Cook with Leftovers: Recipe for Bacon, Onion and Potato Bake with pictures

Some time ago I decided that I would use all the food in my kitchen. I had read some amazing figure about the amount of food thrown away in households across the country, and was determined not to contribute to the problem.

There are two of us in the household and we occasionally have bacon for breakfast. Packages of bacon contain too much for one breakfast, so I use the left over bacon to make supper another night

 This is a recipe that I made up.  I knew I had leftover bacon and decided to cook it with whatever food I could find in my refridgerator.

I chose to use potatoes and an onion.  I cooked the remains of a red pepper as a side dish.

This recipe did not take long to prepare and the finished product was a tasty and reasonably healthy supper dish.

Ingredients:

The quantities in this recipe can be varied according to what you have in your refrigerator.

I used:

4 slices of lean bacon

1 medium sized onion

3 medium sized potatoes

Butter (about 1 ½ tablespoons)

1/3 cup skimmed milk (very approximate)

Freshly ground pepper

I washed the potatoes and left the skin on. Then I cut them into thick slices and put them in a saucepan with cold water. I put them on the boil, and then simmered for a few minutes.

While the potatoes were on the hob, I cut the bacon into chunks and fried it.

I used butter to grease an oven proof dish. The butter in the photo shows the total amount that I used. I removed the largest piece of butter from the dish after taking the photo. You will not need much to grease the dish. I only chose to do this because I was using skimmed milk – you could omit the butter from the dish.

The onion was peeled, and then cut in half. I cut each half into thin slices, which I placed on the bottom of the buttered dish.

Then I put the fried bacon pieces on top of the onion and drained the potato and put the potato slices on top of the bacon.

I poured milk carefully down the side of the potatoes so that the milk was only just touching the base of the potato layer.

The remaining butter was melted in the frying pan that I had used to cook the bacon.

I poured the melted butter and bacon fat over the top of the potatoes. If you are trying to lose weight or restrict your cholesterol intake you may wish to omit this step. However, it does help the potatoes to brown. Also, it tastes good.

I topped this with freshly ground pepper. I did not add any salt, as I reckoned that the bacon was already salty.

I baked this at about 160 degrees C (say 175 Fahrenheit) until the potatoes were brown on top. This took about 20 minutes – but will vary depending on how long you boiled the potatoes, whether you use butter, your oven – etc.

When I put this in the oven I cut up a red pepper that I found in the fridge and baked it on a baking tray on a lower shelf. I served the baked pepper and carrots with the potato dish.

I served strawberry yoghurt for dessert to add a dairy product with calcium to the meal.

Bacon can be combined with cabbage or kale to make a tasty vegetable based dish.

If you are not worried about calories you can make a bacon and onion pie.

Cut up the bacon, fry it and add to readymade spaghetti sauce.  Serve with pasta for a quick supper.

In the warm weather fry bacon, let it cool and then add to a salad.  It is delicious with potatoes and avocados.

Don’t forget bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches.