Baked Egg Tomato Cups Recipe (Usborne First Cookbook)

 

Gordie got The Usborne First Cookbook this year for Christmas so I thought I’d test out a few recipes. The first such recipe is “Baked Tomatoes”. It looked fairly simple and I was pretty sure that it would be a hit for Gordie since he loves tomatoes and begs me every day to “cook eggs”. I made them for breakfast on a Monday morning and served them with toast.

Baked Tomatoes Recipe

4 Large tomatoes (the biggest you can find)
salt and pepper
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon chopped parsley

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Grease a shallow baking dish.
3. Slice off the top of each tomato and put the tops aside. Scoop out the insides with a spoon. Seriously, use a spoon, don't try to use a knife like I did.
4. Put the eggs into the baking dish. Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and pepper. Crack an egg into each tomato and then sprinkle the eggs with salt, pepper and parsley.
5. Put the tops back on the tomatoes and bake for 20-30 minutes, until the yolks are set. I found my yolks weren't even close to set after 10 minutes and in the end I might have over cooked them a little. I recommend poking one of the yolks to test. It can be hard to eyeball because of the extra moisture from the tomato.

So, Did They Eat It?

Predictably Gordie enjoyed it, but he did find it necessary to eat the tomatoes and the eggs separately. My husband who is not the biggest fan of tomatoes thought it managed to make two bland foods better, but suggested maybe cooking it with some lemon pepper next time to perk it up. My SN brother seemed to like them but he didn’t eat a ton. I thought they were good, but they seemed to be begging for some bacon.

Per Tomato Cup: Calories – 103, Carbs – 8g, Fat – 5g, Protein 8, Fibre – 0.

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus

This is a super easy, delicious appetizer with a surprisingly low calorie count considering how decadent they taste. It’s still probably a good idea to go easy as their salt content is fairly high. This is best with thick asparagus stalks because the prosciutto can cook longer without turning the asparagus to mush, but still delicious with thin asparagus.

Prosciutto Wrapped Asparagus Recipe
1 bunch of asparagus
1 or 2 packages of prosciutto (I used 1 but only wrapped half of the asparagus)

Cooking with the Kids

The kids can:

• snap the asparagus ends off (this is kind of fun)
• wrap the prosciutto  

Directions
1. Heat up your indoor grill to it's highest setting.
2. Wash the asparagus and snap off the woody portion of the stalk. If you try to bend it, it should naturally snap in two pieces. Discard the base.
2. Wrap each stalk with half of a slice of prosciutto if you have thick asparagus and less if it's thin. I used half a slice for thin asparagus and it was a little bit too much.
3. Place a few of the wrapped asparagus on the grill and cook for about 5 minutes for thin asparagus and 7 minutes for thick asparagus. The asparagus should be bright green but still crunchy and the prosciutto should be crispy.

I expect these could be made on a BBQ but I’ve never tried it.

Per Asparagus Spear with half a slice of prosciutto: Calories – 23, Carbs – 1g, Fat – 1g, Protein 2, Fibre – 0. (5.5% recommended daily intake of sodium)

Whole Grain: Farro & Balsamic Farro Salad Recipe

I’m a sucker for trying different kinds of whole grains. So when I saw a bag of Farro when I was at Costco the other day even though I had never heard of it before I didn’t hesitate to pick it up. It turns out that Farro is an ancient type of wheat that is now regaining popularity in Italy and with health conscious cooks. It’s great in soups and salads and can be used in place of barley or rice. This was my first attempt at cooking Farro. I found that there was still quite a bit of water left in the pot when I cooked it according to the package directions (3 cups water to 1 cup Farro for 15 minutes), so I cooked it a little longer and ultimately drained it. After some internet research, I found out this is actually normal. Unlike rice all the water is not supposed to be absorbed when it’s finished cooking. It’s chewier than rice but it did soften a bit after the salad had sat in the fridge overnight. Trying a grain all by itself is kind of boring so I put together this salad which I think is pretty good.

Balsamic Farro Salad Recipe

Dressing
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar 
1 tsp. dried thyme
pinch salt
freshly ground black pepper

Salad
1/2 cup mild onion diced (red onions, shallots, chives, green onions)
1 yellow or orange pepper chopped finely
2 medium tomatoes chopped and seeded
1 diced avocado (coat in lemon or lime juice if you’re not using the salad all right away)
1 cups farro (Cooked barley or brown rice can also be substituted.)

Cooking with the Kids

The kids can:

• Pour the Farro and water into the pot
• Scoop the avocado out of the peel (if you halve and score it first)
• Put the chopped vegetables into the bowl
• Measure and pour
• Mix the salad ingredients together (using your hands is fun)

Directions
1. Cook Farro according to package directions (they should be al dente when done)
2. Chop onion, tomatoes and peppers.
3. Add all salad ingredients in a large bowl.
4. In a small bowl mix dressing ingredients.
5. Add dressing ingredients to the salad ingredients and mix well.

Per serving (1/8 of the salad): Calories – 172, Carbs – 23g, Fat – 7g, Protein 5, Fibre – 4.

Tomato and Ground Beef Slumgullion

Slumgullion is a name for a cheap stew made by boiling. In this recipe, only the pasta is boiled, but cheap (and easy!) it is. I’m almost embarrassed to call this a recipe because it’s so simple. But it is one of my go to dishes when I need something fast and healthy that everyone will enjoy. I’d be lost without it, so I thought I’d pass it along. My mom made almost this exact dish while I was growing up so it’s a comfort food for me too. One of the best things about it, is that if you cook and freeze some ground beef (I like grabbing a giant pack of lean ground beef from Costco) you can have all the ingredients on hand. Then, when you don’t really have time to cook, or haven’t managed to get to the grocery store, you don’t have to get take out. And it’s a lot less messy than spaghetti!

Quick and Easy Slumgullion Recipe
200g lean ground beef cooked (more or less is fine)
1 package whole wheat macaroni (I’ve tried other pasta, macaroni is best)
1 large can of diced tomatoes
salt and pepper

Cooking with the Kids

The kids can:

• Pour the macaroni in the pot 
• Pour in the ground beef 
• Pour in the tomatoes
• Stir the slumgullion
• Sprinkle the salt and pepper

Directions
1. Cook the macaroni according to the package directions.
2. It's best if the ground beef is warm when you add it to the pot so, cook, defrost or warm the ground beef as necessary.
3. Drain the macaroni in a strainer and put it back in the pot. Add the warm ground beef and the can of tomatoes (with the juice).
4. Mix well and sprinkle with salt and pepper. You can also just add the salt and pepper to the individual servings instead.

This recipe makes about 6 servings, so you could halve the recipe if you don’t need that much. We usually keep the leftovers for lunches. I prefer it fresh, but Gordie and my special needs brother are quite happy to have it the day after. I often fill up some ziplock containers and stick them in the freezer so Geoff has lunches ready for the whole week.

Per serving (1/6 of the slumgullion): Calories – 313, Carbs – 46g, Fat – 7g, Protein 16, Fibre – 7.

Parchment Paper

I’ve recently become enamoured with parchment paper. Before, I thought parchment paper and wax paper were the same. Growing up we hardly used wax paper and I had never even seen parchment paper so somehow I got the idea that they were just different names for the same thing. While attempting to follow a recipe that asked for parchment paper, I did some uh… research that demonstrated this not to be the case.
Wax paper and parchment paper are both used because of their nonstick surface. I had just used wax paper to make something in the microwave (which is totally okay and often better than saran wrap) and I think I even said to my husband as I put the wax paper in the oven, “There shouldn’t be a problem with this, if it’s okay in the microwave it should be okay in the oven right?” Now why this seemed reasonable, I’m not sure. There are many plastic dishes that do just fine in the microwave but wouldn’t last very long in the oven, but that’s what I was thinking at the time.
So here’s the thing, wax paper is coated in – wait for it – wax, which smokes if it is exposed in the oven. You can use it in baking, for instance to line a cake pan as long as it is completely covered by the food. Otherwise, smoke, smoke, smoke.
If you’re looking for something to line a baking tray, parchment paper is your best bet. I’ve used for the three dishes you can see on this page, just in the last week. It’s perfect for anything that you want to bake or roast on a nonstick pan that may otherwise gunk up and stick to it (even though it’s supposed to be a nonstick pan). It has really improved my roasted butternut squash since I started using it. Anyway, if you haven’t before, give it a try!

Wordless Wednesday

Meatless Monday– Spinach and Baby Potato Spanish Frittata

A Spanish tortilla is an ‘egg pie’ made with potatoes which are traditionally sliced. The recipes can be kind of time consuming so I came up with this fairly quick frittata version, it’s not the same, but it’s still good. I left the skins on to up the nutrient content, but you could peel then if you’d rather. I also found I had a few too many potatoes, so I reduced the recipe by a 1/4 of a pound.

Spinach and Baby Potato Spanish Frittata Recipe
3/4 lbs baby potatoes (cut into at least 6 pieces each)
1 Tbsp olive oil
small onion chopped (a leek or shallot would work too)
3 cups fresh spinach (or 1 pkg chopped frozen spinach)
8 eggs beaten
salt, pepper and ground nutmeg

Cooking with the Kids

The kids can:

• put the potatoes in the pot 
• help beat the eggs (Gordie loves to do this with me)
• older kids could cut the potatoes

Directions
1. Preheat the broiler to 375F. Make sure you have an oven rack close to the broiler.
2. Put the potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Cube the potatoes. Sauté the onion in an oven proof pan with some olive oil over medium heat. After the onions have started to soften add the spinach and wilt.
4. Add the potatoes and evenly distribute the vegetables in the pan.
5. Pour the eggs over the vegetables and coat as well as you can.
6. Sprinkle the eggs with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
7. Cook over medium heat for 4-6 minutes. The frittata should be mostly set but the top will still be runny.
8. Place the pan in the oven for 2-4 minutes until the oven is set.

If you don't have an oven proof skillet, you can use a lid to set the top of the eggs or you can slide the frittata onto a plate and then flip back into the pan to cook the other side.

Per serving (1/4 frittata): Calories – 270, Carbs – 24g, Fat – 13g, Protein 15, Fibre – 3.