Baked Eggs

This is the kind of breakfast that we have once in a while over the weekend. Well, not completely true since we have fresh fruit/veggie juice every day. The treat here is the baked eggs.
Actually the baked eggs are very simple to make, and great paired with a toast. You can always add spinach, tomatoes, ham, peppers…anything that you would add into an omelette, therefore very versatile.

For the juice, just combine any fruit/veggie and juice it! I have apple, beet, cucumber, carrot, tomato and celery in this particular juice.

Baked eggs

Ingredients:

2 eggs
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon toasted bacon (in pieces)
Mozzarella cheese to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
½ teaspoon dry parsley
Extra butter to coat the ramekins

Method:

Preheat oven at 375F.

Coat the ramekins with butter and break the egg into each ramekin. Dot each egg with ½ spoon of butter, add the bacon. Top the egg with shredded mozzarella and sprinkle with salt, pepper and dry parsley.

Set the dishes in a baking pan and add enough water to cover at least 1/3 of the ramekins. Bring to simmer and transfer to a preheated 375F oven.

Bake until the egg whites are just set and the yolks are still soft.

Serve hot.

I hope you enjoy this breakfast and have a wonderful week!

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Caprese Over Field of Greens

Am I cheating with this recipe? It is so simple that I almost feel embarrassed to post it. In spite of being such a simple recipe the salad looks very pretty and tasty with fresh basil. My basil plant by the kitchen window still very beautiful…no signs of Autumn yet. So here I am with the recipe…

Ingredients:

Cherry tomatoes (or any small tomato)
Fresh small mozzarella balls
Fresh basil
Virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Mix greens

Method:

For the Caprese, slice the tomatoes and the fresh mozzarella in half. Cut the basil leaves into strips.
In a medium bowl toss together the fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and olive oil and salt to taste.
In another bowl place the mix greens and drizzle with olive oil and toss gently.
To assemble the salad, place the mix greens in a plate and top it with the Caprese salad. Ready to serve.

Can anything be easier and simpler than this?

I hope you enjoy this very simple recipe and have a great week!

Did you know that Caprese Salad or Insalata Caprese is usually served as antipasto? Meaning “before the meal” in Italian, which indicates officially that the meal has start.

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Chicken with Soft Polenta

This is a fairly simple dish. The combination of chicken with crimini mushroom in a light wine sauce together with the creamy soft polenta is delicious. The polenta being soft and creamy absorbs the sauce from the chicken…therefore is loaded of flavor.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, cut in strips.
2 tablespoon all purpose flour
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
½ red onion thinly sliced
8 oz crimini mushroom, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon olive oil
¼ cup red wine

1/3 cup cornmeal
1 2/3 cup chicken broth
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon butter

Method:

To the chicken breast add salt, pepper and flour. Mix gently so all the chicken strips are slightly cover with flour.

In the meantime boil the chicken broth with cornmeal, salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of butter. Cook in low heat for approximately 5-8 minutes.

In a pan melt the butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil and stir fry the chicken until golden brown both side. Set aside. In the same pan add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the garlic, when the garlic turns golden add the onion, until almost soft, then add the mushroom. Cook for another 1 to 2 minutes and add the red wine. Cook for 2 more minutes.

To serve, spoon the soft polenta on the plate by making generous dent in the middle. Spoon the chicken with mushroom on top of the polenta. Serve hot.

Hope you enjoy this dish and have a great day!

Did you know that mushrooms are rich in Vitamin D? Vitamin D has an important role in maintaining the calcium balance in the bones by promoting calcium absorption in the intestine, therefore a potential treatment for osteoporosis.

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Sliced Beef with Black Bean Sauce

This is a very easy, simple recipe for a weekday dinner. The black bean sauce can be easily found in Asian grocery stores. Therefore is something that you will see very often in Asian dinner table. It is great to serve this dish with white rice…and the left over are great for next day lunch.

Ingredients:

¾ lb thinly sliced beef
3-4 tablespoon black bean sauce (fermented)
3 garlic cloves
1 bunch green scallion
1 onion
1 tablespoon grape seed oil or any cooking oil

Method:

Marinate the beef with the black bean sauce and finely chopped garlic. In the meantime, slice the onion and cut the scallions (1 in). Sautee the beef in the oil, set aside. In the same pan sautee the onion and the scallion, once they turn slightly soft add the beef back to the pan. Mix gently and serve hot.

Did you know that the color black of the black bean is due to the fermenting/salting of soybeans?

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Yogurt Marinated Chicken

This is a very easy and simple recipe for chicken. I like the idea of marinating the chicken and hand it to my husband to grill on the BBQ, this way we can “share” the cooking.
What I like about this recipe is the low content of salt for the ones watching for their blood pressure. So many spices are added to the mixture of yogurt that you will not miss the salt for flavor and the chicken comes out of the grill so tender.

Ingredients:

½ cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoon lemon juice
4 garlic cloves finely chopped
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon coriander
½ teaspoon red pepper flake
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon dry rosemary
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

2 lbs of chicken breast or deboned thigh

Method:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl, except the chicken. Pour the yogurt mix to the chicken, mix gently and cover the bowl. Marinade the chicken in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or overnight for more an enhanced flavor.
Grilled the chicken on the BBQ and serve hot.

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Butter Lemon Trout

Today I want to share a very simple recipe for fish, I used steelhead trout for this recipe. This fish can make a wonderful weekday dinner, while the fish is in the oven just prepare a simple green salad to go with it. It is healthy and so tasty.

Ingredients:

2 trout filet
1 to 2 tablespoon parsley finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic finely chopped
½ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon red pepper
2 tablespoon butter
½ tablespoon olive oil
1 lemon, peel grated.

Method:

Melt the butter in the microwave and add the olive oil, garlic and parsley.
Please the fish in a slightly oiled baking dish, sprinkle with paprika and red pepper and baste the trout with the butter mix.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375F for approximately 15 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.
Place on a serving plate and squeeze the lemon juice over the trout and garnish with the lemon peel. Serve hot.

Did you know that steelhead trout is very similar to salmon? Steelhead trout and rainbow trout are the same species, salmonid and is often called salmon trout.

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Mochi Bacon Cheese Balls

A while ago, I posted a recipe for “mochi cheese balls”, which uses only Parmesan cheese. I adapted the previous recipe by adding Muenster cheese, which give the cheese balls more color and a softer texture due to the melted Muenster cheese. Moreover, bacon bites were added, so you can imagine the taste of these cheese balls. This is a very easy and simple recipe, whenever you want to enjoy a tasty snack or complement a meal, just place these frozen cheese balls in a pre-heated oven for about 25 ~ 30 minutes at 275F and you are ready to receive compliments.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cup tapioca flour
1 ½ cup glutinous rice flour
4 eggs
1 cup water
½ cup vegetable oil
1 ½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cup chopped Muenster cheese
½ cup Parmesan cheese
¾ cup homemade bacon bits

Method:

In a small pan add water, oil and salt, bring to boil and carefully add to the tapioca and glutinous rice flour. Mix gently until you can manage with your hands (be careful it is very hot). Alternatively add the eggs, the Muenster cheese and the Parmesan cheese until a dough is formed. Add the bacon bits (check the recipe here) and mix until the bacon is well incorporated to the dough. Make small balls (you can freeze at this point if you desire), bake for 20 to 25 minutes at 275F. Serve warm. Makes approximately 50 to 60 cheese balls.

Did you know that Muenster cheese was originally made by Benedictine monks in France? In US, this cheese in mainly used melted since it melts easily over low heat. Therefore used in grilled sandwich and hamburger.

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Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

For the longest time I wanted to get an ice cream maker after seeing so many ice cream, sherbet and frozen yogurt recipes from fellow bloggers…now I have one! For my first trial I wanted to try something easy and simple and more importantly use ingredients that I had available in the fridge…I got this recipe from the Food Network and worked beautifully with some minor adaptations.

Ingredients:

4 cups strawberries, hulled and chopped> (1 lb strawberries chopped)
3/4 cup sugar (1/3 cup agave syrup)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon rum
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise and seeds scraped
1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt
Mint leaves for garnish

Method:

A full 24 hours before you make your frozen yogurt, place your ice cream maker insert into the freezer.

In a bowl, add strawberries, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and rum to a bowl and mix gently. Using a hand blender or food processor pulse the berries and the vanilla.

Place in the refrigerator to chill for approximately 1 hour. Mix the yogurt with the strawberry mix and turn your ice cream machine.

Pour the yogurt mixture in the machine. Churn until the mixture looks slushy like soft serve, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Garnish with mint leave and serve immediately or place in the freezer for several hours until hard enough to scoop.

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Kale Chips

I hope you all had a great weekend…and I am sooooo glad to be back. We had a family (from my husband’s side) vacation which was a cruise from NY to a couple of cities in Canada. As you may know family vacation can be pretty difficult but somehow we all managed and survived…the nice thing about this kind of trip is that you get to really know them…good or bad depending of where you stand.
Before the “family cruise” we spent the weekend in NY, and it was great…we visited Times Square and surrounding area, Central Park, got to eat at various nice restaurants and saw the Book of Mormon on Broadway. Another fun thing was that I was able to meet up with one of my friend from Brazil that I have not seen for more than 25 years and just recently we found each other on Facebook…so there was a lot to catch up and share old memories.

Anyway, I am back to my routine and today I want to share some healthy stuff.

I have been wanted to make this kale chips for a while after seeing so many versions on TV and internet. There are no secrets, they are very easy and simple to make, you just have to be careful not to over roast since they can burn easily. I keep the chips in a jar for a handful of healthy snack.

Ingredients:

2 bunch of kale
Olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper

Method:

Wash the kale and let them dry. Break the leaves into approximately 1 ½ in size section. Place in a big bowl, sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Gently toss them and spread to a silicone mate. Do not over layer the leaves. Roast in a pre-heated oven for 5 minutes at 350F, flip the kale and let if roast for another 2 minutes. Turn the oven to 325F for another 5 minutes. Turn the oven off and keep the trays in for another 10 minutes.
Remove the trays and let the chip cool completely before storing in an air tight container.

And now my new gadget…

For the longest time I was intending to get a juicer, but what really pushed me to move faster was after reading Belinda’s post at Zomppa and now I am practically addicted to it, cannot leave home before having a glass of fresh vegetable/fruit juice. It is so energizing!

Did you know that kale is one of the most nutritious vegetable known? In Brazil kale is finely chopped, stir-fried and paired with feijoada, which is the Brazil’s national dish.