Eggs

Salsa Omelet on Avocado Toast (+ a few other fave egg dishes)

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above: omelet shown on two pieces of toast

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~after lightning, hail!

Back home after two glorious weeks away and facing a birthday dinner party as well as the 4th of July weekend, I somehow found myself getting a bit on the tired side of grilling. I mean, that’s summer; right? But occasionally it’s too hot — or too stormy — to get out on that deck. Or, like any other time of the year, I sometimes want a meal that’s done faster than the lightning I watch way out east. And that’s what eggs, now at a bit more reasonable price (thank you Jesus) are good for. But I’m not jonesing for something akin to boiled eggs with Triscuits, though I’d eat that happily and soon enough were I famished on a car trip. Or even if I weren’t famished, to be truthful. I’m leaning into an omelet on a nice plate with vegetables and toast, please and thank you. I don’t want to be hungry in an hour and I want something to snug up to a glass of very cold rosé. Or two. If you want testament to my egg love, just type “eggs” into the search box and see what happens. Or click on “Breakfast and Brunch” in the search cloud. Or you could just scroll down here to: “If you liked this, you might also like…” I do make a slew more than ever end up on the blog. You’ll have to follow me on fb to see at least a few more egg dream meals. But for today, let’s look at a quick and cheery salsa omelet slung over a piece (or two) of avocado toast, crowned with diced sweetly ripe tomatoes, then garnished with a sprig of basil (or cilantro? cheese? minced scallions?) on top for grins or giggles.

Oh, what’s a salsa omelet? Well, honey, I guess it could be a few things but at our house, it’s an omelet where the eggs are whisked together with salsa instead of water or cream. Yep. And it’s awfully good.

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Cottage Cheese Frittata

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26 grams of protein and about 8 grams of fiber to start your day off right
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If you’re in the same spot I am, you’ve survived the holidays but are struggling to get everything put away (my tree isn’t gone yet, though it’s on its way), get yourself back to a routine (including a workout routine, ugh), and get on track mentally and physically. Let me help; I might have you sorted for a healthy breakfast, at least. While I regularly consume eggs and vegetables each morning — and I’m not on cholesterol meds yet at 71 — I’ve just recently upped the ante to more than double my morning protein grams. And, “How?” you ask. By whisking into my eggs a 1/2 cup of non-fat cottage cheese along with a good scoop of last night’s cooked veggies to make a filling, luscious and light Cottage Cheese Frittata. (frih-TAH-tah) Now I’ve added cottage cheese to the middle of an omelet or on top of toast a time or two with tomatoes, but have never mixed and cooked eggs and cottage cheese together. This is a game changer! First: You have cheesy eggs, which you don’t often have while watching your calories. Next: You have a meal full of vegetables and can check morning fiber right off your to-do list. And last and maybe best: This doesn’t take long; isn’t expensive; and keeps you full right up until lunchtime or beyond.

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KIDS BAKE MOTHER’S DAY: Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake

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Are homey cakes best? Try mine and see!
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Wasn’t it just New Years? Or at least Valentine’s Day? I only yesterday took the Easter runner off my piano. Geez, Alyce. After a month away from home, hearth, dog, and blog, I was –after getting a little reacclimated — amazed to see Mother’s Day coming up quickly on the heels of Cinco de Mayo. The time simply runs. Perhaps you, too, have yet to make the first plan for Sunday, May 12, 2024, but you might start right here with nearly the simplest of sweet treats, my Blueberry Streusel Coffee Cake–which you can throw together and slide into the oven in truly a few minutes. If you are a really good soul (and you are, right?) and are baking with a local kiddo, it might take a few more. And if you’re skipping Mother’s Day all together, go ahead and bake this for yourself or have a favorite neighbor in for coffee. Don’t wait. Everyone should have a 9″x 13″ coffee cake in their back pocket and if you’ve not yet found yours, claim this one now. It’s fast, inexpensive, easy, flexible, and requires no chopping of fruit since it’s made with toss-in-the-bowl blueberries. Frozen work as well as fresh; just rinse and use — no thawing necessary. One thing about this cake is: it’s really a cake, by golly. This isn’t bread masquerading as cake. There’s a bu** load of sugar and even more fat than that and you’ll darned well like it when you eat it, I promise you. Diet another day and make sure the coffee is hot, good, and strong (just like mom!) while you’re at it.

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Eggcellent Veggie Burrito

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Going on vacation next week....details at the end of the post. 
See you in September!

When I was a younger woman, I had no time for breakfast. Of course I choked down all the coffee I could manage and then, on high throttle, ran to catch the bus for work or jumped in the car to run kids to school. By lunch I was Starved with a capital “S” and surely ate more than I needed. I particularly remember drinking chocolate milk with my noon meal every day for one year of my short teaching career. (I also had to buy new and larger pants that year. It only takes one constant change, you see.) It wasn’t that I hadn’t been raised to eat a good morning meal; I had. Thanks, Dad. Somehow that daily oatmeal had gotten lost in the shuffle along the way, perhaps at college, much to my detriment. One fateful fall, however, weight having finally gotten the best of me, I joined Weight Watchers (WW). The doctor also called me on my caffeine habit; sigh. (I drink half-caff now so I can still have a humongous mugful.) If you know anything about WW and particularly old school WW –before points–you’ll know you must eat breakfast. You’ll fall flat on your face if you don’t. While I’m still a faithful member of the WW tribe (I’d be even larger if I weren’t), I also have become even more attached to the idea of a filling, substantial breakfast so I don’t lean into snacking or want two lunches. Plus I simply love breakfast!

Aside: Why have I done WW for so long? It keeps me honest. Can’t forget that ice cream bar if you’re tracking everything you eat.

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egg salad blt sandwiches for the start of summer and beyond

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Summer in a Sandwich
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There’s nothing like a BLT in the summer and I thought I’d just about exhausted the possibilities for variations on that particular theme until one day I had some leftover bacon and was nursing a sudden yen for egg salad at the same time. Next thing I knew, there were egg salad BLTs on the table and much happy wonder to be had right alongside them. I mean, it is bacon and eggs, after all! I think they’re now on the permanent lunch or lazy dinner rotation and not only for summer.

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FRIDAY FISH: Tuna-Egg Muffin Marinara

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Yes, you’re certainly right; this is an oddly named breakfast! Have another name? Let me know.

Welcome to FRIDAY FISH, 2023! I’ll take any of you along on my journey and be glad for the company. This is the 10th year I’ve created seven weeks of new fish and seafood recipes for FRIDAY FISH during Lent. If you’d like to see previous years’ recipes, click on “Friday Fish” or “Fish and Seafood” or a specific like “Salmon“ or “Tuna” in the subject cloud. Happy fishing!

LOOKING FOR FAT OR SHROVE TUESDAY DINNER? Nothing better than Red Beans and Rice.

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We don’t typically think about fish for breakfast first off. Not too often, but there are moments. Bear with me. Consider…. Grilled trout over an open fire while on a fishing or camping trip. Roasted salmon on a creamy benedict along with a mimosa in a swanky restaurant with a view. And, if you read the Christian bible, didn’t Jesus cook fish for the disciples? (You could check John 21.) Even here on the blog, we’ve happily consumed Shrimp and Green Chile Quiche or Smoked Salmon Frittata with Horseradish Yogurt. And so, over the last several weeks as I’ve sussed out ways to increase my breakfast protein grams, I’ve more than once ran out to the garage pantry for a can of tuna, later falling in love with the fresh layered morning treat of a meal. Open-faced breakfast sandwiches like benedicts spell fat, calories, and cash but think about a similar dish where low-fat fish protein, fresh tomatoes, and eggs are the stars rather than hollandaise and smoked ham. Not that I don’t like hollandaise or ham (you know me), but it’s a once in a blue moon thing, right? Here, we go with a marinara plus a tish of Parmigiano-Reggiano to set off our tuna and I’m talking healthy enough for every day. You still get your egg(s); you for sure will have an English muffin. Do go for whole wheat or high fiber. This is happy enough to keep you totally full until lunchtime. Fast enough that you’re eating in five minutes. Maybe even feeding your best sous or partner, too. Keep your mind open. If I made this for you, you’d eat it. Honest engine.

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Breakfast Wedge

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Egg prices (@) $7.37, Yet Are Still Cheaper than Other Proteins/YAHOO

At our house, a wedge salad shows up most often in the good ol’ summertime. One week there’s a run on BLTs and the next, wedge salads begin to appear at the side of grilled burgers or chops. There’s no good reason not have them come winter, but maybe it’s about tomatoes? I would, however, be the first person to tell you homegrown Colorado tomatoes are not so terribly wonderful even in high summer. So, no. They are not Illinois tomatoes, nor are they New Jersey tomatoes. They crack from overwatering or they wait for October snows only to be ushered into the house for a very sad and slow paper bag ripening. Sometimes they’re ready (or rotted) by Thanksgiving. That said, I’ve not a true complaint as I keep a large carton of Campari tomatoes on hand 52 weeks a year. Which is why, once in a happy while during January, a summer-ish wedge makes an appearance on our dinner table, much to my husband’s thrilled amazement and big-eyed wonder. (He’s a big wedge fan because #1 he loves blue cheese and #2 he loves bacon more. If there’s a wedge on a restaurant menu, he’ll order it. Almost always.) And when I was pondering all of this the other day, ready for our January splurge, I wondered why we couldn’t have a wedge for breakfast? I love eggs with any vegetables; you might remember. I mean, nearly everyone eats Huevos Rancheros with lettuce and tomato, don’t they? Some breakfast tacos come with shredded lettuce and tiny diced tomatoes, too. What about veggie benedicts? Our favorite breakfast place serves a ton of salads with fried eggs, or avocado toast, or omelets. And anyway, bacon — a main wedge ingredient — is for sure breakfast food. So why not a BREAKFAST WEDGE? A nice hunk of blue-cheesy lettuce and some lacy fried eggs. Really crisp bacon. I couldn’t stop thinking about the idea. Maybe a side of UK grilled mushrooms and tomatoes?

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Pizza Egg Bake

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No matter how old you are, you probably have a memory of eating pizza for breakfast. While I no longer indulge in such juvenile adventures, I remember them vividly. They began during college (little pizza in my childhood as my parents thought it was junk food) when waking too late to make it to dining hall breakfast, we’d grab now-stiff slices out of a cardboard box and shove them down our throats as we ran or biked to class with little hope of making it on time. (Was there alcohol involved? Well. We’re talking college.) Years later, I won’t say I never repeated the scenario after getting my own kids off to school and running for the car to get to my own teaching or library or church job. My kids would not have been happy at my snarfing down their favorite leftovers with little thought. Somehow I don’t remember it ever coming up, but I’ll bet it did.

Today’s recipe and post does away with the need for such disgusting (ok, fun) breakfasts because I’m here to sell you on my newest morning recipe deal. And cold it ain’t. Casserole, strata, egg bake, brunch dish, whatever you want to call it. You might be like me and have a favorite egg casserole you’ve been making for years and, if you do, good on you. Keep making it; everyone loves it. But just once, give this new very pizza-ish oh-so-crispy version a chance. I promise you’ll be glad you did. It is the stuff of many pleasurable brunches to come.

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Cream Cheese-Avocado Toast with Scrambled Eggs

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It’s a rather sad fact, but most people choose to eat the same or nearly the same breakfast every day — or at least several times a week. There are scientific, sociological, and emotional reasons for this (We have less time, don’t want to waste energy, need healthful food to balance other meals, desire a lot of consistency…) You can ask anyone, “What do you eat for breakfast?” The answer will generally be one thing or at the most two. “I eat oatmeal.” “Eggs and toast.” (And the eggs will be cooked the same way each time, I’d wager.) Whereas should you ask the same person what they eat for lunch or dinner, the answer will be long, varied. Lots of folks are continually looking for something new to cook. It’s funny (peculiar), but understandable.

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Perhaps because I love cooking, my breakfast changes regularly. I find that fact fun, entertaining, and encouraging. I’m sure I come out of it with a wider variety of nutrition, too. It’s also true I’m retired from a full-time job requiring my presence on the desk at 8am every morning. I don’t even have kids at home needing a helpful shove out the door. Dogs? Yes. They’re however generally fed and walked by my better half, leaving me to spend any amount of time I’d like sussing out sustenance like Cream Cheese-Avocado Toast come morning. If you have a toaster and a skillet, you have the equipment necessary for this lovely, filling, and pretty breakfast. (Grill the toast in the skillet and you don’t need a toaster.) Let’s face it, you could eat this morning, noon, or night. Add some fruit, a Mimosa or Bloody Mary and you have brunch if you’d like. Sweet.

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Boiled Eggs on English Muffins with Asparagus and Cheese Sauce

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This is a copy of a blog post (April, 2012) from my now finished blog, dinnerplace.blogspot.com. Such a fun little Easter or post-Easter breakfast made for many years in my kitchen, I thought it deserved its own spot here on More Time. I've updated only the recipe to make it printable.

One of my favorite spring breakfasts is so terribly simple, that it appears I’ve never blogged it.  I see the photos on my Pinterest board and on fb, but when I checked the blogs–no eggs on muffins!  So here it is:  a meal perfect for Easter when you have lots of boiled eggs to use up, but also perfect any other time or for any meal, come to think of it.   If you have a plethora of eggs, as does my friend Cathy (we’re trading my granola for her backyard eggs this week), this is a fine use for them.  My own kids had this every Easter for years.  Well, I served it anyway.  Whether or not they ate it is beside the point!

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