Yogurt and Berries: french toast

Showing posts with label french toast. Show all posts

Monday, September 17, 2012

Back to Basics: BLTs!

I feel like it takes me so long to feel “back to normal” after a vacation. This maybe partly due to the fact that I continue to have a half empty suitcase on my floor for a good week after returning…

Well this weekend I finally did all my laundry and even spent some time in the kitchen!

Nothing too time consuming, but it was nice even to have a sit-down breakfast.

An old standby…French Toast! I made it with TJ’s Whole Wheat Tuscan Pane which is a pretty dense chewy bread so it needed to soak in the egg mixture for much longer.

With bananas, strawberries, real maple syrup and butter!

Great way to start the day.

The simple meals got even better as we approached lunch time.

We had taken Bromley to the dog park, and on the ride home I started getting excited for BLT’s!

We had some gorgeous tomatoes that were ripe from the garden and what better way to eat them than with salty bacon, lettuce, and toast!

Also super excited to use the bacon from our latest Meat CSA!

This is hands down the best bacon I’ve ever had!

Sandwiches ready for assembly!

Lightly toasted bread, a little smear of mayo, and the rest.

The key is to cooking the bacon on med/low….if you cook it too high, it starts to curl up and bend and that doesn’t make for easy sandwich assembly. Cooking it for longer on med/low gets it just as crisp but still maintains its shape.

Lots of bacon :)

And a deli pickle for good measure.

I savored every bite!

Why are the simplest things always the best!

I kind of want another one right now.

It’s also been really great getting back to a normal workout schedule! My legs are still sore from Saturday morning Crossfit:

7 time:

5 sandbag cleans
5 back squats (at 80% of your 1 rep max)
5 strict pull-ups

The sandbags are 60lbs. I can clean over 100lbs using a barbell but these sandbags are really awkward!

Tactical Sandbags (source)

Then the squats! I haven’t done a 1 rep max in a while, but my most recent 3 rep max was 140lbs so I used 110 for this workout. 35 of those…are hard.

It was a good one and I am feeling it!

Oh and did I mention we had a little belated anniversary dinner Saturday night at Menton! :)

All in all a great weekend.

What’s your favorite sandwich???

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Cheddar Dill Breakfast Quinoa & Brunch with the Girls

Don’t you love when you totally throw something completely random and new together in the kitchen and it ends up being a huge success!?

That’s what happened in this kitchen last weekend.

This time it was breakfast, and I love making breakfast on the weekends so it was fun coming up with something new and different. If it bombed? Oh well, it was the weekend and I could make something else :)

We had a container of leftover, cooked quinoa in the fridge. There was a good amount of it, so I was hoping to incorporate it into breakfast! I’ve seen various “breakfast quinoas” around the blog world…many times made similar to oatmeal (which I want to try), but I was more in the mood for something savory.

Plus some cheese and fresh herbs make anything better.

I give you…

Cheddar Dill Breakfast Quinoa
serves 2

1T olive oil
1/4 cup white or yellow onion, diced
1/2 – 3/4 cup cooked quinoa (really you can use as much as you want, obviously the texture will change as the ratio of quinoa to egg is altered).
3 eggs
splash of milk (about 2T)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
1T fresh chopped dill

In a non-stick skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes, until just getting soft. Add in quinoa, and continue to sauté for another 2-4 minutes.

In a small bowl, crack in eggs and beat together with a fork. Add milk and beat that into the eggs. Pour eggs into quinoa mixture. Season with a little salt and pepper. After about 30 seconds, start to scramble mixture together. Add in dill. Continue to cook/scramble. Once eggs are just about done to the point where you like your scramble eggs cooked, add in cheese. Give another stir and remove from heat.

We had ours with some bacon and sides of yogurt with a sauce of cooked down berries (plus some lemon juice and maple syrup) and walnuts.

Iced latte

We both LOVED the quinoa!! I think I liked the texture even more than regular scrambled eggs. Plus the possibilities are endless for flavors…different cheeses, herbs, spices, veggies. The beauty of breakfast egg dishes :)

Try this!!

Keeping with a breakfast theme…I’d also like to share some photos from a brunch I had at my place with a few of my girl friends. You know how sometimes there are friends or groups of friends that you just don’t see as often as you’d like or used to see? Well that was my problem. So to solve it I just invited them over one Sunday morning for a quick and delightful brunch!

I was excited to do a “girly” table setting with some pink linens.

I love using baskets and trays to group my centerpieces

I actually was too busy prepping food and chatting that I forgot to snap some photos before we ate!! But I grabbed a few after…much of the food is gone but you get the gist.

Smoked Salmon/Capers/Cream Cheese/Red Onion/Mini Whole Wheat Bagels.

This is an easy one. No cooking involved and you can present it as nice and you want!

One of my friends brought this zucchini bread…and now I need the recipe! It was amazing!!

So moist and it created this awesome crust around the edges.

Bacon, fresh pineapple, a coffee cake brought by another friend

My favorite brunch dish to make for a group…French Toast Strata!

A delicious frittata…

This one started with butter in the skillet, then lots of thinly sliced onions…caramelize.
Once mostly caramelized, add in chopped zucchini. Sauté for a couple more minutes.
Then add eggs (think I used 6 eggs, beaten + some milk)
Add in chopped fresh thyme. Then top with LOTS of goat cheese.
Broil for a few minutes (be sure to use an oven safe skillet! I love using cast iron), until set and just starting to brown.

More fruit!

Baskets also useful for condiments (salt, pepper, maple syrup) and cream and sugar for coffee.

I like to use some of my real creamers/pitchers for cream and maple syrup. It’s not much more effort and looks so nice!

Brunch was a success. Caught up with friends, and then we all still had the rest of the day to get our Sunday-type errands done :)

I heart breakfast food.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Brunch and Babies

My friend’s babies…sorry to disappoint any of my family reading ;)

I love brunch and breakfast foods. I also love entertaining friends with delicious food! However, other than Thanksgiving and our summer BBQ, I really don’t have people over as much as I’d like.

So, I invited some of my good friends over for a brunch!

If you’re not used to entertaining, I’d say a brunch is a good way to start. Most dishes are simple to prepare and there are lots of options that you can cook a head of time :) Breakfast foods also tend to be cheaper too!

I was even able to fit in a much needed manicure/pedicure…

(that’s Essie’s Glamour Purse)

AND a quick apple picking excursion, the day before the brunch!

It was the last weekend in September and I HAD to go apple picking! It’s my favorite fall activity EVER.

Unfortunately the usual cool sunny fall weekends of previous year’s apple pickings, was replaced with a hot HUMID post-rain day!

At least the crowds weren’t bad. But the humid stagnant air + being out amongst nature = mosquito fest 2011.

Another bad equation to factor in:
Post-pedicure lotioned legs + mosquitoes = mosquito MAGNET!

It was bad, I instantly got about 6 bites within 15 min. So we hurried up. Brian would fetch the apples and I’d stand with the bag constantly slapping those little bastards off my legs!

I felt much better when we were back in the car with AC, 1/2 bushel of apples, 1/2 dozen HOT cider donuts, 1 caramel apple, and a burger for Brian. Oh and the extra strength Benadryl cream I was slathering on my calves ;)

Back to Brunch.

The Menu:

Mimosa’s (brought by a guest)
Other juices (guest)
Coffee and Espresso drinks (me)

Pumpkin bread and banana bread (guest)
Mini lemon poppy seed muffins (guest)

Baked blueberry French toast (me)
Egg Bake with wild mushrooms, shallots, thyme, goat cheese, and gruyere (me)
Tomato Basil frittata (me)
Roasted red and sweet potatoes with onion and rosemary (me)

Have guests bring drinks and apps. In this case, I had some friends bring muffins/quick breads that people could snack on while they waited.

French toast casseroles like this usually have to be made a day in advance anyways so they can sit and absorb the liquid. These are always a crowd pleaser

Serve with maple syrup on the side.

Egg bakes/baked frittatas or quiches can also be baked ahead of time and just warmed up before serving.

I baked this on earlier in the morning.

Unfortunately potatoes can’t be cut too far ahead of time, so leave this until the morning of.

I bought some flowers, and my friend also brought a beautiful arrangement.

I also love using big bowls/vessels of seasonal fruits for decor (apple picking apples!)

I’ll be back with recipes. In the meantime here are some of my friend’s adorable babies!

I couldn’t believe there were FOUR little ones at my house today! Exciting and scary at the same time :)

First date:

So cute :)

Hope you all had a fabulous weekend! Once again, SO not ready to go back to work tomorrow…*sigh*

Speaking of brunch: What’s you're favorite brunch food to either eat or make!?

Monday, June 6, 2011

Beer and Blunders: A Weekend Recap

Hope everyone had a fantastic weekend! The weather here in Mass was AMAZING. Dry, sunny, and in the low 70’s.

Our weekend was moderately busy. A lot went on, but I still felt relaxed.

Friday started the busy-ness with the first run of one of the pieces my dance company is doing! We have a show in September, but our director was involved in a showcase at a high school in NH where she coaches the dance team, so we decided to perform a piece!

It’s a long 12 minute number, but it’s really interesting with a LOT going on so you don’t get bored. Anyways, it was fun being on stage again, the dance still needs some work, but I can’t WAIT for September for the full show!!

On Friday, Bromely and I also saw a cute Swan Family on our long walk:

The mom kept diving for food to feed her babies

It was so cool to watch!! Then we continued:

And took breaks in the shade

Saturday involved a pretty lazy/awesome morning. Sometimes you just need to not rush, have a leisurely breakfast, and maybe even watch the Food Network.

p.s. iced lattes taste even better in fancy beer goblets ;)

Our favorite French Toast! With fresh strawberries, sliced peach, and a dollop of TJ’s non-fat Greek yogurt with homemade blueberry sauce.

Blueberry sauce – this is a great way to get rid of berries that are past their peak, but not quite bad enough to toss.

Place berries (any kind) in a sauce pan, add water but just to the point where you’re not fully submerging the berries.
Add a squeeze of fresh lemon, and 1-2 T of sugar or sweetener of choice…I used maple syrup.
Bring to boil, and then reduce to low and simmer until berries cook down and liquid is reduced.

Brian had the blueberry sauce on his French toast.

Finally broke into my gallon of happiness:

The rest of Saturday was great…well until we missed the Red Sox game, but let me rewind.

After a 4-mile run, we got changed and headed into Boston. I had gotten Brian Red Sox tickets for his birthday (which was May 23). We planned to stop by Mead Hall in Cambridge for a beer and maybe a snack before the game.

Brian’s been dying to try Mead Hall. It’s the latest craft beer bar/bistro boasting 100 different domestic and international beers on tap.

They weren’t kidding:

After perusing the menu and having a few samples I decided on the Bacchus; a Belgian sour ale from Van Honsebrouck.

Really enjoyed this beer. It’s not as sour as some of the other sour ales I love (like Cherry Woods), but it had a mild sourness and was very refreshing.

We also ordered a cheese plate (which went unpictured). It was OK, still needs a little work. Actually too much cheese, not enough accompaniments. You know how much I love cheese, but I also love the different flavor combinations you can create with a nice cheese plate.

Overall I really liked Mead Hall and we are looking forward to returning. I loved this huge bar area, with big windows to let in the natural light. I feel like so many beer bars in the area are so dark and cramped. This is nice and open with high ceilings and an upstairs with couches and flat screen TV’s.

Back to the story, the “blunder”. After Meadhall, we headed over to the Fenway area to look for a parking spot.

Found a spot a little too easy, but maybe just our lucky day. Then as we’re walking towards Fenway, I’m oddly noticing some groups of people in Red Sox attire heading away from the ballpark!?

Then it hit me. I didn’t even think to check the game time as the tickets say 7:10, but as the Bruin’s playoff game started at 8pm, the Red Sox had moved their game up to earlier that day.

We missed the whole thing :( So frustrating…not so much missing the game, but wasting the money and the fact that we had to miss one of Brian’s friend’s housewarming party for the game as well.

Boo Red Sox Boo.

The weekend wrapped up Sunday with the first EVER Woburn Famer’s Market!! The best part is that it’s like a 5min walk from our house!!