One of the biggest money pits in the grocery store is bacon.

Why is that... well... bacon is one of those foods that is mostly fat, fat that melts away when you cook it, leaving you with delicious, crispy nuggets of bacony flavor we all love.

Actually, 80% of the bacon you buy melts away when you cook it. That means that if you want one pound of cooked bacon, you have to buy and cook five pounds of raw bacon.

That makes bacon an extremely expensive food. Sadly, as I love bacon.

However, here is a "Cheap Eats" tip on how to enjoy bacon without breaking your budget...

Buy ends and pieces. I buy a four pound box of ends and pieces, of an expensive naturally smoked, brand name bacon for less than a dollar a pound. Sometimes these boxes can be found at the local grocery store.

They can also be ordered from online vendors who produce and sell specialty bacons. They have to get rid of their ends and pieces just like everyone else, and their products tend to be of very high quality. Just go to their website and email them and ask about bacon ends and pieces....

What are ends and pieces? They are the odd shaped bits of bacon that are left when the center cuts of the bacon slab is sliced into rashers. They are the pieces that don't look pretty enough to put in those expensive little packages. Same expensive bacon, just odd shaped pieces.

My mouth and my tummy don't care what shape the bacon is in the package. Ends and pieces taste just as good as the pretty center cut pieces and they definitely taste better than no bacon at all...

As an added bonus the ends are usually leaner than the pretty center cuts.....

Here are instructions for a no mess way to cook those ends and pieces....

http://www.xomba.com/how_to_cook_bacon_bacon_bacon_a_learn_to_cook_free_lesson

Enjoy,

Angel