Breakfast Pizza

Pizza dough, fresh, ready made or store bought, your choice

Eggs, the number you use depends on the size of the pizza, I used 5 eggs on mine

Shredded mozzarella, lots if you love cheese like I do

Sour cream

Cooked bacon bits, I know I’m all into the whole veggie thing but I gotta have my bacon!

Baby spinach

Fresh dill

Start by preheating the oven to about 375-400F (I’m sorry I can’t remember what setting I used). Spread sour cream over the prepared pizza dough, then add spinach and bacon and other toppings you might like and then crack the eggs – gently so the yolks don’t break – on top. Add the dill and lastly sprinkle cheese over everything and bake for about 30-40 minutes, depending how soft you want your yolks.

Jay showed obvious suspicion and doubt when he asked what was for breakfast but upon his first bite he literally ate his own words. I loved that this only took minutes to put together (it helped that the dough was ready to go of course). Waiting for the pizza to bake meant I could go back to bed and laze until it was ready. Delish!!

It all started when we had a friend over last month. I decided to go the healthy route and set up a veggie tray and a fruit tray. Our friend mentioned she was on a cleanse to figure out what was wrong with her stomach. She told us she was only eating vegetables and fruit (funny that I happened to have that for snacks) and that she felt amazing because of it. Yeah, of course I knew this already. Vegetables = good health blah blah blah. But since that night I haven’t had any meat. At all! I’m honestly amazed at how much I’m liking vegetables now. Last night, while I watched Twin Peaks on Netflix, I actually munched on celery sticks.

To kick off what I hope will be a lasting change in my food lifestyle, I present to you today’s brunch:

Eggs and Spinach Wrap

Whole wheat tortilla or pita

Eggs

Baby spinach

Goat’s milk feta cheese (obviously you can use regular feta)

And any other filling you might like. Today, on top of the items mentioned above, I added:

Dijon mustard

Onions

Alfalfa sprouts

Caramelized onion jam, leftovers from yesterday

Salsa, medium spice

It’s all up to you  how much you put in your wrap, just make sure it fits

About ten years ago I purchased a square stoneware baking pan from The Pampered Chef. It was my absolute favourite pan until yesterday when we welcomed the new additions. If you’ve never baked with stoneware, I strongly suggest you do as these baking pans and sheets absorb the heat and distribute it for even baking. What I also love about this product is that because you only wash it with hot water (no soap) after several uses it begins to form a somewhat greasy coating. After a while the baking pan doesn’t need to be greased prior to baking.

Once we had our bakeware out on the kitchen table I decided to immediately make use of at least one item. I chose the baking sheet to make Halloween-themed sugar cookies. The recipe comes from Joy of Baking and I recommend watching the video for some tips on making the cookies.

I baked one batch on the baking stone and one batch on my non-stick baking sheet using a Silpat. The cookies on the stone were baked to near perfection while some of the cookies on the other sheet came out half burnt on the bottom. Some were golden and some not so much. The recipe, by the way, is awesome. I left my cookies sans icing sugar as they are subtly sweet on their own.

Of course I couldn’t just stop there. We have a basket-sized amount of apples on our counter, which I’ve been wanting to use for a pie but I still haven’t replaced my broken pie plate. Luckily The Pampered Chef products each came with recipes and one of them was for Apple Oat Muffins. The recipe can be found here. Not only were the muffins fast and easy to make but they turned out amazing. The sweet cinnamon crumble on top gives each bite a little spicy crunch and the apple bits lend their natural sweetness to the mix.

I was trying to make granola bars from a recipe but the words “home” and “made” make me think that I can do whatever the hell I want to a recipe. I’ve had many failed experiments because I didn’t follow a recipe. But this time it wasn’t so bad.

The recipe called for flour, rolled oats, butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, and vanilla. Now, wouldn’t you agree that that list is missing a few things? I thought so and that’s why I added Rice Krispy cereal, chocolate chips, dried cranberries, mini marshmallows, and sunflower seeds. I guess it could have still worked out if I had made enough sticky liquid (melted butter with brown sugar, syrup, and vanilla) to saturate everything. Going into the oven I could tell the mixture wasn’t wet enough.

I almost considered dumping the whole batch except that they were still tasty.

The bars turned out very crunchy and not chewy like they should have been. They were also not as sweet as store bought bars, which was a welcome change as everything seems a bit too sweet to me. I brought out my rolling pin and I smashed all the granola bars into small pieces and then I tried it out with some milk.

I made cereal.

Recipe, makes about 6 or 7 pancakes
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1/4 cup white sugar
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Beat all ingredients together and make sure there are no lumps. Heat pan or griddle and pour about less than a quarter cup of batter per pancake (or more if you like bigger pancakes). I hate burning pancakes so I tend to watch over each one and once I see tiny holes poking through the surface I know I have to flip the pancake. I really suck at flipping pancakes and I make a mess too but the end result is delicious!

A while later our stomachs are rumbling again. Still feeling groggy, I am not in the mood to make anything but somehow Gabo gets both Jay and I excited about making gnocchi. Thankfully we have all the necessary ingredients and after a quick look online for a recipe, we get down to work.

First, we boil 3 lbs of potatoes until they’re soft and tender. We leave the skin on the potatoes for more flavour and once they’re cooked, we peel them. We let the potatoes cool down a wee bit before mashing them and then we add one egg and two cups of flour. We have to use loads of flour for dusting because the dough is super sticky. We separate the dough into four sections and then we roll each section into a long thick strip, which we cut into about 1 and 1/2 inch-sized pieces. Each piece is shaped by rolling it over the back of a fork, allowing a tiny pocket to form on one side while impressing the fork tines on the other side. They look like larva to me. Yum.

Once the gnocchi is shaped it goes into a pot of boiling water to cook for a few minutes. You know they’re ready when they start to float up. But keep an eye on them because they may stick to the bottom.

Gabo cooks up a sauce for the gnocchi with Classico pesto, mild blue cheese and bacon. The aroma is amazing and it tastes like soft chewy potatoes in delicious pesto and cheese sauce. This recipe makes enough for plenty of leftovers which is fine by me because I cannot wait to have some more!

Gnocchi dough rolled out and ready to be cut.

Jay cutting the dough into 1 and 1/2 inch pieces (approx)

Gabo shaping the dough into gnocchi.

Amazing gnocchi!

2 eggs

1/4 tsp almond extract

Cinnamon

Walnuts

2 slices of Jay’s homemade bread

Mix the eggs and almond extract, dip the bread and sprinkle it with cinnamon. Place bread in a heated pan with oil (or butter…I wish I hadn’t forgotten to buy butter…) and sprinkle some crushed walnuts on top. Pour in remaining egg mixture and cook about 1-2 mins on each side. So yummy and nutty.

I give today’s lunch of Green Chile and Corn Fritatta a score of 9 out of 10. It loses one point because after eating my single portion, I wanted another serving. It was so delicious and full of flavour but I guess my stomach isn’t quite ready to eat “healthy” portions. It will have to suffer though, because last night I ate about three strawberry muffins. Terrible. Jay said he also ate three muffins last night, “I couldn’t help myself. They were so chewy and moist and…Mmm.”

Frittata recipe, serves 4

6 large eggs

1/2 cup frozen corn, thawed

1 (4.5 oz) can chopped green chiles (I used about 6 pickled jalapeño peppers)

1/4 cup fat-free milk

1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

2 tsp chopped fresh thyme

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

3 dashes hot pepper sauce, or to taste (I did not do this, I figured the peppers were spicy enough and I was right, they were enough.)

8 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 scallion, cut into 1-inch pieces

Whisk together the eggs, corn, chiles, milk, parsley, thyme, ground pepper, and pepper sauce (if using) in a large bowl. Spray a skillet with nonstick spray and set over medium heat. Pour in the egg mixture and top with the tomatoes, cut-side up, and the scallion. Cook, covered, until the eggs are set, about 15 minutes. Cut into 4 wedges.

Per serving (1 wedge): 145 Cal, Weight Watchers points: 3

I have never been a big fan of plain yogurt, unless it’s strained and made into a dip. To me, plain yogurt is like eating sour milk. However, I do love eating sweetened vanilla yogurt and fruit blend yogurt. I’m not sure why I don’t think of those as sweetened sour milk.

A few days ago, I was rummaging through my fridge for some breakfast food. I found a container with leftover peaches from the hazelnut peach cake my sister made, along with half a container of plain yogurt. I thought, “Maybe I’ll just eat the peaches with some yogurt.” It did not seem very appealing to be honest. My Magic Bullet popped in my head, though, and I quickly dumped the peaches and yogurt I had placed in a bowl into a Magic Bullet cup. I added a squeeze of honey and a drop of vanilla extract. My intention was to blend it enough so it would be the consistency of stirred fruit yogurt. What I got was a peach yogurt smoothie…and it was delicious!

Since then, I’ve been making yogurt smoothies each day for breakfast. Yesterday’s smoothie was made with a banana, plain 1% yogurt, honey and two drops of almond extract. That was, by far my favourite. Today’s smoothie was made with strawberries, a banana and, two drops of lemon extract. So very delicious, I loved the lemony flavour!

I’ve got a mango and a pineapple resting on my counter, waiting to ripe. Can’t wait to use those in a smoothie.

Strawberry Banana Yogurt Smoothie with a hint of lemon.

On Friday night I had the pleasure of watching Julie and Julia with my friend. We are both huge fans of all things related to food and this movie was perfect for our addiction. It was no surprise that the next day I felt inspired to cook French food. I pulled out my French Food At Home book by Laura Calder and I quickly began to choose meals for my weekly menu. Most importantly, I needed a meal for that Saturday night and I chose Housewife Chicken. This dish involved cooking in batches and a small amount of tedious preparation such as; peeling and breaking a head of garlic, peeling and cutting the ends of 18 pearl onions, dicing four potatoes, chopping a third of a pound of mushrooms and dicing a quarter pound of bacon. I seasoned the three pound chicken with salt and pepper and after stuffing it with the broken garlic cloves, I had to truss the bird (which is something I had never done). I had to look up a video on chowhound.com.

My first truss!

A great thing about this meal was that it was cooked in one single casserole (except I don’t have a casserole so I used a large enough pot). Before I started on the chicken I had to cook all the other ingredients in batches. First I melted about a tablespoon of butter and I cooked the bacon and onions for about 15 minutes, until the bacon was crisp. Once that was done I set that aside in a large bowl. I then added the mushrooms to the pot for about 5 minutes and then those were added to the bowl with the onions and bacon. I added a bit of olive oil to the pot along with the diced potatoes and cooked those for 25 minutes. After adding the potatoes to the bowl of onions and mushrooms, I put another tablespoon of butter in the pot and so began the process of browning the chicken. I browned it for 5 minutes on each side before finally lowering the heat and covering the pot with a lid for about 45 minutes. Once the chicken was cooked, I put all the ingredients in the bowl back into the pot with the chicken for about 10 minutes to allow it all to heat nicely.

When all was finally cooked, I was almost too eager and impatient to start eating and I nearly lost my interest in taking pictures of the chicken. Somehow I managed to control myself. This is one chicken I will most definitely make again.