Breakfast for Lunch

I LOVE to have breakfast for lunch. Actually, I love to have breakfast any time. My latest obsession is fried eggs, over easy. Plus, I've been on a low calorie diet and I find breakfast to be a filling, yet a cheap and low-calorie meal. Yesterday, I made this yummy 400 calorie number:

 

It is basically sautéed spinach, tomato and onion, topped with cheese, salsa, avocado and a fried egg. YUMMY!

 

Here's what materials you will need:

• Chopping Knife
• Cutting Board
• Small Skillet
• Non-stick Spray
• Spatula 

Here's the ingredients:

• 1 cup of Spinach
• 1/2 Small Yellow Onion
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Slice of Colby Jack Cheese
• 2 Tlbsp of Salsa (I prefer Mrs. Renfros)
• 1/2 an Avocado
• 1 Egg

All in all this meal takes less than 7 minutes. So let's get started: 

• Chop your yellow onion into small squares
• Once the onion is chopped, spray the small skillet with non-stick spray, heat to medium-low and add onions
• While they are cooking, wash your cup of spinach and then add it to the onions
• While they are both cooking, dice your tomato into small squares and then add it to the skillet
• Once everything is cooked, plate and set aside
• Wipe the pan clean, then spray it again with non-stick spray and turn the heat to high
• Crack your egg in the skillet, but be careful not to bust the yolk. Use your spatula to poke around the yolk (not the actual yolk), so that the other liquids evenly distribute and thoroughly cook.
• After the egg is white and "solid" looking, flip it and reduce the heat to low. Cook like this for roughly 90 more second and then serve.
• While your back side of the egg is cooking, add the slice of cheese to your plated spinach, onion and tomatoes. Microwave for 15-30 seconds to reheat the meal and melt the cheese.
• Top this mixture with your 2 tablespoons of salsa and 1/2 avocado. I spoon both straight on to the plate.
• By now, your fried egg should be perfectly cooked. Add it to the top of your masterpiece and enjoy!

To make this meal even more low calorie just cut out the cheese and avocado. If one egg will not fill you up, try removing the cheese and adding an additional egg and more spinach.

What's your favorite way to eat fried eggs, over easy? I love to put them on breakfast tacos or crab cakes!

Sunday Lovin'

Sundays are my absolute favorite. I love spending time with my church family, my real family, relaxing and cooking.

Andy and I love to cook together, especially on Sunday's when we're not rushed. This past Sunday, I made brunch and he made dinner. Both were wonderful so I thought I'd share.

For brunch, I made stuffed bell peppers topped with fried eggs over easy. Here's what the finished product looks like:

 

Can you say yum? This is a fairly cheap and easy meal. The ingredients that you need to make a serving for two are:

• 1 can of black beans
• 1 can of rotel
• 2 large, red bell pepper
• 4 eggs
• 1/2 avocado
• 4-6 oz of cheese (I used habanero cheddar--so spicy and good!) 
• OPTIONAL:
• Black Pepper
• 1/5 a White Onion
• Salsa
• Sour Cream

Other items needed:

• Pam/Cooking Spray
• Cutting Board
• 1 Small Pot
• 1 Baking Dish (11x7 or larger)
• 1 Frying Pan (Medium to Large)
• 1 Knife
• 1 Spoon
• 1 Spatula

 

Cooking this meal takes less than 30 minutes too! Here is what you do:

1. Preheat your oven to bake/350 degrees
2. Wash your 2 red bell peppers, cut the tops/stems off of them (don't discard) and pull out the seeds. Cut the bell peppers in half long ways (remember you're going to be stuffing these!). Place all four halves in your pan (after you've sprayed the pan with Pam). Let bake/cook while you prep the rest of your ingredients.
3. Cut the red bell peppers from tops/stems into small chunks and cook them in your small pot (which you've already coated with Pam) on medium heat.
4. OPTIONAL: cut 1/5 of a white onion and add it to the small pot.
5. Add 1 can of black beans and 1 can of rotel to your pot and turn on low.
6. Take your bell peppers from the oven. Stuff them with the bean/rotel mixture from the pot and top them with cheese. Place them back in the oven until the cheese melts. Keep an eye on them so that the cheese does not burn.
7. While you're waiting for the cheese to melt, spray your pan with Pam and turn the heat on high. Once the heat is on high, add all four eggs. OPTIONAL: Season eggs with black pepper. Turn the heat to low and cook the eggs over easy. I suggest turning the heat off once you've flipped them.
8. While you're waiting for your eggs to cook, cut 1/2 of avocado into long strips for easy serving.
9. Begin plating your bell peppers. Top them with the fried egg and avocado. Serve extra beans on the side of the plate. OPTIONAL: Top with salsa and/or sour cream. Enjoy!

For Andy's dinner, he made roasted garlic bulbs, bread, corn on the cob and crab legs. It was SO good. Here's what it looked like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This meal is kind of expensive because of the crab, but it is still much cheaper (and better!) than eating out at a lot of restaurants. Here's how he did it:

1. He preheated the oven to 350
2. He cut the tops of the garlic bulb off of three garlic bulbs
3. He let them soak in olive oil, pepper and salt while the oven preheated
4. Once the oven preheated, he wrapped each bulb individually in aluminum foil and stuck them in the oven.
5. In the left over oil, pepper and salt mixture, he rolled the corn on the cob in it. He added extra pepper and tony's to the corn and wrapped it in foil and placed it in the oven. All four items (3 garlic bulbs and 1 corn on the cob) need to bake 30 minutes.
6. After 15 minutes of baking, he brought a large pot to water on top of the stove. On top of the water, he steamed the thawed crab legs. They needed to cook for 12-15 minutes.
7. While they were steaming, Andy cut more garlic and placed it in a small pot. He added 1/2 stick of butter and allowed it to melt on low for our crab dipping sauce.
8. Before everything wrapped up, he cut the French bread in small pieces and added it to the oven for 2 minutes to toast.
9. Everything finished at the same time, so he plated it all together. We dipped the bread in more olive oil/pepper mixture. Ate the garlic bulbs by themselves or on the bread and we dipped the crab legs in the butter/garlic mixture.

This was a delicious meal for under $50 and it took less than 45 minutes to cook everything. GREAT at home date night meal!

 



Making a Brunch of Mistakes

If I'm going to eat bad, I usually like to do it early in the morning. Think breakfast tacos, migas, mimosas, etc. This weekend, my family got together to celebrate my deceased aunt's birthday. I told the family I wanted to make everyone brunch. It turned out amazing! Here's what we had:

First, I preheated the oven to 350. I sliced two whole tomatoes and put them in the oven to roast. Next, I halfed all of the English muffins and placed them in the oven too. Keep an eye on the bread so that it does not burn.

While those cooked, I made the home made crab cakes (with fresh crab meat from Louisiana!). All I did was mix the following:

• 1 lb of Crab (Claw Meat)
• 1 bunch of chives/green onions
• 1/2 White Onion
• 1/2 Green Bell Pepper
• 2 Eggs
• A few dabs Tobasco Sauce
• 2 dabs Worcestshire Sauce
• Tony's
• Black Pepper

I mixed it all together then formed patties and rolled them in Italian bread crumbs. I heated a skillet to medium high with canola oil layering it. Then I cooked the patties on medium-low till they were golden brown (approx. 4-6 minutes on each side).

After the patties were all down in the skillet, I removed the English muffins and began plating. I put two halves, face up on each plate. I diced 1.5 avocados and added avocado slices to all 6 plates on the smaller half of the English muffin.

I then took the tomatoes out of the oven and added them to the other half of the English muffin (the larger half).

While my crab cakes were finishing up, I started frying eggs. (If your crab cakes are already done, just turn the skillet off so that they stay warm, but don't over cook.)

I sprayed pam on another, large skillet and heated it to medium high. I cooked three eggs at once. Once they turned white, I turned off the skillet and flipped them to let them finish cooking. Be careful not to bust the yolk.

Plate the crab cake on top of the tomatoes and then add your fried egg. It's best served with a knife, fork and mimosa! I served these three and quickly fried up three more eggs for the remaining plates. This recipe made enough for six and had two crab cakes left over that did not last long!

Everyone loved it and I hope that you do too!:)