Frittata

I had a long video conference today, and forgot to eat beforehand. so, for the last 30 minutes or so I was thinking about what I would eat. I have run out of left over turkey soup...so needed something else that I would make once and eat for a couple of days while sick. I've never made Frittata's because I've never had a frying pan that can go in the oven..and all the recipes suggest this. I finally bought such a pan though, and I had all the ingredients so thought I'd give it a shot. The procedures are loosely based on a basic Frittata receipe in the Moosewood cookbook. Here's what I did:

I sauteed almost 2 cups of quartered, thinly sliced red potatoes, 1 small thinly sliced onion, a handful of washed and chopped green beans, 2-3 garlic pressed garlic cloves, 3 large sliced mushrooms, and half a red pepper in 3 T olive oil (I would reduce this in the future....this was less than the Moosewood cookbook called for, but still more than necessary I think).

While that was cooking I whisked together 8 eggs and 1 Cup of plain almond milk.

I added salt and pepper to the potato-onion-etc. mixture, poured the eggs + milk overtop and let it cook on low on the stovetop while I grated 4 oz light cheddar cheese.

I sprinkled the cheese on top and put the whole thing into the oven, uncovered. Bake for 25minutes until puffed up and golden.

I'm not a big fan of eggs that are "browned" in any way (I never order omlettes) but I really loved this! This is not a low-fat version really though. I had room in my daily points to have the higher-fat version, but you could easily substitute egg whites for some of the eggs, and probably could cut the cheese in half and still have a pretty fantastic frittata. I ate this on it's own because salad is not all that appealing when you're sick. But, it would be perfect with a salad and not much else as it's super filling!

It made 4 large servings, 6 medium servings or 8 small servings.

Making the best of it...

I had a work appointment at 8am this morning. After getting up at 5:30, running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to pull together everything (work stuff, gym stuff, lunch) I'd need for the next 14 hours (big break between 2 appointments close together then a WW meeting in the evening), dropping D. off at the bus, and getting about 1/4 of the way to the appointment, I got a text message saying it was canceled! Arg!

I fought the urg to go back home and go to bed (also feeling a need to do SOMETHING out of the house first thing, since I got up so early) and went to the gym. After the gym I went grocery shopping and came home and put ingredients for a turkey-fennel-squash-white-bean type soup/chili/I'm not sure what to call it into the slow cooker. Now I have a couple of hours to work from home before I have to leave for my afternoon appointment. So, at least we now have a healthy, warm, comforting meal for dinner, and grocery shopping is done. I just know I would have ended up going shopping after my WW meeting tonight and then wold have been grumpy, hungry, and tired when I got home and have no idea what to make still.

Though, bed is still looking like a mighty good place to spend the next 2 hours. I will resist.

Gift basket!

The other day, I got a call from a health food and vitamin store saying I'd won a gift basket. Initially I was confused....I wasn't sure I'd been there or entered any contest. Then I vaguely remembered needing oil of oregano (GOOD oil of oregano) when I was sick, and stumbling upon a health food store locally. I must have entered a contest when I bought the O of O. So I picked up the basket, and as it turns out it is a fantastic basket of goodness! Here are some highlights:

"Tart is Smart" cherry juice concentrate....full of antioxidants and other good stuff...

A natural cold and flu remedy/pill, natural motion sickness pills and dental products that apparently strengthen your teeth like flouride (without the flouride of course).
Fabric softener, and Redmond clay - which apparently can be used as a facial mask, as a poultice for any number of ailments or ingested for digestive health? I think I'll stick to using it as a face mask, given the stared note on the back: "This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA..."
Bath and body product galore!

Hazelnut Agave nectar, and two types of specialty salts! I didn't even know hazelnut agave existed. I use agave fairly regularly, but this hazelnut agave is out of this world!! I wish you could smell and taste it...but you can't. I will definately be purchasing this again! I decided to break in the hazelnut agave nectar drizzled on top of pumpkin oats! I made some for both D. and I this morning. Pumpkin oats recipe as on Kath's blog, but with pecans, balken yogurt, coconut (on top instead of inside) and the hazelnut agave drizzled on top. Heavenly breakfast. And, believe it or not - still healthy and full of goodness!!

Fall-tastic

I managed to hit up the market yesterday, and they have wonderful crisp yummy apples now. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with giddiness about fall. When I was growing up, I think Halloween (and "fall" in general) was my favorite time of year. We to have a bon fire and make caramel apples, and have fire works every halloween. My mom would make a big pot of chili and hot dogs and we'd have these when we returned home from trick-or-treating. I just love the cool crispness of fall, and that smell the air gets....I'm not sure what it is...rotting leaves maybe? It's just great. For an easy dinner last night I had a cut up apple, left over quinoa stew and a tortilla (amazing 12g of fibre tortillas from Ralph's) with the last of some basil-avacado dip spread on it and some parmesan cheese. I heated it in a frying pan for a bit so the cheese would melt.
MMMmmm......It was a good dinner. And easy. Which is pretty darn important these days. I'm going to pick up some pumpkin and make a pumpkin porcini soup from the moosewood book for dinner tonight I think.

I'm working from home till about 2:30 today....and have a really long to-do list to get through. We'll see how far I can get. I'd better get showered and moving if I hope to have any chance at getting through it!

Peruvian Quinoa Stew

(The picture is a little dark...it's dark out :). Today was a long work day, and I didn't get home till about 8pm. I managed to stop for the essential groceries for this recipe (pretty simple) between work and my WW meeting. When I got home cooked this, ate it, and cleaned as much as I could in about 20 minutes, all while watching the first episode of Glee (which I love by the way). This is from the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home Cookbook.

Peruvian Quinoa Stew

1/2 C quinoa
1 C water

2 Cups chopped onions
2garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 T vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, cut on the diagonal into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 bell pepper (I used red), cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup cubed zucchini
2 cups undrained chopped fresh or canned tomatoes (I used canned)
1 cup water or vegetable stock (I used water)
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tsp ground coriander
pinch of cayenne
2 tsp fresh oregano (1 tsp dried)
salt to taste

Optional toppings: Cilantro, grated cheddar or monteray jack cheese (I used 1 oz part skim mozarella).

Cook the quinoa and set aside. Saute the onions and garlic in the oil for about 5-min. Add the carrots and celery and saute for another 5-min. Add everything else but the quinoa, salt and toppings and simmer till the veggies are cooked. Add the quinoa, season with salt and serve with topped with cilantro and/or cheese.

We really liked this- it is filling and nutritious and VERY tasty. An added bonus is that the ingredients are simple, easily on hand, and inexpensive. It will make great lunches too I think!

Thankful

For:

A new car that has LOW gas consumption, a sunroof and On Star. You really can just press a button and they are right there asking you how they can help? And they don't get mad if you call to introduce your parents to them. I'm thinking we should only do that once though. It's free for the first year, and we'll see at the end of that if we want to continue.

Discovering yummy oatmeal. Today it is bananna-flax-cottage cheese oats with a fig, peach and almond-hazelnut butter on top. Hopefully this will keep me full for a while - I have about 1.5 hours of travel to my first appointment and that doesn't end till about 2pm.

My husband. He's sick now, poor guy. I hope he gets better fast. He usually does bounce back pretty quickly.

Lots of work. I am trying to be thankful for this. Things are really busy and overwhelming right now...but I have a job I love (most of the time - though it's hard to remember this at this time of year!), and plenty of work.

That it is Friday. Though, this will be a busy weekend. I feel like I could sleep for days right now!