More Breakfast on the Go

I’m working on some more easy-to-make-ahead breakfast foods. Even something good can get old if you eat it too many days in a row, so tonight for a little variety I am using sausage and scrambled eggs. The muffin tin method works great so I’m sticking with it. if I’m going to heat up the oven I may as well make a good quantity to last a few days. If you want to try this out, preheat the oven to 350 degrees while you assemble the ingredients. You’ll need a large 6-cup muffin tin. I use already-cooked Bob Evans Turkey sausage, which is pretty tasty for a poultry-based sausage, and has only 40 calories per patty.

Baked Eggs and Turkey Sausage

6 large eggs
Pam non-stick cooking spray
6 tablespoons 2% milk, divided use
6 patties Bob Evans fully-cooked Turkey Sausage Patties
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and pepper to taste
12 teaspoons grated Colby Jack cheese, divided use
English muffins, bagels or bread of your choice

Spray the muffin tin lightly with Pam Spray. In a 1-cup measuring cup, break an egg and add 1 tablespoon milk. Add the seasoned salt and pepper to your taste and two teaspoons grated cheese. Beat until the eggs are frothy. Pour mixture into one muffin cup. Repeat this process with the remaining eggs, milk, cheese, and seasonings. Next cook the sausage patties according to the package directions. Gently float one sausage patty on top of each egg cup. Place the prepared tin in the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until the eggs are just set. Remember, you’ll heat these again just before serving. Allow the eggs to cool for about 10 minutes before removing them gently with a spatula to a lidded-storage container. Refrigerate until ready to use. To reheat, place one egg on a microwaveable plate and heat for 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on the wattage of your microwave, then serve on an English muffin, bagel, toast or other bread of your choice. I lightly toasted an English muffin and pre-assembled a sandwich for tomorrow for my husband, wrapped it in a sheet of deli paper and stored it in a Ziplock baggie for overnight. Tomorrow he can take it out of the baggie and zap it in the microwave for a minute or so and be ready to eat on the go. These look delicious enough to eat right now!

Hand Pies

I noticed that there were two packages of Pillsbury Ready Crust in my garage refrigerator last night that are marked use by January 30. I have to be honest and tell you that I rarely make pie crust from scratch. This stuff is so easy to work with and inexpensive that it almost doesn’t make sense to make it yourself. To me pie crust is just the carrier for the real star of the pie – the filling!
At Christmas time I make meat-filled Empanaditas, savory mini pies. Tonight I made a fruity version of these treats. Try this out for a quick pastry treat.

Mini Hand Pies

2 packages Pillsbury Ready Crust
1 21-oz. can pie filling
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
Cinnamon sugar for sprinkling (mix 1/3 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line three cookie sheets with parchment paper. Using a 3 1/2-inch pastry ring or cookie cutter, cut the pie crusts into circles. Re roll the scraps for additional circles. You should end up with about 36. I use an Asian dumpling press to mold these pies. They are available at many stores. Here’s one at Bed, Bath and Beyond:

Asian Dumpling Press

Place a crust circle on the flattened press, beat one egg with about a tablespoon of milk and use your finger as a paint brush to spread the egg wash just around the outside edge of the crust. Place about a teaspoon of your favorite prepared pie filling in the center of the crust. Really, only a teaspoon. It seems miserly, but any more than this will just blow out when you press the pie. Gently close the press to seal the crust edges together. Brush the remaining egg wash over the pies and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Place the pies on the prepared cookie sheets and continue forming the pies until all crusts are used. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool. Store in an airtight container or refrigerate.

Breakfast to Go

As so many people do at the start of a new year, my husband and I have resolved to change our eating habits and lose weight to feel better and live healthier lives. Of course, many years have begun like this for us, but this year we have a new resolve. We’re going to celebrate our 30th Anniversary in July and our goal is to collectively lose about 50 lbs. or more between us by then.
I have been taking my lunch to work every day (only missed one day) and we’ve been trying to cook at home weeknights and only go out to eat on the weekends. My husband drives by a Dunkin’ Doughnuts, a McDonald’s and a Burger King on his way to work and his usual custom is to veer into one of these and pick up breakfast on the way to work. This is not only unhealthy, but expensive over time. He asked tonight if I would fix some eggs so they would be ready to put on a quick sandwich in the morning to eat in the car while commuting. I surfed the internet and found lots of ideas, but finally settled on baking eggs in a muffin tin. I took a large 6-cup muffin tin and sprayed it with Pam non-stick cooking spray. Did you know it’s fat-free? It also has no sugar, sodium or calories. It’s the only food I know of that’s measured in seconds. One serving = 1/4 second spray. Next I took slices of Canadian Bacon, lean and relatively low in fat, and snipped notches all around the edges to mold them loosely into the bottom of the muffin cups. I have some wonderful farm fresh eggs that come directly from chickens raised by a neighbor of my parents, so I cracked one into each cup on top of the Canadian Bacon then seasoned each with some Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and fresh ground black pepper. I baked this for about 12 minutes at 350 degrees. I believe my oven is a little “slow” so you will want to watch them so that the yellows do not get too hard, especially if you like the yolks juicy. Remember that they will get a little more solid when you reheat them just before eating. Once cooled I assembled the cooked egg and bacon on a lightly toasted English muffin and wrapped it in a sheet of deli paper (available at Sam’s Club) and put it in a baggie. In the morning, Kevin will reheat this for about a minute and add a slice of American Cheese. It will be quicker than waiting in a drive thru, more economical and certainly more tasty than any of the fast food options.

Think about it!

Spiced Almond Wafers-Part II

The cookie jars on my desk at work are empty so I got the Spiced Almond cookie dough that I made last week out of the freezer and let it thaw a bit to soften. The dough was pretty firm so I used a long chef’s knife to cut about 1/8th-inch thick slices. The cookies looked disproportionately long so I made one more slice and made them a little shorter. This size and shape will also fit better through through the wide-mouth cookie jar. Martha Stewart’s original recipe said to put three to four almond slices on each cookie. I like almonds way more than that so I used a liberal amount on each one. After they came out of the oven I let them cool on a rack and had to taste test one while they were still warm. YUM! They are crispy and delicately spiced and the almonds give them a good crunch. Try these out if you like store-bought windmill cookies.

Holiday Clearance – Seasonal Baking Supplies

I can’t resist a bargain in the grocery store. I happened upon a basked of clearance items and found a package of Andes Creme de Menthe baking chips. Hey, these are good any time of the year so I picked some up. Often you will find a really good recipe right on the package and that is the case with these baking bits. Since it’s down into the 20’s outside tonight, it’s a great night to bake cookies. I whipped up a batch of these to put in the cookie jars on my desk at work tomorrow. They’ve been empty a long time, so it’s time to start filling them back up again once in a while.

Andes Creme de Menthe Chunk Cookies

Windmills of Your Mind

While at a friend’s house over the holidays I had a cookie that flashed me back to the 1960’s. No, it was not a brownie laced with an illegal ingredient – it was a Spiced Almond Wafer that tasted just like the Windmill cookies I used to eat as a kid. I loved those things all coated in almond slices. The backs of them were marked with the fine mesh grids of the sheets they baked on and one was never enough. For some reason, I also associate these cookies with a song from the movie, The Thomas Crown Affair. If you grew up listening to AM radio in the ’60’s, you’ll likely recognize this melody played on a harpsichord.

Windmills of Your Mind

This cookie dough is a refrigerator dough that is molded in mini-loaf pans, frozen, then thawed to soften and sliced into rectangles for baking. The original Martha Stewart recipe gave directions to pack the dough into two mini loaf pans, but I used four mid-century aluminum pans that are 2 x 4 inches in size. I guess it depends on the size of your loaf pans and how large you want to make your cookies. Here’s the link to Martha’s original recipe:

Spiced Almond Wafers

I also used the prepared dough pans to compress each other to pack the dough firmly and hopefully this will give them a consistent texture when they are ready to bake. The pans have gone into the freezer and I will get baked sometime later this week.

Winter Ham and Corn Chowder

Today is a cold winter’s day and we’ve had a fire blazing in the fireplace most of the day. It seems like a good day for a bowl of soup. I had some leftover ham in the freezer that had been diced from the remnants of a spiral cut ham so I settled on Ham and Corn Chowder. Unlike most recipes I make, this is an original recipe I put together after trying several different Ham or Corn Chowder recipes ranging from a recipe in the Colonial Williamsburg Cookbook to Colorado Cache, a cookbook published by the Denver Junior Service. I picked it up in the late 1980’s when I went to Colorado for a medical training class. I understand it has been published in the last few years in the 30th anniversary edition. It has a lot of good recipes in it and is available on Amazon.com.

Colorado Cache on Amazon.com

Ham and Corn Chowder

1 small onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 quarts vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
2 cups diced ham
1 15.25-oz. can whole kernel corn, drained
1 14.75-oz. can cream-style corn
1 can evaporated milk (may use evaporated milk made with 2% milk)
salt and pepper to taste
dash of nutmeg

In a 8-quart stock pot over medium-high heat, add the vegetable stock. Heat a skillet over medium high heat, add the olive oil then add the onion, carrot and celery. Sauté the vegetables until softened, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the sautéed vegetables to the stock, then add the bay leaves, salt and pepper to taste, diced ham, whole kernel corn, cream-style corn, and potatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes, or until potatoes are done. Add the evaporated milk and pinch of nutmeg and heat through until warm. Serve with a side salad or sandwich. Corn bread is also good on the side. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves before serving,

Bucket o’ Tuna

We like tuna salad sandwiches for lunch or even as a snack on crackers. When I make tuna salad I use the 4 lb. 2.25-ounce can of water-packed tuna from Sam’s Wholesale Club. According to the label this can contains 24 standard servings. For our family of three this will last for about a week. This is a very simple recipe, just made in large quantity.

Tuna Salad

1 4 lb. 2.24-ounce can of water packed tuna
6 eggs, hardboiled and peeled
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
1 1/2 to 2 cups light mayonnaise

Using a large colander, drain tuna well. This salad can be mixed in the container it will be stored in so choose a large glass or plastic dish with a resealable lid and add drained tuna. Next add the the mayonnaise to your desired degree of wetness and stir to combine. Some people like very moist tuna while others prefer their tuna salad to be more dry. This salad will become more moist as it sits, so if you’re not sure if it’s got enough mayo for your taste, let it sit overnight then stir and check consistency. You can always add more mayo later, but if it gets too wet, your only option is to drain off the liquid. Next add the pickle relish and stir. Lastly, put the eggs through an egg slicer twice, turning the egg at a right angle on the second pass, to easily dice all of the eggs into the salad. Mix well and refrigerate. Serve on your favorite bread, bagels, buns, rolls, pita pockets, tortillas, or croissants with lettuce, tomato, fresh spinach, pickles, cucumbers or other condiments of your choosing.

Quick Lunch

We went to church at 10:15 this morning, got home about 11:30 and my son, Adam, had to be at work by 12:30 p.m. Quick lunch was in order so I defrosted 1 lb. of skinned boneless Swai fish in the microwave. While it was defrosting I searched for a pan-fried fish recipe and found one by Alton Brown that he usually applies to skin-on trout or salmon. I have some wonderful new Calphalon Unison Slide no-stick frying pans so I thought I’d give it a try.

Pan Fried Fish

I put a quick Knorr Rice with Herbs and Butter side dish into the microwave as soon as the fish came out then put the skillet on to preheat. The rice had to cook for 12 minutes. I prepped the fish patting it dry with paper towels, seasoning with kosher salt and pepper, then lightly dredging it in flour. I gently put the fish in the heated oil and butter mixture then took a fresh head of broccoli out, cut the florets off and put them in a pot with a small amount of water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) then put a lid on it to steam. I turned the fish the fish over and found a beautiful golden color had cooked on. The fish only had to cook about 3 to four minutes on the second side since it was not very thick Food was plated and eaten in time for Adam to leave by 12:15 to get to work on time.

Eggs in Purgatory and Heavenly Granola

Tonight we decided to have breakfast for supper. We had some leftover Chicken Sausages and also some mashed potatoes so to use them up I made Giada De Laurentiis’s Eggs in Purgatory, which sits a fried egg on top of a potato pancake. There’s a video in the link where Giada demonstrates how to mix and shape the pancakes. Even if you don’t have as many leftover potatoes as the recipe calls for you can play a little with the quantities to get the right consistency.

Eggs in Purgatory

We took the team approach and Kevin diced up the chicken sausage and a few mushrooms and sautéed them in one pan while I mixed up the potato pancakes and fried them in another. My batter was more wet than Giada’s looked in her video so I added a couple tablespoons more flour, but was able to pat them out once I put the batter into the skillet. It only took about 3 minutes to develop a beautiful golden crust and it was time to flip them over. We omitted the marinara sauce and just plated over-easy eggs on top of the potato pancake and had the sausage mushroom mixture on the side. The potato pancakes were delicious! Creamy on the inside with just a little crust on the outside for texture. Not bad for leftovers!

We’re trying to eat healthier in this new year so after supper I put together some home-made granola using a recipe I found in the Food Network Magazine in May 2012. This is great on top of yogurt, or ice cream or you can just munch on it as a snack. I had some Michigan dried cherries that we bought in bulk about a year ago and tonight’s batch will use them up. This keeps well for a week or two if stored in a tightly sealed mason jar.

Coconut-Sour Cherry Granola