11. Eggs In Pepper Rings With Spicy Potatoes

Are you on Pinterest?  If you aren't then you have a choice to make - check it out and become addicted, or avoid it at all costs and enjoy more productive free time.  For those of you who don't know, Pinterest is a social media site where you create "boards" and "pin" interesting or useful links for safe-keeping.  It's especially great for organizing online recipes, craft ideas, travel tips, etc.  Well, being an egg-fanatic, I have an entire board dedicated to various egg recipes or ideas and this idea was a simple and easy one that I have been wanting to try.  It just so happened that I had an extra bell pepper and potato laying around and my husband LOVES peppers, so I thought today was the day!

What I used:

• 2 eggs
• 1 potato
• 1 bell pepper
• 1 small onion
• Pepperjack cheese
• Cajun seasoning
• Salt & pepper
• Butter

 

I wanted to knock the potatoes out first since they would take a little longer.  I peeled one potato (peelings straight into the compost!) and cut it up into very small pieces to make sure it cooked more quickly.  Then, I chopped up a small onion and mixed it in.

Potatoes and onions.

One and a half tablespoons of butter.

After throwing the potatoes and onions in the pan and stirring them up with the butter, I added a very healthy dose of Cajun seasoning as well as salt & pepper.  The hubs and I like our food with a kick!  If you prefer something less spicy, you can get away with simple seasoning salt and a little black pepper.  If you want it spicier, then a few dashes of cayenne.

Seasoned potatoes on medium heat...

...end up looking delicious like this!

While the potatoes are cooking in the pan, get your bell pepper washed and cut into rings.

I had an orange pepper on-hand,
but any color would work.

Unfortunately, I had to cut out a
soft spot, so one of my rings
turned into more of a "C" shape.

I put the potatoes in the oven to keep them warm while I moved on to the fun, eggy part.

Half a tablespoon of butter, then
raise the heat and set the peppers in.

Once the peppers have started to cook,
put the heat on low to medium-low &
crack the eggs inside the pepper rings.

Cover the pan and keep checking on
the eggs until the whites are *mostly*
set - you still want them slightly snotty.

Add some slices or shreds of cheese -
I used pepperjack - and cover the eggs
back up for another 30 seconds or so.

YUMMY.  Now, I need to come a little bit clean about something... I did not personally taste this endeavor.  To be perfectly honest, I'm not so in love with the taste of bell peppers that I want a mouthful of them.  However, the "egg in a pepper ring" creates such a pretty presentation that I enjoyed making it.  Plus, the husband looooves peppers.  In fact, and I'm actually a little dismayed by this, he told me that this was his favorite way he has ever eaten eggs.  SERIOUSLY?!  After all the omelets and quiches and sandwiches and however many other egg dishes I have served him, this super simple method is what rocks his world?  Though to be fair, I think he says that every time I serve him something new.... ;)

The good news is this:  The "egg in pepper rings" is extremely simple and easy, it has a lovely presentation, and according to my husband it "tastes so #*@%ing good."

So give it a shot (if you like peppers) and impress someone with this clever idea!

Love & Eggs,

Laura

These eggs brought to you by Dory and Sophie.

 

9. Doggy Bag Steak 'n Eggs



I'm certain, absolutely certain, you have heard of "Steak & Eggs" before, but in the ridiculous case that I should be wrong about something, let me quickly explain: It's steak.  With eggs.  It's steak and eggs together in one meal, and it's something that people eat sometimes.  There, that's over with.

If you order steak & eggs at a diner or restaurant you'll actually get a whole steak, eggs, toast, and possibly potatoes too.  That is entirely too much for one meal, in my opinion, especially breakfast.  However, the flavor combination of tender steak with runny egg yolk is MMMMMM.  Luckily for me, last week was my 3rd wedding anniversary.  In an effort to prevent us from spending our "special day" eating frozen pizza or whatever else we have stocked and can be made in the 20 minutes from when I get home to when I'm so ravenously hungry I start to scream and throw things, I made a reservation at one of my favorite steak houses in St. Louis, Citizen Kane's.

While I usually get the filet, I opted for a New York Strip this time - mostly because it was the same price and it's bigger so I thought that seemed to make sense.  Did I like it as much as a filet?  No, and I'll probably revert back to my usual order the next time I'm fortunate enough to convince my husband it's ok to spend $150 on dinner (we like wine AND dessert).  However, I managed to bring home half my steak, plus a little bit of leftover creamed spinach and mashed potatoes which means I'll manage to make three meals out of my order, so that's nice.

Since I don't usually have extra steak laying around, I thought this was an excellent opportunity to make a "Steak 'n Eggs" breakfast.  It also plays into one of the themes of this blog which, if you haven't picked up on it, is that with a little creativity and an open mind, you could eat eggs every day of your life and never get bored with it.  Sometimes you can even get creative with non-breakfast related leftovers.

So, here's what I took home from Citizen Kane's:

• Approximately 4 ounces of New York Strip steak
• Less than 1/4 of a cup of garlic mashed potatoes
• About 1/4 cup creamed spinach

I could have used the potatoes, but opted out.  There's enough flavor going down with the steak, spinach, and egg.

First, I slice three thin slices of steak off,
totally approximately 2 ounces.

Then, I lay them down on a micro-wave safe plate.

I heat up the spinach by zapping it for 30-
45 seconds in the microwave.

And I get the fried egg going.  Man, I never, ever
get tired of seeing beautiful photos of egg yolks.

While the egg is cooking, I nuke the steak slices for 45 seconds.  It really doesn't take much to get the steak hot and you don't want to over-cook it and dry it out.  The juices are a very good thing.

I only use a little bit of the creamed spinach - about half of what I brought home.  I spoon a little bit over each of the steak slices, and I save the rest for a second Steak 'n Eggs indulgence later.

And finally - I slide my fried egg on top of the spinach, then salt and pepper the whole thing.

Honestly, I wish this was a meal that photographed better.  I take the majority of the responsibility in that I'm not a professional food photographer, but also I just don't think this meal is easy to make visually appetizing once you start cutting into it.  You're just going to have to imaging all the different textures and flavors.

To help you imagine, I will employ nearly pornographic descriptions of how amazingly delicious each bite of this luxurious breakfast is:  The steak is so tender, I don't even need my knife to cut it... Juices seep out each time I prepare another bite.  The spinach is so rich and creamy, it's like a savory gravy that cascades over my taste buds.  The egg yolk is thick and salty, pooling on my plate in anticipation of the next bite of steak that will be used to wipe it up.  The egg itself is firm and fresh with a crispy edge, crackling slightly as I bite into it...  Ok, so did the words help?  I swear, this was one of my most delicious breakfast concoctions.

So, next time you end up with a few measly ounces of steak, you should totally give Steak 'n Eggs a try.  It's super rich and you don't need much of it to feel like you've just eaten a "splurge" breakfast.  And, not to keep harping on the calories aspect, but this breakfast was only about 250 calories.  ROCK.

Love & Eggs,

Laura

This egg brought to you by Alabama,                                                my oldest "Easter Egger" hen.





8. Feta & Dill Breakfast Quesadilla

I know I recently waxed poetic about oregano, but dill is another one of my very favorite herbs.  Actually, I love all herbs and herb-flavored foods with ONE exception: Cilantro.  I despise cilantro.  Don't try to convince me it's good, because I won't have it.  This is not to say I won't eat things that have cilantro in it.  Most salsas have at least a little bit of cilantro and I adore salsa, but as soon as the scales tip to the cilantro-extreme, NO ME GUSTA.

While oregano is definitely more versatile, dill has a crisp, refreshing herb flavor that is truly grand during the summer months.  Summer is winding down now, it's starting to be dark when I get up in the mornings and the Pumpkin Spice Latte is back at Starbuck's, but I had some feta in the fridge and thought I'd enjoy a summery breakfast one last time before I dust off my sweaters and boots.

Have you ever enjoyed a breakfast quesadilla?  They are both tasty and fun.  Similar to omelets or quiches, you stuff them with almost anything.

What you'll need:

• 2 tortillas
• 1-2 eggs
• A bit of olive oil or butter
• Crumbled feta cheese
• Dill (fresh is best, but from the pantry is just fine)
• Either a big frying pan or a panini press

I have the best-sized little frying pan in the world.  I should measure it so I could tell you what size it is, but I'd guess it's about 7 or 8 inches across.  It is the perfect size for my 1-2 egg breakfasts, whether it's an omelet or a fried egg.  It works especially well for when I make breakfast quesadillas because I can cook the egg into a perfect, thin circle, ready for placement on a cheesy tortilla.

 
First, I throw a little olive oil in my perfect little frying pan.  Then, I sprinkle some dill on top of it.  Unfortunately the dill from my herb garden died off several weeks ago, so I used the kind in a canister.

Next, I turn the heat on low-medium and while the pan is heating up a little bit, I whip up the egg(s).  I'll tell you that normally I would just use one large egg, but in this case I used a couple small eggs.  I have three "bantam" hens which are basically miniature hens.  Mine are all Japanese Silkies which are basically little fluffy muppets that freak people out when they first see them.  Anyway, the point is that since they are miniature chickens, they lay miniature eggs.  The general rule of thumb is that two bantam eggs are equivalent to one large egg.  This truly depends on the type of hen, or even the individual hen's egg.  There are some breeds of bantams that are practically the size of pigeons and lay REALLY small eggs.  Silkies are among some of the larger bantams and all three of mine lay a slightly different egg.  Because I often sell my eggs to friends and co-workers, I try to use the bantam eggs up on my own.  If someone buys eggs from me, I give them the biggest eggs and also try to include a large assortment of colors.  So, for this quesadilla, I happened to have an overstock of Silkie eggs and so I decided to use two of those instead of one of the usual big ones.  A couple of my Silkies actually lay kind of large eggs, so when I log the calories I usually estimate that two Silkie eggs is about 1.5 regular eggs.

I gently pour the egg into the pan,
pouring all around and not in the
same spot the whole time. This helps
from displacing all the dill into one spot.

Then I sprinkle some additional dill
over the top of the egg and cover the pan.

While the egg is solidifying, I pull out the other ingredients and get set up to assemble:

STEP ONE: Place tortilla on assembly surface.  This is also known as a counter or plate.  The tortillas I use are a brand called "Smart & Delicious" from La Tortilla Factory.  They have a lot of flavors, but I always get the 100% whole wheat.  If I ever have an option for 100% whole grain when it comes to ANY of my starches, that's almost always what I go with.  The best thing?  These tortillas are only FIFTY calories each.  If you actually read the nutritional content of things, you might already know that most tortillas are 100-200 calories a piece.  It's no wonder why I stock up on them when I can and find all kind of fun uses for them.

STEP TWO: Sprinkle feta over the tortilla.  It would be tastier with more than what is pictured, but I'm trying to limit my calorie intake, so I tried to keep my love of cheese slightly restrained.  For this quesadilla I used feta crumbles that come in a 6 oz. tub from Trader Joe's.  They have both regular flavor and also one with "Mediterranean Herbs" which is what I always get.  I love herby flavors.

STEP THREE: If you really only did about one egg, then it should probably be cooked by now. Slide it out of the pan and lay it on top of the cheesed tortilla.  See how perfect the size of my pan is for this?

STEP FOUR: More cheese on top!

STEP FIVE: Place the second tortilla on top of the whole shebang.

Ok, so now you have the quesadilla assembled, but it requires some grilling to make it delectable.  You could easily use a large frying pan or a griddle.  I really love using my panini press for these.  I pretty much love using my panini press for EVERYTHING.  If I'm really honest with myself, aside from all my sweet fiesta dinnerware, my panini press is probably one of my most-used wedding gifts. 

These little tortillas fit perfectly!  I also wanted to show a good side-view of the quesadilla.  Usually when you get a quesadilla out at a restaurant it is a monstrous thing.  These 50-calorie tortillas I are only about 8 inches across and with a little cheese and a single egg, it's actually a pretty small but very satisfying breakfast.  If you're the kind of person that eats in the car (I'm not) then this is also a good "on the go" type of breakfast.

I like my quesadillas to get pretty crispy, so I probably had this in the panini press for several minutes.  It doesn't hurt it at all to check periodically to get it to your desired "doneness."  If I wasn't always looking for ways to minimize my caloric intake, I would absolutely eat this with a little bit of Greek yogurt mixed with some lemon juice and dill, or full-blown tzatziki sauce.  But I love that ish way to much would end up using my quesadilla to scoop that creamy goodness down my throat and straight to my waistline.

In total, this little meal features 100 calories of tortilla, 70-90 calories of egg, 40 calories of feta (one of the many reasons I love feta is that strong flavor makes a little go a long way AND it's fairly low in calories compared to other cheeses), and 40-50 calories of olive oil.  I consider "low-calorie" breakfasts to be anything under 200 calories, but I don't think 250-270 calories for a filling and fun breakfast is too shabby!

Love & Eggs,

Laura

These two Silkie eggs brought to you by Sally, our little hen who thinks she's one of the big girls.

7. 160 Calorie Fried Egg Breakfast

I absolutely adore my family, really I do.  I get as excited for Christmas as I did as a kid and it's not because of presents - it's because I get to spend a lot of time with all of my family, even the ones that live out of town.  Well, to be perfectly honest, my excitement is about 70% family-time, 20% "the spirit of the season," and 10% due to food.  I'm really into food.

Anyway, the point is this - I love my family and I love food.  Unfortunately, along with my delightful sense of humor, passion for reading, adorable freckles, and virtually hair-less arms, I also received the gift of a slow metabolism.  I didn't always have problems with my weight, but somewhere around my senior year of college, I must have triggered the curse.  I know this is something a lot of people deal with, especially women, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating.  Especially when some of my other gifts include a deep, uncompromising love of food and the ability to make it.

I have tried all kinds of diets - the 14 day diet, detoxifying diets, Nutri-system, low-carb, vegetarian, and so on.  However, and this shouldn't shock anyone, the only thing that ever really worked for me was a very low-calorie diet.  I tried 2,000 calories a day... nothing.  I tried 1,500 calories a day... almost nothing.  The only number that seemed to give me "healthy weight loss" rates of 1-3 lbs. a week was somewhere between 1,000-1,200 calories a day.  And before anyone jumps all over me about it, I did discuss it with my doctor.

Geez, that was the most boring, self-absorbed blog intro EVER.  The only reason I started out by giving you some of my personal background is that: (A) If you are on a very calorie-restricted diet, you can't really blow much on your breakfast because lunch and dinner are more social and therefore usually end up being the higher-calorie meals of the day, (B) I am a FIRM believer that eating eggs in the morning, especially paired with a whole grain, keep you full all the way until lunch, and (C) I can't stay on a "diet" if I don't feel satisfied by my meals, meaning not only do I need to feel full, but I need to feel like I ate something tasty.

So, it's pretty great that places like Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's have breakfast sandwiches that are touted as being under 300 calories, but if I can have a great breakfast - at home and less costly, for HALF those calories... well, then Hallelujah!

This is the "recipe" for my 150-160 calorie breakfast that is gooey, filling, satisfying and utterly delicious!  I'll warn you in advance that I'll totally be pimping a couple specific brands, but I think you'll understand why.

Ingredient #1: one toasted slice of Healthy Life brand whole wheat bread.  If you don't have Healthy Life products in your grocery store, I'm so very, very sorry.  This brand is amazing.  They make hot dog buns, hamburger buns, and lots of different kids of bread.  You can see right there on the package that they like to label themselves "the dieter's dream" and they are RIGHT.  Each slice of this bread only has 35 calories.  In case you didn't realize, the average slice of sandwich bread (whether it is whole wheat or white) is 70-100 calories.  Which means, if you make a little, boring sandwich for lunch, your could still end up with a 400 calorie sandwich without chips or a drink or anything.  There are some other low-calorie bread options out there... I think Sara Lee makes one that is 45 calories a slice... But I'm pretty partial to Healthy Life because I can get 100% whole grain, with no hydrogenated oils, and the bag is made of #4 LDPE recyclable plastic.  All things to love.

Ingredient #2: Kraft fat-free, American cheese slice.  Listen, I lean HEAVILY towards a "clean" and "natural" diet.  I buy very few processed foods, I always eat whole grains, most of my groceries include fresh fruits and vegetables (and wine), and I generally stick with meats that come from local farms.  However, there is a time and place for foods like processed cheese, and I vote for this breakfast.  Nothing gets as gooey and melty as processed cheese.  Plus, I like my food to have a variety of textures, as well as flavors.  So, I know it's not exactly in my usual arsenal of healthy foods, but it works great for this meal, is inexpensive, only has 25 calories per slice, and absolutely adds an essential component to my signature low-calorie fried egg breakfast.  I should also mention that I have looked at store brands of fat-free American cheese and it always has 5-10 calories more per slice.  Call me crazy, but I suspect that the same people make the store brands and part of the contract is to give them a good price, but keep them at a calorie disadvantage.  That's just my little theory.  So, while I might save a few dimes to get the store brand, I go for the lowest calorie option.

Ingredient #3: A fresh, delicious, fried egg.  If you haven't ever had a really, really, fresh egg, I want you to know that YES, they really do taste better.  It's certainly possible you could get a fresh one from the store, depending on how close you are to the farm and where your store fits into the distribution channel, but a farmer's market or a neighbor with chickens is your best bet.  Notice in the picture how tall the yolk sits up from pan?  That's one way to tell a fresh egg from an older egg.  If the yolk lays flat, it's a little older.  That doesn't mean it's bad, by any means.  But one thing I've noticed is that the fresher the egg is, and the taller the yolk sits, the better your fried or sunny-side up eggs will turn out.  Flatter yolks cook a lot quicker so you can end up with an "over hard" or "over medium" when you intended an "over easy."  I fried this egg in a thin coating of extra-virgin olive oil, but use whatever you like best, just try to keep the layer very thin to minimize calories.  A "large" egg has an average of 70 calories.  I add another 20-30 calories to account for the fat needed to fry it.  You could certainly poach the egg to cut it down even more, but I'm usually making this breakfast before work and fried eggs are a little quicker and more convenient.

STEP ONE: Place the piece of toast on a plate. 
It generally works best if you put the "toastier" side down, as that
keeps the crispy texture intact after you add the cheese and egg.

STEP TWO: Place the cheese slice on top of the toast.

STEP THREE: Place the fried egg on top of the cheese slice.

OMG, it's so simple, right?  You're totally thinking, "this is so dumb, I could totally do that and not need a blog to show me how."  But still, if you are a calorie-counter, you should give it a try.  The whole grains add fiber, while the egg is a great source of vitamins and protein.  The cheese melts between the toast and egg which gives every single bite a luscious texture and flavor, especially when you cut down the middle and watch that golden yolk spill out on the plate, begging you to cut off a bite and dip it into the puddle of deliciousness.

Is it low-calorie?  CHECK.  Does it keep me full for 4+ hours?  CHECK.  Does it satisfy my need to eat tasty food?  DOUBLE CHECK.  This is why my "low-calorie fried egg breakfast" is my default setting for most weekday mornings. 

Love & Eggs,

Laura

This egg brought to you by Alabama, our "Easter Egger" hen with an attitude and a penchant for escaping which led to a dog incident, which led to a surgery, which led to her missing a lot of feathers around her neck and I'm beginning to suspect they'll never grow back. (picture taken before the incident with all neck feathers intact)