Quick, Easy Gluten Free Jalapeño Poppers

Hey guys! Libby here, I wanted to share with you some recipes that are simple and easy, not time consuming but also gluten free.  These things are really important to me because I’m busy! I don’t have two hours to sit down and prepare three meals a day.  Being a college student, I have to prioritize my time in order to get everything done that’s important to me, so I concentrate on recipes that are simple enough but tasty and don’t require a whole lot of prep.   My favorite one is my jalapeno poppers.   I seriously crave these on a weekly bases and pretty much buy the ingredients for them once a week in order to satiate those cravings.   Here’s how to make them:

Ingredients:

·      Creamed goat cheese or cream cheese (depending on your preference)

·      Medium to large sized jalepenos (3)

·      Classic bacon or turkey bacon

 So I start out by setting the oven to bake at 400 degrees.  Next I make sure to wash the jalapeños- it’s super hard to find organic jalapeños (oddly enough) so I make sure to wash them off really well with a fruit and veggie wash (I like the Trader Joe’s brand).   Next, cut the jalapeños in half exposing the membrane.   Using a spoon, scoop the innards out, the more seeds you leave in, the more spice it will have to it so do this at your own discretion. 

            After the jalapeños are washed, cut and gutted, I take a spoon and fill them with the cheese.   Next, I take the bacon and wrap it around the jalapeño being careful not to overlap too much, this interferes with how well the meat cooks and gets crispy.   When I’m working with turkey bacon, I like to cut the strips in half (hot dog way, not hamburger way) because the strips tend to be extra wide when compared to regular pig bacon and can be hard to wrap and/or bake correctly. 

When they are all wrapped and the oven is preheated, throw them in the oven on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes until desired crispiness is achieved. 

            One thing about this recipe is that it can be messy – when the bacon cooks it leaves grease all over your cookie sheet that can be hard to clean.  But alas! I have a remedy for this problem – I make a little boat out of tin foil with a flat bottom.   By folding each side of the square piece of tin foil so that each side has about a 1” inch lip, and then fold the corners into each other.  Provides a simple, easy to clean up solution to a messy problem,  When you are done baking, just throw the tin foil away and put the cookie sheet back into the drawer for next time – no need to clean at all (unless you want to).  

            Obviously, I prefer regular bacon, but at times when I’m making this dish all the time, I use turkey because it’s healthier and I find it to be more filling.   The beautiful thing about this dish is that it can be used as an appetizer if you have guests over or as a personal gluten free meal!