Most mornings I like to start off my day with just a cup (or two) of black coffee. Sometimes on the rare weekend I'll make an exception and eat in the a.m., if Mr. S. cooks his wonderful omelets, pancakes or a plate of crispy bacon. I love breakfast, truly I do...I'm just not an early morning eater. There's something about ingesting food at 8, 9 or 10 am that just makes me feel a bit queasy and off kilter for hours afterwards. So to compensate, I usually end up making my favorite breakfast dishes for lunch or sometimes even dinner. I love that most breakfast recipes are versatile and you can pretty much use whatever's lurking in the corners of your fridge or vegetable bin. Last night's leftover sausage? Throw it in there! Sunday night, you had extra cheese after making some enchiladas? Throw that cheese in there! Garden overgrown with tomatoes and zucchini? Chop 'em up and throw them in there! I'm sure you get my point. Great breakfasts can be created from eggs and whatever scrappings you have lying about. Omelets are probably the simplest of the breakfast dishes to make, but you can always step it up with a frittata or a strata. Never heard of a strata? It's like a frittata but it has bread mixed in. I usually gravitate toward making this dish when I have some leftover rustic french bread that's gone a bit stale. I've listed below what I put into my most recent strata but just use that as a loose guide, there are endless variations. When making your own strata, customize it with whatever meats, veggies or cheese YOU like or have in your fridge. You really can't go wrong as long as you remember the eggs, bread and milk.
Strata
Ingredients
4 eggs
3/4 cup milk (I usually use soymilk)
1 1/2 cups (day old) cubed, rustic french bread
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove fresh garlic, minced
1/2 cup spinach leaves
2 slices prosciutto, torn into small pieces
6 grape tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
2 tablespoons crumbled goat cheese
1/4 cup cheddar, grated or shredded
1/4 cup mozzarella, grated or shredded
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a pan, heat the olive oil on medium-high heat until it shimmers. Then add the garlic and saute for about 1 minute. Add in the spinach leaves, prosciutto pieces, tomato halves and onion. Continue to cook until spinach wilts and tomatoes slightly soften. Remove from heat and set aside.
- In a bowl, whisk together the eggs and milk. Season with salt and pepper.
- Place two oven-safe ramekins on a baking sheet. Place the bread cubes inside the ramekins. Pour the egg mixture evenly over the bread. Add in the sauteed vegetables, prosciutto and a tablespoon of goat cheese to each. Sprinkle the tops with the mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.
- Place the baking sheet with the filled ramekins into the oven and bake for 23-25 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Eat while still warm.
0 comments:
Post a Comment