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? Turnip Green Soup!

There is nothing better on a cold, chilly day than the anticipation of a hot bowl of soup. Soup that has been cooking all day in the crock pot. Today I am going to share with you a "newer" version of my Turnip Green Soup (this link is to my old version). I posted this recipe many many years ago. It came from the Birmingham News and the recipe used canned vegetables and packaged seasonings. Nothing wrong with that, I just wanted to develop the same soup the wonderful taste, but have ingredients that have less processing and no MSG. A slightly healthier version of the old. 😃 I hope that you enjoy it! 

You will need:

• 1 lb of Navy beans
• 1 package of frozen turnip greens or 1/2 packages of fresh or 1 bunch of fresh (fresh greens will increase prep time)
• 1 sweet pepper
• 2 large carrots or 4 small carrots
• 1 medium onion or 4 green onions
• 1 Tablespoon of cajun seasonings Or 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic or 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper
• package of beef sausage

Soak beans 12-24 hours in filtered water in the refrigerator, rinse then drain.

Take your package of sausages, cut lengthwise and cook in a large skillet. 

   

After the sausages have completed cooking, set them aside on paper towels to drain and to cool. This will also help to reduce the fat content of the soup. 

While the sausages are cooking cut up your vegetables and set aside.  




After the sausages have cooled enough to be handled, cut up into bite sized pieces.  After the sausages have been cut up, you are now ready to combine all of the ingredients into the slow cooker. 

 Be sure to include your spices and your stock (vegetable or beef)

 And don't forget your chopped vegetables and most importantly, The Turnip Greens! 

Served with a wedge of cornbread, I can think of nothing better on a cold night!

This recipe is both filling and satisfying. And will feed an army!  Healthy comfort food for a chilly night. Packed full of vitamins and minerals. Great for your crock pot! A hot bowl of soup on a cold winter night. One of those "Little Things in Life!"

This dish is so good! I hope that you and your family will love it as much as we do! 

Printable Recipe: Turnip Green Soup

YouTube Video

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. 😊

Blueberries: One of Nature's Superfoods

I have several summertime activities that I just love to do and one of those is going to pick blueberries. I will often go several times with a goal to pick at lease 4 gallons of blueberries to put up into the freezer.  You probably wonder what I do with all of them and you know what? that is a good question!  

First of all, we love blueberries!  They freeze well and four gallons will last us most of the year. Great for cooking, smoothies and incredible on cereal!  

The darker berries that appear to have a powder coating are really sweet & ripe

I go to a local "U-Pick" farmer to pick my berries.  Locally grown blueberries and are farm to the table fresh!  Locally grown foods, eaten over a period of time have much of the same health benefits as eating locally harvested honey.  These locally grown foods would include vegetables, fruit and meats. I will cover those benefits more at a later time in another blog post.  

Blueberries are also easy to grow yourself!  And two - three mature bushes should provide all the berries needed for your family and maybe, even your neighbors.  Birds do find them tasty as well.  So you will need to cover them with netting or an old lace tablecloth as they ripen.  

Blueberries Boost Brain Power!

Health Benefits of Blueberries

Not only are blueberries incredibly delicious, but they are also one of nature's top super foods.  The benefits of eating blueberries is amazing! Blueberries combat aging, boost the brain, fights cancer, supports digestion, promotes heart health, benefits the skin, aids in weight loss, maintains healthy bones, lowers blood pressure (by widening the arteries) & reduces LDL cholesterol.  All this packed in a 1/2 inch berry! 

One of the Highest Ranking Foods of Nutrients Per Calories

Packed full of nutrients, blueberries contain iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, sodium, manganese, zinc, copper, folate, beta-carotene, folate, choline, Vitamin A & Vitamin E.  

1 Cup of berries contains:

84 - calories

0 - cholestrerol

1.1g - protein

0.49g - fat

21g - carbohydrates 

3.6g - dietary fiber (14% of the daily requirement)

It also contains high levels of phenolic compounds: quercetin, kaempferol, myricentin & chlorogenic acid - antioxidants.  

My friend, Kim, who is my blueberry picking buddy

Picking Blueberries

It is always fun to go with a friend or family.  Children really love blueberry picking.  They pick one and put it in the bucket, they pick one and eat it and it is so fun to watch!  In fact, I eat quite a few when I pick as well. 😂 I always like to "test the bush" by sampling one berry just to make sure that bush produces a good sweet berry.  Flavor does vary from bush to bush.  

Blueberry season usually runs from the last week in June until the first or second week in August. Depending on your location and altitude. It is best to go early in the morning, before it gets too hot or early evening, as the sun is going down and it is getting cooler.  We live in the deep south and it can be 90 degrees Fahrenheit by 9:30 or 10:00 am in July. Our evenings are sometimes very warm as well.  I prefer the early mornings.  You will also need comfortable, closed toed shoes and plenty of water.  You can dehydrate quickly if it is a warm morning or evening.  

You can find "U-Pick" farms through Google or any search engine that you use or by going to your local Craigslist.  The farmers are nice, friendly and happy to have you come.  They may also have other "U-Pick" produce for you as well. The farmer I go to even has honey. I love locally produced honey! Most of the farmers have set hours that they are open for you to come and pick.  So be sure to contact them to see when they are "open".  

One plastic grocery bag will hold 1 gallon of fresh picked berries

We go through 4-6 gallons of berries a year.  I love making muffins, smoothies, pies, waffles and breads with the muffins that I pick.  We will also eat the berries straight out of the freezer (wash first) and we enjoy them on cereal or oatmeal.  They are so good picked fresh. Even when you have stored them in the freezer for a few months. The flavor is really different from store bought. I really think it is because you are enjoying the work of your hands and you have the opportunity of picking the berries at their peak.  Often times the berries you get at the store have been picked 1-2 weeks before making it to the produce shelf.  

Freezing Your Fresh Picked Blueberries

After picking your blueberries it is important to put them up right away.  They will tend to sweat and that will enable bacteria and fungi to set up causing the berries to ruin.  You will want to have some freezer bags handy.  Be sure to label them and include the date.  

Be sure to label your bags with item & date

It is not necessary to wash the blueberries before freezing.  In fact, if you wash them, it will take the natural protective coating off and when you freeze them, the skin will become tough and the flavor of the berries will not be as good.  

Sweet Delicious Blueberries 

Using a large spoon, gently scoop the berries and fill the bag.  Best to leave a little room at the top so that the bags will store flatter as you stack them in the freezer.  (See bottom photo.)

Start scooping gently with a large spoon

Blueberries freeze so well. You can take from the bag what you need, reseal the bag and return to the freezer and the remaining berries will be fine.  Be sure to wash the berries before eating or using in cooking, smoothies or salads.  

2 gallons will make 6 pints and 4 quarts of delicious, sweet berries that will last all year!

The berries will taste best the first 6-9 months after freezing.  After 9 months they will still be great for cooking or smoothies.  I have discovered a bag that got lost in the freezer that was put up a couple of years before. The berries were fine for cooking.  

Blueberries are one of nature's finest foods. Packed with nutrients, antioxidants, lowers blood pressure and cholesterol.  They freeze well so that you and your family can enjoy their wonderful sweet flavor and health benefits all year long.  

And blueberries are one of those...

...Little Things in Life

Hugs,

Missy!