Breakfast Bread Pudding

This is essentially an egg casserole, but with fewer eggs and more bread. When it is cooked it is just like an egg-y breakfast-y spicy bread pudding. I came up with this when I (accidentally) volunteered to host an Easter brunch for five hungry boys. As I discussed in Baked Oatmeal, the problem with eggs is that they sort of come out one at a time and get cold very quickly, which makes it difficult for everyone to eat together (the best part of brunch in my opinion).

This casserole takes care of your egg, toast and breakfast meat all in one go – and everything comes out at once so everyone can heat a hot breakfast together.

Breakfast Bread Pudding

1 loaf white rustic (crusty) bread – from the bakery section in the grocery store

1 lb spicy breakfast sausage

16 eggs (for a 9 x 13 Pyrex dish) - 12 eggs for smaller dishes 

2 cans diced green chilies

½ finely diced onion

1/3 cup whole milk

1 bag sharp cheddar or jack cheese

 Preheat oven to 350. Slice the loaf of bread into thick slices, and then cut the slices into about 1 inch cubes. Line the bottom of your Pyrex casserole dish. Then evenly spread around the chilies, then the onions. 

Cook the sausage on the stove top, breaking the meat into lots of pieces (not patties like we are all used to). Add the sausage to the bread, onions and chilies.

 Sprinkle the whole mixture with cheese.

In another big bowl mix together the eggs and milk. Whisk well. When I am adding eggs, I crack them  individually in a separate small bowl before adding them to the big bowl – this is because if one egg has gone bad, you haven’t ruined the whole mix of eggs and milk by cracking it in directly. Season the egg mixture with lots of salt and pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the bread layer in the casserole dish. 

Dish should be about 2/3 full, with all of the dry ingredients barely submerged in the egg mixture. Allow to sit for as long as you can – up to overnight in the fridge.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the eggs have cooked. I added more cheese on top of the eggs for the last five minutes.

I couldn't even stop myself from trying a couple of bites before I took a picture of it:

Quinoa Cakes

Quinoa is an interesting thing. It is a grain, but it sort of looks like couscous and tastes sort of nutty or earthy. It is delicious – not wonder it is a “superfood”. Very high in protein but not in fat. Aka you feel like you have eaten a humungous plate of your favorite pasta, but without the calories. I love tricking my body with this kind of thing – it makes being healthy so much easier.

Quinoa Cakes with Lemon, Capers and Parsley

1 ½ cups raw quinoa

2 ¼ cups water

Chicken stock cube

1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs (or panko)

½ yellow onion
1 can artichoke hearts

1/3 cup parmesan

2 cloves of garlic minced

¼ cup capers

1/3 (ish) cup flat leaf parsley

Juice of 2 juicy lemons

Zest of one lemon

4 eggs

S and P

Splash of water – up to ¼ cup

About 3 tbsp olive oil for cooking

Rinse the uncooked quinoa in cold water before cooking. Add the chicken bullion cube to your cooking water. According to package directions boil the water then add the quinoa, cover and simmer for about 15 mins until all the water has been absorbed. Cool. This can all be done in advance.

In a bowl combine the quinoa, breadcrumbs, garlic, onion, capers and parsley. Drain and roughly chop up the artichokes and through them in For the parsley I don’t measure exactly. Instead, wash your whole bunch and take a pair of kitchen scissors and cut the parsley over the bowl until you feel like there is enough. Remember you want a little bit per cake – so it will seem like a lot until you stir it in. Add the parmesan. Squeeze in the lemon juice. Then carefully cut off thin slices of lemon rind with your knife (if you don’t have a zester or cheese grater – I don’t). Cut these slices into tiny strips and add them to the mix. Add the eggs and the salt and pepper.  Stir a LOT until the mixture becomes sticky. If it is not wet enough add a splash of water.

With your hand pick up a ball of the quinoa and press it into a pancake in your hand. It should be about ¾ inch thick. Place them in a pan with some olive oil and sauté about 3 mins per side.

Tips for this:

•           The bigger the cake the easier – start big and work your way to small. The small ones look better, but fall apart more easily. This recipe makes about 18 cakes so you have some room to experiment.
•          Don’t try to do too many at a time. I do three or four maximum. They can be tricky to flip and can be delicate so for best results, don’t overcrowd the pan.

Serve over salad.

Salad:

1 box spring salad mix

1 bag carrot chips (buy precut at the grocery store – maybe buy some hummus for the left over carrots too)

1 cucumber

1 box beansprouts (mung beans)

Dressing:

Olive oil

2 tbsp dijon mustard

2 tbsp lemon juice (fresh)

Lots of salt and pepper

Cut the carrot chips into thin slices. You can buy whole carrots it is just more if a hassle to cut them. Cut up the cucumber. Assemble all of the salad components in a bowl – use a handful of mung beans, carrots and cucumbers – mix everything together and divide onto plates. Mix the dressing in a separate bowl.

Add a few quinoa cakes per plate right on top of the salad – I did three but was feeding hungry boys. Just before you’re about to eat pour the dressing over top – that way the cakes will stay crispy but still absorb some of the flavor of the dressing.

Goat Cheese Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling

 It seems to me that the new trend in cooking these days is making something with ingredients that do not usually go in it. People make a lot of cakes with beans in them, chicken with blueberries etc. The funny thing about these wacky baked goods is that it seems that people are usually trying to hide these funky ingredients in the finished product. “Don’t worry, you can’t actually taste the beets in my famous beet cupcakes”

I decided to take a stab at this new fad, but actually try and make something that you could taste the ingredients in and not be too weirded out. In steps the goat cheese. We have all heard of putting sour cream in your cupcakes, or cream cheese icing – so this is like that but in a more extreme way. They turned out really well. So well in fact that my sister asked that I make some for her for her birthday. For hers I added the jam – a little extra sweet kick in the middle of the cupcake – a birthday surprise for her twenty-year old tongue.

Goat Cheese Cupcakes with Raspberry Filling

For the cupcakes:

2 ¼ cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 stick butter

1 ¾ cups sugar

½ cup sour cream

½ cup (about half a log) goat cheese – room temp

4 egg whites

1 tsp vanilla extract

cupcake liners

1 jar of raspberry jam, or fresh raspberries if in season

For the icing:

¾ stick butter at room temp

½ cup (the other half of the log) goat cheese (plus a little extra if you want it to be seriously zingy) – room temp

1 cup icing (confectioners) sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Combine dry ingredients (through salt). In a separate bowl combine the wet ingredients (through vanilla). Mix well. Sometimes the goat cheese is a tiny bit lumpy, and that’s okay. Just not big clumps.

Pour into cupcake liners until almost half full. Then spoon a teaspoon of jam, or one plump raspberry, right onto the batter. Then fill the rest up until the liner is just over ¾ full. Bake for 18-25 mins.

While they are baking prepare the icing. Mix everything together in a bowl and pop it in the fridge with a knife until the cupcakes are cool. Ice with a cold knife – makes it much easier.