STRaWBeRRy SaLaD

For some evenings, dinner is had super late, which is not healthy or good for you if you're trying to lose weight.  For me, it leads to a headache the next morning and the inability to get out of bed.  So, when those late nights come up, I decided that salads were the best way to go.  This is one I came up with "on the fly" and it turned out delicious.

Super easy - all you need:  fresh spinach leaves, strawberries, cuties (citrus fruit) and shaved parmesan cheese.  Lay out the leaves on each place, then top with cutie sections, sliced strawberries and the cheese.  Yum.  We served this with poppyseed dressing (one of our favorites), but I have found that blue cheese (also a favorite) works well also. 

Enjoy.

CaRRoT LaTKeS & FRieD ZuCCHiNi

When I'm shopping for food, I look at how yummy they look, then at the prices.  I find things that I love and bring them home.  That's the first step to me deciding what I'm going to make, but the when I get most of my ideas is when I'm cleaning out the refrigerator hahaha.  Every three to four days, I go through what's in there, just to get an idea of what I have left, and ideas just start popping into my head.

This time I found the bag of baby carrots we had originally bought for Easter dinner (at the next store we found the matchstick ones we needed and I still hadn't decided what I wanted to do with these yummy little snacks.

I had remembered that, in a couple of places online, I had skimmed through some recipes for carrot latkes and they had sounded yummy, so I decided to experiment and create my own. 


Almost a 10 ounce bag of baby carrots (I say "almost" because it is very hard for me to not munch on a few when I'm cooking with them)
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
6 green onions, diced
1/4 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups panko breadcrumbs
2 large eggs
1/4 cup shaved parmesan cheese
6 tablespoons olive oil

Using a food processor, cut the carrots up into very small pieces.  Put them into a bowl that's big enough to hold all the ingredients in the end.  Then put the garlic and 1/4 onion into the food processor and cut them up into small pieces as well.  Add garlic onion mixture, diced green onion, parsley and parmesan cheese to the carrots in the bowl.

In another bowl, mix together the panko and eggs.  When combined, mix it together with the carrot mixture in the large bowl with a rubber spatula, making sure to get everything mixed up good.

Form the mixture into patties, kind of like you would make a hamburg, making sure that they are a little flat.  Spray pan or add oil to a pan on medium heat.  Fry the latkes for about 6 minutes per side, until they are brown and crisp.

Note:  I sprayed my pan instead of using oil so some of my latkes fell apart a little bit.  Next time I may try a little olive oil instead.  (My mom suggested I add mashed potatoes to keep them together haha.  I think that's because she REALLY likes potato latkes and wants us to come to a middle ground on these.)

I served them in a set of three on a bed of fresh spinach leaves with a little sour cream in between and some green onions, fresh parsley and shaved parmesan cheese on top.  They were delicious and very flavorful.

The fried zucchini was very easy.

All you need is 2-3 zucchinis, some oil and some coarse sea salt.  Cut the zucchini in half and then down the middle.  Cut each slice into about 4 or 5 (maybe more depending on size) pieces and put them in a bowl.  Sprinkle them with salt and let them sit for 30 minutes (this is important because it draws some of the water out of the vegetable and makes it easier to fry).  Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat (I had it at a depth of about 1 inch).  Add the zucchini and fry until the pieces turn a golden brown.  Put onto a paper towel so they can drain and sprinkle with sea salt.  Serve them warm.

Note:  They take a little longer to cook then I had expected, but worked well when I started them a few minutes before I started cooking the latkes.  Turned out delicious.

Served the carrot latkes and fried zucchini with a fresh tomato and zucchini salad.  For dessert, we had a lovely fruit salad.  A great meal that left us full without a lot of calories or carbohydrates.

TaSTy SNaCKS i'Ve FouND HeRe iN SaN aNToNio

(I have been promising this to a couple of people now, but for some reason putting it off, so I figured it was about time that I got around to posting it haha.)

Potato chips!!  I love potato chips, but so many of them fall short on what I believe a potato chip should be.  I want that down home, fresh fried/baked, potato taste.  What I have found always feels so  ... industrial.

But hold on ...

Since I've been here in San Antonio ... I have found the PERFECT chip.  They are SO good.  They're called "Dirty" All Natural Potato Chips ... and the only place I've found them at has been Sun Harvest.  They had been on sale for 1$ a bag and were one of the surprises my mom came home with for me one night (along with some beautiful blackberries and baby sweet peppers).  One taste of their Funky Fusion and I was hooked.  It has a hint of vinegar taste to it but their flavor reminds me of, well, three words:  German. Potato. Salad.  Mom and I both taste this flavor in it, but so much more.  They are, by far, the best flavor of potato chips I have ever tried.  She also purchased a Cracked Pepper & Sea Salt one which I very much liked, but she was not too fond of.  It has onion powder in it and you can taste that as well as the pepper and salt.  To me it tastes sort of like a posh Funyun.  We went back that weekend to take advantage of that sale by purchasing a few more bags.  While looking through the very picked through stand (we were able to get two bags of Funky Fusion so we were happy), I came across another flavor - Jalapeno Heat.  My mom is not a big fan of hot food, but I am, so I got one bag of them.  They have heat, but not too much - just perfect flavor and heat combination - and I wish I had picked up another bag.  It is the best jalapeno chip I've tried.  What I love most about these chips, besides the flavor, is the crunch.  They taste like you're biting into a fresh made potato chip at one of those restaurants that make them from scratch - slicing the potatoes and frying them up - and the crunch ... wow.  The crunch is loud enough where you need to turn the TV up a little bit more so you can hear it over it, but they don't hurt your mouth.  And if you're lucky enough to get a piece of the skin, it crushes in your mouth and tastes like the outside of a baked potato.  I am very very impressed.  Next time you're in San Antonio, make sure you find a Sun Harvest (there are two or three - they remind me of a small Whole Foods) and get yourself a bag.  They're regularly around 3$.


For those of ya'll not in San Antonio, I have a runner up.  They are sold at Wal-Mart and the brand name is World Trade.  The two I have tried from them are Spiced Sweet Potato Chips and Salt & Pepper Yukon Gold Potato Chips.  Both very yummy and both have a good crunch on them.  (There's a Thai flavor that I believe is from this brand that I want to check out next.)  They also have a peanut - Thai-Spiced Peanuts - that I would recommend trying.  They have a lot of flavor and, to be honest, I eat them with a spoon out of the bowl *blush* so that I don't waste any of that yummy taste on my napkin (they're definitely finger licking good).

What's great about both of these brands is that they're really not bad on the calories and carbohydrates.  They're a yummy snack to enjoy during your day.

Before I found these, my favorite chip was the kettle cooked ones from Lays (they're sold at other places, but I know them from when I ran Nature's Market at Kroger).  They have a really good taste and crunch - I'd say they are #3 on my list of really good chip - but they are rather expensive, unless you catch them on a sale or want to treat yourself to something nice every once in a while.  My favorite flavors from them are the Honey Mustard and the Thai ones.  Very good.  There are other ones to try - watch the sales because some flavors go on sale a lot while others (sadly the Honey Mustard and Thai are included in this) are not.

THe LeFToVeRS

While eating dinner last night, I kept thinking about how that salad would be really good on a Swiss cheese sandwich, maybe with a little lettuce, mayonnaise and the Maui mustard sauce.

With all my mom's talking about sandwiches ... and after watching her make her lunch today (a roast beef, Swiss cheese and mayo sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes) ... I was just craving a sandwich.  On a roll. 

Would it taste good, I wondered?  I couldn't WAIT till lunch time to find out.

Let me tell you now - it was more delicious than I had expected it to be.  And gorgeous.  I think I will make myself another one of these tomorrow.

By the way, if you're like me and my mother who LOVE Swiss cheese, but are not happy at all with the Swiss you've been finding (some of it really has no flavor at all) - go to your local HEB's deli section and try the imported Swiss.  It's a little more expensive ... but BOY is it worth it!!

eaSTeR DiNNeR ... WiTH a HaWaiiaN THeMe

Mom said she wanted Hawiian bread for dinner ... and the menu went from there.  And it turned out delicious!!  With a few leftovers ... the quiche was even better this morning for breakfast.  Yum!!
 

Hawaiian crustless quiche

Fruit & carrot slaw

Broiled shrimp with Maui mustard sauce

Hawaiian bread

And for dessert - Strawberry shortcake.  A perfect ending to a wonderful meal!

The Hawaiian crustless quiche (adapted from redbookmagazine.com)

4 egg whites and 2 whole eggs (because I had a bigger dish - a cake pan instead of a pie dish - I added 2 more eggs)

1 sweet onion, chopped

1/3 pound white cheddar cheese - we used an Aged white cheddar that we found at HEB (great flavor)

2/3 cups marinated mushrooms, sliced - we used HEB Harvest Moon portobella mushrooms with roasted red peppers, 8oz

1 cup pineapple tidbits, sauted

1 cup coconut milk (because of the added 2 eggs, I used the rest of the can of coconut milk)

1/2 cup parmesan cheese 

1 pinch baking soda

1 handful salt-free seasoning (your favorite will do)

First take a round cake pan and begin to layer ingredients.  Chop a sweet onion.  Add some chopped marinated mushrooms.  Chop up some thinly sliced white cheddar cheese.  Saute some pineapple tidbits until browned and add to pie dish.  Put the parmesan cheese on top.

Now for the eggs.  Take 4 egg yolks and 4 whole eggs.  Add the coconut milk, pinch of baking soda and the seasonings; beat together.

Pour the egg mixture over the other ingredients in the dish.  Place in oven (put a cookie sheet under to make sure that any spills are caught) and bake for 15 minutes for 400F.  Lower to 300F and cook for another 45 minutes.

Take it out and let it sit so it can continue cooking a little.  When it is set and browned it is done.  

Notes:  Because of the coconut milk, it was a little liquidy because the "milk" and eggs separated.  Next time I'm just going to use heavy cream because the coconut milk really added no flavor to the dish at all.  I will also omit the mushrooms next time, adding extra pineapple, because you could barely taste them and they sort of took away from the pineapple flavor.  I also think the next time I make this dish I'll use fresh pineapple.

Fruit & carrot slaw

1 cup diced fresh pineapple

1/2 cup craisins

1 10-ounce package matchstick-cut carrots (steamed first)

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons maple syrup (we used a sugar-free kind)

1 tablespoon fresh pineapple juice (if you buy the cut pineapple at HEB, the containers usually have juice in them)

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine the pineapple, craisins and carrots together in a bowl.  In another bowl, mix together the olive oil, maple syrup and pineapple juice.  Pour over the pineapple mixture in the bowl and toss so that it coats all of the fruits and veggies.  Add the parsley, salt and pepper; toss again.  Cover and chill.

Broiled shrimp

Broiling shrimp is really easy.  All you do is cut down the back of the shell on each shrimp so that you can remove the black vein and clean them thoroughly.  Then you place them in a bowl, sprinkle some olive oil over them and toss them so that they are covered with the oil.  Place them out on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Broil about 7 inches from the heat for about 6-7 minutes, turning once in the middle.  I cooked them for 3 minutes, turned them and cooked them for 4 more.  Be careful not to overcook them - my shrimp were big.  (You can add garlic or other seasonings to the oil before you coat them if you would like.)

Maui mustard sauce

We used this for dipping our shrimp after we removed the shells, but we both agreed after that this would have been really good coating the shelled shrimp and baking them if we had wanted to do that. 

1/3 cup pineapple preserves

1/3 cup apricot preserves

1/4 cup spicy brown mustard (we used the HEB brand that you find over in the deli/meat section)

Stir together all the ingredients in a small bowl; cover and chill.  Delicious.  (We both ended up dipping the Hawaiian bread into the sauce as well - noticing the other was doing it after we had tried it haha.  Very good that way as well.  Would be a great spread on a sandwich, I think.

The finished product

THe VeGeTaBLeS THaT DiDN'T WaNT To Be a SauCe

Today I started taking a look at all my beautiful vegetables - in the bowls on the counter, in the refrigerator - and noticed that they were starting to turn.  I had to do something with them because it would have been a horrible waste of gorgeous vegetables to just throw them out.

I had tomatoes ... a bell pepper ... a bunch of those baby sweet peppers in red, orange and yellow ... some organic green onions.

After I chopped the tomatoes up, I put them in a bowl and sprinkled them with some fresh cracked pepper and coarse sea salt, then let them sit for about 10 minutes (while I cut the other vegetables up).

I decided to use all of those, plus an onion, several cloves of garlic (we are some garlic lovers in this family) and half of the grape tomatoes that I've been snacking on obsessively (I can't seem to walk past the container of them without grabbing two out).

I took both kinds of tomatoes and put them in a pot with the garlic, olive oil and some Italian seasoning; then poured enough water over them to cover.  I put them over medium heat, covered, until they started to break down.

When they started breaking down, I took the onions and sauteed them in a pan with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil.

When they started to get a little soft, I added in the bell pepper, the sweet peppers and the green onions; sauteing them until they became tender.

I added these two pictures so you could see what the tomatoes look like broken down.  

At this point, it is time to add the vegetables to the broken down tomatoes.  I then covered the pan and allowed it to cook on medium for about 20 minutes.  (Boy did my living room and kitchen smell GOOD!!)

Seasoned with salt and fresh cracked pepper ... but it wasn't the sauce that I wanted it to be.  It was a vegetable soup ... which I was perfectly ok  with ... it was yummy ... but it needed something.

After looking in the pantry (and having my mother take a taste), we decided what it needed - a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes with basil, garlic and oregano.  It turned out ABSOLUTELY delicious!! ... even if it wasn't sauce haha.

THe RaDiSH CHiP QueST - oR SHouLD i Say - THe QueST THaT FaiLeD MiSeRaBLy

With all of these radishes, the one thing I REALLY wanted was to be able to make some radish chips.  I love those crispy vegetables and I figured, why not radishes too?  After failing to find anything interesting to me online - I found one that actually told you to slice them, sprinkle them with salt and pepper then enjoy (how is that a chip?) - I decided to figure some things out on my own. 

Try #1 ...

Online, I did find one that said to steam them in the microwave for 5 minutes before baking them.  Ok.  Let's try that.  I mean, this person posted it online with rave reviews, so obviously she's tried it and loved it, right?  Hmm ... Radishes have a lot of water in them.  When you steam them, this adds water to them.  But hey - I figured, let's give this a try.  After I steamed them, I put them in a bowl with some McCormick Garlic Herb seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, cracked pepper and sea salt; then stirred.  I baked them at 350F for 10 minutes, flipped them over and then put them back in the oven for another 10 minutes. 

It was not crispy like I expected it to be.  In fact, it was not crunchy at all.  I cooked it for another 10 minutes.  Still very soggy.  I decided to lay them out on a paper towel, spread out so that they weren't touching each other, to cool - maybe they'll crisp out a little bit sitting there.  Nope.  They just became more soggy, limp ... chewy.  Not what I'm looking for.  Into the trash they went.

Try #2 ...

Mom's suggestion - fry them. To be honest, I didn't want to go there.  The point of this experiment was to find a way to make the chips - without frying them - so that I had a healthy snack - and so that I could try the same thing on other vegetables that I like.

I sliced them up ... and this time decided to let them sit between two pieces of paper towel for a few minutes to soak up any excess water.  I read a recipe for "watermelon radish chips" online that said that radishes needed longer to fry than potatoes, so i decided to try them for about the same time they required in their recipe, which was 8-10 minutes.  I fried some until they were really brown (almost burnt) and some until they were a medium brown.  The results:  Still not crispy.  Another batch in the trash, another bunch of beautiful radishes wasted.

Try #3 ...

What about baking them without steaming them first?  I sprayed the pan with cooking spray (the olive oil kind), placed the radish slices individually on the pan, lightly sprayed those with the cooking spray, then sprinkled the slices with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper (i like a mixture of peppercorn colors).  I baked them for 10 minutes, flipped them, then baked them for 5 minutes more, making sure to keep an eye on them so that they didn't burn.  At 5 minute intervals, I baked them a couple of more times, waiting for them to grow crispy.  I finally had to take them out for fear of burning them, but they were still not crispy.  I laid them out individually on a paper towel - and still no crispiness.  A good flavor though.  And, if you're ok with a little bit of limpness, they still have that good flavor when they're cold ... but still they are not what I wanted.

Am I destined to never have a crisp radish chip?  Is my mom correct that they are too full of water for this to work?

The only thing I can think of is to put them between the two pieces of paper towel and bake them with no spray at all.  Can this work?  Hmmm ...

RaDiSHeS RaDiSHeS RaDiSheS - RaDiSH CoNFiT

I love radishes!!  Imagine my surprise when I'm at the store and see these big beautiful bunches of radishes just sitting there begging me to take them home.  But no price for them.  Hmmm ... "Sir ... ?"  I almost hugged him when he told me it was four bunches for a dollar.  I looked at my mom and, as if she could read my mind, she said "You can have four.  We do need to leave some for others."  (If left up to me, I would have bought every one they had haha.)

I'm sure the reason she said only four was because she doesn't really care for them, but she sure has been a trooper every time i stick a piece in front of her, in whatever way I've concocted them, and said "Try it.  I don't like it."  See, I have no problem eating a bunch of them on a salad, but I'm just dead set on convincing her that these are a very yummy vegetable.

I have sauteed them with onions and peppers - very good.  But what else could I do with them?

What popped into my head was those things that I find at certain Krogers - the vegetable chips that I love so much - but that's a completely other story.  One that will follow soon.

I decided to try something different this time.

Confit is usually made with meat.  The meat is salted and slowly cooked in its own fat.  It is then packed into a crock or pot with its cooking fat which preserves the meat.  Since vegetables, obviously, don't have their own fat, I have chosen to cook them with butter.  This one is a little sweet, slightly peppery and a beautiful pink color.  I have to say, it tastes really good on a piece of French bread with some Swiss cheese or aged white American.

You will need:

Radishes (I used a little over 1/2 a pound), the zest and juice of half a lemon, one cutie clementine (the zest plus the fruit), 2 tablespoons sugar, 4 tablespoons butter, sea salt & freshly ground pepper and enough water to cover all of this in the pan.  Instead of juicing the clementine (it was the only citrus fruit I had on hand), I decided to not waste that lovely fruit by just juicing it and instead peeled it, then put the fruit through the food processor, using both the pulp and juice in this recipe.  In my opinion, it needed more - so next time I'm going to be adding one or two more to the mix.

Place all of these ingredients into a shallow pan and put enough water to just cover the ingredients.

Bring these ingredients to a boil over medium heat, then reduce the temperature down so that it is simmering.  Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

It is done when the liquid has reduced down to about 3 or 4 tablespoons of rich buttery goodness and the radishes are very tender.

Serve warm.

Now I couldn't leave it at just that.  I mean, it was good - I loved it.  It wasn't really what I expected it to be, though.  I expected the radishes to be broken down a bit more.  So I played with it. 

I took the confit - after eating some of those tender radishes and oh-so-yummy buttery mmm (I'm not sure how to describe that hahaha) and put it in the food processor, breaking it down a bit.  Then, with just a little bit more butter, I sauteed it for about 3-4 minutes.  This is very yummy on a sandwich of cheese - and will probably taste good with fish and meat as well.

The next time I make it, I'm going to try cutting the pieces up a little bit smaller before I cook them and see what happens.

SWeeT PePPeR ToPPeD BaKeD PoTaTo

The other day my mother came home from work with a surprise for me.  She had stopped at Sun Harvest (a family-owned store here in San Antonio that reminds me of a small WholeFoods) and found some mini sweet peppers on sale.  Two big bags for 5$ means a lot of peppers for me to create with - and I will admit that sometimes I eat them whole like an apple because they are so good.  She also brought home 3 potatoes and 2 sweet potatoes, saying that she wants me to make her a baked potato.  Not a problem.

The first thing I did was preheat the oven to 350F.  While the oven was heating up, I rubbed the outside of the potatoes with a bit of olive oil and placed them on a baking sheet.  They took about an hour and a half to cook because they were big, but I started checking them at 1 hour.

Then I sliced the peppers into mini rings ... and cut a few green onions up small (those are a necessity on baked potatoes in my family).

I sauteed them as I normally saute my vegetables - a little bit of pan spray, then 2 teaspoons of butter towards the end.  I wanted them to be tender, but not mushy.  I also cracked some fresh black pepper over the top.

Don't those potatoes look yummy in there cooking.  The olive oil is not necessary, but I do it because I love to eat the skin of the potatoes too and I think it gives it a nice taste as well as a little crisp.

I cut the potato in half, then sliced it all up so that it spread out on the plate.  I then added a little bit of butter, the gren onions, some pepper, a little salt and the peppers on top, then finished it off with some romano cheese.  I also decided to add just a little of this really good spread my mother has found since she's been out here - Challenge Butter Tuscan style spreadable butter with canola and olive oil - garlic and Italian herb flavored.  It gave it a really good Italian flavor.  Yumm-ee!!

Tea TiMe

I love to drink hot tea.  It is probably my favorite thing to drink ... and I'll drink it at any time.  It is very soothing, calming, relaxing.  I especially like a tea called chai tea that my mother got me drinking years ago. 

She used to make it homemade ... and I think I may begin doing that myself because it is so hard to find a good one.

I have, with the help of my taste-testers (my twin nieces), found one or two that are better than the rest. 

The good thing about chai, as I found out all those years ago, is that it is good both HOT and COLD.  Just a little bit of milk, a little bit of sweetener ... and yum!!

This brand is good - the chai white tea and the vanilla chai.  I have not tried this with the vanilla chai yet.

Three packets is all I need ... boil the water, take it off the heat and place the tea bags in.  Something I have learned over the years - wait until the bubbles are gone before adding the tea bags so that the water's not too hot. I keep the tea bags in for about 5 minutes - no more.  Pour some cold water into a pitcher, then pour the tea into it, then finish with some more cold water until the pitcher is full.

This is all you need ... the brewed tea, a glass, 1/2 cup of milk and sweetener.  We use lactose free fat free milk because my mother has some issues with lactose and, due to her diabetes, she can't drink soy milk.  I also like my chai tea sweet so I use four sweeteners in a big glass like I have here.

Pour it all in, stir it up and enjoy!!  Yum!!

CHiCKPeaS aND VeG WiTH eGG

I have a weight problem.  It's not extreme (though I refuse to tell anyone how much I weigh), but I can stand to lose some pounds, get my butt up and get moving,  eat healthier, workout more, etc etc etc. 

I have watched so many people do everything unhealthy they can think of to lose weight, always feeling like I didn't have the "willpower" that they do because I can't starve myself ... or eat only broccoli or lettuce ... or do one of those stupid fad diets ... or go to the gym for hours at a time every day ... or even take the diet pills (yuck!!).  I'm not doing it because I want to find a man or because I'm jealous of my skinny friends or any other nonsense like that.  I'm doing it because I want to be healthy and live a long happy productive life.  I spend time with my nieces and realize that I am pooped after a couple of hours while they are still running strong and I don't like that feeling (Aunt Meghan is supposed to be able to do anything) ... and I want to see them grow up.

I want to lose the weight in a healthy way - so when I got to San Antonio, I discussed it with my mother.  She talked to a nutritionist friend of hers who suggested that we try this ... eat three meals and one snack a day, taking in no more than 45 carbohydrates per meal and 20 carbohydrates per snack, subtracting the fiber from the carbohydrates to get the right amount.  We are supposed to eat close to that number - and those carbohydrates will give us enough energy to get through our day until the next time we eat.

I have been doing this for the last 2 weeks and happily I have lost a few pounds.  I have also had to change things around a bit - mainly the last meal.  I feel like 45 carbohydrates is WAY too much for me to be eating within an hour or two of bedtime, especially since there are at least 2 days a week where I eat late - waiting for my mother to get home, not wanting for her to eat dinner alone.  While counting my carbs, I've also been paying attention to the calories, fiber and protein that I'm taking in.

As I said in a post before, I LOVE CHICKPEAS!!  I make them from dried beans and since it's a little time consuming to do so (soaking them overnight, then cooking them until they are tender), I make a whole package at a time and use them throughout the week.

I also love the smell of sauteed onions.  Especially with fresh garlic.  Such a delicious smell that makes me smile and reminds me a lot of when my mom cooked all the time when we were younger.  It has to be one of my favorite kitchen smells (I may have told you this before haha).

This dish I made for breakfast.

These are pretty much all the seasonings I need.  I add others when I feel the need calls for it - but fresh cracked pepper, granulated garlic and this chili & lime spice blend that I LOVE LOVE LOVE right now are pretty much all this recipe needed.

I sauteed my onions, first with just some pan spray, adding 2 teaspoons of butter in the middle of cooking to give that nice buttery taste.  The butter I use is Smart Balance Heart Right Light buttery spread (for 1 tablespoon it has 80 calories, 0 carbs).  As they cooked, I looked through the refrigerator to see what leftovers I had in there - see, no real plan - just whatever jumps out and grabs my interest.

I found some leftover sweet peas (Bird's Eye SteamFresh, only fresh cracked pepper added) and the chickpeas I made the other day.

When the onions were done, I mixed 3/4 cup peas and 1/2 cup chickpeas into the mixture, then added the seasonings, cooking them until the peas and chickpeas were hot.

Once they were cooked, I took them off the burner and began to cook my egg.  All I needed was a little bit of pan spray and some fresh cracked pepper.  I crack the egg into a small bowl and then pour it into the hot pan so that it cooks on one side and doesn't spread out too far.

I dished in some of the onion/chickpea/sweet peas mixture into a bowl, then placed the cooked egg on top.  That's all there is to it.

 How do I eat mine?  I cut the egg up so that the soft yoke spills out into the mixture below - yum - and allowing me to have a little egg with each bite.

a DeLiCiouS VeGGie oMeLeT

I LOVE OMELETS!!  They are one of my most favorite things to make ... something people who spend the night at my home request ... and something that almost every roommate I've had has asked me to make (and also asked me to teach them how to make the).  Its funny that they used to be one of my most hated items to create ... I just could never seem to get them right.  And then one day I got an idea ... and it worked.

This particular omelet is a veggie one that I created for "brunch" one day for myself. 

These are all the ingredients that I needed ... and it's really quite simple.  I had spray for my pan, this chili & lime spice blend that I love, fresh cracked pepper, 1/4 cup shredded cheese, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of the Asian vegetable medley (frozen veggies that contained edamame, red sweet peppers, baby corn and snow peas) and 2 tablespoons of peach mango salsa to use on the side.  

Let's begin your omelet making lesson.  The first thing you do is put your pan over medium heat and let it get warm.  While it's getting warm, beat your eggs.  I don't add milk or anything because I feel that it takes away from the wonderful flavor of the eggs.  I also do not use any butter to cook my eggs.  Once the pan is warm, spray your pan and then pour in the eggs, making sure to move them around in the pan so that they coat the entire bottom.  Once they start to get a little firm on the bottom, I add the seasonings that I'm going to use, but I don't add salt (my preference).

After I put the seasonings on, I take the pan off the heat and move it around so that the eggs start to go up the side of the pan a little, making sure to coat about halfway up all the way around.  This gives you a little bit bigger omelet as well as makes it easier for you to get your spatula under it in order to fold it.

Once it starts to get really firm, with only a little liquid on top, I added half of the veggies that I had and the cheese.

I then folded it in half with the spatula.  Just stick the spatula under the edge of the omelet (it will start to pull away from the pan) and slowly slide it under.  Yes, my omelet has a little split in it.  That's because I like my omelet to have a lot of stuff in it.  If I had put in less, it wouldn't have had that.

I then slid the spatula under the omelet an lifted it out to put on my plate.  (I like to keep it in the pan for about 30 to 45 seconds so that the cheese has a chance to melt a little).  As you can see, I served the rest of the vegetables on the side.  This omelet tasted delicious with a little bit of the salsa on each piece.  Yum!!

Doesn't it look absolutely beautiful??  It's actually making me want to go make myself one right now haha.

And the great thing about omelets is that you can fill them with anything you want.  I have made one with sliced avocado inside, with sauteed onions and sweet peppers, with mushrooms, even with just cheese.

Note:  If you are going to make several of these (say for your family), I would suggest taking the pan off the heat in between and wiping it out with a piece of paper towel.  It gives you a clean palette to create the next one on and stops your omelet from getting burnt.