Bacon and Jalapeno Stuffed Mushrooms

 This week just happens to be one of those crazy weeks that is so filled with appointments, errands, and out of the ordinary things to do, that there isn't enough time in each day. Late in the afternoon, I had just enough time  to whip up dinner before it was off to get a haircut. Thankfully this recipe, that I used for a side dish, was super easy, fairly quick to prepare and oh so scrumptious!! It called for chopping up the extra mushroom stems and I completely forgot to do that (one of the signs of aging and being too busy lol) but even with forgetting those, it truly was a great recipe! I'm so glad I tried it. The hubby loved these and we will definitely be having these again, hopefully soon!

 Here is a link to the original recipe: 
http://gimmesomeoven.com/bacon-jalapeno-stuffed-mushrooms/

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
• 1 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 1 lb. large button mushrooms
• 3 strips thick cut bacon, diced
• 1 jalapeno, minced
• 1/4 cup chopped yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 oz. cream cheese
• 1/3 cup shredded Mozzarella Cheese
• salt and pepper

Heat oven to 350°.

In a small bowl combine the panko bread crumbs with the melted butter.  Toss until evenly coated.  Set aside.

Carefully clean and stem the mushrooms. Save half of the stems and chop them finely. Set them aside. Set the mushroom caps on a baking sheet that you have sprayed with Pam. 

In a small pan over medium heat cook the chopped bacon until crisp.  Add the chopped onion, jalapeno, garlic and mushroom stems and cook until softened, about five minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, stir the shredded cheese with the cream cheese until well combined.  Add the warm vegetable mixture and mix well.

Divide the filling evenly between the mushrooms.  Top with the buttered panko mixture.  Bake for 20 minutes, or until the mushrooms are tender and the topping is golden brown.  Serve warm.

Sake mushrooms

I know what you are probably thinking...Sake and Mushrooms??? I wasn't sure how these would turn out either. I had mushrooms, and because of our budget crunch these days, I am trying to make sure I use up everything that I buy at the grocery store instead of letting things go to waste. So I got out my mushrooms and thought about it for awhile. How could I make a different sauteed mushroom other than just butter? I would have used white wine, but we don't have any so I attempted the saute with sake. After adding the sake and butter I got even more creative. I really, really like these and I do believe that this will be the new way for me to saute any mushrooms in the future in our household. That is....until another creativity bug strikes ;)

2 tsp butter
1/8 cup sake
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1/2 tsp ginger1 lb mushrooms, sliced
2 green onions, sliced

In a medium- large skillet, melt butter. Add in the sake, garlic, ginger and mushrooms. Saute until mushrooms are still somewhat firm, but tender. You do not want mushy mushrooms. Add the green onions and saute just a minute more. I like my green onions to have just a bit of a crunch still. You can saute them until they are completely soft if you like.