breakfast – Page 2 – OwlCat Designs

May 15, 2012December 16, 2017

Pumpkin & Flax Seed Granola with Almonds

There are many, many versions of granola, and I have made countless of them in the past, but no matter how much I would tinker and change the recipe, I found that they would never get quite like the ones you buy in a box. Lately I was re-inspired to give it another try by seeing such yummilicious recipes as LightlyCrunchy’s chocolate granola (doesn’t that sound super delish?) and I am just intrigued by Leanne’s idea of using sprouted lentils for her granola recipe, on my list to try…

So back to my granola story. In the past they either got REALLY crunchy (and I know there are some at the store you better add to the milk or yogurt a good while before you plan on eating it, tried them too) or they are just flavored roasted rolled oats, yummy, oh yes, but what I am looking for are those clumps or clusters that are crunchy, yet you don’t lose a tooth biting into them if you decide to just grab a handful at random. So crunchy clusters that crunch apart when you bite them, if that makes sense. But I have never been able to replicate that, no matter how much I doctored the recipes, that is, at least not until now! (Maestro, drum roll please!)

See? Got the clusters I wanted!

Yes, I could just go on and buy some every once in a while (which is what I have been doing), when the urge overcomes me, but you see, besides being quite expensive, in my opinion, there are several problems with most granola. They either contain soy (I am staying away from soy, almost all of it in the US is gmo and besides, unfermented soy contains phytoestrogens, which I try to avoid. Phytoestrogens are plant based estrogen like compounds, and a lot of cancers are hormone fueled…) or soybean oil (or vegetable oil, same difference in the end), gluten, (which normally I have no issue with, but for allergy season, I mostly cut it out of my diet, and what do you know? My accupuncturist was right! Shhhht, but I have been with hardly any seasonal allergy symptoms this year!!!! Yes, I am going and knocking on some wood right now… ) So even though I generally am perfectly capable of eating gluten and have no (visible) symptoms or reactions to it, I know a lot of my readers have to watch it.

And lastly the sugar content upsets my apple-cart, (in the spirit of full disclosure, I admittedly have only a vague idea of what an apple-cart looks like… I am gonna have to google that one) I often wonder, why so awfully sweet? But the answer probably lies in the general over use of sugar and the resulting ‘taste immunity’ to the sweetness of it, so they keep having to add more to all the processed food so people buy theirs over the competition. Once you start moving towards eating cleaner, for starters, less stuff in boxes, less sugar (or better no sugar), you will start to notice the natural sweetness in say carrots or red bell peppers again.

Oh boy am I exited about this one! And the possibilities… can’t wait to play some more with it, I already got some trials running and some definite winners on flavor combinations coming up shortly!

And gosh, it smells so good, you’ll totally want to eat some while it is in the oven, but try and wait, totally worth it 🙂

Ingredients

2 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup mixed pumpkin, flax and sunflower seeds
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup quinoa flakes
2 tbsp coconut oil
1/4 cup rice syrup
2 tbsp honey or agave syrup (you can start with 1/3 cup and transition down to 2 tbsp, if you still like things conventionally sweet)
3 tbsp ground flax seed/flax meal
6 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 275º F
Mix oats through quinoa flakes in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, gently heat brown rice syrup, honey and coconut oil until liquid.
Meanwhile stir water into flax meal, let sit 5 minutes.
Add vanilla and flax mixture to rice syrup, stir then add to the big bowl with the oat mixture. Stir until evenly moistened.
Spread on a lined cookie sheet and bake at 275º F for 15 minutes, stir, bake another 10 minutes then stir again, and bake another 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet
Let cool completely before storing so it has a chance to crisp up.

The only downside to this is it makes me want to eat some every time I look at it…

April 25, 2012December 16, 2017

Zucchini Omelette with Prosciutto and Fontina

Quick and easy breakfast or lunch recipe you say? Coming right up!

As you all know I am not one to let things go to waste, if I can help it and from my Crab Asparagus Frittata the other day, I still have Fontina laying around my fridge deli drawer. Looking through the rest of said appliance, I also have eggplants, celery root, butternut squash and zucchini that I have to cook. I think sometime at the store my love for veggies gets the better of me, or my good intention to eat more produce, who knows that so exactly? Add some Prosciutto for flavor, and using zucchini seemed the easiest for a quick breakfast. Oh, a word on the zucchini. When I was little and my family first grew zucchini in our harden, it wasn’t called zucchini, no zucchetti is what they were called. And as I learned after some basic Italian, things that end with -etto/-etti should be small or little, (just like -ini as in= smaller, younger; fratello= brother, fratellino=little or younger brother) Uhhmm, so, we did not get that memo and let the darn things grow until they resembled some sort of prehistoric weapon, yep, exactly an edible club to go hunt some sabre-tooth with. Do yourself a favor, pick them small, if you grow them. They taste better and you won’t have them coming out your ears… But I digress, the 1/2 zucchini referenced to here is going to make about a cup grated. Use a really fine mandolin slicer to julienne or shred the zucchini, otherwise you might have to turn the cooking temp down and cool a bit longer.
Ah I love my pastured hen eggs that I get every week at the farmers market 🙂 Now that the grass is getting lush with spring, you can see the color of the egg yolks intensify to almost an orange hue!

Makes 2 servings, unless you worked out really hard and are extra hungry 🙂

Ingredients

4 large eggs
1/2 zucchini, grated finely using a mandolin sliver
(optional gulp of milk)
1 slice Prosciutto (di Parma or San Daniele)
1 0.5 oz piece Fontina, cut into small chunks (piece about 3″x 1″ x 0.5″ )

Directions

Scramble the eggs in a bowl, adding a gulp of milk if you like or they are particularly thick
Grate the zucchini into a separate bowl (I have done this both ways, right into the eggs=the omelette becomes a bit more fluffy and moist)
Heat a little oil in a skillet, then add the scrambled egg, sprinkle/spread the grated zucchini on top, then quickly add the chopped cheese and tear the Prosciutto into pieces and drop on top
Cover the skillet with a lid, and cook until the eggs are set on top and the cheese is melted.
Add some freshly ground pepper, if you like. You don’t even need salt, the Prosciutto and Cheese give it enough flavor!

April 21, 2012December 16, 2017

Walliser Brot – 100% Swiss Rye Bread

Finally, I think I did it!! It only took about 5 or 6 tries, and me eating countless slices of extremely dense or otherwise unsatisfying 100% rye bread. Which, if I were a cat, would most likely be good for keeping my teeth tiptop clean. But anyhow, I think, finally, I can reveal the outcome of this process, and how fitting this would be my 100th blog post!

Can you believe it? I am celebrating the 100th post on Simple Healthy Homemade! I am super exited and would like to thank all my readers and fellow bloggers for their support and interest in what I cook and scribble! Thanks to all of you who have commented and engaged in the conversation! I truly appreciate your feedback 🙂

But let’s start at the beginning of the story. For before I could get started making ‘Walliser Brot’ I had to tackle a couple of hurdles I did not expect. First, the flour here is different. After consulting with one of my friends from Switzerland who, as a baker, had done an exchange year in the USA, I realized that making Walliser Brot (a traditional rye bread from the canton of Valais/Wallis is Switzerland) would be a tad more involved than expected, but that has never stopped me before, and was surely not going to hold me back now that I was craving that particular bread. So the flour situation I knew was going to be some trial and error, to determine what would work as a substitute. But the second part of the puzzle, (or actually the first, since without it, I could not even start the trial process) involved the bread not being made with yeast, but a traditional rye sourdough as a starter. To read more on that and learn how to make your very own rye sourdough starter, read my previous post.

A little bit of background on the bread we are talking about here. Walliser Rye Bread is a 100% rye grain bread, it is fairly dark and has a dense crumb. And it tastes nothing like what most of you associate with ‘rye bread’ here in the US. The taste many here think is ‘rye’ actually comes from the caraway seeds added to many rye breads (which I am not a fan of, at all) and to a lesser extend from the molasses. Also this bread has no yeast or added wheat flour to help with the lower gluten content of rye. So I knew it was going to be a sticky situation since gluten in wheat is what makes the dough hold together and be elastic and, uuhm, dough-like. Rye bread dough is often very tacky. But I was feeling a little homesick and nothing can hold you back when you crave something that will make you feel like home. And we all know, there’s no place like home 😉

Here is a picture once I finally got it to turn out just right.

Traditionally the oven in the village would only be fired up 2-3 times a year (!!!) and each family got their turn in using it. Follows that the bread would have been hard as a rock after a while, but it also must have kept quite well. There are stories of people using an axe to get a piece of bread cut! It would then be soaked in hot milk until soft and could still be eaten. Here a link for the curious (in German) about Walliser Roggenbrot (Rye Bread) and its history.

Rye was the primary or only grain available since it was the only grain suitable to the high altitude and short growing season. In fact, rye was sometimes referred to as “the poverty grain” since it will grow on soils too poor for other grains. Rye grows more rapidly than wheat, can withstand submersion during floods, and continues to thrive during drought. Rye therefore became especially popular in colder temperate countries – Russia, Poland, Scandinavia, Canada, Argentina, China, Turkey and elsewhere where it was too cold or wet for wheat to grow dependably, like in the high valleys in Switzerland. Besides being able to grow and mature in adverse conditions, it is also higher in protein, phosphorus, iron and potassium than wheat. It’s high in lysine, low in gluten and a good source of zinc, copper and selenium, and a very good source of Dietary Fiber and Manganese. In the high mountain valleys, rye was harvested with the use of only simple tools, by hand and after dreshing, would be stored in a place like this:

Stadel (Storage Barn for Rye)

Here with view of the Matterhorn

A ‘Stadel’ in this region of Switzerland would be built on stilts, which allowed the people to build on very uneven terrain, and would have a large stone plate (I have often seen them built: stilt, stone, stilt) to prevent mice and other rodents from getting into the grain stored for food. Smart move, given that back in the day, you could not just go and buy more if it went bad and you had to make it through a year before being able to harvest more.

But let’s get to the recipe!

Ingredients

1 cup rye sourdough starter, active and fed
4 cups whole rye flour* separated, plus additional for dusting
(1/4 cups rye flakes, soaked in water for 2 hours) optional
1 tsp salt
3/4 to 1 cup warm water

*Either freshly ground rye (you need about 1 3/4 cup whole rye berries/grains) or store bought, make sure it is whole grain, not white or dark rye flour

Directions

In a large bowl mix the sourdough starter with 3/4 cups warm water, add 3 cups of rye flour, salt and mix until incorporated. Depending on the wetness of your sourdough (the one I maintain is 100% hydration and therefore, quite wet) At this point the dough will be fairly moist and sticky so stirring with a spoon is a good option. If it seems dry, add another 1/4 cup water.
Cover and let rest and rise in a warm spot until doubled in size. This will take anywhere from 3-6 hours, depending on how active your sourdough is and the ambient temperature. If you run out of time, place in the fridge overnight, let come to room temperature before the next step.
To your dough, add 1 cup of rye flour, the soaked rye flakes, if using. Knead until incorporated. If your dough is still very tacky, add some additional flour, if it feels stiff and is dry add a little more water. (This step varies depending on the moisture content of the flour you are using. If your flour has been stored for a while, it tends to be drier than freshly ground flour, and you might have to add some extra water.)Now it’s time to get down and dusty. Knead the additional flour into the dough before shaping it into a ball and placing on a floured baking sheet to rise…
When everything is incorporated, form into a ball, flatten slightly, dust surface with flour place on a flour dusted baking sheet and let rest in a warm place until cracks show on the surface. (To create a warm place for my bread in the colder months, I turn the oven to warm (160º-170ºF) for 2-3 minutes, then turn the oven off. Cover the ‘bread to be’ with the inverted bowl so it doesn’t dry out and place in the warm oven to rise.)After its final rest and rise, ready for the oven… (notice the characteristic cracks)
There are two ways of baking this bread: Preheat oven to 380ºF for 10 minutes, placing a large cast iron dutch oven in the middle of the oven. When the oven is hot, remove the dutch oven, dust the inside with some flour and gently slide the bread into the pan, cover with the lid, then set back in the oven. (You can also use a cloche, if you happen to have one) Bake 45 minutes, then turn heat down to 365ºF remove the lid and bake an additional 15 to 20 minutes or until the bread is baked through. (Do not lift the lid or peak before the 45 minutes are up, you are trying to create a moist and steamy environment for baking the bread! )
If you do not have a cloche or a dutch oven, you need a metal roasting pan or jelly roll pan. Put that on the bottom shelf of your oven as you preheat. When the oven is preheated, place the bread in the oven (on the baking sheet) and add 2 cups of hot water to the roasting pan on the bottom shelf to create steam and quickly close the door, trapping the steam inside. After 20 minutes, add more water if necessary, be careful not to splatter it on the glass parts of the door or at the light bulb, they could burst or crack. Bake for 45 minutes minutes, turn the heat down to 365ºF, check on your bread an bake an additional 15 minutes, or until done. The bread will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom (careful: HOT!)
Turn off the heat and leave bread in the oven for an additional 20 minutes, then remove from oven, and place on a cooling rack.
Let cool completely and rest for a minimum of 24 hours before cutting into it. It will gunk up your knife and stick together or crumble if you don’t wait (Trust me, I know how hard this is to wait when the house smells like fresh bread)

I like it with cream cheese or other fresh cheese just as much as sweet toppings, my favorite currently (besides butter and prosciutto) is cashew butter and strawberry jam 🙂

April 13, 2012December 16, 2017

Asparagus Fontina Crab Frittata

Elegant and special enough for a Sunday brunch, but easy enough for everyday. So indulge, treat yourself because you made it to Friday! With a side salad it also makes a great light lunch or dinner, in fact, why limit yourself? Have it any time you like!

Serves 2

Ingredients

5 eggs, scrambled
2 oz Fontina cheese, cubed
1 can crab meat, 6oz, drained (I used a regular ‘fancy’ not jumbo lump, although that of fresh would certainly be tasty)
about 1/2 lb asparagus
freshly ground pepper

no really, that’s it 🙂

Directions

Wash and cut the asparagus spears, then lightly steam them by adding to a saucepan, add 1 cup water, cover and heat until almost fork tender
Heat a oven proof skillet with just enough oil to make it non stick, add eggs and cook for about 30 seconds before adding crab meat in heaped tablespoon portions, then spread the asparagus and the cheese over your eggs.
Preheat broiler on low, when eggs are set, place skillet under broiler for 2-3 minutes, leaving door ajar, until top of Frittata is browned in spots and the eggs are cooked through.
Serve with some greens on the side, or a full blown salad to make it into a bit more of a meal.

Yes, it’s THAT good!

April 10, 2012December 16, 2017

Fromage Blanc

It took me years to figure out what the elusive desert ‘cheese’ was we had back home, it was called ‘Blanc Battu’ short for fromage blanc battu and it is delicious with some fresh berries! Helpful but uninformed people over the years suggested farmers cheese and friendship cheese, but nehh, not the same AT ALL. Turns out you can make it at home here in the US quite easily with ingredients that are not too hard to come by. * Happy dance* ( In am doing that a lot lately, hmm)

Fromage Blanc culture is available from New England Cheese Making and the process couldn’t be simpler.

You need:

Milk, culture (see above) stainless steel cauldron (just kidding, you only need a pot) Thermometer, a colander and butter muslin. For a fresh and soft desert cheese (ok you can also drain it more and mix it with herbs or drop spoons full into your Spinach Salad, but if you leave it a little more moist it makes the best desert, and healthy too!) Again, for a fresh and soft cheese like this, the fresher the milk the better the cheese is going to taste. If you have access to a farm, where you can get yourself some raw milk that would taste the best. If you’d like to make it fat free or at least with less than the whole fat content, let your raw cow milk sit for 12 hours in the fridge, then skim off the layer of cream that forms on top (and make butter with it for example)

1 gallon milk
1 pack fromage blanc culture

Directions

In a large pot heat the pasteurized milk to 86 degrees.The best and easiest way to do this is by placing the pot in your sink and filling the sink with warm (not hot) water. (86°F isn’t all that hot…)

Once at temperature, sprinkle the direct set fromage blanc culture over top, let sit 2 minutes then stir and mix in well.
Cover and let the milk sit undisturbed at 72°F for 16 hours (you can do as little as 12 hours, but I have found I like the taste best after about 16), in the colder month you want to add some warm water to the sink every so often.
After the required time, you will have something like this, kinda like a thick yogurt consistency

Ladle into butter muslin lined sterilized colander and drain for 3-4 hours (if you are going for more of a cream cheese texture, you can let the whey drain out for up to 12 hours), scraping the sides of the butter muslin every so often if the cloth becomes clogged. (One trick to draining this properly is to hang the knotted cheesecloth from your kitchen faucet)
For true Blanc Battu, place the drained curd in a bowl and using your handheld mixer/egg beaters, beat until smooth.

I know I have mainly berry pictures, but it is super yummy on a nice piece of crusty bread with some chives sprinkled over

Use fromage blanc instead of sour cream in your favorite recipe or dressing.
Whey makes a terrific fertilizer for your plants: Unless you are going to use it for something else, don’t juts dump it, give it to your (indoor or outdoor) plants. The year I started making cheese, my fig tree had the most figs ever!

April 8, 2012December 16, 2017

Sticky Rice with Mango (Khao Neeow Mamuang)

Sticky rice, also called glutinous rice (even though there is absolutely no gluten in rice) is eaten sweet as a snack or desert a lot of places in Thailand, in the northeast of the country it is also served along your meal, unsweetened of course. That rice finds its way into meals from breakfast to desert isn’t surprising for a country where rice is a main staple in the diet, after all the verb ‘to eat’ in Thai is tantamount to ‘to eat rice’

For me, nothing says Thailand more than getting a serving of sticky rice with mango from a small place off a street corner somewhere. Vendor’s specialize in this dish and often you will find a line of people when mangoes are in season. That’s what I look for 😉 where the locals eat, it’s always the best. It’s served with sweetened coconut milk and is just delicious! Back home I would order it at Thai restaurants any chance I’d get, but alas it was often unavailable due to seasonal availability and because, unfortunately the restaurant often thought that ‘common’ food was not what should be served to guests in their establishment. 🙁 Imagine my joy when a few years back, I finally figured out that this exotic desert was actually pretty simple and easy enough to make at home. Cheaper and available whenever the lovely grocery store carries yummy mangoes. Win & win! Now I just have to figure out how to make the taro desert I can only get in Thailand…

You need to start this several hours before you want to indulge, since the rice is first soaked, then steamed.

Ingredients

1 cup sticky rice*
2-3 ripe mangoes, cut into bite sized pieces
1 can coconut milk (not the light kind)
2-3 tbsp palm sugar

Directions

Soak the rice in cool water overnight or at a minimum 4 hours
Line a bamboo steamer with cheesecloth and over the sink pour the rice into it to drain. Fold the cheesecloth over the edges so it doesn’t hang down and catch fire (tried that, and no, it doesn’t improve the flavor). Cover with the steamer lid.
Set your bamboo steamer over a pot or wok of boiling water, and steam until the rice is cooked and yields softly to the bite. It will have a tacky consistency, will be slightly shiny and the rice grains will stick together. Takes about 15 minutes.

In the meantime, gently heat 3/4 of the can of coconut milk in a sauce pan, add the coconut sugar and stir to dissolve.
When the rice is done, transfer to a bowl and add the rest of the can of coconut milk, stir to mix. Let stand a couple of minutes until evenly moistened, then serve with mango and sweetened coconut milk.

If I get a good deal on mangoes, like I did this week, (hence the mango cheesecake, and this) I will make a good batch of this and keep the rest in the fridge, to reheat as needed for a quick exotic snack or desert anytime 🙂

*You can get this type of rice at most Asian stores, look for glutinous rice, sticky rice or sweet rice. Regular rice won’t work. It comes in white as well as purple!

If you find you end up making this a lot, you can get yourself an authentic sticky rice steaming contraption at Importfood.com as seen in the picture to the right here. I so far have used my regular (Chinese) bamboo steamer with results that make me happy 🙂

Nomnomnom nom nom…

April 3, 2012December 16, 2017

Banana Chocolate Raw Pudding

There are days when chocolate is the only thing that will do. And today I had one of those days. To make up for it, there is nothing like treating yourself with something yummy, delicious even decadent! Yay, treat time! Decision made, but good things don’t have to be bad for you. And yes, you can have this even if you don’t eat sugar. The only sweetness comes from the bananas! Let them get nice and ~~ripe~~ ~~over-ripe~~ brown, and you’re in business! Easy to make and guilt free too 🙂

Ingredients

2 over ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
about 1/2 cup milk (dairy or almond)
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp ground flax seeds
2 tbsp chia seeds

Directions

Mash the banana with a fork
Add the milk, stir until well blended
Add the cocoa powder, flax seed and chia seed and stir it all together until mixed
Refrigerate overnight

March 29, 2012December 16, 2017

Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs

With Spring arriving so early this year, my egg dyeing project will be so much easier! *dancing around in my kitchen* I remember a few years back, looking for anything that grew already outside, and short of some blades of grass I couldn’t find a thing. 🙁 But this year, even though it’s gotten cold again, I will be able to beautifully decorate my eggs, and naturally too, using items you could eat, well mostly (onion peels, anyone?), but nothing chemical or artificial. The colors we can make are just as beautiful, although not quite as bright or unnatural looking.

For this adventure, you will need some small leaves or flowers from outside. Clover, and fern leaves work well, as do wild violets. What you are looking for is anything small that will lie (mostly) flat, so a round, puffy flower like the pink one in ‘Horton hears a who‘ would not work well. If you are wondering, just what the heck is going on, it will all become clear soon, promise. You will also need some cheap stockings or pantyhose/tights, (or use the ones you were going to throw out, the ones with the toe hole, you know, some string and the ingredients for whatever color you choose to try!

This is how my Mom used to dye eggs with us, when we were little, and gathering the decorations outside is half the fun! And isn’t it awesome that you don’t have to worry about artificial colors getting into your eggs or tummy of your family members? What Easter traditions from when you were little do you remember and cherish?

For the onion skin version you need to first decorate your eggs with the leaves you gathered (Making them a little wet helps the leaves stick better), holding the leaf in place, stretch the tights/pantyhose over the egg, pinning the leaf in place, twist on the opposing side or bottom of the egg (The part where the nylon crimps will not get colored evenly) and tie with some string. If you are using the red beets or the turmeric, hard boil the eggs before then decorate once cooled down.

All the eggs with stockings on and ready for their bath 😉

The easiest and my favorite first:

Onion Skins = Sienna/Reddish Brown (12 o’clock):

You need about 3 cups of dry onion skins. Surprisingly the red onion skins make pretty much the same color, so it doesn’t seem to matter which ones you use. Next year I will know not to eat red onions for a month to get red onion peels

To make the dye with onion skins: In a stainless saucepan, place a good 2 cups onions skins and 2 tablespoons of white vinegar in a quart of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.
Strain to remove onion skins and discard, and let dye cool to room temperature. (Don’t be fooled by the orange color.)
In a stainless saucepan, add the cooled strained dye and eggs at room temperature (up to 1 dozen). The eggs should be in one layer and covered by the dye.
Bring to a boil over medium heat. When boiling, reduce heat, and keep at a simmer for 10 minutes, turn off the heat and let eggs sit in the dye for an additional 2-3 minutes.
Dyeing time will be affected by the color of the eggs. Start checking for color at 12-15 minutes.
Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and cool on racks. The remove the stocking and leaves, rinse quickly and dry.
When they can be handled, you can coat them lightly with olive (or other edible) oil.
Refrigerate until ready to hide, or eat.

Turmeric = Yellow

Yellow you can get from Turmeric, use 2 tbsp per quart of water, bring to a boil and stir until the turmeric is all dissolved, then add the already hard boiled eggs. Mine did not get as yellow as I have seen this get. But I had tried to make them blue before, using red cabbage (it’s supposed to work) the color however was rather disappointing, more of a very faint barely visible pale sky blue, even after a looooong time in the brew, no real color and no more patience, and off into the yellow they went. Since they were already hard boiled and I did not want them to become, I don’t know, dusty and dry, I made the whole thing less hot and that combined with the faint blue made them a nice juicy yellow with a hint of green. very spring-like 🙂

Red Beets = Dusty Rose/Pinkish Color (on the left)

This one was a tad unsatisfying. You know how beets stain everything staring with your hands, the cutting board and the kitchen back splash if you drop them? Well, I expected a bit more from this one… Instead of boiling the chopped beets in water, I decided that beet juice would be a fantastic substitute, but after 5 hours in the fridge, the eggs still only had a dusty rose color.

The great thing about any of these natural colors is, that even if the egg cracks or the white takes on the color you dyed the egg, it’s perfectly fine to eat, since all the dyes are food material. Egg shells are porous and I am always concerned about the bright chemical colored eggs, and just how much of that might have gotten into the egg?

Overall I’d say onion skins give the most vibrant color and the best contrast. The turmeric would have been brighter yellow, had I either boiled the eggs in it ( I might try that next year) or at least had the ‘soup’ real hot to start. I might try the red cabbage again too, even if it is mainly because I don’t like being defeated, by cabbage. Maybe if I let the stuff sit overnight…

March 28, 2012December 16, 2017

Tomato Kale and Cheese Omelette

Not much words, just quick food 🙂

For those mornings, or lunch time, when there is not much time, but you are hugely HUNGRY, (or you will be hungry later if you don’t knock something out quickly and run), and there is no time to make a big production.

You need:

a handful of grape tomatoes, cut in half
a scant cup cooked kale with garlic
1 egg
3/4 cup egg whites
1″x 3″ pc of cheese, (the size of a pack of gum) I think I used asiago, but anything that melts would work
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

How to make it happen

Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet
Scramble the egg with the egg whites and pour into the heated skillet.
Add the cooked kale, the tomatoes and add the chopped cheese over top, cover with a lid and cook until the top of the eggs are set and the cheese is melted. (About 3 minutes)
Grind some black pepper over your omelette and serve

March 13, 2012December 16, 2017

Raspberry White Chocolate Oatmeal Quick ‘Cake’

This chewy little treat can be eaten as much as a quick breakfast, on those gray and cold days, where the snooze button is your BFF and your feet are deadly afraid of the cold floor outside the cozy covers. You could even try to tell yourself it is all healthy by serving it topped with some greek yogurt. Or you can just face the facts that everyone needs a treat sometime, morning or night, and enjoy it as a quick desert or snack bake anytime you need a ‘cheer me up’. Very similar to the Snack Bakes shown here, it uses a ripe banana for sweetness, but I am splurging and adding white chocolate chips and some frozen raspberries that miraculously turned up in my freezer today 🙂 Isn’t is great when you find things you didn’t know you had? Like the $20 bill in the pocket of your winter coat when you take it out of ‘summernation’ (yes, I just made that up) in October

Because heart-shaped things make me happy 🙂

Makes 2

Ingredients

1/2 really ripe banana
1/2 cup rolled oats*
2 tbsp white chocolate chips,
2 tbsp frozen raspberries * you can also use rolled quinoa or other rolled grains

Grease 2 ramekins or other heat proof little bowls/forms
In a larger bowl, mash the ripe banana with a fork, until it doesn’t look dry anymore.
Mix in the rolled oats, then add the chocolate chips and the frozen raspberries.
Divide among prepared ramekins, and microwave for 3-4 minutes, depending on the power of your device, until the top looks no longer moist and the sides pull away from the ramekin. Like in the picture below. (Mine usually take 3 minutes)
Let cool down before quickly eating all enjoying, whoever you are trying to hide these from will smell them anyway 😉

You can flip it over on a plate to serve or just eat with a spoon right out of the bowl after you have given it enough time to cool down a bit.

My ‘sweet seduction’ speed cooking contribution is ready in under 10 minutes! That should be an incentive to enjoy life and have desert, even after a long day or week!

This is my contribution to a blog event over in the German speaking world of food blogs. Every submission has to be prepared in under 30 minutes, or the time it takes the average pizza delivery to get to you. Here is the whole list of all the goodies that can be made super quick! This sweet treat is ultra quick, and I am hoping it will sweeten up many a tired after work meal!

Nachwort auf Deutsch: Leider hatte ich keine Zeit den ganzen Beitrag auf Deutsch zu = Übersetzen, hier nur kurz: Oatmeal/Rolled Oats= Haferflocken, eine ‘1/2 cup/ ist etwa ein Deciliter, white chocolate chips= weisse Schokolade, in kleine Stücke oder Würfelchen geschnitten. Ich hoffe das diese kleine süsse Verführung hier manchen langen Tag erträglicher macht, wenigstens im Rückblick oder aber da man schlauerweise geplant hat, von wegen transportfähig und so 🙂 Einfach einpacken und mitnehmen!