50 Ideas for Breakfast on the Fly

 

 

I'm finally back into the swing of school and classes and most of the other things that go along with rising a little earlier.  Even though I need to be out of the house a little earlier, I also like to have breakfast before I leave for work.  Most likely due to years of my mother, "Now, you know breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  You can't learn on an empty stomach".  I'm sure you heard it too.  While I want breakfast, I also need it to be quick and hand-held is a good idea.  It doesn't have to be pretty, just nutritious and quick.

I realize smoothies are the 'in thing' and I do like them.  But in the morning, I'm just not 'with it' enough to handle motorized moving parts, aka, a blender. 

While meandering through the web, I found this idea on food network. It was titled 50 Breakfast on the Fly.  My first thought was that old song, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.  Okay, back to food.  I thought it was an excellent idea.  Most of the ideas are pretty basic and made with common ingredients.  Just quick and easy ideas to help you eat breakfast. 

I picked #13, Breakfast Egg Salad Sandwich.  Here are the ingredients.  One hard boiled egg, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise and 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard (or whatever is in the frig).  Chop the egg, add mayonnaise and mustard.  Mix thoroughly.  This can all be done the night before, meaning an extra 5 minutes of sleep.  For mine, I also added about ⅓ of an avocado and a dash of hot sauce. 

Eggplants and Tomatoes

Summer is almost over and I have not posted anything on eggplants.  Well, you know I just can't let that happen.  After all, eggplants will soon be out of season and I don't feel that you should wait a whole year to eat eggplant.

Eggplant is one of my favorite vegetables.  Until recently, the globe eggplant was the primary one available in the United States.  Now we have a wider variety, such as, Japanese, Thai and Rosa Bianca.  For more unusual varieties, check out your local farmers market. 

While eggplant Parmesan is an excellent dish, there are numerous ways to use eggplants.  The nice thing about eggplants is that they don't have a lot of flavor, therefore, they are able to blend in with other ingredients, such as tomatoes and zucchini. They can be sautéed and used on pizza, in lasagna, and in sandwiches. Eggplant is a component of the Greek dish, briam and the French dish, ratatouille. 

For this recipe, I went to the blog, Olive and Tomato.  I don't generally recommend many blogs, but this is one I like.  The blogger is Elena Paravantes, a registered dietitian, born in the US, but now residing in Athens, Greece.  Ms. Paravantes blogs on the Greek-Mediterranean diet.   This recipe is adapted from one that I found on her blog.

Tomato Topped Eggplants

Serves 4 to 6.

Ingredients:
2 to 3 eggplants
Extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups chopped tomatoes, preferably heirloom
½ cup chopped roasted red pepper
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 teaspoon sugar, optional
4 to 6 ounces Feta cheese, crumbled

Directions:
1.  Slice eggplants crosswise, into ½-inch thick slices (do not peel).  Place eggplants in a colander, salt and allow to sit for about 1 hour.  This will help to reduce the bitterness and collapse plant cells, allowing the eggplant to absorb less oil.

2.  Heat about 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook until  translucent, about 3 to 5 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for about 1 minute.  Add tomatoes, red pepper, salt, pepper, and sugar.  Cook until most of the moisture has evaporated.  Set aside.

3.  Rinse the eggplant slices and squeeze out the water.  Brush eggplant with olive oil.  At the point, the eggplants can be sauteed or grilled.  Set aside.

 

4.  Place eggplants on a baking sheet.  Top with tomato mixture and feta cheese.  Drizzle with additional olive oil.

5.  Bake in a  350°F oven until heated through, about 15 to 20 minutes.

Note:  The tomatoes and eggplants can be cooked in advance and assembled and baked later.

If you want more ways to use eggplants, check out this information from Cooking Light. 

What's In My Lunch Box?

School is now into it's third week and I need to break out of my yogurt and granola rut.  Not that I think yogurt and granola are bad, but sometimes you just need something new and different.  So this week, I decided to go outside of my normal lunch.  I decided to try an old favorite, Waldorf salad, with a new twist.  I started with a recipe in one of my favorite cookbooks, Food to Live By and decided to add my own twist to it.  I started by adding rotisserie chicken, so it's off to a headstart already.  I used dried cranberries instead of raisins.

So here is my version of Chicken Waldorf Salad.  Make this and you will not be trading your lunch with little Billy.

Chicken Waldorf Salad

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
⅓ cup plain yogurt or sour cream
⅓ cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon honey
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken (rotisserie or leftover)
1 small apple, chopped
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup walnuts
½ cup thinly sliced celery
1 bag (3 ounce) spring greens

Directions:
1.  In a small bowl combine yogurt or sour cream, mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, and honey.

2.  In a medium bowl combine chicken, apple, cranberries, walnuts and celery.  Stir to combine.  Add dressing and toss to coat. 

3.  Serve salad on top of spring greens.

Lunch Box Safety

Classes started last week and that means two things for me. Firstly, I will be missing my daily dose of The Chew.  Secondly, I've got to pack my lunch.  I could purchase lunch, but that's a little expensive and a few more calories than I need to consume. 

Packing a lunch is an excellent idea for those trying to save money and consume a healthier diet.  However, carrying lunch to work or school may mean it will not be refrigerated.  When you pack a lunch, consider food safety.  It may not be a glamorous topic, but neither is a foodborne illness.

Here are a few tips to help you consume a safe lunch.

• Purchase an insulated lunch bag.  These bags are better for keeping food safe until it is consumed.  Remember, cold cut sandwiches and yogurt can only be left at room temperature for 2 hours. 
• Reusable bags should be washed with warm soapy water after each use.
• Wash hands and any food contact surface before you prepare the lunch.  Also make sure to wash your hands before eating.  If you can't wash your hands before lunch, pack a moist towelette.
• Freeze a juice box or an ice pack.  This will help keep your lunch cold and by lunchtime, you should be able to drink the juice.
• If you are packing hot foods, such as soup, use an insulated bottle like a thermos.
• When in doubt, throw it out.  If all the food is not consumed, toss it.  Better safe than sorry.

For resources on purchasing lunch boxes, check out these sites.
Laptop Lunches
Fit and Fresh

Hope you have a safe and nutritous lunch.  Check in next week when I will be talking about my lunch box favorite.

What I Did This Weekend - Baked!

Okay, so it doesn't surprise you that I baked this past weekend.  It was just one of those weekends.  And I needed to bake, not cook, but bake.  It's just something about baking that seems to release a different set of creative juices. 

I decided to make a plum upside-down cake.  The picture just looked sooooooooo good!  Once I got into baking it, I thought, "this is a version of a pineapple upside down cake".  A chef friend of mine says there are only so many recipes.  I guess she's right.

But whatever it is, this cake is a nice change of pace from the traditional pineapple upside cake.  If you don't want to use plums, apricots or peaches would be a nice substitution.

Plum Upside-Down Cake

Serves 8.

Ingredients:

Plum mixture:
12 Tablespoons (1½ sticks) butter, divided
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tablespoon honey
4 to 6 large plums

Cake:
1½ cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ cup sugar
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon almond extract
½ cup milk

whipping cream or ice cream, optional

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.
2.  Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Stir in  brown sugar and honey.  Heat until sugar and honey blend in, forming a thick, smooth sauce.  Transfer to a 9-inch round cake pan with 2-inch high sides. 
3.  Cut plums in half; remove pit.  Cut in half into sixths.  Arrange plums on top of sauce in overlapping concentric circles.  Set aside.
4.  Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium bowl.  Using electric mixer, beat remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a medium bowl until light.  Add sugar and beat until creamy.  Add eggs, one at a time.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Beat in extracts.  Add dry ingredients, alternately with the milk, beating until just blended.  Spoon batter evenly over plums.  Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour.  Transfer to a cooling rack; cool in pan for 30 minutes.
5.  Using a knife, cut around pan sides to loosen cake.  Insert cake onto serving platter.  Serve warm with whipped cream or ice cream.

Clafoutis Anyone?

A few days ago, a colleague and I were discussing recipes for another project that I am working on.  She suggested that I might do a clafouti recipe.  I decided that it might not be a good choice for the other project, but it might be a good blog topic.  After all, it is a French dessert and we (or rather PBS) are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Julia Child's birth.

I must admit that I do not have any fun childhood memories of Julia Child.  My mother and I did not cook her recipes together.  However, with my job of helping people develop food preparation skills, I have come to admire and respect Julia Child.  She had great love of food and inspired Americans to become better cooks.  While Julia may have used her share of butter, she died 2 days before her 92nd birthday and was not overweight.  As Julia used to say, 'all things in moderation, including moderation'.  While I am all for healthy eating, I am also for good eating and I do not not believe these are mutually exclusive terms.  It is with that in mind that I am writing about clafouti and Julia Child.

Clafouti also makes excellent use of summer fruits, such as peaches, plums, and cherries.  I've even seen recipes with raspberries, apples and pears.  I've had my student make it with pears and did not care for it.  It needed a fruit with more intense flavor.  However, if you have nice, flavorful pears, why not give it a try. 

Apparently, the clafouti is a French country dessert from the Loire region of France.  I think of it as fruit baked in a custard. It was originally made with cherries.  I also understand that the pits add extra flavor.  I can't say that I have ever left the pits in.  I'm just not that brave.

I have seen tons of recipes for clafouti, with varying levels of milkfat.  Because I like a soft custard, I decided to use a combination of half and half and whole milk.  To satisfy more of my 'foodie' colleagues, I made half plums and half peaches.  This is my version of clafouti. 

Clafouti

Serves 6 to 8.

Ingredients:
¼ cup, plus 1 Tablespoon sugar
¾ pound fruit, such as peaches, plums or cherries
¾ cup whole milk
¾ cup half and half
¾ cup all purpose flour
3 eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoon almond liqueur, optional

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter a pie plate.  Sprinkle with one tablespoon sugar. 
2.  Slice fruit.  Place over sugar in a pleasing design.
3.  In a blender, blend milk, half and half, flour, eggs and salt.  Blend until smooth.  Add the one-fourth cup of sugar, vanilla and almond liqueur.  Pour over fruit.  Bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes or until puffed and golden.
4.  Dust clafouti with powdered sugar and serve at once.

Normally, I would not use liqueur, however since we are celebrating Julia Child, I felt a little alcohol would be appropriate.  If you are celebrating Julia Child, let us know what you are doing.

Crostinis, Crostinis, Crostinis!

Up until a couple of years ago I had never heard of crostinis.  And now they are everywhere.  It seems that any and everything is a crostini, such as eggplants, tomatoes, sardines. 

According to The Prentice Hall Dictionary of Culinary Arts, crostini is Italian for 'little toasts' and is used to describe small, thin slices of toasted bread, usually brushed with olive oil.  Who knew!

Sicily was overflowing with crostinis.  And why not?  If you have leftover bread, why not use it to make something edible - think bread pudding.  For centuries clever cooks have turned the 'not so edible' into the 'this is delicious'. 

One crostini that we consumed while in Sicily was made with eggplants and chopped tomatoes.  Both of these plants grow extremely well in the Mediterranean.  And cooks make good use of them. 

Here is my version of Crostinis with Aubergine Tapenade.  I hope you enjoy them.  Some countries refer to eggplants as aubergines.

Crostinis with Aubergine Tapenade

Ingredients:
1 medium eggplant
1 garlic clove, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 Roma tomatoes
Day old baguette

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 350°F.  With a sharp knife, pierce eggplant in several places.  Place on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until soft, about 1 hour. 

2.  Allow eggplant to cool.  Remove the skin and stem.  Cut eggplant into small pieces.  Add garlic, oregano, salt and pepper.  Set aside.

3.  Thinly slice the bread, on the diagonal, into
about ½-inch thick slices.  Brush with olive oil and place on a sheet pan.  Place in the oven at 350°F, until they are crisp, about 15 minutes. 

4.  Dice the tomatoes into small pieces, about ¼ inch.  Combine with eggplant mixture. 

5.  At this point, you can top the bread with the eggplant tapenade or set them out separately and allow your guest to top the bread as they desire.

As to which one I would do, it depends on how much time I have.