Egg Cupcakes & Berry Chocolate Smoothie

I wont bore you with everything, but I did make the egg cupcakes again this morning.  Only instead of the usual vegetables, I changed it up a bit.  I put onions, sun-dried tomatoes & feta cheese in the mix.  The cheese melted throughout and didn't leave a cheese feel at all, so next time perhaps a little clump of feta to be melted on the top.  Experiments, it's what makes making food fun.

The big tryout of the day was the Berry Chocolate smoothie I found in Sarah Fragaso's book, Everyday Paleo.  I can't seem to find the recipe at her site, but I found the book at my Costco and you can see the link to Amazon for the book.

I'd run to Trader Joe's this morning, because I'd run out of Coconut milk and I had to have it for my coffee, that's when I remembered the smoothie recipe I'd seen in her book the night before.  And I caved and purchased a bag of very berry medley and some bananas.  To this I combined, coconut milk, Ghirardelli's cocoa powder, & almond butter.  This was all after I realized we did not have a blender, because it was the attachment to our Bullet, which broke.  So down came the food processor and it did a fairly good job.  There were a lot of seeds left over, but it tasted oh so yummy.

I seared some Chicken and apple sausages from Trader Joe's and our breakfast was complete.  A nice simple brunch feel, I'm satisfied and feel like I can work the day's early morning carbs away on the island tonight.

Leftover Omelet

This morning I made for us an omelet, made the way I did the French Omelet.  One large one in the griddle, with leftovers from last night.  Hamburger meat with onions, bell pepper, sun-dried tomatoes, oregano, basil, salt, pepper, mozzarella cheese & tomato sauce.

It was delicious, quick and tasty.  Large enough to satiate our hunger and tide us over for a bit.  I used 8 eggs, so it was definitely filling.  A couple of pictures are included... something simple and easy for a morning meal.

Pizza

I'm a mess in the kitchen, cutting and stirring and sauteing, however in the end the pizza looks great.  I've got left over meat for tomorrow's planned breakfast and I'm happy with the outcome.  I think next time I'd make the pizza on a pizza stone, so it can be bigger.

I'll say this much, the pizza is a thick crust that's for sure.  And it's grain free.  It is a primal pizza in that there is cheese.  I can't go without my cheese, and there is cheese in the crust.  This is the recipe that Adam found a couple of days ago and you can find it at How to Eat and Live.

I chopped up some bell pepper and mushrooms.  Opened a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, and sauteed some hamburger meat with onions and garlic.  Used mozzarella cheese for the topping as well.  A can of Trader Joe's tomato sauce with oregano, basil, salt and pepper was the base.

I'm letting it cool down now.  Can't wait to feast on this pizza and not feel guilty at all.  Here's hoping to it tasting good.  Oh, I also have to get a salad prepared.

Banana Bread

I've taken longer than normal to post this experience, mostly because it's the worst thing I've cooked.  I mean it tastes good, but looks not good.  I can't even show you a good picture of what it should look like.  In going back over the way it was cooked, the only thing I can think is that I used too much water in the date mixture, because the bread didn't cook in the middle.

Our oven generally runs hot, I don't know why it didn't run hotter today, but live and learn.  I did promise failures as well as success and I need to remember that I'm not a professional chef, nor even a trained one.  I'm just a guy who picked up a cookbook and began cooking.  So, without further ado, I present to you a couple pictures of Banana Bread.  The recipe and a beautiful picture of the bread can be found on The Food Lover's Kitchen.

Salad bar at work

I filled it with the best things they had, mixed greens, chicken, turkey, grapes, mushrooms, sliced squash, slivered almonds, & sunflower seeds.

They had a raspberry dressing, I took that as well as olive oil with balsamic vinegar and olive oil with raspberry vinegar. You take what you can get when surrounded by bready, carbed up foods.

French Omelet

I made the decision to be the one who makes the food in this house.  Not that Adam can't cook, he can, he does very well.  However, I really want to eat the foods I want to eat and I can't expect him to make the foods I want to make.

So, with that being said, I waited too long to make breakfast.  He had a skype meeting at 11am, so I gave him noshy food to carry him to our lunch.  Where I made a most delicious French Omelet that I found in the best cookbook.

I made one little change, since we do eat cheese, I added some shredded cheddar jack cheese in with the ham.  I made two of these on our double long griddle.  I've included a couple of pictures, one which is the perfect cookbook picture and the one that looks like how most of us do things, a little deconstructed.

I have to say, they both tasted amazing.  Since it became a lunch, I added mixed greens with some heirloom tomatoes and a side of fresh blackberries.

Great way to start the day.

Sunday Breakfast

MENU

Bacon - Ends & Pieces from Trader Joe's.
Fried Eggs
Vanilla Pancakes - Recipe from The Food Lovers Kitchen
Toppings - Blackberries, Pure Maple Syrup, Sunflower Butter, & Honey

BACON

I really love the ends & pieces from Trader Joe's, it's clunky bits and stringy pieces that give you the best taste in the mornings.  Something that's great about this bacon for Sunday morning breakfasts, is that there is just the right type of bacon for everyone at the table.  I noticed that my grill burns hotter at the front, so when the more done pieces were removed, I slid the pieces in the back to the front and started the second batch in the back.  Little tricks I'm discovering.

FRIED EGGS

Cooked the eggs in the bacon fat, delicious, they didn't even need salt or pepper on them.  Flipping the eggs really worked this time, I waited till the eggs were slippery on the griddle, slid the spatula under them and slowly flipped them over.  Just the right consistency, on the plate they weren't too runny and just hard enough.  Even the daughter who hates eggs ate them this morning.

VANILLA PANCAKES

The link to these delicious pancakes can be found above in the menu.  I've made the cinnamon ones the past couple of weeks, but I wanted a change.  I had originally planned on making coconut bread so I could make some french toast, but I stalled and stalled and the next thing I knew it was 11pm Saturday night and I just said, oh well.  The next morning I discovered that Hayley also had a vanilla pancake recipe and it was very well received.

TOPPINGS

For toppings I found a bag of defrosted blackberries, that were juicy and as delicious on the pancakes as they were on the side.  We have picky eaters with the kids, so I also offered pure maple syrup, sunflower butter (sunflower seeds), & honey.  The choices for toppings are endless and I might explore different options later.

All in all the breakfast feast was well received and the best comment was from daughter #2, who said she was full.  And I got a round of applause from the family after their plates were cleared.  What a great morning.