Tag Archives: eggs

Dinner tonight: Vegetable Frittata

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Our weekly plan is our guide to our meals – we mix up the dinners sometime and eat what we are in the mood for. Easy is what was on my menu for tonight – so I opted to have the vegetable frittata early.

Our Vegetable Frittata ingredients varies based on what I have in the fridge and what needs to be used. Below is tonights ingredients but you could add spinach, mushrooms, bell peppers – really anything goes.

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Ingredients

1 tsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced (you could use leeks or spring onions)
1 garlic clove
1 small head of broccoli, chopped into small-ish pieces
1 medium-large zucchini, grated
1 tomato (I used a Roma tomato)
salt and pepper for seasoning
5 eggs, lightly beaten (You could use three eggs and 1/2 cup of egg whites)
2 tbsp italian cheese, grated (optional)

  1. Heat pan on medium heat. Place olive oil in the pan, then the onion and garlic. Cook onion until clear.
  2. Add Broccoli, Grated Zucchini and tomato to the pan – heat ingredients through. I add the broccoli first and then the other ingredients. Cool.
  3. In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add the vegetable mix to the eggs and lightly stir.
  4. Place the egg mixture back in the pan you were using to cook the vegetables.  Add cheese to the top (optional, My husband wanted cheese I did not so I only added it to one 1/2). Cook mixture for 10-15 minutes on low heat.
  5. Once almost set, place pan into oven and broil for 3-5 minutes (keep an eye on it) remove once top has become firm.
    NOTE: I put aluminum foil on the handle of my pan before putting in the oven as I do not think it is oven proof.
  6. Serve 1/4 of the frittata on a plate, it goes well with a spinach or garden salad.

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A few of my favorite things: Quiches

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Making my first crusted quiche was a daunting task – first off I had to make pastry, which always looks so complicated. It was not too bad just time consuming. I made a ham and cheese quiche (quiche lorraine). It turned out perfectly, and everyone loved it.

Here are two of my favorite quiche recipes.

Quiche Lorraine (Ham and Cheese Quiche)

Ingredients:

Pastry:
215g flour (1 3/4 cup of flour)
100g cold butter (US: 1 stick of butter)
2 Tbsp cold water

Quiche Filling:
30 g butter (2 Tbsp)
1 onion (finely chopped)
6 slices canadian bacon
3 eggs
185 ml cream (3/4 cup cream)
80g grated Cheese (Gruyere works well)
Salt and Pepper to taste
1/4 tsp nutmeg

To make the pastry:
Add the flour to a medium sized bowl, add butter chopped in small pieces. Using your fingers rub the flour and butter together until it appears like crumbs. Make a well in the middle of the bowl and add the 2 Tbsp of cold water. Using a fork, mix into flour, form a ball with the dough. Wrap in dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Preheat over to 190 degrees C. Take the dough and place it between two layers of plastic wrap and roll out the dough to fit a 25cm dish. Place the dough in the dish and but it back in the fridge for 20 more minutes. When ready take the crust from the fridge, and put a piece of baking paper over the quiche bottom and place a pie weight chain on the paper to hold it in place  – you are needing to bake the base blind. Place in the middle of the oven, for 15 minutes. Take out of the oven and allow to cool.

To make the filling:
Place the 30g of butter in a fry pan on medium heat, melt then add the onion and Canadian bacon for ~10 minutes. Allow to cool and then place it over the bottom of the quiche crust.

Place the eggs, cream and cheese (only 40 g) in a bowl and whisk lightly. Add salt and pepper to your taste preference. Place mixture in the quiche crust. Top with the other 40g of cheese and sprinkle the 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. Place in the oven for 30 minutes until the quiche is cooked through and golden.

Potato Self-Crusting Quiche (Vegetarian)

Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes (diced and cooked)
1 onion (finely chopped)
2 -3 cloves garlic
1 tsp of butter
6 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup of flour
1 can creamed corn
1 cup cheese
salt and pepper
1/2 tomato (sliced)
1/2 bell pepper (sliced)
1/2 tsp basil (dried) or a few leaves of chopped basil fresh

For the potatoes, I leave the skin on but either way will work. Cook the 1 in diced pieces of potato in a pot of boiling water for ~10-15 minutes. You want then cooked but firm. Drain the water and leave the potatoes to cool.

Preheat oven at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a fry pan, melt the butter, place garlic and onion and cook until the onion is glassy/clear. Allow to cool.

In a bowl, add eggs lightly beat, add milk and flour, mix but don’t over mix, flour should still be a little lumpy. Add potato, onion mix, creamed corn, and 1/2 cup cheese, salt and pepper – stir.

Place the Quiche mixture in a glass dish which has been lightly greased with butter. Top with 1/2 cup of cheese, tomatoes and bell pepper. Sprinkle basil on top.

Place in the oven for 45 minutes or until cooked through and golden.

In addition, check out one of my favorite books is Sarah Branbery – “Tarts”, you should try the spinach, feta and pine nuts quiche.

A few of my favorite things: Savory Breakfast

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When I think of a savory breakfast, I would have to say an egg needs to be in my breakfast. I love eggs especially poached but I will take them scrambled, over medium (white cooked, yellow runny), or a boiled egg (again like my white cooked and yellow runny).

Some folks find poaching an egg difficult. I am especially picky with them and don’t like them to have a very strong vinegar taste to them (using vinegar stops the whites from spreading – you add it to the boiling water). I actually found these cool silicone poach egg pods which you place your egg into, then once the water is boiling add the pod into the water. You get the perfect semi-circle shaped poached egg, and no vinegar taste – PERFECT!!!

The first of my recipes, no surprise uses poached eggs.

Breakfast Open Sandwich

Ingredients (serving size: 1)

1/2 english muffin
1/4 avocado
2-3 slices tomato
2 slices Canadian bacon
few leaves of spinach
1 poached egg
salt and pepper

I start with boiling the water for the poached egg. As I am using the poached egg pods above – I follow their instructions for cooking the egg. I leave it in the water ~5-6 minutes in the pods.

While the egg is cooking, add two pieces of Canadian bacon to a fry pan and cook; toast the english muffin in the toaster.

Once these steps are completed, spread the avocado on the muffin. I stack the sandwich then, in this order:
Spinach
Canadian Bacon
Tomato
Poached egg

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

Breakfast Bratkartoffeln (Fried Potatoes)

I discovered one of my all time favorite meals in a “pub-like” restaurant Vetters Brauhaus in Heidelberg, Germany – the meal is called Bratkartoffeln. The fried potatoes are fried in a cast iron skillet in probably bacon fat and topped with fried eggs.

This recipe is a twist on that, a light and healthy version that makes a great breakfast or brunch item

Ingredients (serves 1-2)

1 Tbsp Olive oil
2/3 cup frozen grated potato (in the US – Ore-Ida Country Style hash browns)
1/2 cup grated zucchini
1/2 bell pepper, chopped (green works best)
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
2 slices Canadian Bacon, chopped
1 tsp dried Paprika
1/2 tsp dried Thyme
Salt and Pepper (to taste)
1 Egg (Poached or Fried)
Chives (optional)

Add the olive oil to a heated fry pan, add the frozen potatoes (Hash browns) – stand back a little in case of initial spitting of the olive oil when add the potatoes.  Leave for approximately 1 minute just to defrost the potatoes a little.

Add the zucchini, onion, bell pepper to the potatoes. Spread the ingredients across the fry pan surface. Try not to flip the contents often – it will become mushy if you do. Sprinkle paprika, thyme and salt and pepper over the contents. Cook until the potato mixture until it starts to turn golden brown on the bottom and flip the mixture.

Add the Canadian bacon. Again once the bottom starts to turn a golden color flip the potatoes one last time. Once cooked, plate the potatoes (could split for two if you want – add an extra egg if you do), add the poached or fried egg on the top. Sprinkle a little salt, pepper and chives on top of the egg and server immediately.

NOTE: I love the yolks of my egg running over the potatoes… if you break the yolk and it spreads over your potatoes it tastes fantastic!!