When my friend Maggie made these on Easter, all of us raved over the spicy kick that many stuffed mushroom recipes lack. Ryan deemed them the 'best stuffed mushrooms of his life'. Have you met my husband? He rarely makes such emphatic statements so when he uttered those words, I knew I needed to make them again. I took Maggie's adaptation of the recipe and made one more additional change: the addition of bacon, because you can't ever go wrong with bacon, right? To keep them vegetarian however, you could simply omit and you'll still find yourself with some great stuffed mushrooms. You can stuff your mushrooms a few hours ahead of time and then refrigerate until you're ready to bake.

Looking for another good stuffed mushroom recipe? Mexican Stuffed Mushrooms were another hit!

One Year Ago: Grilled Fattoush (GREAT summer recipe!)

Spicy Stuffed Mushrooms
adapted from allrecipes.com
*note: you will have extra filling--could probably stuff an additional dozen mushrooms

Ingredients:
-24 white button mushrooms
-1 tbsp vegetable oil
-1 tbsp minced garlic
-8 oz. cream cheese (I used 1/3 less fat)
-2-3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
-1/2 cup Italian shredded cheese, divided
-1/4 tsp ground pepper
-1/2 tsp minced onion flakes
-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Directions:
1. Wash and dry mushrooms, removing stems and setting aside.
2. Finely chop mushroom stems and add to a skillet with oil and garlic, over medium heat. Saute, stirring occasionally, until all moisture has disappeared. Set aside to cool.
3. Once mushroom mixture is cooled, stir in cream cheese, crumbled bacon, 1/4 cup Italian cheese, pepper, onion flakes, and cayenne pepper.
4. Place mushrooms on a foil lined baking sheet. Using a spatula, stuff filling mixture into a ziploc bag and cut off a corner. Pipe filling into each mushroom. Sprinkle the tops of filled mushrooms with additional cheese.
5. Preheat oven to 350F. Bake mushrooms, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

This post is linked to Eat at Home.