Bacon Cheeseburger Bakes

It's been quite a week. Last week I was on a cooking spree, cooking more new things in one week than I have in a while, and I was feeling very motivated. I guess that motivation is what led to this:

Baby Lana!

That's right, we got a puppy. Dan and I have talked about getting a second dog, and wanted to actually rescue and older one that was already house trained, but a friend of ours had this dog and we decided we'd go for it. I definitely know why I said I didn't want another puppy...the crate training, frequent potty trips, frequent potty cleanups, making sure the older dog gets a break from the puppy when needed, and no more nights out on a whim until she's fully trained...

That made grocery shopping and planning this week tough. So far, I've gotten two days in of some more home-cooked meals. Yesterday's was rushed and didn't exactly come out the way I wanted it to. If I had spent more time on it, it may have come out just right. It wasn't a total failure, just could have been better, if I wasn't exhausted and keeping my eye on the pup every 10 seconds while keeping my eye on the skillet. These are supposed to be more calzone-like, but I didn't bother to beat the egg to give the dough a nice crisp bake, so I called these "bakes" since that's what they came out to be. Plus, a calzone should be made with pizza dough, not crescent rolls. Maybe these can be called crescent pockets or something.....

The crescent roll dough softened up quickly, so trying to fill them and fold them and seal them was tricky. Once the hot filling was in them, they began to sort of melt as I was filling the others. You definitely want to make sure the dough is chilled enough to work with.

Bacon Cheeseburger Bakes
from Pillsbury

4 slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup dried minced onion
2-3 pickles, diced (I used bread and butter spears)
1/4 cup ranch dressing
4 slices American cheese, cut in half
2 can crescent rolls
1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 375. Heat a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat and cook bacon for 2 minutes. Add the ground beef and onions and cook until no longer pink. Drain if necessary.
2. Add the pickles and ranch dressing and stir. (I only added the pickles to certain rolls when I filled them since Dan doesn't like them).
3. Unroll the crescent rolls on an ungreased cookie sheet and press together two triangles to form a rectangle, being sure to seal the perforations.
4. Place a big spoonful of hamburger filling onto each rectangle, top with a piece of cheese, and fold over to close. Seal all edges.
5. Brush tops with beaten egg and bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden and rolls are cooked through.

As you can see, mine aren't so pretty, but they were tasty. I would actually add more ranch dressing to it.

Also, use pickles! And if you do, use bread and butter pickles. The sweetness of the bread and butter variety are great in this! I'm not so sure I'd even want to try these with dill pickles in them...and I love pickles.