Simple Breakfast or Lunch

I have the hardest time figuring out what to eat for lunch. Most of the time I'll end up eating Peanut Butter Pows cereal (my current favorite) or even worse - cave into my canned tuna cravings (which I'm supposed to be limiting while pregnant). I often get into food patterns where I'll eat the same thing over and over again for weeks and then completely forget about it.



I was relieved to spot a couple of eggs left from my french toast escapade and was instantly reminded of my egg + tomato obsession. But this time I remembered the onions, a light sprinkling of smoked paprika on top - oh and I didn't scramble the eggs. So saute the onions in some olive oil then add tomatoes (salt + pepper) until they get a little soft then drop in two eggs in the middle (more salt on yolk). I poked a hole in the yolks and waited a couple of minutes before turning them over to cook just for a couple of minutes (all for Emma's sake of course!) Served on top of toasted & buttered English muffin :)

Halfway through the meal, I realized I forgot to sprinkle some fresh parsley on top (Cholula Hot Sauce would've been nice too!). Oh well, next time.

Cream Cheese Stuffed French Toast

Hillsy and I stayed at the York Street House Bed & Breakfast for our mini honeymoon a couple of weeks ago and was served this decadent breakfast treat on our first morning. One bite and I knew I had to make it once I got home. I asked the owner for some tips and was surprised at how easy and simple it was to make.

Note: Bread - I thought she was going to say it was some fancy brioche, it was actually Shoprite's Maple & Cinnamon sliced bread! I ended up using Stop & Shop's (just as good)!

You'll need:
A package of Maple & Cinnamon Sliced Bread (4 slices per serving)
Cream Cheese Filling (large tub of whipped cream cheese + lemon zest)
Batter (6 whole eggs, 2 cups heavy cream, teaspoon vanilla extract, tbs sugar)
Blueberry Compote *optional
Powdered sugar, cinnamon *optional
Maple Syrup
Butter for frying

1. Combine eggs, heavy cream, vanilla extract and sugar. Set aside.
2. Mix zest of one lemon and whipped cream cheese.
3. Spread about 1-2 tbs of cream cheese mixture in the center of a slice of bread (try to stay in the middle so the filling doesn't end up oozing out of the "sandwich" when cooking) and top with another slice of bread. Gently press together. Repeat with the remaining bread slices.
4. Dip sandwich in the batter, making sure that all sides have absorbed the mixture (not too soggy though). Heat up butter in a pan (I used about 1/2 tbs for each one) and fry both sides (low-med heat) then try to sear the sides as well. *I dip the sandwiches one by one, right before frying them up as opposed to dipping the whole batch.
5. Cut each one in half (diagonally)

I simply cooked a pint of blueberries, sugar and butter for the "compote". Top the whole thing with compote, powdered sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup. Enjoy!

You're invited to breakfast...

What do you bring?

My friend Melissa invited us over for pancakes this weekend and I decided to bring fruit. I spotted a tub of Greek yogurt in the fridge so I thought - why not make fruit yogurt parfaits instead.


You'll need:
mixed fruits cut up into bite size pieces
yogurt (I love Fage Greek yogurt)
honey
granola

Spoon in around 2tbs of yogurt and drizzle some honey...

Scoop in some granola and some mixed fruit...

Top with another layer of yogurt, honey, granola and garnish with fruit (I used orange slices).

It's super easy, you basically layer yogurt, granola, honey and fruit. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes before serving so that the granola softens a little bit as it absorbs some of the yogurt.

Last Night's Dinner #123: Eggs & Tomatoes

I saw this on a blog two weeks ago and of course I can't figure out which one! Anyway, I love eggs and tomatoes, add some onions and yumm! I'm guessing all cultures have some sort of egg+tomato dish - here's a really easy one (not really sure what cuisine this falls into).

Slice up 2 riped tomatoes.
Beat 6 eggs.


Cover the bottom of a pan with olive oil and heat up oil. Cook tomatoes until tender (I like it when the sides darken up). Make sure you sear both sides and be sure to season well with salt. Most Filipinos will add fish sauce at this point. Pour in the eggs once you're happy with the tomatoes.


With a spatula, mix the egg and tomatoes (before the egg cooks) so that you end up with chunky scrambled eggs. Don't overcook the eggs. I can eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner.


I also make a version with sunny side up eggs. Instead of beating the eggs first, make some space in between the tomatoes and drop in the eggs. Lower the flame so the egg cooks without burning the bottoms. You can also finish the dish in the oven. Fresh parsley goes really well with this version of the dish.

You can also add onions to the tomatoes... endless possibilities :)

Last Night's Dinner #64: A Traditional Filipino Breakfast

Leftover ham is the best and boy do we have plenty left from Thanksgiving night!

Bone-in ham immediately takes me back to my childhood years. I remember my father bringing home a huge ham wrapped in paper for the holidays. The best part for me was knowing exactly what we would be having for breakfast the next day - sugared ham, fried eggs and garlic fried rice.

As you can see, I didn't grow up eating Cheerios for breakfast or pouring milk out of a carton. I grew up eating rice for breakfast and milk was delivered daily in glass bottles. And it was goat's milk, not cow's milk.


This dish is traditionally eaten for breakfast!


Just coat the ham slices with sugar and pan fry with a little bit of vegetable oil. Cook until both sides are nice and dark (caramelized).

Sinangag (Garlic fried rice) is very simple to make. Day old rice works better than freshly cooked rice. If you don't have day old rice - make sure you cool the rice completely then put it it the fridge for at least an hour. You don't want to make this with sticky rice.


Smash three to five cloves of garlic (leave skin on). Heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil and start cooking garlic. You don't want to burn the garlic. Add the rice and stir frequently. You want drizzle in oil a teaspoon at a time. I find that doing it this way requires less oil and I don't feel so guilty =). I probably end up using 2 tablespoons of oil in total. I also season the rice with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

As for the egg, just fry up an egg until sides are golden brown.

I guess this combination falls into what some would refer to as "Tosilog". Filipinos love making up words and I think there are about 3 types of "-silog" dishes. The term is made up of the three main ingredients. The first syllable stands for the type of meat. The second syllable "si" stands or sinangag (filipino style garlic fried rice) and the "log" stands for itlog (egg).
The three -silog dishes that I'm familiar with are tapsilog (tapa+sinangag+itlog), tosilog (tocino+sinangag+itlog) and longsilog (longganisa +sinangag+itlog).

Egg in a hole

Happy Friday!!



I know I said no more eggs but I woke up starving and the eggs just looked so tempting...


Butter both sides. Cut hole. Add toast to pan and crack egg in the hole. Salt. Pepper. Turn. EAT =)

Have a nice weekend!!

Last Night's Dinner #8: (technically lunch) Grown-up After School Eggs

Grown-up After School Eggs
Difficulty: Easy


Back when I was in 6th grade, I used to go over my friend Michelle's house after school and she would make us both eggs. It was just scrambled eggs but we used to love it. A couple of years later ;-) my afternoon snack has been slightly upgraded. Michelle, maybe we can set an "after-work" egg eating session soon.

Here's a quick and easy lunch or brunch recipe.

You'll need:
2 eggs
handful of grape tomatoes or cut up whole tomato
1/2 C canned crushed tomatoes (optional)
1/4 C chopped onions (preferebly red)
1 tbs fresh parsley (or whatever herbs you have around)
pinch of peperoncino (crushed pepper flakes)
pinch of smoked paprika
coarse salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 tbs olive oil



Heat up the oil along with the peperoncino. Once hot, add onions and tomatoes. Season. Cook for 3-5 minutes. If you have canned crushed tomatoes, add it now - if not, no big deal (I didn't have any on hand today). Make room for the eggs and crack the eggs into the pan. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and paprika. Add parsley on top and cover with lid or aluminum foil. It's done once the yolks are slightly opaque, or done to your likeness.