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
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.
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| 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. |
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| 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.
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