Healthy Hashbrowns with Sauteed Spinach, Eggs and Tomato Confit

I miss blogging and people keep asking for recipes, so here I go again!  This is a pretty simple recipe that results in a fairly gourmet breakfast and it's healthy to boot, what's not to love?

I made the hashbrowns, topped with sauteed spinach and tomato confit and then topped with poached eggs. You HAVE to try my poached egg trick. Small mug, fill halfway with water, crack egg into it and microwave for 1 minute with a saucer on top. Perfect poached egg every time! You may need to play around with the cooking time a bit, but one minute seems to be the trick for all the microwaves I've used.

So first up... hashbrowns. Who doesn't love a good ole greasy hashbrown? Well I daresay these homemade ones are not only better, but greaseless and good for you. They could easily be made with a mix of root vegetables or even sweet potatoes.  I make a kilo of potatoes worth and freeze the ones I'm not eating right away.  They can be thawed and reheated in a pan with some cooking spray later.

Syn-Free Hash Browns

Ingredients:

• 1 kg (2lb) potatoes, peeled
• 1 white onion
• salt
• pepper
• cooking spray

Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F

Boil the peeled potatoes until partially cooked, about 8 minutes.  Set aside to cool until you can touch them.

Grate potatoes into a bowl. Grate onion on top of potatoes.  Season with salt and pepper and mix.

Spray baking sheet with cooking spray and spoon 4-5 inch patties of potato mixture on top. Spray patties with cooking spray.

Bake 20-30 minutes, turning 2/3 of the way until they are as brown as you like them.

Serve immediately or allow to cool and freeze separating patties with parchment paper.

Piccolo Tomato "Confit"

This is my new favourite side, it goes so well with eggs and breakfast foods but also works wonderfully with chicken or fish.  So simple yet tastes divine.  Aldi do beautiful piccolo tomatoes on the vine that are sweet and delicious.  Any cherry tomato will work, but you will always get better flavour from tomatoes still on the vine.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of piccolo or cherry tomatoes
• cooking spray
• 3 tbsp white wine vinegar
• pinch sweetener/sugar
• salt and pepper

Halve the tomatoes.  Heat a frying pan and spray with cooking spray. Add tomatoes and cook for a minute or two, add vinegar and sweetener. Cook for a few minutes until juice slightly thickens but tomatoes are still visible and not cooked down. Season to your taste.

Sauteed Spinach

Another ridiculously easy yet delicious healthy staple.  Great with eggs, or fab with sweet potatoes or as a dinner side. Can also add onions and lemon zest for even more flavour.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 package baby leaf spinach, washed
• 1 garlic clove
• Cooking spray

Heat pan, spray with cooking spray and add spinach and garlic. Cook, stirring frequently until spinach wilts. Season with salt and pepper.

Let me know how you get on! <3

Vanilla Puff Pancake

This is one of the kids favourite weekend breakfasts. It's absolutely a cinch to make and such a treat.  It's got a big protein punch too.

To increase the portions just add another 1/4 cup milk and flour plus an additional egg and tablespoon of sugar per person, the recipe below serves four and a baby, although everyone usually wants seconds! :)




Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
• 4 tbsp butter
• Powdered suggar to serve

Preheat oven to 200C/400F.

Get a large casserole dish and place the butter in it. Pop into the oven while you prepare the batter.

Mix the flour and eggs (don't ask, just do, it seems to make sense that the milk would be a better option, but that makes lumps) when the eggs and flour form a thick paste whisk in the rest of the ingredients and vanilla seeds.  Whisk until well combined and no lumps remain. 

Allow to stand as long as you like but at least 5-10 minutes.

When oven is pre-heated and butter melted, take out dish and swirl the butter to coat the entire dish.  Pour in the batter and pop back into the oven.

Cook for 15-25 minutes or until it's beautifully risen and golden and the middle is cooked.

Once done remove and quickly dust with powdered sugar and serve at once.  It will fall once it's out, but it will still be delicious!

A savoury version of this recipe can be easily made omitting the sugar and vanilla and adding some mustard as in yorkshire puddings or heating sausages in the butter first to make toad in the hole.  It's extremely versatile and fruit can be added as well to great affect.  I often add apples and the sugar to the butter and let them begin to caramelise with a pinch of cinnamon before adding the batter and the result is sublime!  A real winner! :)