monday, February 14, 2011

Bacon Pierogi Bake



Throw chronological-ness out the window, I'm posting about the great dinner I made tonight!  Thanks to Cooking Light, Dec 2010, my belly is full with this baked-pierogi goodness!



Ingredients

  • 1  (16-ounce) package frozen potato and onion pierogies 
  • Cooking spray
  • 2  center-cut bacon slices, chopped
  • 2  garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/3  cup  (3 ounces) 1/3-less-fat cream cheese
  • 1/2  cup  chicken broth
  • 1/2  cup  shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • 1/4  cup  thinly diagonally sliced green onions
  • 1/4  cup  chopped seeded plum tomato
  • 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
  • Preparation

    1. Preheat oven to 400°.
    2. Arrange the pierogies in an 11 x 7-inch glass baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cook bacon in a saucepan over medium heat until crisp; remove from pan. Set aside.
    3. Add garlic to drippings in pan, and cook for 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add 1/3 cup cream cheese to pan, and cook for 1 minute or until cream cheese begins to melt, stirring frequently. Gradually add chicken broth to pan, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over pierogies. Top evenly with 1/2 cup cheddar cheese. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until bubbly and thoroughly heated. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with bacon, green onions, tomato, and pepper.

    Servings & WW info**

    Serves 4 (3 pierogies each) 
    WW Points - 8 pts.  


    Kneekole's Notes & Comments
    * Growing up, we would boil pierogies and serve them with butter = slippery buttery blobs.  This is WAY better and WAY tastier!  I like the slight crunchy effect from being baked.  Yum!
    * Really simple and not a lot of tools or ingredients involved. 
    * I forgot the pepper and it was still great....great enough to eat two servings (oops!).
    * The garlic press is a godsend.  No more chopping garlic...just press and you're off!
    * You should serve this with some sort of vegetable (mixed greens salad, steamed broccoli, etc.) but I didn't. :)  Hey, it's Valentine's Day and I'm making myself dinner...I'll eat whatever I want. :)
    * Anyone have any tips on how to cook bacon, and be able to use the drippings, without creating the "bacon haze"?  I love the flavor of bacon, but I hate how it stinks up the kitchen and anything porous within a 50 foot radius.  

    Scrumptious meal, that's for sure!

    Thoughts/Comments/Suggestions? Let me know!

    **For more nutritional information and for the original recipe, check it out on My Recipes.com

4 comments:

  1. LOVE IT!!!! You are already awesome and you only posted 1 recipe!

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  2. You could try cooking the bacon in the oven. My mother swears by this. And if you happen to have a baking stone (preferably with sides) from Pampered Chef, I hear those work great as well. Have fun!!

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  3. I second the comment about the bacon. I always bake mine in the oven on a Pampered Chef stoneware "cookie sheet" type pan. The beauty of doing it that way is that you don't have to flip the bacon at all; it cooks evenly on both sides. Also, the cleaning up...well, it's a BREEZE!

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  4. I had to cook bacon for our dinner this week and I did it in the oven in a little dish and it worked great! And I was able to reserve some of the drippings like I needed to. And no haze! Thanks for the tips!

    ReplyDelete