A Frittata... Kind Of

Dinners around here are usually simple affairs using up whatever ingredients we have. Often, we don't have a lot to work with as we let our refrigerator get pretty empty in between grocery shopping trips. One staple we pretty much always have is a huge Costco bag of frozen broccoli. I'm warning you now that you will probably find broccoli sneaking into lots of recipes thanks to this.

One such recipe is a frittata we had for dinner recently. Well, kind of a frittata. I don't think I used enough eggs for it to fully qualify as a frittata and I also ended up scrambling the eggs a bit to get them fully cooked instead of baking the top in the oven. But bear with me here, we'll loosely define it as a frittata.

I started out with a bit of chopped onion and sliced cremini mushrooms. I set that to soften in the pan with a bit of olive oil.

 Meanwhile I cooked some broccoli and chopped up a ham steak.

 In a bowl, I mixed up 4 eggs (because that's how many we had left, I'd probably go with 6 for this amount of veggies and ham), a spoonful of sour cream, salt, and pepper.

 Once the mushrooms and onions were nice and soft, I added the broccoli and ham to the pan. I let them warm up in the pan for 2 minutes then added the egg mixture over top. I also sprinkled a bit of gruyère over that. I let that cook for a few minutes until the bottom was cooked.

This is where, if you were truly making a frittata, you would put it into the oven to cook the top. Instead I tried to flip parts of it over so it ended up being more of a scramble. It couldn't stick together since the ratio of fillings to eggs was so high.

Still delicious though!

This is definitely another one of those recipes where you should use whatever you have on hand. Here is what I used:

• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/4 c chopped onion
• 8 oz sliced cremini mushrooms
• 2 cups broccoli, steamed
• 1 ham steak
• 4 eggs (use 6 to make it more like a real frittata)
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• salt & pepper
• spices for additional flavor, such as basil, paprika, red pepper...
• 1 tbsp shredded gruyère

1. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook until softened, about 8 minutes. I like to cover the mushrooms at first and remove the cover halfway through to let the liquid evaporate.
2. Chop broccoli and ham into bit size pieces. 
3. Mix together the eggs, sour cream, and salt & pepper. Add any spices you may wish.
4. Once the mushrooms and onions are nice and soft, add the broccoli and ham to the pan and let the flavors meld together for a few minutes.
5. Add the egg mixture and cheese over top and let cook for a few minutes. The bottom will start to cook through and the top will start to set. At this point, if you want to make a real frittata, put your pan in the oven on broil to cook the top. If you're doing it the easy way like me, try to flip over your frittata or just sections at a time. Serve immediately once the egg is cooked through.
6. Feeds 2, including 1 with a hearty appetite.

Pumpkin Bread

Every year I get excited when I see the cans of pumpkin out in the end caps of the supermarket. Every year I yearn to make all the pumpkin things! And so I purchase pumpkin and then... nada. I get uninspired. Or I make pumpkin things that leave me feeling, eh. But I don't learn. This year, I purchased pumpkin at Costco, so that means 3 huge cans of it! Luckily the pumpkin bagels were a great pumpkin recipe and the one I'm sharing today also turned out to be a success. Maybe I will start to like the pumpkin recipes as much as the idea of all pumpkin things!

So Pumpkin Bread from lovegrowswild.com. Yes! So good! Very pumpkin-y, very molasses-y (from all that brown sugar), and very easy. It turned out moist and delicious - I highly recommend it!
Here is the pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/264727284322021276/

Follow the recipe as stated and you're bound for success.

first, mix the dry goods

then cream the butter and brown sugar, now add the eggs

 

mmm, looking smooth and delicious

milk and vanilla, and 1 cup of pumpkin purée

after pumpkin addition

adding the flour mixture slowly

ready for the oven!!

perfect loaf 

(about to be frozen in slices or else you know I'll eat the whole thing in a day)

It's fantastic still warm from the oven, cooled off, and even frozen then defrosted in the toaster oven.

As for the pumpkin bagels, there are still a few left, but not many! Pumpkin things for the win this year!

i've been busy

Let's just say that something had to give between Pilates, volleyball 2 nights a week, yoga, coaching, new boyfriend, normal socializing and working, and a new blog. And the loser (or winner, depending on how you look at it) is the blog. So I'm going to keep adding new posts, but it's going to be whenever I can, not on any regular schedule. It's too bad though, because I really like the idea. Perhaps a little later when my life isn't so busy.

It's also too bad because I think this makes me focus more on healthy eating. Sure, I track everything I eat, but somehow that still isn't enough motivation to eat as well as I should. I just go way over my points and then feel bad at weigh-in every Tuesday (or at least the last 3 - tomorrow should also be fun).

But on to more positive things: a good dinner. Tonight I made 15 Minute Creamy Avocado Pasta from the Oh She Glows foodie blog and a bunch of vegetables. Delicious. The avocado pasta cost me a lot of points, but it was worth it. The veggies were a good supplement. If you want to make the veggies, here it is:

Serves 3-4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

2 tomatoes

1 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 eggplant

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Italian herbs

breadcrumbs (optional)

shredded cheese (optional)

garlic powder

salt + pepper

Directions:

Slice all vegetables. Stack against one another in a glass dish. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle breadcrumbs, herbs, cheese, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to your liking. Use your judgement here.

Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for one hour.

This reheats well so don't be afraid to double the recipe. Also, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar before cooking adds a punch of flavor and blends great with the veggies.

hazelnut... it does a body good

A few years ago, I thought I might be lactose-intolerant. I haven't figured out if I really am or not, but I have never gone back to cow's milk. Instead I went to soy, then lately was on an almond kick, but a week ago, I found hazelnut!!! YUM! I highly recommend it. The best of the milk substitutes that I have tried.

The facts:

It's so good. It's thick and hazelnutty... delicious! Adds a ton of flavor to my morning cereal.

Speaking of cereal, I have overcome my laziness a few times this week and made oatmeal on the stove. I managed to cut out additional sugar between the hazelnut "milk" and the berries or peaches I add in.

Here it is with blackberries:

I ate out a lot this weekend, but I attempted to balance that out with a healthy soup on Saturday night. I steamed asparagus, then threw it in the blender with a tiny bit of light cream, some water, and a bit of chicken broth powder. And voila!

In other news, I tried to make a clementine cake this weekend... I had a bad feeling when the clementines were boiling for 2 hours (yes, 2 hours!!!). I didn't like the smell, but thought maybe it would still turn out okay. But then the recipe called for ground almonds, which I did not find, so I ground them myself in my new 3-cup food processor. Of course, they weren't fine enough, but again, I thought it might do. I should also mention that the recipe called for this batter being prepared in a food processor - well my new little 3-cup one wasn't going to cut it so I used the blender. Definitely not meant for that. But despite all of this, I persevered, ever optimistic! As you may have guessed by now, it didn't work out. The texture was off, the taste wasn't very good, and the middle seemed undercooked. I was so disheartened that I couldn't even take a picture. It went straight into the trash, not even completely cooled yet. I really rarely mess up cakes - strange that I have now had to throw 2 cakes out in less than one month. What was my last post? Oh yes, listen to your gut! Ha! Well now I have that reminder every time I walk into my house: the boiling clementine smell that I didn't like is lingering. Perhaps the other lesson here is, make sure you have the right ingredients and tools before you embark on a recipe journey.

But let's end on a high note. To make up for the clementine cake, I made quatre quarts (or pound cake, or literally four fourths). I figured that the chances were low that something would go wrong with such a classic. Did you know that there is a very easy way to make one? This is how it's done in France: weigh your eggs, however many you want to use. The guideline is 2 eggs for 4 people. Then, use the same weight in sugar, butter, and flour. Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract (or both extracts, as I did). I also threw in some quality French chocolate that I had finely chopped with my fantastic Wusthof knife. If you bake it as one cake, it will take about 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I made cupcakes and they were in for about 25 minutes.