Have you ever tried on a great pair of pants, clearly labeled with the size you usually wear, and found that they’re tight in the thighs, tight in the butt, and they look really unattractive? BAD SIGN. You’ve been cooking and eating too much. And you may have recently quit smoking and replaced that habit with a 10am bag of Miss Vicki’s Simply Sea Salt kettle chips. Yes this story is about me. And so far this story is gross. Let’s change it!
I want to fit into those chinos from the paragraph above, so today’s main meal is Favorite Frittatas. By making frittata plural (cooked in individual muffin tins rather than a skillet or pie plate) you can incorporate your favorite ingredients and each member of your family can special-order their meats and veggies. In this recipe the main ingredients will be turkey bacon, roasted cherry tomatoes (leftover from the shower), fresh basil, shallots, and mozzarella cheese. In half of the mini-frittatas I’ve added mushrooms for my lovely roommate who ADORES any type of vegetable. I wrote the recipe in 12 steps but I swear it’s easier than that. I’m just learning how to write about food….
Here’s what you need:
Organic basil
Cherry tomatoes (ok, ANY chopped and seeded tomatoes, but I have leftover cherry tomatoes I need to use)
8 organic eggs
2% shredded mozzarella cheese
A small shallot
Turkey bacon
Whatever meat or veggies your roommate, significant other, child, friend, etc likes, lightly sauteed
Milk
HOWEVER, please don’t go shopping for anything special. The only critical items here are the eggs, bacon and cheese. The rest is personal preference and an opportunity for culinary creativity. And an opportunity to use up whichever leftovers are bugging you.
This is how it’s done:
1) grease a muffin tin with olive oil cooking spray and preheat the oven to 375
2) fry up 4 slices of turkey bacon. Chop when cool.
3) in the bacon grease and a splash of olive oil, lightly sauté one small shallot and one handful of sliced cherry tomatoes (do the shallot first, then add the tomato)
4) chop a small handful of mushrooms and set aside
5) chop as much basil as you want (I like a lot)
6) in a medium bowl, combine 4 eggs, 4 whites of eggs, basil, tomatoes, turkey bacon, a slash of vitamin d milk, and a generous handful of 2% shredded mozzarella cheese
7) sprinkle your chopped mushrooms in 6 of the muffin tins (if you like mushrooms you can just add it to your egg mixture. If you’re accommodating someone else who likes mushrooms, only add them to 6)
8) spoon your egg mixture into each of your 12 muffin compartments – a little more than three quarters full
9) bake at 375 for 15 minutes
10) remove your mini frittatas and sprinkle with a garnish of the low-fat mozzarella
11) return to the oven and broil on low for an additional 5 minutes
12) serve 2 mini frittatas for each person and promptly put the rest in the fridge. This step will prevent over- eating and ensure that you have low-cal, high-protein breakfast for a couple of days
In case you didn’t notice, I don’t measure my ingredients. Please stop measuring yours unless you’re baking (god bless you) in which case measuring is super important. Measuring can really cramp your style.
Make it and eat it!! I feel skinny already, how about you?
Yankee in Texas 