Bacon Stuffed Mushrooms

Let me set up a scenario for you:

I get home from work and its after 8. My husband just got home from campus and we both realize that there is no food in the fridge. We decide to go grocery shopping together, something I am hesitant about because it always ends up taking twice as long as when I go alone and we always end up with things we normally wouldn’t buy. We start off by perusing the produce section, my husband’s greatest weakness. We come across a sale! Whole mushrooms: 10 for 10! I can see the excitement in my husbands eyes. He is feeling what I would soon feel as I picked out which kind of chocolate peanut butter ice cream to buy (my one and only pregnancy craving). And in that moment I know exactly what he is thinking as he loads carton after carton into the cart, eyes gleaming: STUFFED MUSHROOMS!!!!!!!!!! 

So, tonight, I stared down the 4 containers of mushrooms left in our fridge and the following recipe was the result. My husband was one happy man. (I actually have to give him credit, here, because he did a lot of the labor involved in cooking this dish).

PRINTABLE RECIPE 

Ingredients:

• 4 (8 oz.) containers of whole button mushrooms
• 1/2 large sweet onion, diced finely
• 12 oz. bacon
• 2 cloves garlic, smashed
• 6 oz. cream cheese
• 1/3 C. shredded parmesan cheese

Directions:

1. Wash the mushrooms and pop out the stems. Chop the stems into fairly small bits and set aside for later use. Smaller mushrooms are better because they aren’t so wet and juicy and the mushroom to filling ratio is better. Spread paper towels out on a rimmed baking sheet and place the washed mushrooms, hole facing down, on the paper towel to drain.

2. Now it is time to prep the bacon. You have two options. You can cook the bacon in a frying pan, saving a little bit of grease, but throwing out the rest. Or you can cook the bacon in the microwave and discard all the grease. I prefer the microwave option because it gets really crispy. Either way, crumble the cooked bacon and set it aside.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Either using a little bit of bacon grease or a little bit of olive oil, sauté the onions until soft. Add the garlic and mushroom stems and continue to cook until soft.  Add the cream cheese and parmesan cheese and cook, stirring, until melted. Add in the bacon. You can make this filling ahead of time and store it in an air tight container in the fridge.

4. Remove the paper towel from the cookie sheet and flip the mushrooms over so that the holes are facing up. Fill the mushrooms with a heaping pile of the cream cheese/bacon mixture. Bake for 20 minutes. Eat while still hot.

Note: When cooked, mushrooms give off quite a bit of juice. This is normal. Simply place them on a paper towel to dry them off a bit before eating.

Inspiration from Mountain Mamma Cooks, but altered to make it my own