Avocadeggs

I hope you all know by now that one of my favorite foods of all time is the avocado. To be perfectly honest, I could probably live on nothing but avocados for the rest of my life if I had to. 

I saw the idea for this breakfast early last week on Pinterest, made it for breakfast on Saturday...then made it again for breakfast on Sunday. If I could manage to get myself to wake up a little bit earlier during the week, I'd probably make it every day of the week. It's that good.

I guess you could call me an avocado monster. I should be living in a warmer climate. If I did, I'd work on an avocado farm. 

So, if you're an avo-monster like me, you have to try this breakfast. I expect a full report on my desk next Monday. 

Avocadeggs

by Peace, Love & Bagels

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Cook Time: 5-10 minutes

Keywords: pan-fry breakfast vegetarian avocado summer all seasons

Ingredients (serves 2)

• 1 ripe avocado
• 2 eggs
• salt + pepper
• garlic powder
• paprika flakes
• chopped basil

Instructions

Cut the avocado in half and remove the pit.

Slice the avocado in half again, making the cut parallel to your first cut...not as if you're going to quarter it. The hole left by the pit should go all the way through your slice of avo. If it doesn't use a knife or a small cookie cutter to cut a hole out of the center of the avocado.

In an oiled skillet over medium-low heat, place the avocados onto the skillet and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Crack an egg into the middle of each avocado, Sprinkle with paprika flakes and chopped basil. Cover the skillet and cook until the egg whites are opaque.

Enjoy with your favorite hot sauce.

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Best. Idea. EVER.

I have to hand this one to Crystal for her post on Friday, about using beer in your pancakes in honor of Cleveland Beer Week. Since reading her post last week, I had been absolutely dying to try it out.

Basically her instructions were replace the liquid in your pancake recipe with your favorite type of beer. She claimed that it would make your 'cakes fluffy and awesome.

Easy enough, right? Well, I typically suck at making pancakes. It might take more than just a beer to make my pancakes edible. More like a few shots of whiskey.

I found a very basic pancakes recipe, made a few substitutions and voila! Vegan Pumpkin Beercakes. (Well, it's vegan to me. I know they make specifically vegan beer, which I didn't use, but from what I know about the beermaking process, beer should always be vegan unless there are some unknown additives made from animal products.)

When I first tasted the batter, I got worried. It tasted like BEER (I know, shocking.) Seriously though, it was super bitter and I was really worried that I wasn't going to like the end product.

Turns out, I had nothing to worry about. The pancakes were fluffy, as promised, and DELICIOUS. Topped with a little apple butter and some Ohio maple syrup, I was pretty much in pancake heaven.

Breakfast. Reeeeeeemixed.

pumpkin beercakes
serves 4
prep time: 10 minutes
cook time: 15 minutes

ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups spelt flour (or all-purpose)
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup
• 1 1/4 cups beer (I used Blue Moon Pumpkin Ale)
• 1 flax egg
• 3 tablespoons pumpkin puree

directions:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder,  and salt. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, flax egg, maple syrup and pumpkin puree; mix until smooth.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Uncle Joe's Pancakes

So, as you may know, I was on vacation in L.A. and Chicago all of last week. I had every intention of posting a couple of times while I was on vacation and I even brought my computer with me...

Yeah, I took the computer out ONCE. And that didn't even happen until Saturday. And it was only to listen to music while we were getting ready for the wedding.

Brandon and I went to L.A. went with my mom to visit my Uncle Joe.

He's pretty much all that and a bag of chips. He's got this wonderful garden with a few fig trees, an orange tree, a grapefruit tree, a kumquat tree, a pomegranate tree and grape vines.

He also makes the best pancakes in the whole world.

When I was a kid, my brother and I would eat the pancakes as fast as he could make them. He'd plop a few down on the table and before the next batch was up, they'd already be gone!

Naturally, I requested my favorite comfort food for breakfast one morning.

I was actually surprised to find out that his method was easy as pie (considering I SUCK at making pancakes, I should probably try to employ this):

• bisquick pancake mix
• whole wheat flour
• milk

Now, you have to make sure your griddle is nice and hot before cooking those cakes, mix up all the ingredients (sorry I don't have actual measurements, just try to find a ratio that results in pancake batter consistency) and don't flip them until the bubbles have popped on one side. 

Serve them up with some Ohio maple syrup and kumquats fresh off the tree. Pretty sure there's nothing better than Uncle Joe's pancakes for breakfast.

Breakfast Frittata

Today has been a whirlwind day. I got up at approximately 3 a.m. to catch a flight to Roanoke, VA via Atlanta. I spent all day at the hospital here, saw two surgeries and one of my newest implants used.

The picture below is a lapidus procedure:

But that is neither here nor there. I want to share with you a recipe! I got to spend a lot of time this Sunday making loads of delicious meals! My favorite thing about the weekends is being able to slowly get up and take time to make a good and hearty breakfast. 

Usually with eggs.

Saturday was a wash - we got up and pretty much got in the car right away to head to Pittsburgh for a wedding. Sunday was glorious though! The perfect day to pull out the cast iron skillet and put lots of love into a breakfast for Brandon and I. 

This fittata is super easy and you can use any veggies that you have around. Don't skimp on the veggies either, I like my frittatas really veggie-heavy! It gives you a nutritionally packed breakfast that kept us satiated through a few hours of pulling up weeds in our garden!

breakfast frittata

Serves 3

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cook time: 25 minutes

ingredients:

1 cup arugula, chopped

1 cup broccoli, chopped...don’t toss the stalk, use it too!

¼ of a cucumber, diced

2 carrots, sliced

5 eggs, beaten

½ cup gouda (grassfed, organic and local if possible!) grated

olive oil, salt + pepper

herbs + seasonings

directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Chop, cut, dice or slice all the veggies...keep in mind that you can really include any veggies here, the ones that are named in the ingredients are the ones that I had on hand.

Oil an oven safe skillet and saute the veggies, starting with the most hearty ones, for a few minutes, until they are just tender. While the veggies are sauteing, season with some garlic powder and onion powder (or whatever else you want to season the veggies with).

Turn the heat off under the veggies and beat the eggs together in a bowl. Pour the eggs over the sauteed veggies and mix through, so the eggs spread out evenly in the skillet.

Place skillet in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the eggs set and are cooked though. For the last 3 minutes, sprinkle on the cheese so it becomes melty and delicious.

Remove from oven, slice like a pizza and serve.

What is your favorite Sunday breakfast?

Peace, Love & Bagels,

Maple Sweet Potato Mini Muffins

I had a hankering for muffins the other day. And I haven't posted a recipe in a while.

A friend brought Brandon and I muffins this past summer and we pan-fried them in an eesy-weensy bit of coconut oil and spread jelly all over them. It was a post-run breakfast that with right on target.

Speaking of "eensy-weensy" I got some mini muffin tins for Christmukkah this year. I have not used them yet.

What can I make the uses my mini muffin tins, requires pan frying in coconut oil, and makes use of various baking items that are simply lying around my kitchen?

Maple Sweet Potato Mini Muffins, of course!
(this recipe is adapted from Happy Herbivore)

Ingredients:

• 2 prepared flax eggs
• 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¾ cup demara or turbinado sugar
• 1 cup sweet potato, mashed
• ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
• ¼ cup pure maple syrup

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease muffin pan or spray paper cups with oil-spray to prevent sticking. In a small bowl, prepare "eggs" and set aside. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sweet potato or pumpkin, applesauce and maple syrup on top. Then add "eggs" and stir until just combined. Gently spoon the mixture into the cups of mini muffin pan, filling 3/4 of the way. Baking 12-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

My thoughts: in my next batch of these, I think I'm going to add some raw cacao nibs or maybe even some chopped dates. I absolutely love the flavor of these muffins, but they feel like they need something else...

Also, please don't mind that my white balance is all kinds of messed up on these pictures. Someday I'll figure out how to program my camera manually.

How to Make and Eat a Poached Egg

Here's my quick how-to for today: How to Make and Eat a Poached Egg. Poached eggs are a staple breakfast in my family, and sometimes I wake up absolutely craving them. It brings back memories of being at my grandparents' house in New Jersey, as soon as I got up I would get some Italian bread, toasted with butter, plopped down in front of me and 2 minutes later a poached egg would be plopped (gently of course) down on top of the toast! Poaching as egg is really simple, but it's something that always intimidated me until my dad showed me how to do it.

What you'll need:

• 1 saucepan (make sure it's big enough to hold all your eggs without them touching each other)
• 1 tsp vinegar
• 2 eggs (or however many you want to eat)
• 2 slices of toast
• a slotted spoon

Method:

• Fill the saucepan almost to the top with water and put your teaspoon of vinegar in the water. Bring to a boil.
• When water is boiling rapidly, crack open your eggs and drop them into the water. The vinegar should help them hold together. The rolling boil helps to keep the eggs from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
• Boil eggs for 2-3 minutes (I like to boil mine for a shorter time so the yolk stays runnier, the longer you cook, the harder the yolk will get). If the pan starts to overflow, just turn down the heat. 
• Remove eggs from saucepan with a slotted spoon and drain any water from them.
• Place eggs on top of toast. My preferred method of eating is to chop up the eggs so the yolks run all over the place (see the pictures) and sprinkle a bit of salt and pepper on top of them. You can eat them like "dunky eggs" too, by dunking slices of toast in the yolk to soak up all of that egg-y deliciousness. However you choose to eat them, enjoy each and every bite!