At first bacon doesn’t seem like a likely candidate for batch cooking, but hear me out.

Having bacon on hand and cooked has made life so much easier. We love breakfast for dinner, and having the ability to pull out a few slices, warm them in the microwave and serve them right away makes the meal seem so much better and I didn’t have to go through the trouble of cooking the bacon and cleaning the grease. There are also a ton of meals that go from taking a fair amount of time to almost no time at all just because the bacon is already cooked. I’ll talk about those meals later.

So how do you do it?

I prefer to cook my bacon in the oven. I can cook more at a time, they cook more uniformly, I don’t have to clean grease off of my entire stove top and I don’t get sprayed with popping bacon grease.

To do this line a large cookie sheet with sides (you want this so that the grease doesn’t spill all over your oven) with aluminum foil. Place bacon slices on the pan without sides touching. Cover the top with foil (reduces grease splatter and cooks more evenly. I usually do this with 2 pans and put them both in at the same time. Bake at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes then check to see how done they are. Depending on how you like your bacon you might want to return it to the oven so it gets a little more crispy. I usually do a 3 pound package of bacon all at once. Let the bacon cool.

Then to store it, I use long skinny containers with lids (pretty sure I got mine at Aldi) and I just put in a layer of bacon then put in a sheet of wax paper then add the next layer of bacon. The wax paper just makes it easier to get out the individual pieces of bacon after they have frozen, but you could also freeze them on a pan in a single layer then put them in the container. I’m just lazy and don’t want to have to take that extra step and time.

Meal Ideas

BLTs

Who doesn’t love this awesome sandwich combo? With the bacon already cooked you can go from nothing ready to eating in just a few minutes. Our family loves the classic version with just bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and some mayo on slightly toasted bread, but I know there are some twists to this recipe that could also be made quickly if you have the ingredients on hand.

Breakfast for Dinner

Make your favorite pancake recipe, or waffles, scramble some eggs, heat up some bacon and you have an awesome dinner. We also have done omelets for dinner and our favorite thing to add to them is bacon.

Quiche

This meal is one that I make double and always freeze one. With the bacon cooked its as simple as mixing up the ingredients and pouring it into the pie crust.

Spinach Bacon Quiche

1 Pie Crust

4 slices cooked bacon chopped

8 eggs

½ cup sour cream

½ cup milk

3 cups chopped fresh spinach

2/3 cup cheese (I use Colby Jack, but any flavor will work)

Place crust in pan. Set aside. Beat eggs slightly, mix in sour cream and milk. Stir in spinach, bacon and cheese. Pour egg mixture into pie crust. Cover with Aluminum foil and freeze overnight. In the morning I usually put it into a Ziploc bag to keep it from getting freezer burn. When you are ready to eat, remove from bag leave covered with aluminum foil and cook at 450 for 1 hour 45 minutes. Remove foil and let cook another 10 minutes or so to brown the crust. Baking straight from frozen makes the fluffiest quiche I’ve ever had! Definitely a meal that is better when frozen.

Breakfast Sandwiches

Bacon, scrambled egg, and melted cheese on an English Muffin is our favorite version of a breakfast sandwich, but there are a ton of other ways to make one too:

•  Change up the bread; have it on a bagel, croissant, toast or biscuit.
• Add avocado
• Use a fried egg, or sunny side up instead of scrambled
• Add tomatoe

Breakfast Burrito

Bacon, scrambled egg, cheese and salsa all wrapped in a tortilla. Perfect for a quick meal.

Add In for Anything With Potatoes

Baked potatoes are always better with bacon. The favorite combo in our house: cheese, broccoli and bacon. But you can add to any of your favorite baked potato toppings. As my 6 year old says, bacon makes everything taste better.

Potato Cheese Soup is another meal that we will often add crumble bacon to. Especially if we are eating it as a leftover (the recipe makes a lot) Adding the bacon just changes it up enough that we don’t get bored.

So those are some of the meals we use bacon in. I’d love to hear any other suggestions in the comments!