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

Cheaters Quiche

Have I told you about the 1 cup quiche?  This is my new favourite recipe ever!  Perhaps it's constantly having fresh eggs, perhaps it's the sheer lack of thought or effort required or perhaps it's the fact that it's damn yummy, but this is truly a great one to have up your sleeves.  Perfect to whip together if you have unexpected visitors and absolutely the business for picnics!


This isn't really a quiche in the traditional sense as there's no fiddling with pastry required. It uses flour and the flour sort of sinks to the bottom creating a type of crust.  You can use any filling you want in this and it serves about ten people. It's as good cold and keeps great for a few days in the fridge. I freeze slices individually and pop them out in the morning for a nice lunch later.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup grated cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1 pkg bacon lardons
• 1 pepper, diced
• 1 onion, diced
• chopped fresh herbs (parsley, dill, chives, whatever you like)
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 tomato, sliced

Grease a baking dish with butter. Pre-heat oven to 200C.

Mix all ingredients except tomato in a large bowl. Yes, that's really it.

Pour into greased baking dish and top with tomato slices.

Bake for 45-50 minutes until firm and cooked through. Slice and serve warm or cold.

Vanilla Pavlova

Would you believe I've never made Pavlova?  I've always loved it but never actually made it.  I remember as a teenager going to my second cousins wedding and being delighted to hear that the wedding cake was a tower of pavlovas!  I thought it was genius and decided that day to do it for my wedding, but alas I got married in America and it was not an option.  This recipe turned out to be pretty simple, although all the whipping is time consuming and I cannot imagine doing it without a mixer of some kind.  It turned out just perfectly crunchy on the outside and marshmallow-y on the inside.  Top it with whatever fruit you have on hand. I was hoping to use passion fruit as well, but I couldn't get any yesterday.  Berries are particularly delicious.  This would also work very well with a mascarpone topping.

Ingredients: 

For the meringue:

• 5 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1.25 cups caster sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp white vinegar
• 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out
• 1.5 tbsp cornflour (corn starch)

For the topping:

• 1 carton of whipping cream
• 2-3 tbsp caster sugar to taste
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Fruit of your choice

Beat the eggs until stiff and slowly add in sugar.  Beat for 5-10 minutes until very stiff shiny peaks form.  Add vanilla, vinegar and vanilla beans and beat until all combined.  Fold in corn flour.

Line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment.  Use a plate to trace a circle on the parchment.  Dump the meringue into the center of the circle and spread out to meet the edges.

Bake at 120C for 60-90 minutes to desired doneness. Allow to cool with oven door ajar.

Once cool, whip cream with vanilla and sugar and spread on top of meringue.  Decorate with fruit and serve immediately!

Enjoy after a lovely BBQ with some sangria, as pictured right! ;)

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! :)

New Mama Fuel

Some of the members of the Irish Parenting Bloggers Group are throwing a virtual baby shower in the form of a Blog March for the group’s two leaders, Lisa & Áine (who is on a well-deserved blogging break). Áine had a baby girl in January and Lisa is due to have her baby girl in March.  We are taking turns to do a post a day. Yesterday's post came from Jane at That Curious Love of Green and tomorrow will be from Laura at My Internal World.  Today it’s my turn to lead the celebrations with a little help from the letter Y.

I spent some time reflecting on some of those early days with a new baby, hard to believe it's been almost a year since my wee man was born at home. My dear husband took two weeks off to help out afterwards and kept me well fed and the older two looked after as I tried to overcome my breastfeeding issues and make the most of what I was able to produce.  It was only when he went back to work that I realised how hectic things could be with two school age kids and all the extra-curricular goings on and trying to manage those while constantly hooked up to a baby or breast pump.  It felt like there wasn't enough time in the day and I found myself often neglecting to eat!  For those of you who know me, you'll know that's a huge deal, as I never forget to eat or even forget to think about eating, but alas I did.  A few weeks in I knew things had to change and I took advantage of hubby's home days by making some quick and healthy snacks that would be ready to just grab as needed.

These mini-quiche's were a god send.  I would make a few batches on the weekend and freeze them and when I got hungry I would just throw a couple in the microwave and voila, a healthy well-rounded lunch!  You can use any veg you have on hand or just broccoli and cheddar is delicious too. I used a combination of egg whites and whole eggs to keep fat and calories a bit lower, but you can certainly use a dozen eggs if you want that extra punch. They work out at about 100 calories each.

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 cup egg whites (+/- 9 egg whites, I used the Two Chicks liquid ones)
• 1-2 cups steamed chopped vegetables (I used leeks, broccoli, peppers, onions, tomatoes)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
• herb and salt and pepper to season

Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F.

Beat the egg whites and eggs together with the parmesan, olive oil and any herbs you would like to use (a teaspoon of pesto is great too!)

Toss in the steamed veg and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Spray a muffin tin with non-stick spray (or butter them if you're not concerned with fat) and pour the egg mixture into nine of the holes.  Bake for twenty minutes.

Pop out of muffin cups and either serve immediately or store in zip-loc bags in the freezer once cooled. 

Lettuce, Spring Onion and Cheese Tart

"Cooked lettuce?!?" he asks incredulously.

"No judging til you try it, I promise, you'll love it," I assure him and I was right. He did and so did everyone else who tried it.  This incredible tart is another recipe from The River Cottage Veg Cookbook.  I knew as soon as I looked at it that it would be a winner and it was.

Because I was lazy, I didn't make the pastry from scratch, but instead used the shortcrust pastry from Aldi, which was surprisingly delicious!  I followed the rest of the recipe to a T, adding just a pinch of grated nutmeg.  The result was sublime; a soft buttery velvet custard with caramelised spring onion and baby gem.  Perfect served warm or cold, alone or with a nice salad - this will be a staple for my weekday lunches!

Ingredients: 


For the Pastry-

• 250g plain flour
• pinch of sea salt
• 125g chilled unsalted butter, cut into chunks
• 75ml cold milk

For the filling-

• 1 tbsp rapeseed/olive oil
• 4 little gem lettuce hearts, trimmed and quartered
• 15g butter
• 2 bunches spring onions, trimmed and cut into chunks
• 100g Lancashire, medium cheddar or hard goat's cheese
• 2 large eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 200ml double cream
• 200ml whole milk
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the pastry, sift flour and salt together, or blitz in a food processor.  Add the butter and blitz or rub until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Mix in the milk little by little until the pastry comes together.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead briefly to bring into a ball. Wrap and chill for thirty minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.  Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use it to line a 25cm tart tin.  Line with foil and rice or baking beans and bake blind for fifteen minutes.  After that time, remove foil and beans and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until starting to colour.  

To make the filling, heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat.  Add the quartered lettuce hearts, sprinkle with slat and pepper and cook for about 5 minutes, turning once or twice until the cooked surface is golden brown.  Add the butter towards the end, letting it melt then spooning it over the lettuces. Arrange the lettuce in the pastry case.

Reduce heat in pan and add the spring onions.  Saute gently until just softened and scatter over lettuce in the tart case.  Crumble or grate the cheese on top.

Lightly beat eggs, egg yolks, milk and cream and season generously with salt and pepper.  Pour the mixture over the tart filling and bake for about 35 minutes until golden.  Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Chatouka: North African Breakfast Stew

I stole my Mom's copy of River Cottage Veg Every Day! recently and have been absolutely amazed with it.  It's been awhile since I've gotten really excited over a cookbook.  It seems they are all celebrity chef's (and I use the term lightly considering some of them in Ireland have no formal training) trying to pawn off their latest gimmick.  It's gotten tiresome and I find myself avoiding cookbooks for the most part.  This book is a refreshing new take on vegetables.  He says it's not necessarily for vegetarians, but it's certainly not a book of side dishes either. There are some stunning recipes and I shall be working through many of them.

This dish is a gorgeous breakfast full of smoky flavour and rich vegetables.  It's a fabulous start to the day and leaves the kitchen smelling divine.  Keep the olive oil to a minimum and it's quite low in fat as well.  I recommend adding just a pinch of sugar to temper the sharpness of the tinned tomatoes, otherwise I found it perfect as written.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 red pepper, finely sliced
• 1 yellow pepper, finely sliced
• 1/2 tsp smoked hot paprika
• pinch of saffron threads
• 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 4 eggs
• salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in a large oven-proof pan.  Add cumin seeds and fry them gently until flavour is released.  Add onions and saute until softened, about 8 minutes.

Add garlic and peppers and continue to cook over a low heat for about twenty minutes until the peppers are soft and wilted. Add paprika and crumble in the saffron, then add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Cook gently, stirring occasionally for about 15-20 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 180C/350F and make four hollows in the surface of the stew.  Crack an egg into each hole and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for 10-12 minutes until white is cooked and yolk is still runny. Alternatively, you could separate the stew into four ramekins and crack the egg on top.

Serves 4

Apologies for the lousy pictures.  My camera is playing up. If anyone knows where to get a Nikon SLR tuned up, please let me know!

Link/Recipe Parties: Strut Your Stuff, Full Plate Thursday

Mama's Power Brekky - Curried Pea Frittata

Being eight months pregnant, I've found that I need to eat a high protein nutritious breakfast to ensure I have enough energy to get through a day of small child wrangling, school runs, cooking, cleaning, errands and managing to look somewhat sane and possibly even awake when hubby gets home after ten.  Eggs are a fabulous way to start the day and ensure your energy level remains high for quite some time. Add that to two servings of veggies and you're really off to a good start.  Peas are a great source of ALA and phytonutrients and topped off with some homemade beetroot relish I have a breakfast that any midwife would approve of. This is so easy and so delicious and is a truly fabulous start to the day!

Curried Pea Frittata for One

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• handful frozen peas
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp curry powder
• salt and pepper, to taste
• beetroot, tomato, salsa or other fresh relish to serve

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion until just softened.  Add the peas and cook until warmed through.

Meanwhile whisk eggs with salt, pepper and curry powder.  Pour over pea and onion mixture and allow to gently cook.  Lift sides with a spatula to allow egg to flow underneath.  Cook through, or pop under a hot grill to finish.  

Serve hot with relish or mango chutney.