Roasted vegetables with bacon

If you had to pick one word to sum up your weekend, what would you choose?  This should come as no surprise that my one word would be d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s!  I swear, I really have other hobbies that don't involve eating, but they aren't nearly as fun to discuss.  There was a home-cooked Friday night dinner, the oh-how-I've-missed-for-much-too-long fabulous spread of the Hanlon tailgate (thank you!), a mini pumpkin pie Blizzard from Dairy Queen, and a cozy Sunday night dinner with baked penne and chocolate cake.  Hey, I even made time to cheer on Pitt (wooo win!) and saw Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps -- very good!

After typing out just what I ate this weekend, I thought I'd share a slightly healthier dish I whipped up last weekend.  A warm dinner perfect for a rainy night, full of fresh produce to up my (mental) vegetable intake.  Because, as everyone knows, it's the thought that counts, right? :)
There were such gorgeous displays of produce at the grocery store, so I picked up some humble zucchini squash and potatoes:

And bacon was on sale, too.  Why not a huge plate of garlic roasted veggies with some crumbled bacon for extra zing?  Sounds good to me.  This was so mind-numbingly easy and unbelievably delicious!  The squash and sweet potato were, well, sweet.  The garlic gave the whole dish such subtle flavor, really kicking the plain vegetables up a notch, with a salty punch.  Oh my heavens, and the bacon drippings?  They took pushed it all over the edge.  I'm thinking this is going to be a weekly meal for a while, but with the vegetable variety changing each time.  Perhaps brussel sprouts and pumpkin next?  Yum!

I can hardly call this a recipe, so I'll share the "step by step" so you, too, can make this fab dinner for yourself.  What I made made two huge plates (aka meals) for me and then a side serving for a later lunch.


Roasted Vegetables with Bacon

• Preheat oven to 425F.
• Cut 4 slices of bacon in half and cook in a skillet a few minutes on each side.
• Place cooked pieces on a paper towel-lined plate to drain.  Reserve 1-2 tablespoons of bacon fat.
• Rinse and chop vegetables of your choice -- I used potatoes, yams, and yellow and zucchini squash.  Keep the pieces similar in size so that they cook evenly.
• Divide veggies among two rimmed baking sheets.  
• For each tray, I drizzled 1 Tablespoon of bacon drippings and a dribble of olive oil.  Sprinkle with ground black pepper and garlic salt.  Toss to coat evenly.
• Bake for 30 minutes, stirring halfway through, until vegetables begin to get a golden crust and shrivel slightly.
• Crumble bacon and toss with veggies.
• Serve and enjoy!