Brown Rice Crusted Quiche

Saturday morning, we woke up to a light layer of new snow and strong winds. While the snow kept falling and Nick used his snow plow to clear off the driveway, I got working on breakfast.

I had heard of using leftover cooked brown rice as a “crust” of sorts, but I hadn’t tried it for myself.

After making a casserole earlier in the week, I found myself with 2 cups of cooked brown rice in the fridge, just waiting to be used.

I had my doubts – rice as a crust? – but it actually worked!

Brown Rice Crusted Quiche

Crust:

• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Filling:

• 4 eggs
• 1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 cup steamed broccoli
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Mix crust ingredients (rice, egg, cheese) together and press into pie plate.
3. Bake crust 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden and egg is set.
4. While crust is baking, whisk together eggs, cheese, milk, and seasonings.
5. Once crust is ready, place broccoli on top of crust and pour egg mixture over top.
6. Bake 25-30 minutes or until eggs are set and top is starting to brown.

 

And hey! This is my first post in our new kitchen : ) Took long enough, huh?

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Solo Sunday

Man, my abs are sore! Paddling in the kayak is different than a canoe – if you do it right, you actually use your abs more than your arms or shoulders, and I can feel it today!

Nick had to go to church early today to help with the sound, so I had breakfast solo today. And it’s back to Sunday breakfast!

2 over easy eggs on some oatbran –

Seriously – sometimes nothing beats this in the morning.

I also had a market peach + raspberries.

The raspberries were perfect, but I was a little eager on the peach. It tasted good, but it definitely wasn’t perfectly ripe yet. I’ll make myself wait on the rest of them  🙂

I’ve got to get some coffee and get going!

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Bagel Friday

These locally made bagels are soooo good!

I think I need to find a way to have one every Friday morning.

Plus, I’ve never been able to find whole wheat everything bagels, but I can now! And it just makes it better that they’re fresh and have ingredients I can pronounce.

This morning ,we were up early enough to make our bagel sandwiches.

I scrambled 3 eggs for us to share and sliced up our last 2 farmer’s market peaches  😦  while Nick worked on the bacon.

What a fun and tasty way to start off the weekend.

Happy Friday!

What’s your favorite kind of bagel and topping?

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Mini Migraine

Uh oh – I feel one coming! Just during lunch a small headache is starting to pop up. That just will not do. Any get rid of headache fast tips?

Breakfast this morning was good, good, good. I missed my eggs.

eggs + oatbran

Plus some of our last cherries + strawberries

Plus some coffee at work.

Work was busy this morning, and I actually got hungry around 11:30, but I didn’t want to ruin my lunch so I chugged some water to hold out until Nick got here right around noon.

I had some of the enchilada pasta I made this weekend – so good! I’ll post the recipe soon, promise!

Plus some leftover roasted broccoli from last night.

I’m hoping this food, water, and caffeine from the coffee will kick in and get rid of this headache, but we’ll see.

I think everything is going ahead with the truck! The guy is picking it up tonight, so just a few last things to do.

I also finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle last night – LOVED it. I want a farm. But now I need new books  🙂  I already have a list going, but I wanted to see what some of you are reading or have read lately.

Good book suggestions? I like just about anything. I’m itching to get into another book already – I missed reading on the way to work!

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Freaky Friday

I’m so happy it’s Friday!!! It doesn’t feel like it to me, but I am wearing jeans and I had a fun breakfast + awesome Honduran coffee so that’s a good way to start the day.

It seems I decided to have veggies for breakfast and fruit with lunch, which is the opposite of what I normally do.

But it was good!

Maybe I’m missing all those beans we had in Honduras?

I made a stacked bowl for breakfast this morning and it was super tasty.

• grits
• bean/corn/pepper/onion salad mixed with some of our fresh cooked tomatoes = instant salsa
• 2 eggs that I cooked too long  😦
• fresh Miami avocado!

The only bad thing? I totally overcooked my eggs and they weren’t runny at all! It was still a good combination, though.

Plus awesome coffee that I took with me to work

Lunch had to be easy and quick today. I had a follow-up eye appointment, so I ate this lunch in stages.

This morning, I put together a strawberry + almond butter sandwich on some alvarado st. bakery bread.

Some all natural pear crisps – they’re like air! So light and good.

and some broccoli I had at work from earlier this week.

I have a feeling some snacks will be happening this afternoon…my stomach is not satisfied.

Any fun weekend plans?

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Remotely Working

Happy Monday morning!

I am very excited that today is my first ever telework day! Tim Kaine, the Governor of Virginia, signed an executive order making today a “Statewide Telework Day” for anyone that is able to do that. I’m happy to say that my office was working on making this happen while I was in Honduras and they were able to find a way to give us access to everything we need to work from home. Our office offically went “paperless” almost a year ago so my entire job is on the computer: database, email, shared files, internet system.

We’ll see how today goes! I know that Tim Kaine is very interested in having as many people as possible teleworking by January 2010 since it helps cut down on car emissions and other things with people having to get to work every day.

I did still get up at my normal time and took my shower, but I did not dry my hair which was fun. I hate drying my hair and would much rather just let it air dry everyday if I could.

I couldn’t decide on what to have for breakfast today and I ended up eating later than normal, but I finally started cooking.

I made 2 over easy eggs on some oatbran, but not until after I dropped an egg on the floor  😦  I hate cleaning up raw egg – it’s so sticky and gross. The eggs were good on the oatbran, though, and kind of made up for it.

I also had a peach from the farmer’s market to round out breakfast. This worked out perfectly for us this morning. I bought 3 peaches and 3 nectarines Saturday and 1 of each was ripe today so Nick took the nectarine with him in his lunch, and I had this peach with breakfast. Good and juicy.

I’m working on making some coffee right now and getting to work!

Do you get to work from home at all? or have you ever in the past?

Please also keep Meghann in your thoughts and prayers  – losing a pet is never, ever easy.

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Bean-less Breakfast

After almost a full week of having some of the most amazing beans with just about every meal, I had my 2nd breakfast in a row with no beans in sight.

I actually  miss them….just a little 🙂

Nick and I woke up later than normal this morning to catch up on a little sleep, then got to making some breakfast before heading into town.

I made myself some grits and 2 over easy eggs for breakfast.

Runny eggs and oatmeal were 2 things I missed, among other things.

Plus 1 slice of bacon and some plums we picked up last night.

Nick also brewed up some of our Honduran coffee we brought back, so I’m grabbing that and heading out the door.

I’ve got an eye appointment at 9:30 and then I’m heading to work for the afternoon to start weeding through the emails.

Any fun plans for this weekend?

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Takin’ It Easy

This morning has been so nice.

No alarm clock, lounging around, making breakfast, drinking coffee with my feet up on the ottoman…

I wish every day could be like this! It’s a good thing we were able to sleep in a little today because we have to leave Nick’s parents’ house tomorrow at 2 AM!!!

Since we had more time for breakfast today, we decided to cook the rest of the bacon and have a “Sunday” breakfast on Tuesday.

I finally finished off the cantaloupe, plus the last of the strawberries and had 2 small slices of bacon.

Plus 2 over easy eggs over oatbran! I did miss the oatbran on Sunday – it has a better flavor and texture and I really like it with the eggs.

And some coffee, obviously.

We’re up, fed, and showered so now it’s just time to finish packing and get everything in the car to head to Nick’s parents house.

What’s one thing you always take with you on a trip?

I’ve made list after list, and I still always feel like I’m going to forget something  🙂

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Goodbye Weekend

Why do the weekends go by so fast?!?

Thank you all for your notes and comments on my earlier post. I know that everyone has a story to tell, and I  needed to do that post more for me than anything else. Everyone will deal with this in some respect in their lives, and it’s so hard to actually put into words how you feel and what you think and how in the world you’re supposed to keep going without certain people in our lives. But that journey is a huge part of how we  grow and learn what we’re made of. Anyways, thank you again. I really do appreciate every one of them.

So I guess I have a whole day to catch up on!

Breakfast was our normal Sunday breakfast – not anything new around here  🙂

2 over easy eggs + grits. I haven’t had grits in a while since I got on my oatbran kick, and I think I like the oatbran under my eggs better! I kind of missed them this morning.

Plus a white peach from the farmer’s market, blackberries, and some new bacon I bought this weekend. It’s actually called “Sunday Bacon” – fitting, I thought.  This peach was good – we have one more market peach to eat before we leave, so we’ll be spittling that one in the next day or two.

Nick also made coffee this morning, so I had a cup of that.

Our lunch plans changed after church today – we have leftover pizza and we were planning on coming back for that, but a friend at church ended up taking us out for lunch today instead. Since I planned on coming home for lunch, I didn’t have my camera with me, but I had a bean/onion/mushroom quesadilla + guacamole salad at the mexican place.It was a fun lunch, and I’m glad we got to spend some time with them. I guess that leaves the pizza for tomorrow! One less thing to do tonight when getting ready for work tomorrow.

We got home and got started on the stuff that needed to get finished today.

Nick went outside to cut the grass, and I put the last load of laundry in to wash.

I got pretty hungry this afternoon while laundering and cleaning, so I had a bowl of cereal.

I had a serving of the Ezekiel 4:9 Original cereal with some milk, a sliced banana, cinnamon and a little drizzle of honey.

Then I got back to my commercial cleaning.

What is commercial cleaning, you ask?

Well….that’s what I call my cleaning when I get sucked into something on tv  🙂

Today, it was Hokie Nation, this documentary some people made about the football team and the fans.

So, in commercial cleaning, I sit and watch while the show is on and then I do as much as possible during each commercial break so I can sit back down for a few minutes when it comes back on. It works pretty well, actually….most of the time.

After I finished laundry and cleaning and Nick came in from mowing and weedeating, I got started on a pretty easy dinner.

I’m trying to use up the stuff in the fridge, which means it was a perfect night for a one pot dish.

I made a Thai-sauced pasta dish tonight, and it was so good and easy.

I cooked up about 4 servings of whole wheat pasta for the dish, and while that was cooking, I sauteed 1/2 a leftover red pepper, about 1 cup of shredded carrots, and 2 scallions.

I also diced up the leftover cilantro chicken from the other night and got out some leftover broccoli.

Once the veggies were softened up, I added a sauce to the pan:

• 2 Tbsp or so soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce
• garlic
• 1 Tbsp PB2 mixed with water
• 1 tsp chile garlic pasta (hot!)

I poured the sauce into the veggies, then added 1 Tbsp of cornstarch dissolved in water and let the sauce thicken a bit.

Add the pasta to the veggie/sauce mixture, then stir in the chicken and broccoli to heat them up.

Right before serving, toss in a big handful of cilantro and a couple squeezes of fresh lime juice.

I wish I would have had some peanuts to sprinkle on top, but it was still really good. I think I would actually add more PB2 to the sauce next time.

The good thing is that this made a good amount, so that takes care of dinner tomorrow.

I’ve got to go get the boy some cookies – he got stung by a bunch of yellow jackets while he was mowing and is asking for a treat. Considering he has an ice-pack out for the bites, I think he deserves something.

When do you do all your cleaning, laundry, etc?

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Last Flippin’ Chance

Ah! I’m having major computer issues this morning – here’s hoping it actually posts correctly! My laptop won’t load my profile/screen with all my folders, etc? Anyone know how to fix that?

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Alright, I’ve been working on overdrive on what to do for my last set of pancakes for this challenge. I’ve been making lists, crossing stuff off, changing my mind…

This is basically what I’ve been thinking for the past 2 days:

Another sweet one?

But what else would I do?

I did Strawberry + Nutella.

I did S’mores.

I did Cinnamon Roll.

I did PB & J.

No, not another sweet one.

But what then?

Savory.

It has to be savory! I know I love a good Bob’s Breakfast, so what else could I do to jazz them up?

You probably know my obsession with eggs anyways, so what was I waiting for?

I think I’ll call these Fiesta Siesta Pancakes.

The basic pancake recipe was the same I’ve been using but without the cinnamon:

• 1/2 cup oats
• 1/3 cup egg whites (all I had left) plus a splash of milk
• pinch salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

In between the pancakes are 2 slices of turkey bacon, sliced avocado, and some peach salsa Nick’s sister brought with them a few weekends ago.

Top with an over easy egg and slice of avocado, plus a little crushed red pepper + salt?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I may like these just as much (or more!) than all my sweet creations!

I cannot help but love runny eggs. I don’t know what it is about them, but that + pancakes + avocado + sweet and spicy salsa all in one dish is perfection.

Why the “siesta” in the name? Because now I need a nap  🙂

Happy Friday!

Do you talk to yourself (or others) about how good something while you’re eating it? I could not stop talking while eating my pancakes this morning. Every bite was “this is so good!”. Of course, that was inbetween the “what’s wrong with my computer?!?”  🙂

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