Meatless Monday: Hashbrowns and Eggs

July 9, 2012 By 11 Comments

Next week, we are off on vacation.  That means that this week is all about using up the stuff that we have so that we don’t have to throw it out.  In this nation’s current economic situation, I think many of us are trying to find ways to use what we have.  When you can’t make any more, it becomes imperative to use and spend less.  Potatoes, onions, eggs, and bread can be gotten pretty cheap, particularly if you frequent those big box stores.  That’s just about all we used in this week’s recipe.  But don’t stop here.  Feel free to incorporate any leftover veggies into your hash.  Carrots, celery, zucchini, or even leftover greens would be a fabulous addition to our humble offering.

For Meatless Monday this week, we are keeping it super simple.  I just cut up about 10 baby red potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes (roughly) and boiled them in salted water, until slightly tender, but still a little tough, about 10 minutes.  Next, I diced up a medium yellow onion and minced two cloves of garlic.  I sauteed them over medium-high heat in some olive oil until translucent and added the drained potatoes.  I let that go for another 10 minutes or so, stirring occasionally and adding plenty of salt and black pepper.  I served with an egg cooked over medium and a toasted roll.  The yolk from the egg drenched over the hash just works on so many levels.

 

How are you using your leftovers to stretch your dollar on Meatless Monday? Have a Meatless Monday experience, recipe, or request? Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re up to!

 

Meatless Monday, a national nonprofit public health initiative, is all about incorporating more vegetables and less meat into our diet. It’s about moderation, just one day a week, cutting down on meats high in saturated fat and increasing protein-rich plant-based foods — good for personal health and good for the planet.

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Meatless Monday: Pizza di Spaghetti

June 25, 2012 By 1 Comment

I’m not a big fan of leftovers.  Eating the same thing two times inside of a week is just not something that excites me.  That having been said, I can’t in good conscience just throw out perfectly good food.  It wastes money and teaches my kids a terrible lesson.  So I like to use leftovers to make other, different meals.  Taking this approach to make meatless leftover dishes can be quite easy.

Today’s recipe was inspired by something I saw years ago on The Food Network.  This seemed like such an easy way to use leftover spaghetti.  The linked recipe shows all of the homemade sauce components and just looks lovely, but my focus was on the first part.  Just take a couple of eggs, 1/4 Cup of milk, some salt and pepper, and plenty of Parmesan cheese.  Mix it all together and add two cups of leftover spaghetti and sauce (we just used a jar of sauce for our spaghetti the night before).  Pour it all into a pan with a little olive oil over medium heat.  Cook for about 10 minutes until it browns up and pulls away from the side of the pan.  Put a plate over the top and flip (careful, please!!) and slide back into the pan to cook the other side for another 5 minutes or so.  Sprinkle with more Parmesan cheese and garnish with some parsley.  Slice into wedges and serve with a side salad.  Enjoy!!

What are you doing for Meatless Monday? Have a Meatless Monday experience, recipe, or request? Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re up to!

 

Meatless Monday, a national nonprofit public health initiative, is all about incorporating more vegetables and less meat into our diet. It’s about moderation, just one day a week, cutting down on meats high in saturated fat and increasing protein-rich plant-based foods — good for personal health and good for the planet.

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Simply Potatoes

March 29, 2012 By

We recently had the opportunity to try out Simply Potatoes.  What seems like just a simple bag of potatoes is actually a huge time saver on a busy weeknight.  We opened up a bag of potatoes, tossed in some pre-cooked veggies, and poured some eggs over the whole thing.  A little cooking and one flip later and a pretty healthy dinner was ready to go.  Here’s what we did.

Spanish Vegetable Tortilla

Ingredients

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 package Simply Potatoes Hash Browns or Diced Potatoes, any variety
1-2 cups chopped, cooked vegetables (onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc)
6 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Heat olive oil in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Add potatoes and vegetables and cook, covered, 5 minutes or until potatoes begin to soften.  Uncover, reduce heat to medium, and cook another 5 minutes or until potatoes are lightly browned.

While vegetables are cooking, whisk together eggs, milk, salt, and pepper until frothy.  Once vegetables are cooked, poor egg mixture over vegetables and stir lightly with a spatula.  Allow to cook until edges are set and lightly brown.  Ensure that the bottom is not sticking by using a spatula to slide down under the eggs.  When the whole thing slides freely around the bottom of the pan, place a plate over the pan, hold on tight, pray, and flip the tortilla onto the plate.  Slide it back into the pan to cook and set on the other side.

Serve in wedges along with a side salad.  Enjoy!

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To top it all off, we also have the opportunity to give one of our readers a coupon for one bag of any Simply Potatoes product!

Details:
This drawing will end Thursday, April 12th at 11:59pm EST. The winner will have 48 hours to reply with their address. You must include your email address in the comment form so you can be contacted if you are a winner! You must complete the Mandatory Entry for the additional entries to count.

This giveaway is open to US residents only!

So how do you enter?

Mandatory Entry: Tell me which Simply Potatoes product you love the most or would love to try!
Additional Entries:
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Leave a comment with the URL for your tweet. (One Tweet per day until end of giveaway!!)
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Meatless Monday: Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

March 26, 2012 By 4 Comments

Sometimes after a long day, we just need a dinner that is quick, easy, and not too heavy.  We tend to keep pie shells, eggs, mushrooms, spinach, and cheese around at all times so it’s only natural that a quiche would find it’s way into our repertoire from time to time.

Quiche is basically a pastry crust filled with with eggs and meat, veggies, cheese, or any combination of the three.  Our version leaves out the meat, but maintains the light, but fulfilling nature of any good quiche.  The buttery, flaky crust with the creamy, custardy filling and chunky bites of mushroom and spinach all topped with nutty Gruyere cheese will tickle your taste buds with every bite.  Pair it with a side salad and you have a lovely meatless meal for a warm evening or a Sunday brunch.

From a Simply Budgeted perspective, the Gruyere will be your most expensive item.  We bought ours from the big box warehouse store for about $12/pound.  The nice thing is that Gruyere has a big flavor, so a little goes a long ways.  We only used about 1/4 pound (so $3) for the whole dish.  It should also only take you about 15 minutes of active cooking time, giving you time to chill out for a bit after getting home from work while dinner cooks itself.


Spinach and Mushroom Quiche

Ingredients

1 9 ” pie shell
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups sliced mushrooms
salt and pepper
2 cups baby spinach
1 garlic clove, minced
3 eggs
1 cup half and half
1 cup Gruyere cheese, shredded

Directions

Preheat oven to 375.  Prepare pie shell in 9″ deep dish pie plate.  Set aside.

In a large pan over medium-high heat, add olive oil, mushrooms, and salt and pepper to taste.  Cook mushrooms until lightly browned, 5-6 minutes, and add spinach and garlic.  Cook until spinach is wilted and most of the liquid has evaporated, another 4-5 minutes.  Drain off the excess liquid and set vegetables aside for a few minutes to cool.

Whisk together eggs, half and half, and salt and pepper to taste.

Place vegetables into bottom of pie shell.  Pour egg mixture over the vegetables and top with Gruyere.

Bake at 375 for 35 minutes or until quiche is puffy and golden brown.  Serve warm or at room temperature.  It makes about 6-8 servings.  Enjoy!

Have a Meatless Monday experience, recipe, or request?  Leave us a comment and let us know what you’re up to!

Meatless Monday, a national nonprofit public health initiative, is all about incorporating more vegetables and less meat into our diet.  It’s about moderation, just one day a week, cutting down on meats high in saturated fat and increasing protein-rich plant-based foods — good for personal health and good for the planet.

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Meatless Monday: Spanish Tortilla

September 19, 2011 By 1 Comment

Brian asked me to write this post because this is my recipe and my story. hmmm. It is now his recipe but here it goes.

I was introduced to a Spanish Tortilla (think omelette) when I went to Spain in high school. It took me so many babysitting hours to get there but it was worth every penny and still my only trip out of the U.S. While in Spain, I ate croissants and Spanish Tortillas. The next summer we had an exchange student live with us for the summer … from Spain of course. The group leader decided to teach the host moms how to make Spanish Tortillas one night. FINALLY, my mom understood what I told her I was eating over there. In Spain, Spanish Tortillas have anything and everything in them. Veggies, meat, whatever. They all seem to have potatoes and onions though. They vary in shape, size, and even color. They all taste amazing though. My mom taught Brian how to make Spanish Tortillas at some point. I still can’t master the flip … you see to get it cook on both sides, you use a plate to flip it and then put it back in the pan. I am way better at eating them.

Here is tonight’s meatless Spanish Tortilla …

 

Here it is with a slice missing so you can see it took the whole pan to make this. We … ha! Brian used our Everyday Pan by Calphalon for this and works great.

I say all of that and don’t have a recipe to post. You see Brian took step by step pictures then asked me to post. If you want the recipe, beg for it in the comments and you will break him down to post it. ;)

I have to ask … have you tried a Spanish Tortilla before? If so, what do you put in yours?

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