Chocolate Hazelnut French Toast

I've never been a big breakfast person, usually I skip it (yea, I know! Bad) or have something quick. I don't especially like sweet things for breakfast either so you can probably guess that French toast is not my favorite thing.  I do love cooking breakfast for others though, and french toast is one of my husbands favorites. 

Ever since Thanksgiving I've been on the lookout for a good loaf of brioche bread, you can special order if from Whole Foods bakery, but really, I'll never plan that far in advance. I saw these rolls and decided they would have to do for now.  After dinner, there were still 4 leftover and the though of having them again, wasn't really appealing to me so I decided to get creative. The french toast recipe can be used with any bread or topping you want, this is what we had.

Chocolate Hazelnut French Toast

Ingredients:
2/3 cup skim milk
2 large eggs
2 tbl agave nectar or honey
salt
2 Brioche Rolls, cut in half

Butter
Chocolate hazelnut spread (I used Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter, check them out! I use their Honey Almond butter on my oats in the morning)

Process:
Mix together milk, eggs, agave nectar and add a small pinch of salt. (I like to make this the night before, somehow I feel like it comes out way better when I do this)
When ready to cook, dip the bread into the mixture & soak for about 30 seconds on each side then let sit (on a plate or cooling rack) for minute or two to absorb the mixture completely.

Heat a saute pan over medium low heat and melt about a tablespoon of butter. Put two pieces of bread in the pan at a time & cook 3 min on each side (needed a bit longer since it was thick bread).

Serve with Chocolate Hazelnut spread, I sliced mine in half again and spread the nut butter in there. It got all nice and melty.

I think if this keeps up, I might become a breakfast convert!

Broccoli Meatballs

Growing up in a large Italian family, Spaghetti and Meatballs is pretty much a staple food. Since the switch to a vegetarian diet, meatballs has been something I had yet to find a great replacement for. This started off as a recipe for more of a broccoli ball, (think risotto balls) for an appetizer, but when the came out of the oven, inspiration hit! I served them up with a big pot of penne and red sauce.

Broccoli Meatballs

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
1 cup broccoli, steamed & chopped
1 egg
water if necessary

Process:
Preheat oven to 450°
Cook broccoli and chop into small pieces. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. If the mixture is too dry to form, add a bit of water. Using your hands, form into golf ball size meatballs and place on a foil lined baking sheet.
Bake at 450° for 5 minutes, flip and bake another 3 minutes. Serve with your favorite pasta and sauce combination!

Shrimp Veracruzana

You need to make this... now. Go get the ingredients and make it.

The smell was absolutely intoxicating and the whole time hubs was eating it, he kept repeating "Man, this is good!"  I almost wished I wanted to eat it! (Maybe I can sub the shrimp for something fun and use the same flavors.) It's simple, quick, and super easy to make.

I chopped my jalapenos seeds and all, if you wanna take down the heat a bit, remove the seed before chopping. If you want to eliminate the heat completely, replace with green pepper sliced thin.

Shrimp Veracruzana

Ingredients: 
1 bay leaf
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 jalapeno, sliced thin
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb raw shrimp
3 medium tomatoes, diced
1 avocado halved & sliced

canola oil

Process:

Heat oil and bay leaf in a skillet over medium heat. Add onion, jalapeno and garlic; cook ~ 3 minutes. Stir in shrmip, cook another 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, bring to a simmer and cook until tomatoes begin to break down ~3 minutes more. Remove bay leaf and serve over sliced avocado.

Would be great with a side of rice!

Warm, gooey delicious breakfast :) (Honey Almond Oats)

It's snowing... Alot! I woke up nice and early to call and see if work was closed. Yay! Snow day!! Unfortunately husband works for a company that doesn't happened to believe in snow days, so I got up and made him a yummy hot breakfast and sandwich for lunch, then crawled back into bed :) Which I expected to be the end of my morning. About an hour later, my phone rang.. "ok I'm stuck, can you come out and help me?" oh yay! Hah so out of bed, and into my boots I went. He had already shoveled out the driveway but was getting stuck getting out into the street. About 30 minutes, one neighbor and two cops later we finally got the car free. I promptly went inside and made myself a nice warm bowl of oats!

Honey Almond Oats

1 cup water
1/3 cup Scottish oats
Splash of milk
1 egg white
2 tbl almond butter
Almonds
Crasins
Honey
Cinnamon

Boil water in a small sauce pan, whisk in oats. Cook for 2 minutes, add milk. Cook another minute and whisk in egg white. Cook another minute or two and turn off the heat. Add tbl of honey and sprinkle of cinnamon. Put the oats in a bowl, top with almonds, almond butter and Crasins. Enjoy!

This was definitely the highlight of my morning!!

Stove top Kielbasa

This is something I grew up eating, my mom would make it for us with egg noodles and we'd smother it in ketchup. When I met my husband, he requested it with broccoli and carrots, and uses spicy mustard. Over the years it's adapted into this. I do use broccoli sometimes, but I like the sugar snap peas also. This is one of the things I would have never thought to document in the past, but its one of the best quick dinners that is something different than the normal chicken I usually pull out for the hubs.

Stove top Kielbasa for one

Ingredients:
2 large carrots
1 cup sugar snap peas
1 link of Kielbasa (or if yours is a complete, "u" this recipe is for half of that)
canola oil

Process:
Pool carrot and cut into 1/4 in rounds. Prep peas by snapping and peeling down the ends to get rid of any strings.
Heat canola oil over medium heat (enough to lightly coat your pan). Add carrots and cook over medium high heat for ~5 minutes. Add peas and cook for 2-3 minutes.
Slice kielbasa lengthwise and then in half, add cutside down to the pan and cook until crispy.

You may have noticed a lack of seasoning... I never did until I sat down to write out the recipe! The kielbasa has a great taste on its own and I don't think the vegetables need anything either!

Spicy Latkes with Chipotle Sour Cream

Way back when... I dated a boy that was Jewish and his mother taught me how to make Potato Latkes.... I hope she's not reading this ;) I may not remember her recipe, but I think I like my version better!

Spicy Potato & Corn Latkes

Ingredients:
2 Large Potatoes
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup flour
1 can corn (11 oz)
1 cup milk
2 tsp franks hot sauce
Veg/Canola Oil

Process:
Shred potatoes into a large bowl then squeeze excess liquid out. Add the corn & all dry ingredients, mix to combine. Add milk and hot sauce, stir into a batter. (usually I would have used an egg or two, but I was out)
Heat Oil in a skillet, drop heaping spoonfuls into the oil and flatten into a patty with the back of the spoon. Fry until crispy and flip carefully. Once cooked through, remove from the oil and drain. (I like to use paper bags, but paper towels work well too)

Chipotle Sour Cream

Ingredients:
1 cup Sour Cream
1 tbl chipotle mayonnaise (or 1 tsp of adobo sauce)

Process:
Combine ingredients in a bowl and serve with the latkes.

Wow... I threw these together one night because I had far too many potatoes in the house and needed to do something with them. I will definitely be playing with this recipe in the future... Hmm, maybe zucchini and corn latkes instead of potato?

ENJOY! <3

Artichoke Bruschetta

One of the things I tell people that always makes them look at me a bit funny is that growing up I thought about going to culinary school. Normal so far, Right? The part that makes them scratch their head is that I think the main thing that stopped me from going down that life path was tomatoes :) Strange I know, but I HATE tomatoes; weird skin, slimy insides, bleh. For the first few years I dated my husband, if he wanted tomatoes on a sandwich, he had to cut them himself. I've since gotten past that stage, but I still shy away from eating them as the main component in a dish. And so, this has quickly become one of my favorite substitution recipes for the popular Italian tomato based dish, Bruschetta.


One quick note: USE FRESH RICOTTA! It's amazing, it definatly makes this dish.  I happend to find mine in the cheese section of Whole Foods, but I believe you can get it in other food stores with the Fresh Mozzarella.


Ok two quick notes: Please excuse my photo's until I get my flash fixed! On camera flash and natural light only :(



Artichoke Bruschetta

Ingredients:

4-5 garlic cloves
Whole Wheat Baguette
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Jar of Marinated Arthichoke hearts, drained
a cup fresh ricotta cheese
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
Parmesan cheese


Process:

Preheat oven to 350°

Slice Whole Wheat Baguette into about ½ inch slices and place on a baking sheet, put into preheated oven until crispy. Remove & set aside.

Heat tablespoon of evoo in a skillet over medium high heat. Chop two garlic cloves and drain artichoke hearts. Add to heated oil and sauté about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and place in a bowl. With the back of a fork, mash the mixture until the pieces are uniform.

Take the cooled bread slices and rub the remaining garlic cloves on the crispy bread (easier to do when the garlic clove is whole)

Season ricotta cheese with fresh cracked pepper and salt, mix together. Spread a layer of the fresh ricotta on the bread then top with the artichoke mixture. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese and drizzle with evoo.

aaaaand we're back!!!

So :) It's been a while huh... why is it that blogging always seems to falls off of my plate first? It's a new year and I'm starting off fresh, new recipes, new ideas; all that fun stuff.
Part of what I realized in the last 6 months is that, though I haven't been eating meat, many of the people I cook for do. And even though this began as a way to document the changes I made in becoming vegetarian, some of the recipes I enjoy cooking and sharing with people involve cooking with meat.
Due to that, the focus of the blog is going to change a bit. My New Years resolution for 2011 is going to be all about documenting my recipes. This was part of the original point of the blog, but it got lost pretty quickly. I think my main issue is I don't really cook from recipes, I just kind of fudge it (90% of the time anyway) so putting something together for posting on a blog isn't always easy. Since New Years, I've been writing EVERYTHING down. And since I stated out loud infront of some people (that I KNOW will hold me to it) you should see the activity go up on the blog again :) Here's hoping anyway!

Happy New Year Everyone!