Muffin Frittatas (3 Kinds!)

Now that I work outside the home having quick, healthy breakfasts readily available has become essential. I no longer have 30 minutes to make something every morning, so I have started prepping meals on Sundays while watching football. This recipe is a take off the english muffin breakfast sandwiches I posted awhile ago, except these include all the vegetables and meat right in one package. This makes is really convenient because all I have to do is toast an english muffin, slice some cheese, throw one of these muffin frittatas in between and I'm good to go.

I made 3 different kinds of frittatas here: 1 only sausage (for Mark), 2 just vegetables and black beans, and 4 with everything. Having these different varieties will help from getting bored throughout the week. As for the range in the servings section, it all depends on how you are planning to enjoy these bad boys. Obviously having one with an english muffin or a bowl of cereal is plenty, but if you don't have time I would recommend eating 2 or 3 with a piece of fruit for a full meal.

Muffin Frittatas

Serves 3-7

Ingredients:

1/2 cup kale, chopped

1/4 cup broccoli florets, chopped

1/2 carrot, diced

1/2 bell pepper, diced

1/4 cup onion, diced

1/4 pound sausage

1/3 cup black beans

3 eggs

1/4 cup milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Chop up all the vegetables and onion, set aside. Heat a little bit of oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add vegetables and onion and cook until vegetables are soft.

In a different pan cook sausage over medium heat until no longer pink. Spray 7 slots of a muffin pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Scramble eggs and milk in a bowl. Place sausage into the bottom of 5 slots of the muffin pan. Spoon vegetable mixture equally into 5 or 6 slots and distribute black beans into all 7 slots. Pour egg and milk mixture into each slot to fill 3/4 way.

Place pan in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully fork out muffin frittatas. Allow to cool and then store either in the fridge or freezer for on-the-go meals.

Enjoy :)

Sweet Potato Hash For One

3-lb bags of sweet potatoes were on sale at the grocery store the other week, naturally I bought it. Then we got super busy being that it was Restaurant Week and all, to make a long story short come Friday we still had a 3-lb bag of sweet potatoes to use up....

This recipe is a product of that predicament.

Fried potatoes with onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes topped with an egg... Yes, its just as good as it sounds. Add a little cayenne pepper and the dish becomes especially appreciated after a run in 20 degree weather. It was flavorful and the epitome of fall eating.

Make it. Now.

Wish I would have taken a picture while it was still in the pan

Well I am off to think of other ways to live off sweet potatoes for the upcoming week. Having to come up with ways to use up sweet potatoes, feel bad for me please :).

Sweet Potato Hash For One
Adapted from here

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 small sweet potato, cubed

1/4 cup onion, chopped

1/4 cup mushrooms, chopped

1/4 cup bell pepper, chopped

1 roma tomato, chopped

1 egg

sprinkle of cayenne pepper

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat a little olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add sweet potatoes & onions, cover, and cooked until soft.

Uncover and add mushrooms, bell pepper, tomato, cayenne, salt & pepper. Cook for 5 minutes more or until mushrooms and bell pepper are soft.

Make a hole in the middle of the pan and crack an egg into it, cover and cook for 3-5 minutes more until the whites are set.

Carefully plate and serve.

Enjoy :)

My Favorite Breakfast Sandwich (For Now)

My Monday-Friday breakfast is usually one of two things: cold oatmeal or an egg sandwich. Both are extremely easy to make, delicious, and fill me up after my workout.

One day I will get around to posting the cold oatmeal recipe (maybe when I don't prep it at 11:00 pm I will remember to take pictures!), but for today it will be an egg sandwich that I seriously can not get enough of. It has cheese, vegetables, avocado, and garlic smushed between two slices of bread.

There are endless possibilities for twists you could make on this sandwich to turn it into your own. It's also one of those recipes you could make a couple servings of ahead of time for on-the-go meals.

It's delightful! I hope you agree.

Restaurant Review: Vincent A Restaurant

Vincent Burger

Back during the winter session of Restaurant Week in Minneapolis Mark and I picked out a French place on Nicollet Mall called Vincent A Restaurant. I have always been drawn to all things French because I took four years of French in high school, and we liked that it was close enough to Mark's building that the walk over wouldn't be too bad. Long story short, we loved it and vowed to be back. We stayed true to that vow and on a gorgeous day in May (5.15.12) we had a lunch date. Luckily we had a seasonally warm winter here and by May the patio was open and we were able to eat outside.

Once we were seated our waiter came over and gave us a basket with a loaf of bread. Unlike the bread at Buca, the bread here is delicious, and we instantly scarfed it down. We also recognized that this was the same waiter we had on our first visit. We were thrilled about this because he was part of the reason we enjoyed our last trip so much.

Variations of Basic Oeufs En Cocotte (Baked Eggs)

Before I purchased my 1 cup ramekins I had been reusing tin mini loaf pans for things like baked oatmeal for one or carob cake for Chloe's birthdays. But in March I said enough was enough and went out to Home Goods and bought four 1 cup ramekins.

As with any new kitchen item I get, I was beyond thrilled and immediately started brainstorming what to make with them. After much debate and research I settled on a Julia Child's recipe for oeufs en cocotte (or baked eggs). Mark and I both loved it and I have since made it numerous times with slightly different ingredients. I will post the basic recipe and then offer some additional add ons.

Basic Ingredients

English Muffin Breakfast Sandwiches (Freezable)

While I think we can all agree, Mark especially, that McDonald's breakfast sandwiches are delicious, most of us would prefer to have these sandwiches waiting in our freezers for us to reheat. And I am not talking about those boxed frozen breakfast meals in your grocer's freezer. This is definitely the case in our household on a lazy Sunday morning when we are still in our pajamas at noon. This is also the case for my cousin Josh, who often finds himself traveling unexpectedly.

For one of our Sunday breakfasts a couple months ago, Mark and I had decided to create homemade english muffin breakfast sandwiches and they turned out wonderfully. They were much leaner than the ones from fast-food restaurants but just as tasty. Upon further research I discovered that we could freeze them individually, which was the perfect solution to lazy Sunday morning breakfasts and unexpected travel.

So if you like McDonald's breakfasts as much as Mark try this simple, make ahead meal.

Basic Ingredients

This recipe can easily be adapted based on personal preference.

Strawberry Spinach Omelet

Strawberry and Spinach Omelet

Every Saturday morning Mark, Chloe, and I get up early and go for a little family run. Its the only day of the week that Mark and I can workout together and I really look forward to it (its usually what gets me through my Friday workout). We usually go over to Uptown and run around Lake Calhoun, or we run a loop around our apartment building.

A couple weeks ago Mark and I decided it would be nice to it change up a bit. Now that the weather is nice and the farmers markets are finally opened, we thought it would be fun to take Chloe downtown and run around the city until the market opened.

We went to the Mill City Farmers Market and decided that this trip would be to scope it out. It was our first time ever going to this particular market and we were a little overwhelmed (and excited) at the size and number of vendors. However, we knew going in that we wanted some kind of leafy greens, and I was ecstatic to learn that the first of the seasons strawberries were available.