My Favorite Breakfast

With my wedding only 3.5 months away, I have started my wedding diet. Since crash diets don't work for me, I had to make changes to my daily diet that I could maintain over a long period of time. The biggest change I have made is around breakfast. I adapted a recipe from the South Beach Diet, which has really helped. It's a breakfast frittata, which I make on Sunday, parcel out into individual Tupperware containers, then I take one to work each day. It's filling, tasty, and very satisfying. I find that when I have one of these frittatas for breakfast I can have a later and smaller lunch, which leads to a small, early dinner. So all in, I think that I am taking in less calories, and seem to be losing about a pound a week, which isn't crazy, but sustainable. I will say, this isn't proven anywhere and may not work for everyone, but it works for me.

With that preamble, here's the recipe. Look for notes at the end of ways to mix it up..

Basic Breakfast Frittata

1-2 tsp of olive oil
1 bag frozen spinach (preferably, not chopped)
1 bag frozen broccoli
1 clove of garlic
1/2 medium onion
1 dozen eggs
1/2 cup of non-fat milk
1-2 TBS salt (optional)
pepper (as needed)
1-2 handfuls Shredded cheddar cheese (or any of your favorite cheeses)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Defrost the spinach and broccoli in the microwave. They do not need to be hot, just not frozen. Ring out/drain any excess water from the vegetables. Set aside

Whisk eggs, milk, salt, and pepper, in a mixing bowl. Set aside

Heat oil in a pan. On low-medium heat cook onions until soft, lightly season with salt and pepper. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Turn up heat to medium/high. Add defrosted spinach and broccoli. Saute until heated through. Add additional salt and pepper as desired.

Once vegetables are finished cooking, place them in a 6x9 inch baking dish, in an even layer. Then whisk the eggs briefly and add to dish. With a fork make sure that eggs have surrounded all of the vegetables and settled to the bottom. Then add cheese to the top of the dish in an even layer. With the back of your fork, make sure that most of the cheese is slightly submerged beneath the eggs.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. To test when the frittata is finished, poke a toothpick in the center of the frittata. If it comes out dry, then your frittata is finished. If it's still a a little wet, leave it in the oven until finished. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting into it.

To reheat place single service frittata on a plate and microwave for 2-3 minutes depending on thickness of frittata. Service with your favorite accompaniment.

Options:
-Sauteed mushrooms with garlic
-add a layer of frozen potatoes to the bottom
-red peppers, corn, peas, any of your favorite vegetables or leftovers will work
- bacon, sausage, ham, etc.. are also a nice addition, although not as healthy as the vege version

Lunchtime Reading

How to Make, Cure, and Smoke Homemade Bacon - YUM! imafoodblog.com, may have just become a new favorite. I love knowing how to make things from scratch (note: gravlax) and they have all kinds of delicious recipes on the site. If I make the bacon, I'll let you know how it goes.

The winners of the James Beard Awards were announced last night. Nate Appleman from A16 won for Rising Start Chef and Douglas Keane of Cyrus won for Best Chef - Pacific Region. Congratulations!!

Have you noticed all of the changes on OpenTable lately, customer reviews, restaurants mapped by location, etc... Well, it looks like this could all be part of their plan to IPO this year. Sounds like this has been in the works since January and should it happen, the influx of capital could add some interesting new features to the site. We shall see.

Ever wondered what a ramp is? Check out norecipes.com ingredients tab. They have a description and picture of the item, they tell you where you can get it and how best to use it (including recipes). They even have nutrition information. I'm loving it right now.

Lunchtime reading

During my daily read through the LA Times Food Blog, I discovered that one of the writers is covering 1,001 things to do with bacon. I was immediately drawn to it and found out 1. that a 115 year old woman regularly eats bacon and 2. a recipe for chicken-fried bacon. YUMMY! What could be more tasty than deep fried bacon with a ranch dipping sauce? Of course, this will be one of those dishes, I will probably never make, but wish that someone else would, just so I could have a taste. Then again, if a 115 year old woman can eat bacon her entire life, then why shouldn't I try it.. If I do end up giving it a whirl, I'll let you know...