Water Chestnuts and Bacon

“...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.” 

― Julia Child, My Life in France

I made this appetizer for our friends Super Bowl Party and it may have created more conversation that the absolutely horrible football game. Their is just something supremely satisfying about the saltiness of the bacon combined with the crunch of the water chestnut and the sweetness of the brown sugar glaze that just makes me want to eat the entire batch and make a second for everyone else. I procrastinated making this dish that I found on Emily Bites because for some reason I was intimidated by the entire process. Michelle and Kevin have been my testers many times so I thought their house would be a safe place to experiment. Now that I have made them, I will never be intimidate by them again because it was soooooo easy! For having bacon they are not as many points as I thought they would be.

Nutritional Information (calculated on myfitnesspal.com): 12 servings, 2 weight watchers points plus. 67 calories, 12g carbs, 1g fat, 2g protein

These did not last long!

Ingredients:

• 2 (8 oz) canned Sliced Water Chestnuts, Drained
• 12 Strips Center Cut Bacon, Regular Thickness
• 1/3 c Ketchup
• 1/3 c packed Brown Sugar
• 1.5 t Fat Free Yogurt (The recipe calls for plain but my store did not have plain so I used Apple Cinnamon.)
• 1/2 t Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/4 t Hot Sauce (I used Frank's Red Hot)
• 36 Toothpicks

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Cut the Bacon into thirds
3. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil
4. Stack 2 Water Chestnut Slices, wrap with a Bacon piece, secure with a toothpick and place on the lined baking sheet. Repeat until all water chestnuts are used. Towards the end there are some pieces, I put these with a larger slice and wrapped them.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. While they are baking  combine the Ketchup, Brown Sugar, Yogurt, Worcestershire Sauce and Hot Sauce.
7. When the timer goes off remove them from the oven and transfer them to a paper towel lined plate.
8. Throw away foil and reline with new foil. (I used two separate baking sheets.)
9. Using a basting brush coat each piece generously with the "glaze."
10. Put back in the oven for 30-40 minutes until the bacon is crisp and the glaze has adhered the each piece.
11. Enjoy!

Transfering after the first baking cycle.

Ready to go in again!

My Sous Chef was a little more focused on
Sofia who is only a week and a half old
than cooking or football. Can you blame her?
Congratulations Michelle and Kevin!