Mexican Frittata

My mom’s neighbor has a chicken coop and sells a dozen organic free range eggs for 2 dollars! Every time we visit I try to pick up some eggs. This was the quick breakfast that I made from these little beauties. It really is simple, and I hesitated posting it because it is so simple, but sometimes it is nice to have just the everyday quick easy, no fuss meal. It made enough for the three of us for Sunday breakfast, but if you aren't big eaters it makes great leftovers.

10 egg whites or 5 whole eggs

1 anahiem pepper

1 red pepper

1 onion

salt and pepper to taste (about a 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a few grinds of pepper)

Garnish: cilantro, salsa

Dice the onions, and peppers. Heat a medium fry pan, add a tsp of olive oil. When the oil is hot add the onions and peppers. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl add the egg whites and salt and pepper and mix together. Pour the eggs over the peppers and onion and mix them together. At this point don't touch the egg mixture, just let it cook. When it is almost all the way cooked through, (the sides are cooked, and everything but the very center is cooked), put it in the oven on high broil and cook the rest of the way through. Watch it so it doesn't burn! It should be a golden brown on top. Take out of the oven and slice like a pizza. Top with salsa, and cilantro.

Not Your Oridnary Apple Sauce

I picked up this applesauce at Target on clearance to give it a try. Boy was I pleasantly surprised! It is all naturally sweetened with fruit juice and without preservatives. The biggest thing that stands out for this apple sauce is that it is chunky, almost like eating apple pie. In fact it would make a great pie filling, tart filling, topping for pancakes, or just eat it straight out of the bottle with a spoon, which is what I did. I thought I would write more about good finds to have on hand, because let's face it we don't always have time to make everything from scratch, and in those cases it is nice to have healthy alternatives.

Whole Grain Buttermilk Waffles and Raspberry Sauce

Happy Fathers Day, Scotty!! Here is one of my Fathers Day gifts for my sweet husband, breakfast in bed. I chose waffles, whip cream, and berries, for Scottie's sweet tooth. I don't normally like to use a lot of dairy when cooking, but I made an exception for Fathers Day. The waffles had a yummy whole grain taste, that paired well with the light whip cream, and raspberry sauce. The waffles are really good, but a bit heavy, I think I will play around with the recipe a little bit more to get it perfect.

I added chia seeds and flax instead of eggs. I just taught a class for UVU, and we talked about chia seeds and how good they are for you so I decided to try them in this recipe. I have used chia seeds in breads and granola bars, and other baked goods and they make baked products rise and make them moist. Chia seeds are so good for you. They have more omega 3's than salmon, and more anti oxidants than blue berries. They also keep you hydrated longer because they asorb water in your body. Athletes use them for endurance.

I didn't cook the sauce to give the meal live enzymes to help digest the waffles. That is something I have been trying to do with all of my meals. Make sure that every meal has something not cooked to help with live enzymes necessary to digest food.

Here they are in bed, Isaiah with Daddy eating his waffles. He is so cute, whenever he takes a bite of something he likes he says, mmmm.

His jammies say handsome like daddy, which is SO true!!

Whole Grain Waffles

These waffles are pretty thick, if you want a thinner waffle, add more liquid to the batter. If you don't have flax and chia seeds, go ahead and add 2 eggs in the batter.

Whisk together dry ingredients in a bowl:

2 C whole grain flour ( I used 1 C teff, 1 C oat, but 2 C whole wheat would work just fine)

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 C buttermilk powder*

Wet ingredients:

2 T flax or chia seeds ( or 2 eggs)

1 3/4-2 C water

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/2 C plain yogurt

2 tsp agave

2 T olive oil

Combine the chia seeds and flax in a blender with the water. Let them sit while you add and whisk the dry ingredients. Once you are done with the dry ingredients, add the vanilla and yogurt to the blender. Blend all of the ingredients well. Mix together the wet and dry ingredients until just combined. The waffle batter is pretty thick, if you want a thinner batter add more liquid. Add the batter to a hot waffle maker, and spread it out (it is thick). Cook a little longer than the waffle machine says to ensure it is cooked all the way through. Top with whip cream and berry sauce.

*You can find buttermilk powder in the baking aisle. If you don't have buttermilk powder you could substitute 1 3/4-2 C of buttermilk instead of water. Or to cut out the dairy you could add 1 3/4 C nut milk and 1 1/2 T vinegar.

Agave Whip Cream

1 C whipping cream

2T agave

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine the whip cream agave and vanilla in a cold metal bowl. Whip with a hand held beater until the cream makes stiff peaks.

Berry Sauce

3 C raspberries

1 tsp lemon juice

1/4 C agave

Blend until smooth. You need a high powered blender for this to break down the rasberry seeds, or you could do it in a normal blender and just have little seeds, like jam.

Chainsaws and Sugar Free Juice Pops

Isaiah has found a new toy, a very LOUD toy, it makes a noise that makes you feel like someone is sawing down a tree right next to you. He lives for this toy. In fact he loves it so much that he has been sleeping with it the last couple of nights, tucked under his arm like a stuffed animal. Should I be worried? Not only does he sleep with it, it also goes everywhere he goes.... to the store, to eat, outside to cut down trees, and to Seven Peaks.

The second thing thing that Isaiah has been loving is juice pops, although not as much as the chain saw (he hasn't tried to sleep with one yet). They are so easy and I feel a lot better giving him that then a brightly dyed corn syrup pop. I forgot about these wonderful little treats, until my friend reminded me the other day of them. She was on bed rest and had me pick up different juices to make Popsicles. So I followed suit and bought a huge gallon jug of apple cider. It has made the best apple Popsicles. I bought the Popsicle molds at Target, or one of those chain stores last year I don't remember which, but pretty much everywhere has them.

Juice Pops

Your favorite juice

Popsicle Molds

Poor the juice into the molds and freeze.

My Favorite Sauce on Polenta

I tried this recipe because Mr. Italy himself, Mario Batali, created it. It quickly became my favorite right after I tasted it. Since then I have made it a number of times. Usually I play around with recipes and add to or take away ingredients, not this one, I stick to it like a loyal friend, and like a loyal friend it never lets me down.

Spaghetti Sauce

1/4 C olive oil

1 onion

4 cloves garlic

3 T thyme

1/2 carrot

2 cans, 28 oz., of whole tomatoes (I don't know how many bottles jars of tomatoes that would be)

Dash of red pepper

Heat olive oil, saute the onion and garlic until onion is soft. Add thyme and carrot, cook about 5 more minutes until the carrot is soft. Add tomatoes and juice of tomatoes and bring to a boil, stirring often. Lower heat and simmer 30 minutes util sauce is as thick as hot cereal. Season with salt and pepper.