Nothing New, Just Coconut Bacon

I made some coconut bacon yesterday and thought I was creating something new and amazing...But it turns out that it's not a new idea. Really, it's not new. Even the Royal Bacon Society knows about vegan coconut bacon. But it's still delicious! My recipe is not really any different than any of the afore-linked websites. But I tried mine cooked up in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet rather than an oven. Here's what it looked like:

I ate darn near half of it before it even went into the skillet. And then I promptly ate the other half. This is definitely as addicting as regular bacon. It's fatty, salty, crisp and all around bacony. The kids loved it, too. But Mike said, "It tastes like coconut". Party pooper.

I mixed together the following:

1/2 cup large coconut flakes (I used the "Let's Do...Organic" brand, which wins the award for stupidest brand name)

4 drops liquid smoke

2 Tbsp. Bragg's aminos

1 Tbsp. maple syrup

1/2 tsp. balsamic vinegar

Lots of black pepper

I marinated it overnight and then fried it up in a hot skillet until the edges of the flakes were starting to almost burn. Yum! Baking it would probably make it crisper, but I had no problem munching on it this way and it took all of about 1 minute to cook.