Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the National Pork Board as part of their #BaconforBlursday campaign.
With the current stay-at-home orders due to Covid-19, it’s hard to keep track of what day it is. But the National Pork Board is on a mission to cure those “Blursday” blues and make everyone’s Blursday better with BACON! Now that’s something we an stand behind but everything truly is better with bacon!
Not only are we feeling the Blursday blues, but we’ve been really missing camping as well. Therefore we decided to bring a taste of camping right to our home. As part of this partnership, we tried out a delicious and unique s’mores recipe using bacon. We share that recipe below, along with tips for cooking bacon while camping and a few of our other favorite camping meals that include bacon!
Want some FREE bacon? The National Pork board will be looking at public profiles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to find people who need their
Blursday made better with bacon. All you need to do is tag @NationalPorkBoard and include the hashtag #BaconforBlursday. Up to 1,000 people across the country will be selected to receive a package of pre-cooked bacon to boost their morale and make their “Blursday” a bit better.
Also, as part of this campaign, #BaconforBlursday t-shirts will be sold at https://www.bozzprints.com/shirts/baconforblursdays. A portion of the proceeds will benefit
the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Employee Relief Fund.
There’s nothing better than waking up to the smell of bacon when you’re camping. Whether you’re secluded in the middle of the forest or with a group at a campground, there’s something about camping and bacon that go together perfectly.
When it comes to cooking bacon at your campsite, you have a few options. If you’re a tent camper, you’ll likely have a small grill you can throw some strips on or you may choose to weave the bacon on a skewer and cook them over a campfire.
But if you’re in a camper you know that cooking bacon inside your RV can be messy business. Not only will you have grease flying all over your tiny kitchen, but you’re sure to have a frying pan to scrub in your tiny sink later, too. Not to mention there’s a high possibility that the smoke will set off your sensitive smoke detectors.
Grilling your bacon outside isn’t always the best solution either and can heavily depend on the weather. If you choose not to grill your bacon outside on the grill, here’s a great strategy for baking in your camper’s oven instead.
Baking Perfect Bacon Inside Your RV
With this simple mess-free strategy, you’ll have consistent and perfectly cooked bacon for all your camping trips. This method even allows you to cook more bacon at once, instead of the 3-4 strips at a time using a frying pan or small grill.
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
- Line a lipped sheet pan with aluminum foil.
- Coat both sides of a cooling rack with light cooking spray and place cooling rack on the sheet pan.
- Place strips of bacon across the cooling rack. Avoid crowding the strips together for crispier bacon.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Remove bacon from the oven and place it on a plate covered with paper towel, and pat away excess grease with another sheet of paper towel.
- After the pan has cooled, you’ll be able to easily peel the foil from the pan and discard. This minimizes your mess and eliminates the need to scrub a messy, greasy pan! Or, you can save the bacon fat by pouring it from one of the sheet pan corners into a container.
Adding Bacon for a Tasty Twist on the Classic S’more
S’mores are another must-have while camping. So we figured, why not combine our two favorite camping foods!
We tried out what we like to call the “Elvis S’more”. If you’re a fan of the King of Rock and Roll, you know that peanut butter, banana, and bacon sandwiches were his favorite. We love them too and knew that these ingredients in s’more form would be mind blowing.
Turns out we were right and we had to share!
The Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Large marshmallows
- Graham crackers
- Peanut butter cups (we used Reese’s)
- Banana slices
- Bacon (we used pre-cooked but recommend using fresh, raw bacon and cooking it ahead of time using the baking method we shared above)
Directions:
- Stack a peanut butter cup on top of half of a graham cracker.
- Place as many slices as you want/can of banana and bacon on top of your peanut butter cup.
- Roast your marshmallow by putting it on the tip of a roasting stick and holding it just about an inch above the campfire flame. Wait for the sides of the marshmallow to turn golden, or darker for a crunchier texture and smoky flavor.
- As you’re roasting your marshmallow over the campfire, place the other stacked ingredients nearby the fire to warm and soften the chocolate a bit (but not too close so it doesn’t fully melt!).
- When your marshmallow is roasted to your preference, place it on top of the stacked ingredients with your roasting stick still attached. Then place the other half of the graham cracker on top of everything and push down on the s’more while pulling the roasting stick out.
- Eat and enjoy and prepare for sticky fingers and a messy, marshmallowy mouth!
Our Other Favorite Bacon Meals Perfect for Camping
If you’re looking for other great camping meal ideas that include bacon for an upcoming trip, here are a few of our favorites.
- Breakfast scrambles with eggs, bacon, peppers, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and potatoes. While baking the bacon, saute the vegetables together in a pan. Once ingredients are all cooked, combine bacon bits with the vegetables in the pan, add in the uncooked eggs and scramble everything together. You can also use these same ingredients and add in tortillas to make a breakfast burrito, tacos, or a quesadilla!
- Bacon pancakes. Make pancakes as you normally would but add in a strip of bacon or bacon bitsinto the batter!
- BLT sandwiches. Combine bacon, lettuce, and tomato between bread with mayonnaise on each slice. Take it up a notch by added avocado for a BLTA!
- Baked potatoes. Wrap a full potato or a diced potato sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese in foil and bake it in the oven, on the grill, or even over the campfire. Top with butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese, green onion, salt and pepper, and of course…bacon bits. To make it even heartier, add in some barbecue pulled pork!
- Bacon wrapped corn on the cob or hot dogs. Wrap a strip or two of uncooked bacon around fresh corn on the cob or a hot dog. Then wrap it in foil and place it on the grill or over the campfire until bacon is cooked. You can put the hot dog on a bun with condiments for more of a classic hot dog, or eat it alone.
For more great bacon and pork recipes, visit the National Pork Board’s Yummly website.
Bon a”pig”tite! 🙂