The Pursuit Of Happiness: 2.169
Breakfast for dinner! A creation straight from my imagination, and it turned out fabulously.
Showing posts with label breakfast. Show all posts
Date Night Dinners - The Magic of Cauliflower
We have gone from pasta to cauliflower. Carb loaded to carb free. But it is all delicious. Gluten free, carb free is trending like it is their job right now. And while Brenden and I aren't hopping on the bandwagon and not looking back, we are giving it a try. We love all of the creative possibilities there are to make with cauliflower, so for now we are having a fun time experimenting and tasting our new dishes.
Date Night Dinners - Shakshuka
Warning: If you don't like tomatoes, this dish is likely not for you.Looking at the list of ingredients and directions, you would think this conclusion would be fairly obvious, after all the base of the dish is a tomato sauce. Brenden, however did not think quite this far ahead. Now, he doesn't hate tomatoes like he used to, but they definitely are not on his list of top ten vegetables to eat...or would it be the fruit list. Anyhow, he was quite shocked and unpleased with the bold taste of tomato he received in each bite.
Date Night Dinners - A Night To Relax
Brenden and I kept dinner pretty chill this week. We have had an abundance of special events in the past couple of weeks: a Superbowl party, Birthday hubbub, and nannying kids who most look forward to the junk food binging they get to do when their parents leave and I am left "in charge." The semester has officially been kicked into high gear and work is at a peak with upcoming event promotions I am designing for. So, with a stomach stuffed with enough dessert to last a month in just a few short days, a final semester to survive, and a never ending pile of work, my mind and body were too scattered to do anything fancy or adventure anything new. Luckily, Brenden is always down to do something simple, easy and quick. He took the lead this week and turned to one of our favorites, breakfast for dinner. He even decided to relive the night and give me a small but mighty break by writing the post this week. It is short and sweet, just like him ;). Hope you enjoy.
This weeks date night dinner was inspired by my sweet tooth. I REALLY love having breakfast for dinner, namely pancakes. We, of course, had to have eggs to make it at least feel healthy. The hardest part of this dinner was the timing between the pancakes and eggs. My eggs were done way before my pancakes. It was still good; I put syrup on everything anyways (in honor of playing our Canadian brethren to get to the gold medal, I used Canadian maple syrup).
Tracy loves the light and fluffy pancakes so I make hers first. It is just the recipe by the book...or box. I, however, enjoy the dense and slightly undercooked variety so after I make Tracy pancakes I add some more mix to bowl of batter. Because I like my pancakes dense I flip mine a few times just to make extra sure they wont be fluffy. This also serves to make sure Tracy doesn't want to “try” mine.
This is an easy and versatile meal. To spice things up, one could add broccoli (like Tracy decided to do to get our vegetable in for the night, joy), peppers, onions, asparagus, cheese, and/or tomatoes to the eggs for something a little more wholesome. Conversely one could add chocolate chips or fruit to the pancakes for a different kind of sweetness.
Date Night Dinners - Apples and Sausage
I really don't have to much to say about this meal. We wanted something quick and easy but still delicious and packed with flavors (as usual). And that is exactly what it was. With little prep and easy clean up, we were happy we could spend even more time filling our bellies. We decided to accompany our Sausage and apple Saute with some scrambled eggs, turning this hash like dish into a full on, bread free breakfast for dinner meal. Umm, yum! The flavors meshed well together and it was very satisfying. This will definitely be added to the easy prep, healthy(ish) comfort food list, to be made again.Sausage and Apple Sauté
Recipe adapted from www.runnersworld.com, Apple Sausage Saute
Ingredients
- 4 tsp olive oil
- 1 lb turkey sausage, cut into 1/2 inch diagonal slices
- 4 medium-large granny smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch wedges.
- 1/4 tsp black ground pepper
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 2 Tbsp maple syrup
- Heat 2 tsp of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
- Add the sausages and cook thoroughly, until there is no pink.
- Remove from skillet and drain.
- In the same skillet, add the remaining oil to heat.
- Add the apples, pepper, thyme, and syrup.
- Cook until tender (14-16 minutes), tossing often.
- Return sausage to pan to reheat thoroughly on low.
- Serve and enjoy.
Easy Over Scrambled Eggs and Snow Days
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| The view from my window this morning :) |
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| Adventuring into the winter wonderland |
My first attempt at these eggs was this weekend. They were close to perfect but I accidentally broke the yolks at the last minute. The process is pretty simple in theory but I quickly learned they do take some skills. You pretty much heat a skillet with cooking spray, crack the eggs into the skillet, scramble the whites and cook the yolks as you would an over easy egg or even sunny side up (depending how runny you like them). Simple right? Wrong. If you think making over easy eggs are hard, try scrambling egg whites around the delicate yolks you are trying to keep intact (definitely not something you can whip up in the five minutes you have before work, in between brushing your teeth and defrosting your car).
Date Night Dinners...or Thanksgiving Day Breakfast
Since last night was Thanksgiving, Brenden and I obviously did not have our typical Thursday night date night dinner. Now hold you horses, I know what you are thinking, no dinner?! You have been waiting all week for this very moment, a new delicious recipe, and I let something like Thanksgiving stand in the way?! Don't worry, I wouldn't let you down that easily. Although it wasn't a date night dinner we were very excited to try our date "morning" Thanksgiving inspired breakfast! And we had a right to be excited as it was amazing and a definite keeper. And, if you are anything like us, and like breakfast for dinner, there is no doubt that this would make a stupendous breakfast for dinner, dinner. MMM :) |
| I know, our Turkey hats are pretty awesome. It is okay to be jealous :) |
The anticipation was killing me ever since I found this recipe via Pinterest almost a week ago. It sounded super delicious to me. Plus a fun morning cooking with Brenden leading to a tasty breakfast to fill my tummy pre-Thanksgiving dinner would be the perfect way to take my mind off not being able to run in the turkey trot I had been planning to participant in with my cousin and his friend since we ran it last year. I was psyched to get back on the course with my turkey hat a whip out a personal best time. But, injuries got the best of me and I had to reconsider. My cousin later told me that it was a good race as usual, the weather held out and he ran a great race and time. Congrats to him! And, I am excited to hopefully be back on my feet to join him next year. But, enough rambling about that, back to the breakfast that made up for it!
When I saw this sweet potato based recipe, I instantly thought Thanksgiving (after all sweet potatoes are my favorite part of the meal, next to the stuffing of course). But this dish would be great anytime of year, especially in fall. Plain white potatoes could be substituted to make it a less seasonally inspired meal. Honestly, pretty much anything in this dish could be substituted to transform it into something you want, after all it is basically a baked hash, and, a hash (in my eyes) is simply ingredients you enjoy mixed together. But definitely start with this version because it may turn out that you don't want to alter it after taking a bite! Brenden said he loved it but would add his favorite breakfast staple, corned beef hash, next time. I thought it covered all the flavors (and food groups) as it was.
Twice Baked Sweet Potato Casserole
Recipe adapted from juliasalbum.com Stuffed Sweet Potatoes For Breakfast
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 1 lb breakfast turkey sausage, casings removed
- 6 eggs
- 1/4 cup almond milk
- Cooking spray
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded and divided
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Rinse sweet potatoes in cool water to remove all the excess dirt on the outside.
- Place sweet potatoes on a baking tray and bake for 55-60 minutes.
- Remove and cool sweet potatoes.
- When able to handle, cut each sweet potato in half.
- Scoop out the middle of the sweet potatoes with a knife or spoon, placing the piece into a medium bowl.
- Mash the insides into small chunks with a masher potato masher or fork and set aside. (If the potatoes are still a little hard you can heat them in a skillet and mash in there on low heat).
- Cook the turkey sausage in a large skillet over medium-high heat, breaking into small chunks until no longer pink.
- Drain fat and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk the eggs and milk together
- Pour into the same skillet you cooked the sausage and scramble over medium-low heat, or until nice and fluffy.
- Once eggs are cooked, turn heat to low and combine the sausage and sweet potatoes.
- Turn your oven on to broil.
- Spray a small casserole dish with cooking spray.
- Pour in half of the egg mixture, forming an even layer.
- Sprinkle half of you cheddar cheese on top.
- Pour the remaining egg mixture, forming a second layer.
- Sprinkle the second half of the cheese evenly on top.
- Place dish in the oven, watching carefully until cheese is melted but not burnt (above 5 minutes).
- Remove from oven, cool until warm, and gobble it up (pun intended).
Date Night Dinners - Breakfast Casserole
Yes, another bubble bake. What can I say?! Adding biscuits to a casserole is genius and makes it that much more appetizing. In fact, adding those flaky buttery biscuits to any dish or even on their own is delicious and brings a smile straight to Brenden and my face and heart. Ok, apparently we are having a slightly unrealistic love affair with food, but the biscuits haven't let us down yet, so why not give them another try? And that is exactly what we did.
Our first mexican inspired bubble bake was so fantastic that when we stumbled upon a breakfast one, we couldn't pass it up! Why you ask? Well let me tell you. Breakfast food is delicious to begin with, but breakfast for dinner just makes it that much better. And, in the words of Joey (from F.R.I.E.N.D.S.), "What's not to like? [Eggs], good. [Cheese], good. Meat, good. [Biscuits], gooooood!"
And so it was settled, a bubble bake we would make. And this simple, flavorful recipe did not disappoint. With an easy and quick prep time, minimal but flavorful ingredients, and fast clean up this dish is defiantly a keeper. It was gone in only two days, but again could stretch out for a few meals if you don't have the appetites of a baby elephant as we seem to have. By hey, it is breakfast food, so it is guilt free right?! Okay, maybe not completely but it is defiantly on the healthier side. There is so much worse I we could have eaten, like those new mint Oreos we gobbled up for dessert, or even better, the holiday themed ones. Yum! But enough rambling. Try it out, let me know what you think, and then tell me if you can stop at just one serving!
Breakfast Casserole Bubble Bake
Recipe adapted from mrsschwartzkitchen, Bubble Up Breakfast Bake
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 1 lb turkey breakfast sausage
- 1 tube refrigerated biscuits
- 2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 small can diced green chilis
- 7 eggs
- 1/4 cup milk (I used almond milk and it still worked out perfectly, making the eggs nice and fluffy)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
- Cook sausage on medium-high heat in a skillet, breaking into small pieces, until no longer pink.
- Once cooked, drain excess fat and set aside.
- Divide biscuits and cut each into 8 pieces. (I used six out of the eight biscuits that came in my tube, but you can eyeball it depending on the ratio of biscuit to egg you would like - just remember they rise and get bigger!)
- Spray a 9x13in casserole dish with cooking spray.
- Place biscuits along the bottom of the dish in an even layer.
- Add the cooked sausage to the casserole dish, making a layer on top of the uncooked biscuits.
- Sprinkle cheese on top of sausage layer.
- Add a layer of the green chilis.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined.
- Pour the egg mixture evenly over everything in the casserole dish.
- Place casserole dish in the oven for 30 minutes (A knife should come out clean when inserted into the center of the dish to signify it is fully cooked. Note, the cheese might make it seem like the egg is undercooked, but it is just melty, so don't worry too much because it is delish.)
- Once fully cooked, let it cool for a few minutes, serve and enjoy every bite.
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Nice To Meet You!
- This is a blog filled with food, travel, design, and of course, sparkle. But I guess you want to know a little about me. My name is Tracy, and with a mind that is constantly running, I have become the face behind this blog.
