For me, breakfast has become one of the most important meals, but also one of the most challenging. I need a filling meal that’s also light and healthy, providing enough energy and sustenance to last me until lunch (save for a piece of fruit or something in the interim). And I also need the meal to be relatively quick. My commute is long (almost an hour, door to door), and while I used to wait and eat breakfast once I got to work, I find that I’m much more energetic throughout the day if I eat within an hour of waking up.

This means that I need to eat at home before leaving, but since I have to get up early already, I can’t spare more than a few minutes preparing and eating my breakfast. Making breakfasts ahead of time and reheating leftovers has been my solution for this, with oatmeal being the best option, but that’s grown old at this point. And I need a break from granola and yogurt once and awhile. Conundrum!

Then I saw Shutterbean’s freezer burritos post. Then I did some searching on freezer breakfast burritos and found Skinny Mom’s Kitchen. Inspiration abound, I decided to whip up some freezer breakfast burritos of my own.

These burritos are good. Really good. Super quick to reheat and eat, filling, and tasty. I am a fan. This recipe is infinitely adaptable, since there are a variety of fillings to choose from. Here’s what I went with:

Freezer breakfast burritos
Inspired by Shutterbean and Skinny Mom’s Kitchen
Makes 10 burritos

Ingredients

4 pre-cooked chicken sausages (I used Trader Joe’s garlic/herb chicken sausages), chopped into small pieces
1 package (10 ounces or so) mushrooms, chopped into small pieces
3-4 cups spinach
5 eggs, beaten
5 egg whites, beaten
2 1/2 cups lite shredded cheese (I used a Trader Joe’s lite shredded mix)
1 can refried beans (I used Trader Joe’s fat free refried beans)
10 flour tortillas

Instructions

In a large pan, cook the sausages and mushrooms over medium heat, stirring often, until the mushrooms have browned and released their liquid. Toss in the spinach and saute until just wilted. Pour in the eggs and egg whites and stir continuously until cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste, or any other seasonings as you see fit. Set aside to cool for a few minutes before assembling the burritos.

Lay a piece of foil about the width of one tortilla on a work surface, and place a tortilla on top of it. Spread three tablespoons of refried beans in the middle of the tortilla (roughly a 3 inch wide by 4 inch long rectangle). Sprinkle 1/4 cup of shredded cheese on top of the beans, and top with 1/2 cup of the cooled sausage/veggie/egg mixture.

Roll up the burrito to your liking – mine were just sort of rolled and folded together (I wasn’t too concerned about perfecting my wrapping technique; there are plenty of YouTube videos about wrapping burritos if you’re interested). Wrap the burrito in the foil and set aside. Repeat with the remaining ingredients, to make 10 burritos total.

You could probably stick the foil-wrapped burritos in the freezer as is, but for extra protection from freezer burn, you may want to consider storing the individual burritos in plastic freezer bags as well. I was able to fit five burritos in one large freezer bag (two bags in total).

To reheat, remove a frozen burrito from the foil, and loosely wrap in a damp paper towel. Microwave for 3 minutes, or until hot. Enjoy!

• Beer bread (Alton Brown): The ultimate weeknight bread recipe, for when you want something starchy/tasty to go with soup, etc. Super easy and super quick. My changes: used dried dill instead of fresh, subbed in part skim mozzarella cheese for cheddar, omitted the sunflower seeds. I also used Lagunitas IPA, with great results.
• Carrot soup with miso and sesame (Smitten Kitchen): I have a long-standing hatred of carrots. So much so that it’s become a default joke with my loved ones. Something about the texture and the underlying sweetness just doesn’t work for me, despite my best efforts to overcome the distaste. I want to like them! Really! They’re so good for you! Despite all this, something about this recipe called to me, so I just ran with it. And you know what? It was pretty darn good, even for me. The miso helps offset the carrots’ sweetness, and the toasted sesame oil is just perfect. The texture still bothered me at times, but I ate three servings of it over the course of three days, so there you go.
• Chicken lima bean soup (Taste of Home): I made this because I was dying to use my bag of Rancho Gordo Christmas lima beans, the recipe looked easy, and I wanted a nice sturdy soup after a whole holiday vacation of splurging on baked goods. It’s a very good soup, although I think the chicken may have been a tad overcooked. My changes: used Christmas limas, used kale instead of spinach, used dried parsley and other random seasonings instead of fresh.
• Cottage cheese muffins (101 Cookbooks): Like every 101 Cookbooks recipe ever, these were really good. I made them for an office holiday potluck, but when I make them again, I’ll have them for breakfast instead.
• Grapefruit yogurt cake (Smitten Kitchen): I had extra grapefruits, I had leftover yogurt that was threatening to go bad, I had everything else needed for this simple loaf cake. So I made it. And I’m really glad I did. It’s very, very good, and very, very easy. Next time, I’ll try the Ina Garten original lemon version, or a lime version with coconut milk yogurt and coconut oil. My changes: I used nonfat plain yogurt instead of whole milk.
• Macaroni and cheese pizza (Food Network): For Jeffrey‘s birthday dinner! We used the Quick Beer Crust from King Arthur Flour, which is quickly becoming my favorite go-to pizza crust recipe. This is one of the more indulgent things I’ve ever made. Wow. We sort of winged it with this recipe – I don’t remember most of the changes that we made, however. The main thing is just stovetop mac and cheese, put on a pizza crust, and baked. Yum.
• Meyer lemon fresh cranberry scones (Smitten Kitchen): I made these for my Bay Bridged comrades to enjoy while we set up for the Bay Brewed. They were a big hit. My changes: used regular lemons instead of Meyer.
• Rustic lentil soup (Soup Addict): Delicious, hearty stew. That’s really all you need to know. Really, really good. My changes: I didn’t have any pancetta so I used more bacon instead, omitted the fish sauce, used 3 small leeks instead of celery, and used dried rosemary instead of fresh thyme.
• And of course, I’ve made several more 30 before 30 items. Just need to actually sit down and write them all out!

Welcome to my contribution for the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2011!

I had very different plans for this cookie recipe. I envisioned, specifically, an Apple Cider Toffee Cookie, with a pronounced apple cider taste, enhanced by buttery toffee. Unfortunately, I was left with a cookie with a strong toffee flavor and only a hint of apple – which, by all means, is not a bad thing, just not what I originally wanted.

My original plan was to use this recipe for Maple Syrup Cookies and produce an apple cider syrup to use instead of the maple syrup. Brilliant, I thought! I am a genius!

Except making apple cider syrup proved more difficult than I thought. With my first batch, I kept waiting for the cider to get a thick, syrupy consistency, and I ended up with a tasteless, sticky substance that became hard as a rock once cooled. With my second batch, the consistency was thinner than I would have liked, but it tasted great, so I decided to just go with it.

While making the cookies, I found that a more syrupy consistency would have been helpful. When I added the syrup to the wet mixture, there was a lot of separation that occurred. It came together fine once I added the dry mixture, but upon tasting the dough (before stirring in the toffee), I found with disappointment that the apple cider flavor was subtle at best.

But these cookies are still tasty. They’re just not apple cider cookies. It’s probably not worth the effort to cook down the apple cider and add the brown sugar just for this recipe, but I’ll include the instructions anyway, just in case. Perhaps I will purchase some honest-to-goodness boiled cider and see what that produces.

Toffee Cookies
Adapted from The Cooking Photographer
Yield: I can’t exactly remember. I think it was around 4 dozen.

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup apple cider syrup [note: I doubled the recipe but used only 2 cinnamon sticks, and omitted the brandy]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 8 oz bag toffee bits/pieces (I used Heath; use less if you want a less pronounced toffee flavor)
Granulated sugar for rolling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and put racks in the bottom and top thirds of the oven. Sift or whisk the flour, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl (I used my stand mixer) until light and fluffy. Add egg, apple cider syrup and vanilla, and mix until blended. The mixture will separate a little bit, but will come back together once you add the dry ingredients.

Stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Add the toffee bits and stir until well-distributed. Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes to an hour (optional, but I found it to be helpful).

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, roll in sugar, and place on baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, switching racks halfway through the baking time. Remove from oven and let cool, preferably on a wire rack.

Oh my.

This may have been one of the most indulgent recipes I’ve ever made.

I mean, homemade Thin Mints. Look at that chocolate!

Making Thin Mints at home is clumsy, messy, a bit time-consuming, and, well, sticky. Is it worth it? YES.

We spent an afternoon tempering chocolate and dipping cookies, and brought the cookies to a friend’s birthday party that evening. They were a huge hit. I brought them to a meeting the next day. They were a huge hit. Sensing a pattern here?

A caveat: these cookies should be kept cool. When we brought the cookies to the aforementioned birthday party, the cookies became a bit messier to eat as the night went on, as the chocolate had a tendency to melt all over people’s fingers.

No biggie. No use crying over some melted chocolate.

In case you were wondering: just like the original Girl Scouts’ version of this cookie, the homemade Thin Mint tastes even better after being stored in the freezer.

For this piece of 30 before 30, I used the Thin Mint recipe posted on the Tastespotting blog, who got the recipe from Desserts by the Yard.

Next time I make these (oh yes, there will be a next time), I’m trying out the 101 Cookbooks version.

More 30 before 30 posts coming soon: hamburgers/hamburger buns, macarons, chicken nuggets!

This is the ultimate lazy baking recipe. This is for those nights when you really really want a warm chocolate chip cookie, but really really don’t want to go through the whole song and dance of measuring, creaming butter and sugar, dirtying multiple dishes and carefully spooning out dough mounds onto baking sheets.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a well-crafted, perfectly executed chocolate chip cookie, and most of the time, I don’t mind the extra effort. But tonight, I did mind the extra effort (and I only had half a cup of chocolate chips left over), so this skillet cookie was just what I needed.

Note: I forgot to put salt in the mixture, so I guessed that about 1/4 teaspoon would have worked and added to the below list. Also, this is a pretty sweet cookie, overall, so I may reduce the amount of sugar next time. Lastly, this yields a thin cookie – the recipe could probably be doubled and baked in the same size skillet for thicker results (left in the oven for longer, of course).

Skillet chocolate chip cookie
Adapted from: SparkRecipes

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 egg
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Measure all ingredients into a bowl and mix (either by hand or electric mixer) until they all come together. Lightly spray a 10-inch cast-iron skillet (or other ovenproof skillet) with cooking spray, and spread the batter into the skillet. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool before slicing and enjoying.

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Cookies!

I’m not exactly sure what inspired me to put b’stilla, a Moroccan chicken pie, on my 30 before 30 list. Before putting it on the list, I’d actually only eaten it once – at Aziza, as a part of an overall fantastic, multi-course meal. I think I was mostly intrigued by the idea of putting together a savory, delicately layered pie, which is something I’ve never really attempted before.

This pie involves so many pure, beautiful ingredients: fresh herbs, bright spices, enough butter and powdered sugar and cinnamon to give the dish a rich and complex taste.

I also appreciate the fact that this recipe got me to branch out, ingredients-wise. This was actually the first time I’ve ever purchased and cooked boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Traditionally, I’ve been a bit afraid to branch out much beyond the breast of the chicken, so I was grateful to be pushed out of that shell.

We experienced a couple of snafus. One: the stovetop mixture, before going in to the pie dish, just wasn’t thickening as much as I would have liked, and I worried about overcooking it, so I think the end result wasn’t quite firm enough. Two: the pie had been baking for at least 15 minutes past the recommended baking time, and the top still wasn’t as crisp and brown as it should have been; I wanted to give it more time, but we were starving and it was late and I just wanted to be done. Despite this, however, this b’stilla was really delicious. I would definitely consider making it again, for a special occasion or a weekend that begs for a longer cooking project.

I didn’t stray at all from the recipe I followed, so I won’t dictate it here. Here is the recipe source: Bon Appetit, via Turntable Kitchen.

P.S. I have about three 30 before 30 posts in the vault, just need to actually sit down and crank ‘em out!

Curried potato-squash-leek soup

3 tablespoons butter
4 medium red potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 delicata squash, peeled and chopped
3 leeks (white and light green parts only), chopped
4-6 cups broth (veggie or chicken)
1 cup cooked lentils (mine were cooked with broth and some cumin)
1/2 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon curry powder
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Melt the butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the leeks, potatoes, and squash and gently stir until softened, about 3-5 minutes. Add enough broth to just cover the vegetables, bring to a boil, then adjust the heat so that the soup bubbles gently. Add a few shakes of salt and pepper and cook for about 20-30 minutes, until the potatoes and squash are tender. Stir in lentils.

Turn off the heat, and puree the soup until smooth – either with an immersion blender, or regular blender or food processor. Stir in the garam masala and curry powder, plus additional salt and pepper to taste, and re-heat over the stove if necessary.

When I don’t make steel-cut oats ahead of time, I still like to have the option of eating them at work for a late breakfast (or sometimes lunch if need be). For this, I take advantage of Trader Joe’s Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats. They’re not as creamy and awesome as the pure ones cooked on the stove, but they still do the trick.

This past week, I had a bag of big, gorgeous nectarines from the Alemany Farmers Market, and I was out of the frozen berries that I normally stir into my microwaved oats with honey. So, I improvised, and “nectarine pie” steel-cut oats were born.

Microwave nectarine pie steel-cut oats

1/4 cup Trader Joe’s Quick Cook Steel Cut Oats
3/4 cup hot water
1-2 tablespoons honey
1 large nectarine
1-2 teaspoons cinnamon

Chop  the nectarine into bite-size pieces. Add the oats and water to a bowl (preferably one with high sides, since the mix will rise up – otherwise you need to babysit it as it cooks and pause to stir if it starts to boil over).  Cook for 3 minutes in the microwave. Stir, then cook for an additional 1.5 minutes.

Stir in the honey, nectarine pieces and cinnamon, and return to the microwave for an additional 1.5 – 2 minutes (depending on how firm/soft you want the nectarine pieces). Stir and let sit for a couple of minutes before eating (don’t burn your tongue!).

I’ve been throwing this idea around in my head for awhile. Ever since I made Kim Boyce’s Muscovado Sugar Cake and caught my first whiff of fragrant amaranth flour.

What would happen if this grassy amaranth flour was paired with earthy leeks, in some sort of buttery bready concoction? Like, say, biscuits? Ooh la la.

I did some research and found a few biscuit recipes that involved wild leeks (a.k.a. ramps), but I couldn’t find any that involved both regular leeks and amaranth flour. I decided to do a combination of this smitten kitchen recipe for prepping the leeks and this recipe for biscuits that utilizes pencil leeks, making appropriate changes and substitutions. I also decided to add some nutty gruyere cheese. Just because.

I made the biscuits tonight, to serve with Alton Brown’s curried split pea soup. And they were very, very good (the soup was very good as well). The flavor of the leeks was strong and pronounced, likely enhanced by the amaranth. And as expected, the gruyere came through strongly as well – one day, I would like to make these biscuits again, with either less gruyere or none at all, to see how well the leeks and amaranth perform on their own.

Biscuits with leeks, gruyere cheese and amaranth flour
Adapted from smitten kitchen and Crumbs On My Keyboard

Leeks:
1 cup leeks, white and light green parts only, halved and chopped, rinsed and drained
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons butter
Freshly ground pepper

Biscuits:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup amaranth flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons cold butter cut into small cubes
Prepared leeks (above)
1/2 – 1 cup shredded gruyere cheese
3/4 cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees, position a rack in the center of the oven, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a medium-sized pan, saute the leeks over medium-high heat with a little cooking spray and a pinch of kosher salt until softened (about 5 minutes). Lower the heat to medium-low, stir in the butter, cover, and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add pepper and more salt to taste. Remove from pan and set aside.

In a medium/large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter (or a food processor, or your fingers). Gently stir in the cheese and the prepared leeks. Pour in the buttermilk and fold until just combined.

On a lightly floured work surface, gently knead the dough four or five times, adding a bit more flour if the dough sticks. Roll the dough until about 1/2 inch thickness with a rolling pin. Using anything with a 2-inch-ish circumference (I used an old jar), cut out the biscuit rounds and transfer to the prepared baking sheet (around 12-15 rounds). Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.