No Bacon for Breakfast?!

Oh No!  We're out of BACON!  In my house we go through more bacon in a week than most people use in a month.  No. Kidding.  So this am I got into the fridge to make breakfast and saw that there was no meat...or so I thought.  I dug around and found some black forrest ham and thought, "I can work with that."  So I used a muffin tin and shaped the ham slices into it and cracked a few eggs into the ham. Voila!  Breakfast: meat included.  I also sliced up some peppers and onion that I happened to have and tossed in some mushrooms and threw it all into a sauté pan.  OH. Yeah.

Oven baked egg cups:

You will need:
Sliced ham
Eggs
Salt & Pepper
Spray oil
Muffin tin

Heat oven to 400 degrees
Spray muffin tin so the cups come out easy
Shape ham into tin
Crack eggs into ham
Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes
Let cool a few minutes before removing from tin

I sprinkled with cheddar cheese and fresh basil and served with toast and sautéed peppers.  Man that's good stuff! 

Eggs Nested with Love

  So yesterday for breakfast I made my children eggs in a nest, a simple breakfast I learned from *eek* an ex.  I had gone grocery shopping all over the tri-cities the previous day, in an effort to obtain the healthiest forms of sustenance for my family.  It's not as easy as one would assume to locate chicken free of hormones, antibiotics and not fed any form of animal byproduct.  So, I ventured to the Kennewick Yoke's, Richland Winco, and the Egg Farm in BFE Pasco.  These eggs are not only good for you, they are super cheap which in my house is awesome as we go through more than two dozen eggs per week!
 
  There is a point to all of this...

   So yesterday morning after chasing the garbage truck (well not really), actually he had already gone down our side of the street so my neighbor and I scrambled to drag our cans to the other side of the road to put them with the others that hadn't been picked up (don't judge), in an effort to make an effortless breakfast, I decided to make eggs in a nest.  It is so much more fun to make shapes instead of the boring old standby circle, so i dug out one of our valentine cookie cutters and made my nest pretty :)

Eggs in a Nest:

You will need:
Sliced bread
Eggs
Butter
Frying pan or skillet
Cookie cutter(s) of choice

Butter your shit (bread) on both sides,
Use cookie cutter to cut out the center and save the cutout piece,
Place all pieces of bread on pan,
Crack eggs into hollowed out bread,
Cook to desired doneness.
Plate and serve with fresh fruit (or whatever side sounds good).
Eat.

  *I was going to use the duck shaped cookie cutter, but it's too big :(

Slow Food

   *disclaimer: this post is not intended to offend, just to exercise my opinion, if you find yourself taking offense, you should read on and take my advice*

  I understand how difficult it can be to find the time to cook a decent meal, especially when you have a full time job and a family (or a family that is your full time job). Between racing the kids off to school,  practices, dance/karate/swimming lessons, doing the grocery shopping, paying the bills, keeping house, and maintaining some semblance of a relationship with your significant other (if applicable), who has time to put together a five star (or even a one star) meal when the alternatives are so much less time consuming?  Who among us has never found themselves pressed for time and succumbed to the easy way out?  I myself am guilty of exercising poor judgement and taking the trip down the walk of shame, otherwise known as the drive-thru, for dinner.  I remember the days when it happened more than two nights a week and now that I know what is in that stuff, I feel awful for putting in my children's growing bodies.  After all, they are relying on me to make good food choices for them as they have no control over the matter.  Which brings me to my next topic...

  As their parents, it is not only in our power to control what our children eat, it's our J-O-B.  If they see us making poor choices in any aspect of life they are likely to make poor decisions themselves.  For instance, if I often arrive late, my offspring are predisposed to be tardy because it's okay for me to do it, why not them?  If I keep a messy house, their rooms are likely to be piled with dirty plates, laundry, banana peels and old homework.  Why?  because I''ve shown them it's okay.  So if they see us picking up pre-prepared meals often, it is reasonable to assume that they will follow suit in the future.  On that same point, if they see us eating apples, nuts, and greens, they are just as likely to consume like items. Also, kids eat what is available so if you are one of those parents who say, "my kid won't eat anything other than chicken nuggets and potato chips", it's quite possible that it's because that's what's been made available.  Eradicate such things from your home and offer healthy alternatives such as fresh fruit, yogurt and cheese and those are the items they will choose as there are not other options.

  To make a home-cooked meal doesn't have to be from scratch, either, just preferably not from a box.  I like to make what I call "sort of" home made.  I don't always have time (or I don't wish to cook all day) to do everything from scratch, so I improvise.  Sometimes it's with canned enchilada sauce, other times it's using a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store to use as filling for a usually time consuming meal.  Also, I've found that sometimes throwing things into a crock-pot at the beginning of the day can make for a stress free meal at the end of it.

  Use your resources.  If you are reading this you clearly have access to the internet: so use it!  Google fast, cheap, easy recipes.  Start by finding your main ingredient and type it into your preferred search engine followed by the word "recipe".  Or if you need ideas for where to start try a cooking website such as cooking.com.  I find quite a few recipes on pinterest and so far have not been let down.

  If you still insist on stooping at McDonalds, try watching Food Inc, Supersize Me, and The Future of Food.   Or try looking up"pink slime".  If that doesn't sway you, nothing will.

  I'll leave you with my go to "out of time" recipe:

Chickaladas!
Prep time: 10 minutes.  Cook time: 20 minutes.

What you will need:
1 while rotisserie chicken
1 can Rotel tomatoes w/chiles (drained)
1 small can diced green chiles
1 small can green enchilada sauce
1 1/2 cup grated monterey jack cheese
12 taco sized flour tortillas
1 T ground cumin
Salt to taste.
1 can sliced black olives (optional)

Instructions:
Heat oven to 375 degrees
Lightly grease a large baking dish with olive oil (9x13 is good)
Using your hands, take all meat off the chicken and place in large bowl
Add tomatoes, chiles, 1 cup of the cheese, cumin and salt to bowl with chicken and mix together
Spoon chicken mixture into tortillas, roll them up and place them into baking dish side by side
Lightly poor sauce over the filled tortillas and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup of cheese and olives (if desired).
Bake for 20 minutes or until done.  Serves four (with possible leftovers)

*if desired, taco meat works great too :)

Happy eating!