bango bites!

Yay, first post ever! Kicking it off with bango bites! (bacon and mango bites). My hope for this blog is to post fun, cute, really unique and tasty "bites" that aren't super hard or take a super long time to make. My other hope is that my posts will inspire you to come up with your own interesting food creations and food "bites" too! These "bites" are created by me but inspired by friends, family, pinterest and tons of other stuff.

These bango bites are SO easy to make! Don't let the picture fool you. And I had so much fun making them! They are a great treat when you're relaxing on a summer day out by the pool. The mango feels fresh and light and the bacon says, but you won't be starving in five minutes because I'm a bit more substantial. I'm first going to explain how to make the bango bites exactly as they are in the picture, and then I will give you some suggestions on how you can speed up the prep time or make it a little healthier.

Ingredients for about 15-20 bangos:
1/2 big mango, 1 small mango  
cilantro (for garnish)
2 tbl sp. vinegar (white, not dark)
half of small lime
2 cups water
1 tsp oil (I used coconut)
4 strips of bacon
10 pc. of french batard bread (or some sort of thinnly sliced bread)
2 tsp half and half
1 tsp mayo
1 tsp sour cream
cracked black pepper

So, start off by warming your bacon pan on medium heat. In a sauce pan mix together 2 cups of water, 2 tbl sp vinegar (I used pear vinegar), a dash of salt, half lime, and oil. If you don't have coconut oil butter works really well here, and olive oil is another good choice, too. This will eventually work up to a boil. In the meantime, cut the mango in half leaving the skin on. Make small slices in the mango meat, making sure not to cut through the skin. Make slices perpendicular to the slices you made previously so that the cuts make small squares in the the meat. Take out a soup spoon and scoop out the mango so that the mango is cubed.

Now, put those cubes into the water mixture and put the bacon on to cook. The mangos only need to stew in the water for 7-10 minutes.  
While this is all cooking you can make the sauce! Mix in a small bowl the 2 tsp half and half, 1 tsp mayo, and 1 tsp sour cream. Now would also be a good time to finely chop the cilantro.

It's about time to take off the mangos. Take them out, drain them, and then put them in a small bowl. They should now look like this:

If they are not looking like that, cause for concern. Now, with a fork mash them gently so that there are still some relatively big chunks of mango in there. The mangos should be pretty tender. Take the bacon off too and let it de-grease on some paper towel. (I also do the bacon pat down, because I'm not a fan of bacon grease). Now, cut each piece of bread in half. This is the kind of bread I used:

But you by no means have to use this exact bread. In fact, I think it would be really good with rye or pumpernickel, if it's sliced thinly. By the way, I didn't mention this before, but these pieces of bread are only about 3 1/2 inches long. So keep that in mind, too. After you have cut each piece of bread, toast them lightly.

When the bread is done toasting spread a light layer of mayo on the top. Then break each strip of bacon up into about 3-5 pieces. Place the bacon on the bread, then add a dallop of the mango mash, and drizzle with the white sauce. After this garnish with cilantro and add black pepper. Prep time is about 15 min. And that's it! Eat and enjoy!

If you are really, really short on time let me give you some tricks to shorten your prep time. First of all, instead of cooking bacon you can used a cured pork called procuitto. It's a really good option too. If you are having a hard time finding procuitto, a salami will also work. If you are really, really, really short on time you can get an apricot preserve and mix it with a little vinegar in place of the mango mash. Since I actually haven't tried making that I don't know what the vinegar to preserve ratio would be. Try it and let me know!
If you are thinking eeehhh, I want something I'd feel better about health-wise, try substituting turkey bacon for the regular, use lowfat mayo, olive oil for the oil, and lowfat half and half and sour cream.


I didn't mention this earlier, but I am not a certified chef and I made up this recipe myself! The vinegar trick I learned from my mom.

Hope these tips helped! Happy eating! Let me know about your cooking experience and what you think! And please share your "bites" too!