Potato and feta Spanish "tortilla"

This is another modified recipe from six o'clock scramble.  Here I mostly just upped the amount of eggs and milk to make it go farther.  As it was, it was all eaten and we had to make some more scrambled eggs to fill up our hungry teenagers. (and the original recipe was supposedly able to serve 6 - with only 5 eggs.)
I absolutely adored this meal.  That is saying something because I'm not a huge fan of eggs in general.
The original did say you could add optional fillings.  We did not although since I had asparagus in my meal this evening, I'm thinking that asparagus would have gone very well as an optional add in.
Definitely planning to make this again - maybe even for breakfast tomorrow.  It sounds sooo good.

Ingredients

•  2 medium potatoes diced
• 1-2 Tablespoons butter
• 1 medium sweet onion, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 8 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 3 Tablespoons feta

Directions

1. Place the potatoes in a medium sized microwave safe bowl and sprinkle with water.  Lightly cover them (I used my microwave cover.)  Microwave on high until they are fork tender (3-5 minutes)  Drain any excess liquid.
2. Preheat the broiler to high and set the rack 4-5 inches from the heat.  
3. Spray a heavy, oven proof 12 inch skillet with nonstick cooking spray.  Saute the onions in butter until fragrant.  Add the softened potatoes, rosemary, salt, and pepper (and any additional ingredients -ie veggies I'm thinking spinach would probably be good as well)  and saute for a few more minutes.  (It should smell awesome at this point between the onions and the rosemary.  YUM!)
4. In a bowl, mix eggs, milk and cheese.  Pour it over the potato mixture in the pan.  Cook (without stirring) over medium-high heat until the eggs begin to harden.  (about 4 minutes)
5. Place the skillet under the broiler and cook until golden brown on top.  For me I did 3 minutes on high then turned my broiler down to low and did 2 minutes more.  That was perfect.  
6. Cut in slices and serve.  

easy-cheesy tortilla skillet

Here is another quick and easy recipe from the six o'clock scramble.  (slightly modified by me of course.)  LOVED the fact that this was super simple and super quick.  Everyone also ate it without complaint, even the little ones.  Yet another vegetarian dish (not vegan) this one uses both eggs and cheese.

Ingredients

• 3 cups broken tortilla chips (I like the food should taste good chips with flax seeds.)
• 1 1/2 cups chunky salsa 
• 6 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (we used sharp)

Directions

1. In a large nonstick skillet, warm the tortilla chips slightly.  Add the salsa and sir until the chips soak up the liquid.
2. Pour the eggs on top.  Cook and stir until the eggs are set and the mix is somewhat dry.  (This won't get as dry as normal scrambled eggs with the chips and salsa in there - I kept thinking it would, but it didn't.)  Top with cheese - stirring in if desired.
3. Serve hot.

bacon quiche

So, one of my freezer meals was supposed to be a quiche.  I never made it.  I had it on my menu for this evening and planned to just make it normally, but the thing called for 1/2 cup mayo, 1/2 cup milk and only 3 eggs (for 2 quiches)  I just couldn't imagine making a quiche with mayo and it tasting good.  I went to our best bites to check out their ideas and found a zucchini quiche.  Although I like zucchini and have one in the fridge, DH doesn't like it and I felt like sparing him.  Plus I'd rather toss the zucchini in some muffins or waffles.  Point being, their quiche used no milk.  I liked that idea because my problem with quiche is that it always comes out too moist for my liking.  I figured no milks, no extra moisture right?  So, I kind of ended up just making up my own recipe.  Turned out to be the best quiche.  Everyone loved it (except Aaron which surprised me because he likes eggs.)  So I'm actually blogging this right away so I don't forget it.

Ingredients

• 2 store bought frozen pie crusts, thawed  (remember I had some of the ingredients from the original recipe which was a freezer meal.  Feel free to make your own crust. I personally love my push in pie crust - totally no fail. -You could probably leave out the sugar for this recipe)
• 4-6 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled (or buy precooked and cut with scissors)
• 2 teaspoons butter
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons garlic
• dash garlic and herb seasoning
• salt and pepper to taste
• dash of oregano
• 6 oz shredded swiss cheese
• 8 eggs

Directions

1. Saute onions in butter until fragrant.  Add the garlic and saute a minute or 2 more.  I added my salt and pepper here too, but you could just add that to the eggs.  Remove from heat and set aside to begin cooling.
2. In a large bowl (I always use a measuring bowl with a spout so it is easy to pour.)  Beat eggs, with seasonings.  Add Cheese and whisk again.  Add bacon and onions and whisk again.  Divide evenly between the 2 pie crusts.
3. Bake at 375 for 30 minutes.  (both my recipes said 40-50, and I checked at 30 thinking I was just going to cover the crust.  I left it in for 5 minutes more, because I'm so used to quiche being to moist for my liking but I could have taken it out after 30 minutes.  However, it was not rubbery or anything after 35.)
4. Let cool slightly and serve.  (I let mine cool while I made green smoothies.

Apple Cinnamon Omelet

There was a cool section on omelets in my Taste of home simple and delicious magazine.  Some were nothing interesting - or at least for me.  I grew up with a dad that would make a peanut butter and jelly omelet and I have made that for my kids before.  The other ideas tomato and green pepper, ham and swiss, chorizo/salsa, Italian, potato bacon - just normal stuff you toss in an omelet (or at least for me) but I never would have thought to make an apple cinnamon omelet.  I guess normal people probably don't think of peanut butter and jelly, but knowing the sweetness of jelly was good in an omelet, I decided I really wanted to try apple cinnamon.  It was pretty tasty.  I liked it.  This will definitely go in my repertoire as an omelet filling.  You could also use other fruits.  Peaches and cinnamon would be good, so would berries, or a tropical.  This one recipe opened up a whole new dimension of possibilities for omelet making. Thank you Taste of home magazine.  

One final thing I really liked about this that changed the flavor of the omelet a bit was that they had you saute the apples in cinnamon and butter and then pour them on a plate, but add the egg mixture directly to the pan.  That ended up giving the actual omelet a little bit of cinnamon which I really liked.   This did make an enormous omelet.  We split them between 2 people. - or 3 if little kids were involved.  I'm not sure if we actually followed the directions particularly well on the number of eggs we used, nor am I sure if we added the water.  I'm writing the recipe as in the book, but I will note that I usually just make my omelets with egg - no water, and I'm sure I just added a dash of salt and pepper.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup thinly sliced, peeled tart apple - we actually just used 1 medium granny smith, diced (not peeled)
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 3 eggs (I think we used 4 - we were using a larger pan than normal)
• 3 Tablespoons water (Pretty sure we didn't use this on either batch)
• 1/8 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper - I didn't measure just tossed in a dash.

Directions

1. Whisk together the eggs, water (if using) salt and pepper.  Set aside.
2. In a nonstick skillet, saute the apple, cinnamon and sugar in butter.  Remove from skillet.    Pour egg mixture into the pan and cook.  Recipe in magazine has you "push cooked edges toward the center, letting uncooked portion flow underneath."  I've always made an omelet by pouring the egg in, putting a lid on the pan and cooking until the top is set.  Either way, when set,  place filling on one half of the omelet and fold the other half over the top.  Top with shipped cream.  

Southwest Spinach strata

I finally decided to make an egg type casserole.  I've been wanting to make one for breakfast, but never do, so I put it on the menu for dinner this week.  This recipe came from my taste of home healthy cooking magazine.  It called for southwestern-style egg substitute.  I looked at it at the store and it had diced peppers and onions, then one of the ingredients was horseradish and I decided not to get it, but to make my own.  (I was going to add diced peppers and onions but totally forgot.)  What I didn't forget to do was add a blend of spices.  I was super happy with the combination of spices I made.  It had a wonderful flavor.  However, it took forever to cook and then still ended up soggy.  I'm not sure why.  I used regular bread which I toasted and cube (It called for day old.)  I used all wheat because that is what I have.  (It called for 1/2 wheat and 1/2 white bread cubes.)  I did everything else the same -other than added spices which should make no cooking difference.  I had to cook this at least 20 minutes longer than it said - probably more like 25 because I kept letting the timer buzz at me before going and adding 5 of 10 more minutes.  It was still way too soggy for me and the kids.  (It wasn't super soggy, it was completely cooked - didn't feed the kiddos raw eggs or anything, it was just overly moist - hey, my 2 meals today needed to get together and work out a trade - breakfast was too dry and dinner too moist.)  I think if I made this again, I'd leave out 1 cup of milk - maybe even add an extra 1/2 cup of egg.  That would give 1/2 cup less liquid, and I think it would do the trick.  Like I said, I really really liked the flavor.  I liked the black beans (not the Spinach so much - would prefer corn with my black beans, but Tavio loves spinach.)  I also liked the edges where the cheese got melted and made a wonderful cheesy crust.  Yum.  I forgot to serve this with sour cream and salsa, but I really didn't think it needed it.

This gets a 4 star for flavor, but 2 star for the texture.  Ends up 3 star all around.  Although at least 1 of my boys would put it lower.

Ingredients

• 5 cups cubed day old bread (I used wheat - recipe said 2 1/2 cup wheat and 2 1/2 cup white.)
• 2/3 cup black beans, rinsed and drained (I could up this a bit.)
• 1 package (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup egg substitute (possibly up to 1/2 cup next time)
• 2 cups fat free milk (definitely lower next time - probably by 1/2)
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried cilantro
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Direction

1. Place 1/2 of the bread crumbs in an 8 inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray.  Layer with beans, spinach, and half of the cheese.  Top with remaining bread cubes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg substitute, milk, cilatro and salt.  Pour over the top.  Let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Bake, uncovered at 350 for 40 minutes (mine was in at least 1 hour.)  Sprinkle with remaining cheese.  Bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and knife inserted near the center comes out clean.  Let stand for 10 minutes before cutting.

Breakfast bake

Tonight I had planned a pork roast, but it was supposed to use spinach. I thought I had bought enough spinach for the lasagna and this, but I needed twice as much as I thought for the lasagna. So, we looked for something else. I had bought extra sausage to make a breakfast casserole for breakfast, but we are having breakfast for dinner tonight. Brandon found this recipe on the food network.
It was good. Stuck to the pan horribly, but was tasty.

Ingredients

• 1 packages (16 oz each) bulk pork sausage
• 1 medium bell pepper, chopped (1 cup) (we didn't have this so Brandon put in corn)
  
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 3 cups frozen hash brown potatoes we used obrein to have some green peppers)
  
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (8 oz)
• 1 cup Original Bisquick mix(we have heart smart bisquick mix)
  
• 2 cups milk
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 eggs

Directions

Heat oven to 400F. Grease rectangular baking dish, 13x9x2 inches. Cook sausage, bell pepper and onion in 10-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sausage is no longer pink; drain. Stir together sausage mixture, potatoes and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese in baking dish.

Stir Bisquick mix, milk, pepper and eggs until blended. Pour into baking dish.

Bake uncovered 40 to 45 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake 1 to 2 minutes longer or just until cheese is melted. Cool 5 minutes.