Surprise! An Entry!

I've been thinking about this blog lately, and pondering the idea of starting back up with entries. We're not really "on the move" anymore (at least for the moment), but we've started on a different kind of journey. J has been working hard to lose weight since he left on deployment last year, and I've finally jumped on the bandwagon too. So now we're both watching our nutrition and working out, things that up til now, have always been too hard, too much trouble, or just a reminder of how bad off we were.

Now that I'm a stay-at-home-puppy mom and Pampered lady (thanks to both J's love and my Pampered Chef business, insert cheesy groan here), I've had the time, energy, and inclination to actually start cooking for fun again. Plus, many of my old standby's don't really fit into the meal plan anymore, so I'm constantly looking out for heathly, tasty dishes that don't taste like diet food. And thanks to Pinterest (follow me, we can be addicted together!), I have a seemingly endless supply of recipe ideas, already pre-screened by other helpful people on the web. I've been posting pictures on Facebook, but I've been thinking it'd be fun to add some commentary, maybe even pictures of the process. And then I remembered that we already have a blog!  Hey, isn't that convenient!

So, my inaugural entry (again) is here!  Whoo hoo!  Cue the fireworks and horns!  Ok, maybe not. Anyway, here goes. Last night I was thinking about breakfast, and how weekend breakfast is so much more decadent than weekday breakfast and how awesome that is. Going out to breakfast/brunch on the weekends is tough to justify in the healthy meal plan, but I figured I could whip up something just as tasty and rich that DID fit in. So I searched Pinterest for "weekend breakfast" and found a plethora of delicious-looking recipes. I'd tell you to go try it for yourself, but I'd never get you back here... you'd get lost in the deliciousness. So suffice it to say, try it for yourself, sometime when you've got a little time to spare.  

I was completely enthralled by two ideas: baked oatmeal (with pumpkin!) found at a blog called Budget Bytes and baked eggs by Kay at Kayotic Kitchen.

I mean, how am I supposed to pass up that picture? Breakfast + pumpkin + whipped cream = heaven!

and then there was this.... it's like a little mini omelette/fritatta/quiche, but with non-scrambled eggs. (if I had to rank all the ways to have eggs, I'm not sure scrambled would make even the top 10. Over medium and benedict are neck-and-neck for that #1 spot!)

OK, so after much debate, and literally hearing my stomach growl after studying these recipes for entirely too long last night, I just decided I'd have to make them both and see how they turned out.

I started the Baked Oatmeal first, since it cooks longer. The recipe's pretty simple, and came together very easily.  Besides being bright orange, it just looks like really soupy oatmeal when it goes in the oven. I didn't have "pumpkin pie spice" but luckily, I had already pinned a recipe (from a site called My Baking Addiction - I think I'll be revisiting them!) to make it from what's already in my pantry.  I mostly just pulled out cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, cloves, and allspice and threw some in. Didn't really worry about proportions much. Otherwise, I followed the recipe to a T.

While the Oatmeal was in the oven, I started working on the baked egg. The recipe is obviously one that she changes up depending on what's in the pantry, so I made some adjustments to use what I had. First, the recipe makes 2 baked eggs, but I really only needed one. I started to just cut everything half, but by doing that, I'd have alot of little random leftover bits of vegetables, which seems pretty pointless. So instead, I made the whole recipe, and put half of everything in a bowl, ready to add an egg and bake later this week. Might even have it for lunch one day. It's actually a pretty complete meal, minus some kind of carb... So, I chopped up half an onion, then added in some red bell pepper and garlic (because what kind of recipe makes savory breakfast and doesn't include garlic and bell pepper?), and used cherry tomatoes, because that's what I had.  I had deli turkey, so I used that instead of ham. I could easily see it with leftover fajita meat, or bacon on a splurge day. I sauteed the veggies and turkey and split the mixture into two 1-cup prep bowls. I started to put them into 2-cup bowls, but that seemed too big. The 1-cup size turned out perfect. I think you could use a coffee mug if you didn't have a prep bowl or ramekin. You'd just have a pretty big gap between the food and the top of the mug.

I followed the recipe and sprinkled a little grated cheese on top of my veggies & turkey. In the currency of healthy eating, cheese is a pretty "expensive" ingredient, so I debated adding it. I could afford the calories today, and went pretty light on it, so I decided to leave it. The cheesiness was nice, so I think I'll leave that in. I might do a slightly different flavor profile and try and Parmesan or Feta next time.

So then comes the egg.  You make a well/indent in the veggie/meat/cheese mixture, and then basically just crack the egg over the top of everything, and let it settle in. I missed the part in the recipe about the well, but my yolk didn't break when I cracked the egg, so I just stuck my fingers in, pushed a well under where the egg was, and broke the yolk all at once. She says to use a "sharp tool" to break the yolk. I thought, "ehhh, a fingers are close enough." Most versatile tools in the kitchen, according to Alton Brown. I agree.

By this time, the oatmeal had about 5 minutes left. I feel the need to mention that it did not take me 40 minutes to do all that stuff for the egg. I washed dishes and started coffee first. Then there was some putzing around on the websites, getting distracted by Facebook, etc. The stuff for the egg took 15 minutes, maybe, including getting it all out of the fridge and putting back the leftovers. So, the bowl I used for the egg is pretty small, and I was afraid it would not rest evenly on the oven rack, and since I didn't want egg and stuff falling all over the bottom of my oven, I put it in my smallest stoneware piece to keep it level. I put it in the oven right next to the oatmeal, then moved it to the middle of the rack when I pulled the oatmeal out. I also upped the temp to 375 at that point. I think because I started it at a little lower temp, it took almost 20 minutes for my egg to bake.

So... big reveal... Here's the finished product.

The egg white dripped down into the veggie mixture and looked delicious when it came out of the oven. The white was cooked through and the yolk was just the right amount of runny for my over-medium taste. The texture and consistency of the mixture made me wish there were potatoes in it. Maybe that's just because I'm a firm believer that all breakfasts are improved by potatoes. Seems like it would be easy to add that, though I'd cut out some volume from the rest, since it was already almost too much "filling."

The oatmeal came out perfect! The texture is just like I like my oatmeal - fully saturated, but nice and thick. I'm currently eating it with a fork, no added milk or anything. Though I can definitely see the appeal of eating it warm, drenched in cream. I'll probably steer clear of the cream part, though I might warm it up and throw a little milk on top later this week. It makes 8 good-sized servings, so it'll last me all week. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Here's the nutritional info, for those who are interested:

Baked Oatmeal:   Calories: 207  Fat: 3.9g  Sat. Fat: 1.6g  Cholesterol: 49.9mg  Sodium: 236.8mg  Carbs: 57.7  Fiber: 6.9g  Sugar: 22.4g  Protein: 6.8g

Baked Egg:     Calories: 161  Fat: 8.1g  Sat. Fat: 3.2g  Cholesterol: 204.6mg  Sodium: 407.8mg  Carbs: 8.7g  Fiber: 1.7g  Sugar: 1g  Protein: 14g