Brunch!

Brunch!

I love brunch. My nature is an affinity to the morning hours and I love breakfast. Most weekends I have two breakfasts - one around 7am when the babe and I wake up and the second sometime between 11 and 1pm when my Sleeping beauty of a husband finally wakes up.
This Sunday, however, we hosted some friends for brunch and I made a sweet item and a savory item, both pretty simple, both turned out great!  I made baked french toast and a crustless quiche.

I followed THIS  recipe for the baked french toast, except I used day old Challa bread that I cut up and left out for a few hours. In addition I added 2 eggs (for a total of 4 eggs), about 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, just to give it a bit more flavor and make sure it was good and custardy. I was really happy how it turned out. It wasn't too soggy and it was nice and crispy on top. I really liked how easy it was and that I could prepare it the night before. I forgot about the butter and sugar, so, by accident, my version had slightly less fat and sugar in it.

The Quiche or savory egg bake was an attempt to copy a similar dish I had at a friend's house the week before. I did an OK job comparatively, but I think I'll add a little salt next time.

Ingredients for Quiche
1/2 small onion diced small
1-2 Tablespoons olive oil or butter (I used butter)
4 baby Portobello mushrooms sliced
large handful of spinach (about 2 cups)
8 eggs
salt and pepper to taste
~4 oz goat cheese
4 oz cheddar cheese shredded

Instructions
1. Melt the butter or heat the oil in a frying pan on medium/Med low heat, add the onions to soften - about 5 min. Add the mushrooms to soften and as they begin to release their liquid 5-10 min more. Add in the spinach to wilt.
2. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add the salt and pepper.
3. Butter or prepare a 10" pie plate, layer about half of the veggie mixture on the bottom of the pan. Spread around half of the cheese, then pour in half of the eggs, followed by the rest of the veggies, cheese and eggs.
4. Bake in a 425degF oven for about 25 min or until the eggs are cooked through.

Overall, I thought brunch was a great success!

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili

I occasionally participate in a food swap with other local mamas and I wanted to make a Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili for that a couple weeks ago. I got sick the night before I was supposed to make the chili, so I opted to not make it and chance getting everyone else sick! SO Last night I threw together the Chili that I had intended making weeks before.


Olive oil
1 large onion (I had about 1/4 of a large red onion and a small yellow onion) cut into 1/2" chunks
5 garlic cloves minced
2 carrots 1/4" dice
2 stalks celery 1/4" dice
1 medium/medium-large sweet potato cut into 1/2" chunks
28 oz can of diced tomatoes and their juice or whole tomatoes cut up or squished
1.5 tomato cans of water - this is probably 3-4 cups
~ 4 cups cooked black beans (I had a "2lb" plastic tub worth of cooked black beans that I had previously cooked and froze)
small can of tomato paste
1 cup of corn (I used frozen)
~1-2 tsp of ground cumin
~2 tsp chili powder
~1 tsp dried oregano
~2 tsp salt or to taste
~1/2 tsp ground black pepper or to taste

1. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot/dutch oven add in the onions and garlic saute until soft.
2. Add in the carrots, celery, and sweet potatoes, cover, and simmer for a bit while the carrots soften.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
4. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer until the sweet potatoes and carrots are soft ~20-30 min depending on how frozen the beans might be.

I served this with corn bread, since that is my favorite accompaniment to chili!