What's For Breakfast?

or Brunch or Dinner or even a snack. 

Frittatas of course! 

A dish packed full of protein, minerals and omega 3s. What is even better, you can make it your own! My family loves this dish. Great for a healthy breakfast, serve with brunch and also great for on the go and a great post workout meal. Stores well in the fridge and reheats well. Only 20 seconds in the microwave and it is ready to eat. 

It is resembles a crustless quiche. My husband's cousin calls it an "egg pie" and basically, that is exactly what it is.  Another great thing about frittatas is you can use up those fresh ingredients that have been sitting in your fridge. You know, the greens that are starting to wilt. I will even freeze these veggies and use them to make frittatas at a later time. They will still work great and be delicious! 

Official Wikipedia Definition: Frittata is an egg-based Italian dish similar to an omelette or crustless quiche or scrambled eggs, enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses or vegetables. The word frittata is Italian and roughly translates to "fried".

Main Ingredients For A Frittata

Eggs, cheese, greek yogurt, spices, a few of your favorite vegetables and some cooking oil. You can also add meat, whatever you like. I do try to keep ours on the healthy side as much as I can.

And you will need a large cast iron skillet. Your frittata can be cooked in muffin pans, but I have never done that. 

Basic Recipe:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. 

8 Large Eggs

1 Cup of Fat Free Greek Yogurt

1 Cup of Cheese (I used goat cheese here, makes it very creamy) shredded or crumbled

1 Tablespoon of Basil

2 Cloves of Garlic

Salt & Pepper to taste

Cooking Oil (I use Avocado Oil, wonderful flavor and works well in an iron skillet)

Additional Items:

1 Cup Asparagus, Washed & Cut (you can also use whatever greens that you have on hand. I love this with spinach, my daughter loves it with broccoli)

1 Pint of Mushrooms, Sliced

1 Cup of Tomatoes, Sliced, Halved or Chopped

Parmesan or Romano Cheese, finely grated 

You can also add various meats or other vegetables that you and your family like.

You can find a printable copy of the recipe by clicking here.

Start with your eggs. Crack them into a mixing 

bowl and lightly whisk.

Add your one cup of greek yogurt and blend with whisk until smooth as you see in the photo below. 

Seasonings: Basil and Salt & Pep to taste

Next add your seasonings, lightly whisk until blended. Now you are ready to start cooking!

Heat up 1-2 tablespoons of avocado oil (or whatever oil you have on hand) in your iron skillet on medium high. Grate your 2 cloves of garlic and allow to lightly brown. Add your beaten egg mixture to the skillet. (NOTE: you may need to turn the heat down a tad.) 

At this point it is so easy, almost like scrambling eggs. Add your other ingredients like cheese, veggies and any meat you might want to add. (Save the tomatoes for last.) 

Stir the other ingredients into the egg mixture and keep stirring, lightly, mainly to keep the whole mixture from getting solid in places. Check to make sure your heat is not too high or too low. This is very similar to scrambling up a large vat of eggs. 

When the mixture is just a tad less than 1/2 cooked, take the skillet off the heat and add your tomatoes. 

Then top with your finely grated parmesan or romano cheese. 

Place in preheated oven and allow to finish cooking. It will take about 20-30 minutes. When it is ready it will be puffy and golden brown.


Allow to cool for about 15 minutes then slice just like you would a pie. Makes about 6-8 servings.

Garnish with greens, serve with a salad or fruit or both. 

You can even eat it by itself. Delicious any want you want to serve it. 

 So Good!!! And one of those little things in life. 

Tell me what ingredients you like to include in your Frittatas? 

Enjoy!
Missy

What's For Supper? Beef Tips & Rice

Don't you love cooking with a crock-pot? I do! So easy and so delicious. Years ago, most of the recipes that I had for a crock-pot called for cheeses and canned foods. I started searching for ways to make my crock-pot meals a little more "healthy". 😌 And really, not hard to do if you use your basic knowledge of food and nutrition and a little common sense. 😉

5 Healthy Tips About Food For Your Crock-Pot Meal

Before we get started, just a few things to remember when it comes to cooking healthy:

• Use fresh ingredients as much as possible. Fresh frozen is a good second option.
• Limit your creams, sauces and canned foods.
• Limit your fats.
• Use lean meats (some people braise the meat before putting it in the crock).
• Limit your sodium

Recently we became "empty nesters". That means I am no longer cooking for 3 and whoever(s) shows up at the door (at dinner time) or comes home from band practice with our daughter. (Side note, we LOVED those days and miss them.) I am also not revolving & planning around a busy school aged child's schedule. I am having to plan and cook smaller meals so we do not have left overs for days. 😄 After 4 days of the same thing, well we are tired of it. And lets be honest, do we want to "freeze" everything? I would just rather adjust and prepare accordingly. 😌 Freshly prepared food is always better. Which brings me to my most recent purchase. A 2 Quart Crockpot!  You see, to get the most efficiency out of your crock-pot it needs to be at least 2/3's full when you use it to cook a meal. I have one huge crock-pot and one standard. I found I was using the standard more and more and still not filling 1/2 full. So for less than 10 bucks I decided to invest in this little jewel. You can prepare 2-4 servings, perfect for empty nesters and takes up very little space. 

My Most Recent Crock-Pot, 2-4 Servings

By the way, all the photos in this post are made with my cell phone and a little "spruce up" in Lightroom. So please excuse the "lack" of professional quality, not that I have ever made that a priority. 😄 Below is my Beef Tips & Rice Recipe:

Beef Tips & Rice

Beef Tips Served Over Brown Basmati Rice

You want to start with lean beef cubed. It can be from a roast, sirloin, flank steak or even tenderloin. I used "stew meat" I bought at Costo. They cut it up from one of the meats that I recommended and it is very lean. Some people like to braise it, but I don't. Using enough beef tips to fill up a 1 pint ziplock bag, I just add a couple of teaspoons of cornstarch in a bowl with it and mix it well. (Seems to make a nice gravy.) I also like to slice up my veggies and have them ready. 1/2 small - medium onion, 1/2 sweet bell pepper and 1/2 of a pint of mushrooms. Add the beef and the veggies to the crock-pot. Next you want to add 1/3 cup of red cooking wine (I am sure reg wine is fine if you have it), 1 teaspoon of Braggs Amino Acids (You can find this at most health food stores like Sprouts and sometimes Publix will have it in stock.), a tablespoon of olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic. Give it all a good mix.

If you notice, I did not add salt. I am on a low sodium diet and rarely add salt to anything. You could, but we find it plenty salty with the Amino Acids and red cooking wine.

Place your lid on the pot and to cook all day turn it on the low setting. To cook 1/2 of a day cook it on the high setting. 

The Meat is Tender & Juicy and Using the Cornstarch, Makes It's Own Gravy

Brown Basmati Rice

You will want to take 1 cup of brown rice, put it in a sieve and rinse it off before cooking. Bring 2 1/2 cups of water to a boil and add 1 beef bouillon cube (adds flavor) and  the cup of  rice (rinsed). Cover with a tight-fitting lid, reduce heat to low-simmer, and cook 40 minutes. Remove from heat (with lid on!) and steam for 10 minutes.  (I purchase my brown basmati rice in bulk -small bulk- at Sprouts.)

When your rice is ready, plate it up! Add a salad or any green vegetable and you will have a wonderful, healthy meal. Comfort food (I think this qualifies) can be Healthy! One of those wonderful...

Little Things in Life

Hugs,

Missy

Opps! Almost forgot the recipe card!

Printable Link:

Beef Tips & Rice ~ Crock-Pot

If you try it out, please let me know how you like it! I love comments. Especially nice ones. 😊