spinach and feta fritatta

It's been a while since I made an egg-based breakfast item, so here's a spinach and feta fritatta chock full of flavor and is healthy, too:

I'm a huge fan of these eggy bakes because you can make them ahead of time, choose any variety of flavor combinations (see here, here, or here). You can make them with meat or straight up veggie, like this one. This is obviously mostly spinach. Not gonna lie, I don't know all the specifics and I'm not a nutritionist or any kind of health professional, but I know it's one of those super veggies that's full of vitamins and fiber and stuff. Look how GREEN. You just know that HAS to be healthy! 

Now, it's not JUST spinach in there. There's a bunch of feta for a salty punch, onions for sweetness, and tomatoes for color and some acidity. I cut it into 4 hearty pieces because this'll be my breakfast for the week. Mmmm healthy.


Spinach and Feta Fritatta


10 oz box frozen spinach, defrosted and drained
1/2 large sweet onion, diced
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1/2 C fat free or regular feta
6 eggs
3 egg whites
a spot of oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8x8 glass baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.


Beat eggs and egg whites in a large bowl (something that gives you space to really get some air whisked in). Salt and pepper. Set aside.


Saute onion in a bit of oil over medium heat until it softens. Add in the spinach and evenly mix. Add salt and pepper. Mix in the tomatoes, then stir to mix evenly.


Give the eggs one more beating to incorporate some air and pour into the baking dish. Evenly add in the spinach mixture. Evenly sprinkle the feta. Use a spoon or fork to mix spinach and feta into eggs. 


Bake for about 30 minutes, or until center is set. After you take it out of the oven, use a knife or offset spatula and run it against the sides to separate the egg from the sides. Allow to cool a bit. You can cut it into as few as 2 pieces or as many as 8. Enjoy.

quinoa cereal with blueberries, cranberries, and almonds

The first time I had quinoa was as a dinner side dish - warm, savory and delicious with pistachios and dried cherries and some kind of vinaigrette. I've been curious about it since, scanning the interwebs for recipe ideas. Somehow or other I ended up making it sweet (shocker, lol), and as breakfast: quinoa "cereal" with milk, fresh blueberries, dried cranberries, and roasted almonds for crunch. Can we say HEALTHY?!

So, what is quinoa? Quinoa, pronounced "keen-wah", is something of a trendy health food that's making its way mainstream. By trendy I mean most people don't know what the heck it is, unless you're a blogger or a health foodie... but I hear about it more frequently (maybe because I'm both a blogger and foodie?) and am seeing it on more grocery shelves. Also, it's a seed, not a grain, even though it's often sold in the grain section because of the similar look and texture. It reminds me of a nuttier couscous. It's also a nutritional powerhouse, apparently, being an excellent source of protein and fiber and amino acids.

As breakfast, you can mix in lots of different fruits, dry or fresh. The quinoa itself provides many little mini crunches, but I need something bigger like almonds or pistachios for real textural interest. Next time I'd like it with blueberries and diced mango. I may also mix in some cinnamon and nutmeg and heat it up for more of a porridge feel, too. Lots of options here... as I'll also be using it as a dinner side in the future, so stand by for recipes one day.

Breakfast Quinoa Cereal for One
adapted from klutzy chef

1 C cooked quinoa (see below on how to prepare quinoa)
1/2 C vanilla soy/almond milk (or regular milk with 1/4 tsp vanilla extract)
1 tsp sugar (or other sweetener like agave or maybe maple syrup) to taste
1/2 C fresh blueberries
1/4 C dried cranberries
handful of roasted unsalted almonds, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix. Eat.
You can also heat up the quinoa, milk, and sweetener and then add everything else to it, too.

How to Cook Plain Quinoa

1 C quinoa
2 C water

Rinse dry quinoa in a fine mesh strainer under warm water for a few minutes. You're doing this to remove the bitter saponins (nope don't know what that is, but I don't like bitter, so I rinsed).

The instructions on my box of red quinoa said to put quinoa and water into a small pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce to low heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Take off heat and allow to sit, covered, for 10 more minutes. Fluff with a fork.

kale and potato fritatta

I bought a bunch of kale the other day with the intent of making a green smoothie. You know... a fruit smoothie blended with with some a super veggie for extra nutrients. Yep, didn't quite get around to that, whoops. But I didn't want the kale to go to waste and I've needed another grab and go breakfast anyways so viola, breakfast fritatta!

I was originally just going to make a straight kale and onion fritatta until I saw the link for adding potatoes, and what a great idea! It gives the fritatta some heft and textural interest. I wasn't intentionally going the vegetarian route, so if you wanna throw in some meat, brown up some sausage and throw it in there, too.

Kale and Potato Fritatta
slightly adapted from Eggs on a Sunday

1 Spanish onion, peeled, cut in half, and sliced into strips
2 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
3 C kale, remove the stem and chop into bite size pieces
2 tbsp canola oil
8 eggs
salt and pepper
special equipment: cast iron skillet or a skillet you can put into the oven

Preheat oven to 400. Beat eggs in a large bowl.

Heat skillet over medium heat. Add oil. Add potatoes, sprinkle with a light layer of salt, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add onions, sprinkle with another light layer of salt. Cook, stirring pretty regularly, until onions soften and start to turn golden and the potatoes are fork tender. (Add oil if potatoes stick to the bottom.) Add kale, sprinkle with a bit more salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper, and cook for 3-4 minutes or until wilted.

Give the eggs one more whirl with the whisk to make sure it's beaten and airy. Check that the bottom of the pan has a glisten of oil (so the eggs wont stick), and then pour the eggs over the veggies and stir until it's even. Stir a bit to make sure the kale and potatoes are evenly distributed, too.

Put in oven and bake for 10-15 minutes or until it's all puffy. Take out of the oven. It will drop. Loosen the edges. Turn out onto a cutting board and cut into 6 pieces.

morning glory muffins

I'm not a morning person. At all. I sleep until I have EXACTLY enough time to shower, groom, maybe blow dry my hair (more often then not I put it in a bun or pony tail), and (hopefully) make it to my daily 8:15 meeting on time. I don't take my time to do all that stuff, either, I hustle, checking my watch every free second I have. So unless it's a lazy weekend, my breakfast had better be grab and go... like a muffin!

I've been wanting something more substantial than yogurt and fruit, so I tried my hand at these healthy, not too sweet breakfast muffins. These are not your light almost cupcake like muffins you'll find at the store... these are hearty and dense, made with both yogurt and fruit plus whole wheat flour and oats and flax to boost the fiber content. This by itself plus a cup of coffee will last me until about 11, but when I eat it with another piece of fruit, I'm good until lunch time. Added bonus - they freeze well*, so you can grab a frozen one and have it as a nice 3pm snack to help you last until dinner. Morning, noon, or even night, these make a great treat.

Morning Glory Muffins
adapted from Cooking Light

1 C white whole wheat flour
1/2 C all purpose flour
1 C old fashioned oats
1/2 C brown sugar
3 Tbsp flax meal
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 bananas, mashed
6 oz plain Greek yogurt
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C pitted dates, chopped
1/2 C dried apricots, chopped
1/2 C dried cranberries, rough chopped
turbinado sugar, for topping (optional)

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare muffin tins -- spray 18 liners with cooking spray then put in tins.

Thoroughly combine all dry ingredients (from the flour to the salt) in a large bowl. Combine all the wet ingredients (from the bananas to the vanilla) in a smaller bowl and mix well.

Make a well in the dry ingredients. Add the wet ingredients and stir until about 80% combined. Fold in the add ins (from the walnuts to the cranberries) until evenly distributed and batter is just combined. Dish out evenly into the 18 liners. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until a a toothpick inserted comes out dry.

* If freezing, wait until they're cooled. Wrap in two layers of plastic wrap and then put into a freezer zip top bag.

egg and potato breakfast bake

Say hello to my very first meal of 2012! I had people over for NYE, and I wanted to make sure they woke up to something home cooked. So I brewed some coffee and got to work in the kitchen on this filling and possibly even sorta healthy casserole. And then I fried up a bunch of bacon to go with it :-) It tasted great topped with leftover guacamole and some sour cream, and I bet salsa would have gone really well with it, too - now I know for next time! Not a bad way to start the year at all.

You could sub out frozen Potatoes O' Brien, but I bought a big bag of potatoes I needed to use. I roasted them with salt and pepper and olive oil for about 25 minutes at 450 a few days in advance and then just kept them in the fridge. You could also make the onions/pepper in advance, too. If you like a little kick, fine dice a seeded jalapeno or serrano pepper and toss it in with it, too. This is kinda like a really big, southwesternish tortilla espanola :)

Egg and Potato Breakfast Bake
adapted from A Communal Table

2 lbs Yukon gold potatoes, cubed into 1" pieces and roasted ahead of time
3/4 large sweet onion, diced (
1 red bell pepper, seeded and deveined and diced
1 Tbsp canola or olive oil
1 1/2 C shredded Mexican cheese blend
12 eggs
1/2 C milk
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Put potatoes into a big bowl.

In a large skillet over medium heat, saute onion in some canola/olive oil (or bacon grease, if you have any on hand, yum!) until it starts to get translucent. Add in the bell pepper and saute another few minutes until onion is soft. Season with a big pinch of salt and stir. Add to the potatoes and toss until evenly incorporated. Dump in an even layer into baking dish. Spread the cheese evenly over the taters.

In a large bowl, whisk/beat eggs until completely combined and starting to get fluffy. Season with a generous pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Whisk in the milk. Pour over the potatoes and cheese.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until middle is set. You should be able to insert a knife and it'll come out clean.

Crunchy Granola Bars

I have no idea why I've had a major itch to make granola bars. I don't even eat granola regularly in any form on a regular basis! I probably saw it on Tastespotting or Foodgawker recently. It could also be because I've been eating yogurt and berries for breakfast a LOT lately, and adding granola would make it a cute lil parfait. Or it could be that I just saw granola on Down Home with the Neely's on Food Network the other day. Whatever the reason, I've had granola bars on my mind for the last couple weeks, and I finally made it correctly tonight.

Notice how I said correctly, haha. My first attempt was last week and I added dried apricot and figs to half a batch, but it didn't really stick together, so I crumbled it and turned it into the loose granola. The other half of that batch... flavor was great, but I forgot to grease the bottom of the pan and used wax paper and that got very stuck to the granola, so I ended up crumbling that one trying to pull it off the paper. Oops.

(Parchment paper this time, and I remembered to butter it!)

I specifically wanted crunchy granola bars because my Favorite Convenience Granola Bar (FCGB) are those great honey and oat ones that come in green packaging. They're so simple, not overly sweet, and that was my goal. Well, the goal was crunchy, not too sweet, and healthier. After reading through a few dozen recipes, I decided to add to the oats: almonds, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and puffed kamut. (I had never even heard of that last one until looking at granola recipes. It tastes like unsweetened honey smacks, and is a good low cal source of fiber and protein, so perfect addition!) And to legitimately call these "healthier" than my FCGB, and because I wanted to procrastinate going to the gym tonight (yup, I detect the irony), I looked up the nutritional info for all the ingredients and did some basic math (thanks, Excel). While this homemade granola bar has twice as many calories, it has 3x the fiber and almost 3x the protein. They've got crunch, but don't fall apart the minute you bite into it. It's a great grab and go breakfast or snack.

Crunchy Granola Bars
adapted from Brown Eyed Baker and Alton Brown

2 C old fashioned rolled oats
1/4 C raw sunflower seeds
3 Tbsp flax seeds
1/4 C honey
1/4 C agave nectar
1/4 C brown sugar
3 Tbsp butter + 1 Tbsp
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 C puffed kamut
1/2 C blanched almonds
4 tbsp flax seed meal

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9"x13" pan with parchment paper, then butter it with the 1 Tbsp butter.

Combine oats, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds. Toast in oven for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the oats are toasting, combine the honey, agave, brown sugar, butter, vanilla, and salt in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

Take the oats out of the oven, then drop the temperature to 300. Transfer oats to a large bowl. Add the kamut and almonds to the oat mixture and stir until combined. Add the wet ingredients and stir until evenly combined. Turn mixture out into the prepared pan, spread until it's an even layer, and press down. Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven. Allow to cool completely. Take out of pan and cut into 16 bars or squares.

Wrap in parchment paper cut to size and keep in an airtight container up to a week.

personal fritattas aka egg muffins

I love eggs. They provide such a great canvas for different flavors and meals. Whether scrambled, poached, or whipped up into omelets, I could eat them every day.  Like this morning, I wanted to use the last of the veggies sitting in my fridge, so I made some personal fritattas, which are essentially omelets made in a muffin tin. They're similar to the tortilla espanola I made last week, except smaller and with different veggies... but same general idea.

The beauty of this recipe is threefold: you can use just about any combination of flavors in it, they are easy to make ahead then grab and go as you need, and they're healthy! You can personalize these any way you like. Today I used cheddar, shallots, tomatoes, broccoli and bacon because that's what I had on hand. Leave out the bacon and make it vegetarian. Add more meat. Use onion instead of shallot. You can use spinach and feta, or ham and cheese, or sausage and cheese... use whatever combination floats your boat!

Personal Fritattas
makes 6*

9 eggs
1 tsp olive oil
2 shallots, diced
1 C broccoli florets
1 or 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
3 slices bacon, cooked crispy and cut into small pieces
1/2 C cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste
cooking spray
Special equipment: *large size 6-muffin tin (though you could use average size and eat 2 as a serving)

Preheat oven to 350. Spray the heck out of the muffin tins.

Heat oil in a small pan over medium heat and sautee shallots until soft. Set aside.

Microwave broccoli with a tbsp of water for 1 minute to precook them a little bit. Drain, and set aside.

Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and pepper - remember your cheese is salty so don't over do it! Mix in the shallots. Pour half of the among the 6 muffin cups. Add the broccoli, tomatoes, and bacon to the muffin tins. Sprinkle with cheese. Add the rest of the eggs.

Bake for 25 minutes. They will rise, and then fall. Eat!

Or refrigerate them - these make a great grab and go meal. These will be my breakfast or snacks for the week. You can freeze them, too, to eat later. Heck if you want, you can make these in average or even mini size muffin tins, and make ahead for a brunch buffet, too.

tortilla espanola

I can't believe it's May already and I've gone this long without posting! I've been cooking, I swear. I have probably 3 other posts saved to finish later. But really I've spent most of the last couple months working my tail off. And vacationing in the Dominican. But mostly working, lol. My goal this month is to finish those other posts and get back to sharing!

While I know it's Cinco de Mayo today, and that's totally Mexican, I made a Spanish dish last night. As in Spain. As in the tortilla espanola, which is essentially a potato omelet. It's one of the simplest foods out there - eggs, potatoes, onions (if you like), oil, and some salt and pepper. For so few ingredients, the key is in the execution. This took forever to make (so set aside plenty of time!) because I cooked each step low and slow. Each part was soft and tender without falling apart, so each ingredient's integrity is maintained, yet balanced delightfully with the other flavors. See - you can see the different potato pieces in the tortilla. Yum!

Tortilla Espanola (with onions)
adapted from allrecipes.com

1 lb butter potatoes, peeled, halved, and cut into 1/4" slices
1 small Spanish onion, peeled, cut in half, and sliced into thin rings
8 eggs
1/2 C olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat 1/3 C oil in a large skillet over medium low heat. Add half the potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally, until just fork tender. This takes about 20 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

If necessary, add a little oil to pan, and turn heat up to medium and cook onions until soft and golden - about 15 minutes. Add to bowl of potatoes to cool a bit. Add salt/pepper if needed.

Turn stove top heat down to low. Add enough oil to lightly coat bottom of pan so tortilla won't stick.

Beat eggs in a large bowl. Add potato/onion mix. Pour into pan and allow bottom and edges to set - about 10 minutes. Loosen edges and bottom with a spatula so it can slide out of the pan easily.

Here's where you need to work pretty quickly so nothing spills: Slide onto a large plate, top with another plate, flip over (so cooked side is on top), slide back into pan. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until cooked through and set in the center.

Remove from pan. Cool. Cut - I find cutting it into 8ths is good for a snack portion, cutting it into 6ths is good for a breakfast/lunch portion, or you can also cut it into smaller pieces if serving as a finger food. I like to eat this slightly warmed, but it's just as good room temp.

crab cakes for Chesapeake eggs benedict

This baby is one of my favorite special breakfast ot brunch (or in crab fest's case, dinner) items.

Crab cakes by themselves are a treat, but top them with a runny poached egg and some hollandaise? Taking them to the next level. They're not terribly hard to make (assuming you know how to poach an egg, and if you want a good idea - google how Alton Brown does it cuz he's the man) but they do take some time and good timing to have everything come out at the same time. We cheated and used a hollandaise mix, thus the recipe for only the crab cakes here, since that's the only recipe we really used, hehe. But basically, if you have 2 people, great - one can poach the eggs while the other fries the crab cakes. OR if its just you, make the hollandaise first, then poach the eggs while the crabcakes are being broiled and muffins being toasted. By the way, split an English muffin with a fork, please! Nooks and crannies, folks... you don't get them if you use a knife, mmkay! 

Besides these crab cakes, you'll need English muffins, eggs to poach, and some hollandaise. Oh, and butter for the muffins. To make the eggs benedict: buttered muffin topped with crabcake topped with the egg topped with hollandaise. Serve with some homefries for breakfast. Mmmm. Or with salad for dinner. Mmmm.

Crab Cakes

adapted from allrecipes.com

1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
4 green onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dry mustard
3/4 tsp cayenne pepper (1/2 if you don't like a little kick of heat)
1 1/4 tsp garlic powder
3/4 tsp old bay powder
1/2 C crushed buttery round crackers
16 oz crab meat
1 egg, beaten
2 tbsp mayonaisse
squeeze of half a lemon (no seeds!)
salt and pepper to taste
1 C panko
more oil for frying

Sautee green onion and garlic in the 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp olive oil. Set aside and allow to cool while you combine the next five ingredients (from the dry mustard to the buttery round crackers) in a small bowl. Put crab meat into a large bowl. Add egg and mayonaisse to it then give a gentle toss. Add the spice mix, cooled onion/garlic, and lemon juice. Toss gently until combined well -- but be gentle so you keep the chunks of crab. Form into patties. This will make 12 small patties, or 8 larger ones. Use the english muffins as a size guide. Refrigerate until ready to use.

If you're going to fry these: heat up some olive oil over medium high heat. Coat each patty with panko, then fry until each side is golden brown.

If you're going to broil them, set oven to broil. Coat each patty with panko. If they're small, broil for about 6 min a side. If they're larger, about 8 minutes per side.

breakfast burrito... for dinner

Breakfast for dinner is always a good idea, especially when it's just for one person. Usually cereal is my breakfast for dinner of choice, but I wanted something cooked tonight. And in lieu of my recent vacation to Mexico, the obvious inspired choice was a breakfast burrito.

I had spare egg whites from a pastry creme (stand by, something special coming soon) so just added them to the whole egg and onions. Top with whatever toppings you like, fold, eat. I've also made a variation (scratch the avocados and tomatoes, include shredded chicken and corn), let it cool, then eat it the next morning for breakfast. Really easy grab and go type thing.

Breakfast Burrito

1 flour tortilla

1 egg

1 egg white

1/8 C diced onions

1 tsp olive oil

a few cherry tomatoes, diced

3-4 slices avocado

mexican cheese

salt to taste

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent. Add eggs, salt, then stir, cooking to your desired doneness. Take off heat, and put on tortilla. top with cheese, tomatoes, and avocado. Wrap up like a burrito and num num num.

Additional topping ideas: black beans, queso blanco, sour cream, salsa, peppers... pretty much anything you like.

my first strawberry jam

Two days ago, when it was 95 degrees and sunny, I would have told you we skipped over spring and went straight to summer. That weather (not the pound of over-ripe strawberries in the fridge that I couldn't figure out what to do with :-D) inspired me to make something summery. Glad I did because the rain last night dropped the temperature some 30 degrees, and I'm back to using my seat warmers in my car at night. My new car is so sweet. So is this jam. This is a pectin-free recipe (rough translation: no added gelatin to firm it up), which means this is a looser jam... Looks (cuz it is) home made with love. And vanilla beans. Instant love. (Aside: vanilla is easily my absolute most favorite ingredient for sweets EVER, and I'd choose it over chocolate any day. There, it's out there. Digest that. Aside over.) The vanilla adds a cozy warmth - a flavor that both mellows and complements the strawberriness. Didn't have my camera today so relied on Brandt to take this pic of it spread on a bagel with cream cheese (thanks Brandt), so no crystal clear shot of the little flecks of vanilla seeds I wish you could see throughout the jam. Check the Wash Post link below for the original recipe that has some helpful pointers on where to find beans.

One last thing - the original recipe calls for 6 lbs of berries, so I used my handy dandy math skillz to divide. This small batch recipe produces 8oz of jam. Because of that, I didn't need to sterilize the canning jar to store it.

Small Batch Strawberry Vanilla Jam

adapted from The Washington Post

1 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/3 C sugar

2 vanilla beans, split and scraped

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl for 30 minutes or until a puddle of liquid forms at the bottom. Dump into a pot and cook over medium high heat. Stir it ocassionally and cook for about 15-20 minutes and looks thickened or, if you have a candy thermometer, until it hits 220 degrees. Remove and discard the vanilla beans. Either ladle it into a small glass container, or allow to cool and store in a plastic tupperware.

snow day banana bread

Today makes 3.5 work days in a row that the federal government was closed due to the Blizzard of 2010 (of which round 2 kicked in today and dropped even MORE snow on us, yay!), therefore my office was closed. The sleeping in has been really great... but to be honest, I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. I haven't been out much in the last few days except to shovel and then for a few hours for dinner and hanging with Ang. yesterday. And for that matter, going out with Ang.... it was really weird being surrounded by other people again! I miss my routine. But in the mean time, I'm not one to waste *that* much time... I've been baking. A lot. And despite the frigid blizzard winds and snow outside, my house is warm and smells like heaven thanks to the goodies.

Like this banana bread! I split the recipe into 2 8x4 loaves, mixing one with mini chocolate chips. I think regular size chips would have been better, but either way, they were moist and banana-y and awesome.

Banana Bread

3 very ripe medium bananas

2 eggs, beaten

1/3 C buttermilk

1/4 C apple sauce

1/4 C canola oil

2 tsp vanilla

1 C brown sugar

1 1/4 C all purpose flour

1/2 C white whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 tsp baking soda

handful of mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325. Spray 2-8x4 tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, mash bananas. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, apple sauce, oil and vanilla. Sift in the brown sugar, flours, salt and soda. Mix well.

Pour half the batter into one pan. Mix the chips into the remaining batter, then pour into the second pan.

Bake for about 45-50 minutes, or until a thin skewer inserted comes out clean.

You could also make this in one 9x5 loaf pan, and increase the cooking time until it is done.