I know I just posted a breakfast recipe a few days ago, but I’ve been loving weekend breakfasts lately! You may have noticed that in my post about waffles, I wrote that we’ve been having them almost every weekend. The rest of the time, we’ve been eating these baked eggs. We’re pretty much obsessed with them – they’re so good! And so easy to make! As much as i love breakfast, I never really feel like cooking in the morning. The great part about these is that there really isn’t much “cooking” that needs to be done: no standing over the stove, no measuring. Just throw them in the oven, set the timer, and a few minutes later you have a delicious breakfast. (If you can conjure the energy to cook a few slices of bacon, you’re really set!)
Plus there’s something so beautiful about eggshells. They never fail to make me smile. Any day that starts with something so beautiful can never be bad.
You’ll want to use a shallow dish to cook these. I like to use a quarter cup creme brulee ramekin, which just barely fits two eggs (I usually make one for myself and two for Shawn). I’ve tried making this in a deeper cocotte, but they take much longer to cook and the texture isn’t as nice. Cooking these eggs in shallow ramekins results in an egg with a texture somewhere between fried and poached. The edges get that crispy-fried goodness but, because the container keeps the white from spreading out too much, it stays soft and chewy like a poached egg. Too deep of a dish though, and you’re edges won’t get that nice crispness.
The thicker white also keeps the yolk from running all over the place once it’s broken – if you’re into dipping your toast into your egg yolks, these will be right up your ally. You can also add fresh herbs to the egg before you bake it. My favorite is thyme, but basil or chives is also very good. The fresh herbs really take the egg to the next level and make your breakfast seem a lot more elegant than you would expect being that the recipe is so simple to make. Seriously, I almost feel like i’m cheating when I make these.
Shirred Eggs with Thyme
- 1 small pat of butter
- 4 large eggs
- about 2 tsp skim milk
- 1 generous pinch of fresh thyme, or an herb of your choice
- Sea salt (preferably grey) and black pepper
Preheat your oven to 425.
Use the butter to lightly grease the bottoms and sides of two quarter cup ramekins or other small, shallow dishes. Crack two eggs into each ramkin and drizzle with the milk. Sprinkle the thyme over the top.
Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and bake for 6 minutes, or until the whites begin to set and the edges just begin to brown. Broil the eggs for an additional 3 minutes or until the center begins to firm up – the eggs will continue to cook slightly when you take them out of the oven. Remove from voen, season with salt and pepper, and enjoy!
The yolks on these will be coked to an “over-medium” level of doneness. Adjust the broiling time up or down by 1 minute if your prefer your yolks cooked to a different level.
Serves 2.
Approx. 160 calories, 12 grams fat, 0 grams fiber, 12.5 grams protein
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You may have already seen this, but Progresso is running a pretty cool contest. It’s called the “Souper You” contest and you can win a trip to New York City and a makeover! Just go to their website and tell them what you love about Progresso Light soups and why you want a makeover. You only have until March 15 though, so you better hurry!
Progresso sent me a few cans of their soup to sample as a part of this promotion: While they don’t come anywhere close to the taste of homemade, they are pretty good! My favorites are the vegetable based ones – especially the light zesty southwestern vegetable soup. I also really liked the chicken vegetable rotini. I used to buy Progresso soups all the time, but I hadn’t in a while and I do have to say that I find the regular versions to be far too salty now. The low sodium and light soups are much less salty though. I’ve been keeping a few at work for those days when I don’t have time to pack myself a lunch in the morning (or don’t have leftovers to bring!)
The information about the contest and the soups to review were provided to me by Progresso through MyBlogSpark
Posted in: bakes, breakfast, lent, light, vegetarian.
Back in December, I had the opportunity to watch a cooking demonstration by the chef from a local Italian restaurant. He made all sorts of wonderful dishes, but the one that impressed me the most was a briny, saucy pasta dish. Looking back I can’t remember if his version actually had feta in it or not, but the idea of a soft, salty cheese with pasta has been in the back of my head ever since. If you follow me on twitter, you’ll know that last week I just did not feel like cooking. At all. I didn’t really feel like eating either. It was simple, delicious recipes like this one that got me through to week – this takes very little effort to make, but the result is impressive. The feta really adds something special to the pasta and makes it seem a little more special. (And don’t worry, I made an awesome grocery list for this week and am back to my normal self!)
While you could use your favorite jarred sauce for this to make it even easier, I find that it’s just as easy to make my own. Pasta sauce really is a snap to make and it taste so much better than store-bought! San Marzano tomatoes were on sale, so I used those and I recommend that you do too. I find them to be slightly sweeter and less acidic than other canned tomatoes, resulting in a sauce that tastes like you made it from ripe, summer tomatoes. If you can’t find San Marzano’s (they can be difficult to find and are pretty pricey if they aren’t on sale), feel free to use your favorite brand of peeled plum tomatoes.
I served my sauce on top of spinach linguini. No real reason for that. I don’t think it tastes any different than plain pasta and the nutritional differences are negligible. Honestly, I just like the way that it looks. Green pasta is so much more fun to eat than beige pasta!
Spaghetti with Feta and Capers
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 28-ounce can peeled plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano)
- 1 hand full fresh oregano, chopped
- 2 Tbs capers
- Cracked black pepper to taste
- 4 ounces feta, crumbled
- 8 ounces spaghetti, cooked according to package
Heat a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the oil. When the oil is hot and begins to shimmer, add the garlic. Cook for 1 minute, then immediately add the tomatoes and oregano. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally and using your spoon to press on the tomatoes to help break them down. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the sauce is thickened. Stir in the capers and season to taste with pepper.
To serve, spoon the sauce on top of the prepared spaghetti. Top with feta.
Serves 4.
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Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can make this blog better. I have a ton of ideas that I’m really excited about. But I also want to hear from you! After all, I write this blog for all of you and I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions. So, if you could please take a minute to fill out this very short survey, I would really appreciate it. Thanks!!
Posted in: Italian, fast, lent, light, pasta, recipe, reheats, sauces, stovetop, vegetarian.
Buying Shawn a waffle iron for Christmas may have been one of the best things that I’ve ever done. We’ve wanted one for a while, but were hesitant because people kept telling us that we would never use it and it would ust take up precious cabinet space. Well, guess what? They were all wrong. We’ve been making waffles just about every weekend since we got it.
There’s something about a homemade waffle that just doesn’t compare to the frozen version. If you’ve ever ordered one at a diner you know what I’m talking about – they have that beautiful crispy exterior that gives way to a fluffy, light interior. These buttermilk waffles are perfect for a lazy weekend breakfast, or for a weeknight dinner. I like to make extras, which I reheat in the toaster for weekday breakfasts.
There are so many waffle recipes out there that it can be a little overwhelming. Cornmeal waffles, yeast waffles, chocolate waffles…the options are limitless. But my favorite are these buttermilk waffles, which call for whipped egg whites. They’re the closest that I’ve found to the diner waffles that I love so much. I think the whipped eggs result in an extra light and fluffy center.
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk toppings. Syrup is a classic, but I don’t like to use too much since it can be so sweet. For these, I used just a drizzle of real maple syrup and some bananas that I sauteed with a little bit of grand marnier. The creaminess of the bananas was a really nice contrast to the tender-crisp texture of the waffle itself. As another alternative, I really like these waffles topped with a little bit of raspberry preserves.
The waffles are pretty big and i find them to be very filling. Half of one is enough for me for breakfast, otherwise I won’t want lunch.
Buttermilk Waffles with Sauteed Bananas
- 2 cups flour
- dash salt
- 2 Tbs sugar
- 1-1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1-3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs, separated
- 2 Tbs butter, melted
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pat butter
- 1 banana
- 1 Tbs grand marnier or other orange liqueur
Combine the flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda. Stir in the buttermilk, baking soda, egg yolks, melted butter and vanilla.
Whip the egg whites until the form soft peaks. Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the batter.
Spray your waffle iron with oil. Preheat. Ladle one sixth of the batter onto the waffle iron and cook until done (this will depend on your iron). ransfer to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter.
While the waffles are cooking, heat a skillet over medium heat. Ad the pat of butter to the pan and allow to melt. Slice the banana into the pan and cook until it begins to soften, stirring occasionally. Add the grand marnier and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and keep warm.
Yields 6.
Approx.363 waffles, 13 grams fat, 1.5 grams fiber, 17 grams protein
*****
Don’t like hyphens? You can now find me by going to Healthydelicious.net too! Should make it a little easier to tell people about the site (hint, hint 
)
Posted in: breakfast, fast, fruit, lent, recipe, reheats.
Last week, I was walking to work and I noticed that some of the trees were getting little leaf buds on them! I was so excited… and then the next day, it snowed. And snowed. And snowed. Three feet of snow later, I decided a meal with warm, tropical flavors might be just the thing I needed to cheer myself up.
A roasted carrot and ginger soup from an old issue of Food + Wine caught my eye recently, but Shawn wasn’t buying the whole carrot soup idea. To be honest, I’m still a little tired of soup myself anyway. Since we both like mashed carrots, I decided to reinvent the soup as a roasted carrot and ginger puree. Coconut seemed like it would go well with those flavors and I was in the mood for something a little different, so I decided to make coconut chicken cutlets.
Although I could have used to roast the carrots a little longer (you can see that they’re a little gritty in the photos – that’s because they were undercooked), I was really happy with how these two dishes turned out. The sweetness of the carrot was great with the ginger and the coconut on the chicken got nice and toasty and made the perfect crispy coating. I used boneless chicken thighs, which have a lot more flavor and are a lot juicer than breast meat. Plus if you buy thighs with the skin on and just take it off yourself, it’s so much cheaper than buying boneless, skinless breast!
Coconut Chicken
- 1 Lb boneless chicken thighs, skin removed (about 3 or 4 thighs)
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/4 cup shredded coconut
- 2 Tbs oil
Cut each thigh in half – but through the thin part of the thigh as though you were going to butterfly it, so that you have two flat-ish pieces. Use a meat mallet to pound each piece out into a thin cutlet. Toss the thighs with flour to coat them very lightly.
Combine the breadcrumbs and coconut in a shallow dish. Add the egg to a second dish. Dip the chicken into the egg and then into the coconut mixture, coating it well. Repeat with remaining chicken pieces.
Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken – working in batches if you need to so that you don’t crowd the pan – and cook for 4 minutes on each side, or until the breading is crispy and the chicken is cooked through. Remove from the pan and blot off any excess oil with a paper towel. Let rest on the towel until ready to serve.
Roasted Carrot-Ginger Puree
- 4 carrots
- 1-inch piece of ginger, grated
- 1 tsp butter
- 1/4 cup skim milk
Preheat oven to 425.
Peel the carrots and cut them into 1-inch pieced. Place the carrots into a small roasting dish and toss with the ginger. Break the butter up into several small pieces and sprinkle over the carrots. Roast for 40 minutes, or until the carrots are very soft.
Transfer the carrots and ginger to a food processor and process for a few seconds until it starts to get smooth (you can also use a potato masher or eggbeaters to do this). Add the milk and process until smooth.
Posted in: chicken, coconut, farmers market, light, recipe, sidedish.
When it’s done right, I love tiramisu. But when it’s not done right, it can be pretty disappointing – too sweet and too sloppy. So it goes without saying that I had mixed feeling when I saw that the February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month.
Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession. As part of the challenge, Aparna and Deeba also required that we make our own mascarpone and lady fingers. It seemed like a lot of work for such an iffy outcome, and since I’ve been so exhausted lately I seriously considered not participating in the challenge. But some of my friends on twitter were encouraging, promising that despite the length of the recipe and the time involved, the dish wasn’t complicated to make and that it was some of the best tiramisu they’ve ever had.
I’m glad I took their advice – this was hands down one of my favorite daring bakers challenges to date. The tiramisu was surprisingly easy to make and it tasted fabulous! Not too sweet (though I did cut down on the sugar slightly) with the perfect balance of cream to cake. It also freezes really well, which is great because keeping it readily accessible in the fridge would be way too dangerous! Keeping it in the freezer allows me to thaw just the amount that I want – and makes it difficult to go back for a second slice! I would definitely make this recipe again – it would be the perfect ending to a dinner party.
The one downside of this recipe is that is does take some advance planning if you’re making it completely from scratch. The cheese itself takes a day to make. Then you’ll want to make sure that the creams have time to chill before you assemble the cake (a half hour in the freezer was enough for mine). Once assembled, you’ll want to let the tiramisu rest for at lest a day to allow the flavors to meld together. I promise you though – it’s worth the wait!
This recipe is different from a lot of other tiramisu recipes in that it uses a zabaglione (an egg custard) and pastry cream in the filling. He flavors his with marsala wine, but I didn’t have any of that, so I used kahlua. I really liked the extra coffee flavor that this gave the final dish. You can use whatever you want though – and it doesn’t need to be alcohol. Extra coffee would be great, as would a fruit puree if you want something less traditional.
This is a long one, so the recipes are after the jump.
Continue reading →
Posted in: Italian, chocolate, daring kitchen, dessert, freezes, unhealthy, vegetarian, weekend meal.
