recipes

Breakfast after Dark

May 16, 2013 By Megan Leave a Comment

One of my favorite meals of the day is breakfast. I’ve never been one of those people that skips breakfast. I love having a big bowl of cereal in the morning or enjoying a Saturday morning of pancakes or french toast. Breakfast foods are so yummy to me {read: I.love.carbs and bacon}.

What makes breakfast foods even better? Having breakfast after dark {aka for dinner}. It almost feels like a special occasion when you switch up your usual dinner routine and throw in a twist. Breakfast is also a meal where you usually already have most of your ingredients so it’s a great alternative if you haven’t had a chance to go to the store.

We get a dozen eggs every other week through our CSA. I haven’t had a chance to do as much baking as I had hoped to and neither of us have really had the time to make a big breakfast either before work or on the weekends. So, instead of wasting the eggs, we thought we would make breakfast after dark one night.

For our breakfast after dark we ended up making mini frittatas and sweet potato hashbrowns {we had some sweet potatoes we also needed to use}.

For the sweet potato hashbrowns, we just adapted this recipe a bit from Martha Stewart. We substituted the olive oil for the buttery spread I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!.

For the mini frittatas, we made two different kinds. We made a few with ham, onion, green pepper and tomato and then the others we used spinach, mushroom, and tomato {a little Southwestern if you will}.

To start with you’ll need a jumbo muffin pan. To grease it we used a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! is great because it has 70% less saturated fat than butter, no hydrogenated oils and is made from a blend of vegetable oils. For those that are gluten free, they also have gluten free options.

For your ingredients you will need eggs, a package of shredded cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice) and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! {you also need whole milk, but I forgot to include that in the picture}.

We diced all our veggies and our ham. You can really get creative and use any sort of combination of veggies and meat.

Next we sauteed the ham, onion and green pepper in a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!. Once the onions were getting a little translucent we added the tomatoes in. For the ones with mushroom we also sauteed the mushrooms in a little I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! then added the chopped up spinach and tomatoes to combine.

You’ll mix your eggs, milk and cheese together in a bowl and then pour the mixture into your jumbo muffin pan until it’s a little less than halfway full in each cup.

Next you’ll add your veggie/meat combinations. We put the ham, onion, green pepper and tomato mixture in three of the cups and then spinach, mushroom and tomato in the other three.

Top your muffin cups with the remaining egg/cheese mixture.

We also sprinkled a little chopped parsley on top before baking.

Then pop them in the oven. Voila! Here’s what you get.

If I’m being honest, I am not an egg person. I wrote about all my weird food textures here. Eggs are one of those things that have a weird texture I just can’t get past. But, I knew we needed to use up our eggs and when eggs are baked in casseroles and such, I don’t mind it as much. But these I genuinely really liked. I preferred the ones that had ham in them. I’m a meat girl. And I would definitely make these again. Maybe even switch up the ingredients a bit just to do it differently next time.

If you would like to give these a try yourself here is the official recipe you can print/save.

Mini Frittatas

Ingredients

1 medium tomato diced
1 green pepper diced
1 medium red onion diced
2/3 cup baby bella mushrooms diced
2/3 cup diced ham
2 tbs. whole milk
12 eggs
1 package of cheddar cheese (or cheese of your choice)
1 package of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter
Handful of chopped spinach
Chopped parsley for garnish

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350.
In a saucepan, heat 1-2 tbs. of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.
Sautee the vegetables/meat of your choice for about 5 minutes (or more depending on amount of vegetables). You might need to sautee your meat for a few minutes first before adding your vegetables.
Place the eggs and milk in a large bowl and whisk until eggs are broken up and evenly combined with the milk. Add a few handfuls of shredded cheese.
Grease your muffin pan with I Can't Believe It's Not Butter.
Add your egg mixture to each cup filling it a little less than halfway.
Add your vegetable/meat mixture to each cup.
Top off your cups with the remaining egg mixture.
Garnish with parsley.
Bake for 18 minutes.

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For another frittata recipe from the one and only Lisa Vanderpump (yes, Real Housewives) watch this Breakfast after Dark webisode.

What is your favorite breakfast meal to make for dinner?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

CSA Box Weeks 3 & 4

April 19, 2013 By Megan 2 Comments

As I promised earlier this week, I wanted to give you guys a little update on our last few CSA boxes and what we’ve created with all our goodies.

You can see what we got in our first 2 boxes and what we made with it here.

{Week 3}

For week 3 we got:: Lettuce, rainbow chard, carrots, squash, 4 oranges, 4 apples, 1 dozen eggs, ground bison & bison kabobs

For our week 3 meals we used the beef cube steak we received in our previous box and made hamburger steak in the crock pot. I’ll be honest, don’t think I’m a hamburger steak fan. But, we couldn’t really figure out what else do with cube steak. I think next time we’ll have to try frying it.

We also made mashed potatoes from the potatoes we got previously and salads from the new lettuce we got.

For one of our week 1 weeks, I made a family recipe called pica via. I forgot to take pictures, but I promised I would take pictures when I made it again and also post the recipe. Since we got more ground bison, we made them again for week 3.

Sidenote: I don’t know how you food bloggers do it. By the time our meals are done, the lighting is terrible and I’m starving and I don’t have the patience to make my food look pretty. How do you guys do it?

As promised, here’s the recipe::

Pica Via Burritos

Ingredients

1lb ground bison or ground beef
1 green pepper
1 small onion
2 fresh red tomatoes or 1 can of petite diced tomatoes
1 bag of shredded chedder or mexican cheese
1 package of soft tortilla shells
cumin for seasoning

Instructions

In a medium skillet, brown your ground beef or ground bison. Add salt and pepper for seasoning.
Finely dice half of your green pepper (or more if you like a lot of green pepper), your onion and your tomatoes if you opt for fresh. For fresh tomatoes, if you have a chopper, I recommend dicing it in that. It will produce more juice.
Add your green pepper, onion and tomatoes to your skillet with the ground meat. If you opt to use the canned tomatoes, be sure to pour the entire contents of the can in.
Cover and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes or until tomato juice has cooked up.
Stir occasionally and periodically add cumin. Add enough cumin to your liking.
Once it's done, add your desired amount into each burrito shell and top with cheese before wrapping.

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To use up some of the eggs we have gotten, I made healthy oatmeal muffins. Recipe here. I made two dozen in total. Six were plain, 6 I added a layer of brown sugar and cinnamon in the middle of the muffins, 6 I chopped up some of the apples we had gotten and added it to the mix, and 6 I added chocolate chips. Overall, these weren’t terrible, but they were a little bland. Could have used a little more sugar or something {which obviously defeats the purpose of them being healthy, but whatever}.

Also, I somehow ran out of batter. So towards the ends they didn’t have muffin tops. Only stumps as the bf calls them.

Our last meal from week 3 was bison burgers. These were delicious! For the patties, we mixed up some egg and diced onion that we had and added it to the ground bison. Ground bison is very lean so we needed to add a little protein/fat for flavor. We also made these juicy lucy style. We split the patty in two before grilling and added some cheese to the middle so it was nice and gooey inside.

To go with the burgers we made roasted fries again (this time we used our new fry slicer we bought) and made salads with our lettuce.

{Week 4}

In our week 4 box we got:: rainbow chard, lettuce, carrots, cabbage, 2 sweet potatoes, 2 grapefruit, 4 apples, 1 avocado and bison kabobs. As you can see, we are still a little light on meat in our boxes. But apparently they said they will be making it up to us at some point.

We have only been able to make one meal from our week 4 goodies so far. We made our bison kabobs. This time we sauteed them in a Worcestershire/BBQ type sauce with a little onion and mushroom. And made salads again with our new lettuce.

Since we had so many carrots and still had lots of eggs, I also made some cinnamon carrot bread. Recipe here. I ended up doubling the recipe and making two loafs, one for each of us. The bread was actually super yummy and I ate it for breakfast several days this week.

With a lot of the veggies we’ve gotten that I haven’t mentioned cooking with, those aren’t going to waste. The bf likes to juice so he’s been able to juice most of the veggies we’ve gotten before they have gone bad.

Next on the list is to make some zucchini bread and figure out what to do with the squash.

Anyone have any good squash recipes that a picky eater might like??

CSA Box:: Week 1 & 2

March 29, 2013 By Megan 3 Comments

Have you heard of CSA boxes? It stands for community supported agriculture and you sign up through local farms.

You pay per season typically or you can pay for multiple seasons and you get a share of the farmer’s crops each week. What you get will vary based on what is in season and what they have harvested. It’s a great way to support local farmers and also get quality fresh veggies.

My boyfriend and I just signed up for our first CSA together. We signed up through one of the farms near his house called Mini Miracle Farm. They offered not only a crop CSA but also a meat CSA so we signed up for both to give it a try. And so far we are loving it!

Each week we don’t know what we’ll get so the surprise of it is fun. Plus it’s saving on grocery trips and allows us to get creative with our meals.

I thought it would be fun to show you guys what we are getting each week and share our meal ideas along with links to recipes.

We got our first box last week and here was our spread.

1 dozen eggs, 2 green peppers, 3 tomatoes, 3 apples, 4 carrots, rainbow chard, cabbage, lettuce, 1 sweet potato, 2 lbs. ground bison, 3/4 chicken

Week 1 Meals

For our first meal, we used the chicken thighs and sweet potato. We baked the chicken using this recipe {it was really really good..healthier version of fried chicken}. Neither of us love sweet potatoes but we found a recipe to make sweet potato wedges from the sweet potato and they tasted just like sweet potato fries you would get in a restaurant. Delish! We also used the lettuce we got and made salads {somehow I forgot to include that in the picture}. We already had some frozen mushroom risotto and some rolls that we also added to the meal.

I forgot to take a picture of meal #2, but I made a family recipe called pica via {basically burritos}. We used 1 lb. of the ground bison, one green pepper, part of an onion and a tomato. Next time we make it I’ll be sure to take pictures and blog about the full recipe.

Meal #3 was a crockpot meal. It’s italian chicken with potatoes. We also added some carrots and onions to the crockpot. We did have to buy the red potatoes. We had some lettuce leftover though so we added salads to our meal again.

Our box for week #2 was a little lighter than our first. Here’s what it contained.

3 apples, 5 tomatoes, 6 potatoes, 2 cucumbers, 1 zucchini, bacon, beef cube steak, bison kabobs

You can see the beginnings of our meal in the tupperware {which is where the bison kabobs are}.

Week 2 Meals

For our first meal this week we marinated the beef kabobs in bar-b-q sauce along with our leftover cut up green pepper, onion, and tomato and made kabobs that we grilled. With the potatoes we roasted them in the oven {similar to the sweet potato wedges}. I used this recipe that I found on Pinterest. They tasted just like fries but were a healthier alternative. The green stuff you see is the rainbow chard {I just wanted to try a little}. We used this recipe to cook the chard. We also added rolls and store bought salad to the meal.

We haven’t had a chance to cook any other meals this week just yet using our CSA stash, but we’re planning to make a crockpot beef stew using the beef cube steak at some point this weekend. I also need to make some baked goods since we have some farm fresh eggs.

Have you ever signed up for a CSA? If so, did you do just a veggie CSA or have you done a meat CSA?

Guest Post:: Tonya from Love of Family & Home {Fall Dessert}

October 15, 2012 By Megan Leave a Comment

I’m currently on vacation and have asked a few of my fellow bloggers if they would like to guest post for me in my absence.

Today I have the sweet Tonya, from Love of Family and Home with a delicious fall dessert recipe.

Hi, my name is Tonya and I blog over at Love of Family and Home. Today I have one of my favorite go-to desserts to share with you all that I like to take to parties & potlucks. It’s especially great during the fall season! You know, since fall & carmel apples go hand in hand!

Doesn’t it look delicious?!
I promise you will LOVE this dessert & so will your family & friends! It’s always such a crowd pleaser!

Here’s what you’ll need….

Ingredients:

1 package 16.5oz sugar cookie dough (softened)

1 package cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 medium granny smith apples

1/4 cup carmel ice cream topping

1/2 cup chopped peanuts

(*Note: you will probably notice that the ingredients call for one package of cookie dough, but my photo shows 2 packages. I used an extra large pizza pan, so I use a little cookie dough out of the second package to fully cover the pan I was using. If you use a standard size pizza pan, one package should do it!)

Spread out cookie dough out onto a pizza pan…..

I used my hands for this. Just a little helpful hint, in order to prevent the cookie dough from sticking to your hands/fingers during this step, rub a little flour onto your hands before spreading the dough out! It works like a charm!

Bake cookie dough at 375 degrees for 16-18 minutes or until light golden brown….

Set cookie aside & let cool for 10 minutes.

Combine cream cheese, brown sugar, peanut butter, & vanilla in a bowl…..

Mix thoroughly….

Then spread cream cheese mixture onto (cooled) cookie….

For the the apples, I bought pre-sliced apples in the bag & then diced them up….

After dicing the apples, I arranged them evenly over the cookie & cream cheese mixture….

Then I crushed up the peanuts using our food chopper & spread them evenly over the cookie as well….

Once that was finished, I poured 1/4 cup carmel ice cream topping into a microwave safe container & heated up for 30-45 seconds. I then drizzled the carmel on top of the pizza to finish it off!

YUM-O!!!

Eat immediately or refrigerate until serving time….

ENJOY!!!

That certainly looks yummy! Thanks so much Tonya for sharing it with us.

For other delicious recipes plus lots of great diy project inspiration be sure to visit Tonya over on her blog. You can also keep up with Love of Family & Home on Twitter & Facebook.

Happy Monday!

Healthy Granola Bar Recipe

August 31, 2012 By Megan Leave a Comment

I posted on Twitter a while back about being on the hunt for a healthy granola bar recipe.

I eat breakfast before work every day, but come 10:30am or so, I am starving! So I’ve been on the hunt to find a healthy snack option to eat when I get hungry that would hold me over until lunch time.

Granola bars are the perfect snack option, so I thought I would try and find a recipe to make my own. And yes, I know I could just go out and buy them, but this way I know what’s going in them and I can tailor them exactly like I want. I found a great recipe from Positively Splendid and thought I would give it a try.

Here’s all the ingredients you need:: wheat germ, rolled oats, almonds, dried blueberries, chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk.

For the exact recipe and instructions, go here.

I opted to use almonds, dried blueberries, and chocolate chips in mine. Her recipe also called for dried cranberries. But you can add or take out anything you like or don’t like.

Here’s what it looked like pre-baking.

And here’s the final product.

Depending on the size you want your bars, each batch makes about 10-15 bars.

The only unhealthy ingredient is the sweetened condensed milk. I think next time I make these I’m going to try using honey or maple syrup combined with almond butter or applesauce to replace the sweetened condensed milk. The sweetened condensed milk is what binds it together and also makes it sweeter. But I think a honey/almond butter combo might work instead.

These are super easy to make and taste great! I’ve actually already made two batches. Those that I’ve shared them with, would agree that they are good

Next time maybe I’ll switch it up and use something else besides dried blueberries.

Have you ever made homemade granola bars? What’s your favorite granola bar combo?

Breakfast after Dark

You May Also Like:

CSA Box Weeks 3 & 4

You May Also Like:

CSA Box:: Week 1 & 2

You May Also Like:

Guest Post:: Tonya from Love of Family & Home {Fall Dessert}

You May Also Like:

Healthy Granola Bar Recipe

You May Also Like:

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Breakfast after Dark

You May Also Like:

CSA Box Weeks 3 & 4

You May Also Like:

CSA Box:: Week 1 & 2

You May Also Like:

Guest Post:: Tonya from Love of Family & Home {Fall Dessert}

You May Also Like:

Healthy Granola Bar Recipe

You May Also Like:

About Me

keep in touch

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