Quick & Easy Frittata

I just have to be honest.  I'm not a huge breakfast person.  I don't like scrambled eggs.  Pancakes really aren't always my thing (unless loaded with fruit).  Maple syrup is gross-especially the fake stuff.  So, when I find a breakfast recipe that I actually like I have to sing like a bird! 

I always see these awesome frittata recipes on food network, Rachael Ray, or in cook books.  But, as I've said, I don't like scrambled eggs.  Frittata is primarily egg--so I've never tried it; Until now. 

A frittata is so simple and so versatile.  A frittata could be served for breakfast, lunch, or dinner and would make the perfect brunch plate!  I put in potatoes, green onions and cheddar cheese because that's what I had on hand.  You can, however, put whatever you like in it.  Imagine all kinds of veggies, a Mediterranean Frittata , a Mexican Frittata with chorizo and bell peppers (hot peppers if you like) and salsa on the side, or a "Steak and Potatoes Frittata."  YUM!  Take whatever you have in your fridge and get creative!  Here's what I did:

Ingredients:
5-6 Eggs
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Milk
2-3 TB Sour Cream
Cooked, chopped bacon (optional)

5-6 Red Potatoes (peeled & cubed)
Green onions sliced
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

Oven-safe non-stick skillet**

1.  Preheat oven to 350.
2.  Toss potatoes, green onions, olive oil, and S&P into a skillet.  My skillet was 10".  Make sure that you have plenty of potatoes to cover the bottom of the skillet.
3.  In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, milk & cheese.  I just eyeballed the amounts of the milk, cheese, bacon (if you choose) and sour cream.  I'm not a big egg fan, so the milk helps to keep the egg lighter and fluffier.
4.  After the potatoes & onions are soft, pour out any excess olive oil. 
5.  Pour the egg mixture over the potatoes & onions. 
6.  Put the pan in the oven for 15 minutes or until light, fluffy, but cooked.
7.  You can choose to slide the fritatta out of the pan or invert it onto a serving dish.  I inverted it onto a round, white serving dish. 
8.  Slice into pieces like a pizza and garnish with a little dollop of sour cream, green onion, cheese, and quartered grape tomatoes.  Feel free to toss on some chopped up, crunchy bacon too!

This produces 8 small servings.

**If you don't have an oven-safe non-stick skillet, then you can cook this over low to medium heat stove-top.  Just keep your eyes on it so it doesn't burn on the bottom.  I use the Pampered Chef executive cookware.  I LOVE it and my frittata slides right out of the pan!  YUM! :)


Good luck!  Be creative!

Mother's Day German Apple Pancakes

I'm not a huge pancake fan.  In fact, I'm pretty picky about my pancakes and tend to eat them primarily with fruit if I eat them at all.  This pancake, however, is not pancake-y at all!  It is much more egg-y like a crepe, but thicker.  It is SO good and SO easy to make! :)  This is Josh's Aunt Lila's recipe!  Enjoy! **I made a 1/2 batch that was just right for 2 people.  I will put the full recipe at the bottom that would include the full batch.**

Peel, core, and slice 2 large Granny Smith Apples and place them in the bottom of a greased, square baking dish.

In a small mixing bowl, mix 1/4 cup and 2 TB of flour, 1/4 cup and 2TB of milk, 1/2 tsp of salt, and 2 eggs.

It will look similar to really thin pancake batter...

Pour the batter over the top of the apples.

Sprinkle the top with cinnamon, sugar and 1 TB of butter (all cut up)

Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 20-25 minutes.

Serve warm! :)

Full recipe:

4 Granny Smith apples- peeled, cored, sliced
3/4 cup flour
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
2 Tbsp. butter
sugar & cinnamon to sprinkle

**If you like, you can add nutmeg.  Some people LOVE nutmeg and it would be just fine with or without a sprinkle of it! :)

450 degrees, 20-25 minutes in 9 x 13 baking dish

Fun Times making Fun Cakes

This last Saturday we had a great time celebrating Easter as well as my niece's 2nd birthday!  I cannot believe she's already 2!  We had so much fun eating delicious food and hunting for Easter eggs.  Of course, there was plenty of preparation making fun desserts for her birthday!  Here are some of the pictures as well as instructions of how to do it!

The first cake was a flower box cake.  I thought it would be a fun way to integrate her birthday as well as Easter with a fun spring flair!  There are so many variations that you could make with this.  I thought about making a layered trifle, or doing a dirt cake, but this recipe was so fun and easier to transport up to the high desert! 

The original recipe called for a 13x9 cake, but I decided it would be easier to just do the cake in a loaf pan.  I made a chocolate cake, covered cut off the top to make it flat, frosted it in chocolate frosting, topped it with crumbled up cake (what I cut off the top), and then used the Pepperidge Farm Pirouette Rolled Wafers along the sides.  The Pirouettes needed to be cut in half with a bread knife.  The flowers and butterflies were cake pops.  You could do any kind of treat, though.  You could do cookies, cakes, or even just make little paper ones.  You could make flowers and bees, butterflies, dragonflies...anything you'd like!

The next thing we made were Cupcake Bites and Cake Balls.  We took this idea from Bakerella's Cake Pop book.  Both recipes start off with a basic boxed cake mix made as directed.  Let the cake cool, then crumble it up into a large bowl.  The smaller the crumbles, the better.  Then mix in a tub of frosting.  Using 3/4 of the tub makes them easier to shape...the whole tub makes them that much more moist.  Let the mixture cool in the fridge for a little bit while you clean up the mess.  This will make them easier to shape.  I then took a medium scoops of the cake mixture and rolled them into balls.  Placing them on a tray with parchment paper or wax paper will help to move them to the freezer for about 15 minutes to get extra cold. 

We then melted some melting chocolate and candy coating to cover the balls we had made.  You just drop the balls in one at a time and pull them carefully.  Be sure to allow the excess chocolate to drip off into the bowl of chocolate.  Then place them, again, on a sheet of wax paper or parchment paper to harden. 

If you want to make them into cupcake bites, then you can take a really tiny cookie cutter shaped like a flower to create the paper-liner look.  Let the excess cake mound on top to form the top of the cupcake.  After shaping all of the balls into the cupcake look, throw them back in the freezer for another 15 minutes to cool back down.  Then dip the bottom into the dark chocolate and let it harden.  Then dip the top with whatever color you want and decorate with sprinkles and a red M&M right away before the coating hardens.  You can store these in the refrigerator for several days!  They stay hard in room temperature. 

They were a total hit!  Everyone loved them and enjoyed being able to eat bite-sized pieces of cake. 

Enjoy!