What's For Breakfast: Huevos Rancheros

Technically, this is what we had for dinner the other night, although huevos rancheros is typically served as a Tex-Mex breakfast. I came upon this recipe while paging through the August/September 2014 issue of Cook's Country. (I earmarked nearly every page of this issue -- there are so many good recipes to try!) I don't think I've ever actually eaten huevos rancheros before, so I can't speak to this recipe's authenticity. However, I can tell you that it is absolutely delicious. 

I followed the recipe fairly closely, aside from halving most ingredients, as the original recipe makes four servings, and I was just feeding D and myself. I also made it into a one skillet meal; the original recipe calls for roasting the tomato mixture in a separate dish, but I found doing everything in a cast-iron skillet worked quite well. While perhaps this isn't the quickest recipe for a weeknight dinner, it would definitely make for a stunning presentation at a leisurely weekend brunch.

Huevos Rancheros (printer-friendly version)

makes 2-3 servings

2 14.5-ounce cans fire-roasted diced tomatoes

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1 red onion, chopped

1 4-ounce can diced green chiles

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 cup shredded pepper Jack cheese

4-5 large eggs (I find eggs from pasture-raised chickens have the best yolks)
1 avocado, halved, pitted, and diced
3 green onions, sliced thin
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
4 corn tortillas, warmed

1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
2. Drain the tomatoes through a fine-mesh strainer placed over a bowl. Use the back of a spoon or rubber spatula to press as much of the juice out of the tomatoes as possible. Reserve 3/4 cup of the tomato juice, and discard the rest. Whisk the brown sugar and lime juice into the reserved tomato juice and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, combine the chopped onion, diced green chiles, olive oil, chili powder, and garlic. Stir in the drained tomatoes.
4. Transfer the tomato mixture into a 10-inch cast iron skillet and spread into an even layer. Roast in the oven until charred in spots, 35-40 minutes. Stir halfway through the cooking period.
5. Reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees.
6. Stir the tomato juice mixture into the roasted tomato mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
7. Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the tomato mixture. Use a spoon to hollow out four or five spaces (depending on how many eggs you wish to cook) in the tomato mixture. Crack an egg into each hole. Season each egg with salt and pepper.
8. Bake in the oven for 14-16 minutes, or until the whites have just begun to set (they will still jiggle a bit). Remove the skillet from the oven, tent with aluminum foil, and let sit for 5 minutes.
9. Garnish with the diced avocado, sliced green onions, and chopped cilantro. Serve with warmed tortillas.

(adapted from a recipe in the August/September 2014 issue of Cook's Country magazine)

What's For Breakfast: Egg Muffins

I am all about convenience when it comes to healthy eating. Which, I suppose sounds odd, as eating a healthier diet typically requires more prep and cooking time when making things from scratch. However, if I can get all the prep work done for a week's worth of meals in one fell swoop, I'll still call that convenient.

Case in point, these egg muffins. Making a batch means I have breakfast for at least a week, with a few extra to eat as snacks. The biggest time investment involves chopping up some veggies, but once that's done, you just toss the chopped veg in with some beaten eggs, and spices, pour the whole shebang in a prepped muffin tin, and, wham, bam, breakfast is ready for the week.

These egg muffins are simple to modify to your taste, as you can add in whatever vegetables you have on hand, along with your favorite spices (herbes de Provence, oregano, hot sauce, etc.), to make them.

Egg Muffins (printer-friendly version)
makes 8 muffins

8 organic eggs
1 cup diced broccoli
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced mushrooms
1/2 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half, seeds removed
salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray. (Seriously, do this! Otherwise, you will have a giant mess on your hands. Um, not that this happened to me or anything.)
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs. Then stir in the chopped broccoli, onion, mushrooms, and tomatoes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
5. Store leftover muffins in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.

What's For Dinner: Double-Bean Breakfast Burrito

Let's take a break from all the Yosemite-love for a little dinner recipe, shall we? While on vacay in California I had one of my favorite breakfast treats -- a breakfast burrito. These breakfast entrees always have the tendency to be huge and I never seem to manage to eat a whole one in a single sitting. But, man, are they good! And, it goes without saying, quite filling! Oh, and more thing -- they taste just as good at dinnertime as they do at breakfast.

Double-Bean Breakfast Burrito (printer-friendly version)
serves one

2 eggs, scrambled
salt and pepper, to taste
refried beans
pinto beans, heated
salsa
shredded cheese
flour tortilla

So, this isn't so much a recipe as just fairly-simple instructions for constructing a breakfast burrito. This particular double-bean burrito includes pinto beans in two forms -- refried and whole beans. I went the easy route and used canned beans for both...one of these days I'll have to try and refry my own. This refried bean recipe looks like a pretty easy one to try. To make my burritos, I warmed the flour tortilla in a skillet, then added a thin layer of refried beans. Next, in the center of the tortilla, I added the scrambled eggs (seasoned with salt and pepper), a couple spoonfuls of pinto beans, another couple spoonfuls of salsa, and a healthy handful of shredded cheese. To roll the burrito, first fold in both sides, then carefully roll it up from the bottom. (Alternately, fold in both sides, then kind of smoosh the remaining two sides together while flipping it over. -- This seems to be my preferred technique.) I served my burrito alongside a green salad dressed with salsa and some tortilla chip fragments (what can I say, I love a little crunch on my salad!) -- taco-seasoned rice would also make a great accompaniment.