Eating Well: The 5 Basic Food Groups

When Emily of Rediscovering the Joy of Cooking shared this recipe, I knew by looking at the ingredient list that it would be good. With bacon, onions, Parmesan, and cream cheese... what's not to love?! :) This recipe includes things from 4 out of the 5 basic food groups: bread (crescent roll), vegetables (onions, parsley), meat (bacon), and dairy (Parmesan, cream cheese, milk). The only thing missing is fruit, but I don't think this would taste so good with the addition of any kind of fruit ;) With 4 out of 5, that makes it good for you, right? So you can eat these without feeling too guilty :)

By rolling the dough up from the short ends, you wind up with things that look more like wedges than crescents. So instead of making little wedges as directed in the recipe, I decided to make pinwheels and crescents rolls. If you click here, you can see what they are 'supposed' to look like. I may be biased, but I think they look a lot more appetizing my way :)


I also adapted the recipe to suit our tastes (read: more bacon!), and included my changes below. These are so good and really come together in no time. This is another great appetizer for your upcoming Super Bowl party :)


Bacon Appetizer Crescents (or Bacon Pinwheels)
from KraftFoods.com

1 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened (I used 7 oz. of 1/3 less fat Neufchatel cheese)
8 slices bacon, crisply cooked, crumbled (I used 12 slices!)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (I used 2 tsp dried parsley flakes)
1 Tbsp. milk
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
2 cans (8 oz. each) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls (I used two 10.1 oz cans)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Mix cream cheese, bacon, Parmesan cheese, onions, parsley, crushed red pepper flakes and milk until well blended; set aside.

Separate each can of dough into four rectangles; firmly press perforations together to seal. Spread each rectangle with 2 rounded tablespoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture. Cut each rectangle into 12 wedges. Roll up wedges, starting at short ends. Place, seam-sides down, on greased baking sheet.

To create the crescents:
Follow directions as above, except roll each wedge starting with the wide edge.

To create the pinwheels:
Take two triangular pieces of dough and press the perforations together to seal and create a rectangle.

If you are using the 8 oz. cans of dough, divide the cream cheese mixture into 4 equal parts and spread 1/4th of the mixture evenly on the dough. If you are using the larger cans of dough, divide the cream cheese mixture into 6 equal parts and evenly spread 1/6th of the mixture on the dough. (You'll just end up with a little less filling if you use the larger cans of dough, which I thought was fine.)

Cut the dough lengthwise into 4 equal pieces, approximately 1/2 to 3/4-inches wide (if you look closely in the photo below, you can see how it is cut). Roll the dough up into a pinwheel and place on baking sheet.


Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

Yield: 8 dozen crescents (or 24 pinwheels, approx. 3-inches in diameter)