Friday, March 2, 2012

Breakfast Numminess

I'm not a sophisticated breakfast cook. No breakfast casseroles or eggs benidicts for me! I cook good, old fashioned breakfast favorites. Eggs scrambled or fried, occasional omlettes, bacon, sausage and homemade potatoes are staples in our home. The Little Grouch loves pancakes, but swears that The Big Grouch makes better pancakes than I do, so I leave it to him :). When I went on a carb free kick a while back, I was searching for some easy breakfast foods that would provide a bit of variety in my diet, and I found fritattas. They are basically open-faced omlettes topped with whatever you like. Me? I like brocolli, ham, tomatoes, feta cheese and onions. I need a lick my lips emoticon for how good these are! I'd never heard of fritattas before last year when they became an item on the menu at the restaurant where I work. Yes, yes, I am a bit sheltered when it comes to food. I grew up in N. Louisiana. What can I say? If you can deep fry it, I know about it, but ask me about anything more sophisticated than an over easy egg, and I'm lost. (Or at least I used to be! I even learned how to POACH eggs last year. Its a PITA, but I love the end result!)

I invited a friend over for breakfast this morning and made her my beloved fritattas. Here is the final result.


Yes, they were yummy. Yes, they are GONE! And, my homemade breakfast potatoes that you see in the foreground on the right? PERFECT! I'll share my secret to those in a later post. It took me years to figure out how to get the outside crispy but not burned with the inside still soft.

So, for those of you curious as to how to make this delicious alternative to omlettes (which I  tend to  over cook on the outside and undercook in the center no matter what I do), here's how to make it.

Ingredients

(I'm only including amounts for the eggs because you basically put as much or as little of each ingredient as you like. I make 2 egg frittatas, but you could make it 3 eggs if you like.)

2 Eggs
Diced ham
Steamed brocolli, cut to preferred size
Tomatoes, diced
Onions, diced and sauteed, if you prefer
Feta cheese

Break eggs in to small bowl and scramble with fork. Pour into greased (I use cooking spray plus a bit of unsalted butter) non-stick skillet. Once eggs start to cook, scramble in the pan just once. Allow eggs to stiffen then start pullign the outside of the circle of egg toward the center, tilting the pan so that the remaining raw, loose egg runs to the outside. Do this two or three times until all the loose egg is almost gone. Add desired amounts of brocolli, tomato, onions and feta. If you want, and your pan can go in the oven, you can stick it under the broiler for a minute to melt the feta, but I don't mind my feta in chunks, so I don't bother. Slide finished fritatta onto place and enjoy! Easy and quick and perfect for picky eaters because you can provide mulitiple topping and let the kiddos (or picky adults!) choose what they want.

Enjoy!