Bacon Pierogi Bake

A couple of weeks ago while I was at home during lunch, the Schwann man came up and asked if we'd like to become regular customers on their route.  Jacob and I had been talking about ordering ice cream from them because we have great memories of their ice cream when we were kids. 

Something that caught my eye as I was flipping through the catalog was pierogies.  There is an awesome restaurant here that makes Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches and also does pierogies and so I've been thinking about making them for some time, just haven't picked them up at the grocery store.

They are usually just pan-fried and served with butter or sour cream so I was looking to do something more with them.  I was poking around ATaste of Homecooking and saw that she had an entire pierogi category.   I decided to make the first one that I saw since it complemented the pork that I wanted to serve for dinner.

Bacon Pierogi Bake
slightly adapted from A Taste of Homecooking
Ingredients- for two
8 pierogies
Cooking spray
4 center-cut bacon slices, chopped
1 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces cream cheese
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 ounces shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 green bell pepper, chopped
1/4 white onion , chopped  (If you're not a huge fan of onions, leave this ingredient out and only use the green onions)
1/2 cup thinly diagonally sliced green onions
1 cup chopped seeded plum tomato

Directions
1)Preheat oven to 400°.
2)Arrange the frozen pierogies in an 11 x 7-inch glass baking dish coated with cooking spray. Cook bacon in a saucepan over medium heat until crisp; remove from pan. Set aside.
3)Add garlic, bell pepper, and onion to the grease drippings in the pan.  Cook until pepper and onion are soft.
4)Add cream cheese to pan, and cook for 1 minute or until cream cheese begins to melt, stirring frequently. Gradually add chicken broth to pan, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Pour the cream cheese mixture evenly over pierogies. Top evenly with cheddar cheese.
5)Bake for 20 minutes or until bubbly and thoroughly heated. Remove from oven, and sprinkle with bacon, green onions, and tomato.

After making this dish, our house smelled overwhelmingly of the sauce.  I think this was a great side dish.  The tomatoes and onions on the top kind of cut through the richness of the pierogies and the sauce.  You could still taste the potato filling of the pierogi.  I thought this dish was a great bake (and was super easy to make).  Will probably make this dish again if I have a craving for pierogies.