Mushroom Spinach Omelet

Sometimes I just get a craving for something healthy and today I needed a quick easy dinner idea. So I took a peek inside my refrigerator and I found some farm fresh eggs I had just purchased from the local farm market. Gotta love those fresh eggs! And I found some organic spinach and mushrooms. Oh how I love spinach, mushrooms and onions in an omelet. So I guess it's breakfast for dinner!

Even though I love an omelet filled with bacon, sausage, ham, lots of ooey gooey cheese and smothered in sausage gravy I am trying to be a good girl. So today I'm sticking with strictly vegetarian. So let's get cookin'.

Mushroom Spinach Omelet

2 eggs 1 T shredded Cheddar cheese, divided 1 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder Salt and pepper to taste 1 T coconut oil 1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms 1 tablespoon chopped onion 1/2 cup chopped fresh spinach   1. Whisk eggs, 1/2 tablespoon cheddar, 1/2 tablespoon Parmesan, salt, black pepper, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes together in a bowl. 2. Heat 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat; cook and stir mushrooms and onion until tender, 4 to 5 minutes.  3. Add spinach and cook until spinach wilts, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from pan.    4. Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon coconut oil to pan and pour in egg mixture. Swirl pan around to evenly distribute eggs.  5. Cook until eggs are fully cooked and set in the middle, 5 to 10 minutes.  6. Place vegetable mixture onto half the egg in the pan and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  7. Fold the other half of the egg over to cover veggies. Serve warm. When your omelet is completed it will look like this:  And you won't be able to wait to sink your fork into this. Or your teeth. Don't be afraid - rush to your kitchen now and pull out all sorts of omelet filling and get cookin'. Click -----> here for the Allrecipes.com recipe that inspired my version.

The Magic of Comfort Food

Do you ever find yourself away from home mentally going through your cupboards, refrigerator and freezer wondering what's hiding in the deepest darkest places that would be good for dinner? I do...all the time! I'm always looking for the "wow" ingredient that will help me transform dinner into something magical. 

This time my daydreams sent me on a magical journey of comfort food. Ok, it wasn't that magical but at least I knew I had all the ingredients on hand to pull it off. Ground beef, check. Macaroni, check. Tomatoes, check. Seasonings, check. Parmesan cheese, check.

Everything I need for some American Classic Goulash. Now I don't eat pasta a lot, actually very rarely, but sometimes I just get this craving and need to get my carb fix. I prefer spaghetti, but I had to feed my husband and he WILL NOT touch spaghetti with a ten foot pole. So I'm happy I can get him to eat goulash.  So let's get on to my version of the infamous recipe.

American Classic Goulash

Servings: 4
Yield: 4 servings

1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 onion,  chopped 
2 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 cup water
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 cups canned stewed or crushed tomatoes
1-1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoons dried Italian herb seasoning
1 teaspoon dried basil
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt, or to taste
1-1/2 to 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste

In a deep frying pan, cook and stir the ground beef, chopped onion (or grated on a fine grater for those onion haters in your life) and garlic over medium-high heat, breaking the meat up as it cooks, until the meat is no longer pink and has started to brown, about 10 minutes. Skim off excess fat.

Add water, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, Italian seasoning, bay leaves, and seasoned salt to the ground beef mixture. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While sauce is simmering, bring 2 quarts of water to a boil. Stir in the macaroni and cook until al dente, about 6-7 minutes depending on brand. Remove from heat and drain.

Once sauce is done simmering discard bay leaves and add macaroni (I made it with 2 cups of macaroni and it wasn't too saucy - for a saucier goulash cook 1-1/2 cups). Stir until combined. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Enjoy.

So can comfort food be magical? I don't know, but I do now it's pure deliciousness! 

I found the original recipe on Allrecipes but changed things up a bit to suit our tastes. Click here to view the recipe that inspired my version.

Try it. You'll like it!

Banana Bread Food Gifts

I love this time of year. The snow falling softly from the sky, the festive lights and the Christmas music. These things combined can put me in a gift-giving mood. My problem is that I HATE shopping. So how can I fill my gift-giving list without having to worry and wonder what someone needs or likes? That's when I turn to homemade food gifts.

Today I'm focusing on banana bread. Banana bread baked in mini loaf pans make great holiday gifts. Lets get started!

First - gather all your ingredients. 

You will need butter, eggs, flour, baking soda, salt, brown sugar and bananas, about 5 of them. Now be sure to use overripe bananas. Don't buy ripe and overripe bananas and forget to tell your husband which ones were ok to eat and which ones to save for your bread. If you forget to tell him then all bets are on him eating the bananas meant for bread. Yup! Happened here.

Preheat your oven

Grease your pans. This recipe calls for a 9" x 5" loaf pan but since I was making mini loaves I greased 3 of them 

and threw in a wide mouth pint jar for giggles. I saw it on Pinterest and was curious on how it would turn out. I'm pretty excited to see the results.

Now...let's get cooking. Recipe will be at the end of this post.

Add brown sugar and butter to a large bowl

Cream together with a mixer until well combined

Add eggs

And mashed bananas

Stir until well blended.

In a separate bowl (not pictured) I combined the flour, salt and baking soda. 

Add flour mixture to wet mixture a little at a time. 

Stir until just moistened after each addition of the flour mixture. Make sure no white flour is showing. Never mind me - I forgot to get a picture of that.

Pour into prepared pans. Toss in the oven. The recipe directions say to bake until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, but I like it when there is a little crumb left on the pick. The bread will continue to bake a little when removed from the hot oven so a little crumb is ok and will ensure the bread is not overcooked. 

And here you have Banana Bread. Looks good.

Sorry, but I didn't keep track of how long it took to bake the mini loaves but I know for certain it didn't take the full amount of time the original recipe called for. Just use the toothpick method and you'll be golden!

Let bread cool for 10 minutes before releasing from pans to cool on a wire rack. Once again - silly me - I didn't take a picture of that step.

And here's the finished mason jar method. Yay!

It looks like the mason jar method is a keeper. I boiled a canning lid and ring for two minutes before placing on the jar. The heat from the bread sealed the jar.

After the jar sealed I removed the canning ring (keep the canning lid on) and added a white plastic lid over the canning lid. I've read it keeps good for one week with this method.

There are many ways to wrap your mini banana bread loaves for gift giving. I started by shopping in my home for wrapping accessories. You would be quite surprised what you have gathered and stashed away over the years. 

Here is what I found by searching my closets and basement.

• A brown paper lunch sack
• Raffia I had used on my Christmas tree years ago
• Jingle bells I had used for a bridal shower
• Colored card stock 
• Cute tissue paper
• And a little computer creativity for the tag
• Decorative edge scissors to cut the lunch sack
• Plastic wrap to keep the bread fresh

Anything goes - just have fun with it.

After wrapping the bread I placed them back in the pans I baked them in. I got these cute little pans at Michaels Craft Store.

You can then wrap the pan and bread together with a clear cellophane bag tied with ribbon or tuck neatly in a box surrounded by colorful coordinating tissue paper like I did. Like I said - anything goes.

I hope you decided to give your friends and family food gifts for the holiday. The best way to someone's heart is through their stomach! They're sure to love whatever your little hands decide to make for them.

Now on to the recipe

Banana Banana Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Recipe is from Allrecipes