Cook More: Shakshuka Baked Eggs Brunch at Home

I love brunches but sometimes it's just impossible to make it out of the house. So I've been trying out all kinds of dishes at home that are easy to prepare but still very delicious and have nice presentation to them. Enter, shakshuka baked eggs.

I first learned about this dish from brunching at Carnem in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Since trying it there in my own personal cast iron pan, I've created my own recipe just for brunching at home.

Here's my version of shakshuka baked eggs with beautiful kumato tomatoes!

Ingredients

• canned diced tomatoes
• fresh grape, plum, or kumato tomatoes
• diced onions
• garlic
• cumin
• olive oil
• sea salt & red pepper flakes

Preparation

• Heat pan with olive oil and finely chopped garlic. Dice onions and add to pan. Add diced tomatoes with liquids and cumin to taste. Cook down to a paste-like consistency. Add some salt, cumin, and red pepper flakes to taste. Spoon into individual cast iron dishes.
• Slice fresh tomatoes into half slices. Place around cast iron dishes in a scalloped design, leaving the middle ready for eggs.
• Break two eggs carefully, preserving the yolk in the middle of the dish.

Sometimes, you get twins and you get three egg yolks instead of two!

Cooking

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake for 15-20 minutes depending on how runny you prefer your eggs. Top with a twist of sea salt on yokes. Add a few slices of apples and toast for a delicious brunch at home.

Much of this recipe is trial and error for me. It can also be easily tailored to your own tastes, so add as much garlic, cumin, salt, and red pepper flakes as you'd like.

It really can't get any easier than that. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!
Pearl

Cook More: Saturday Morning Baked Eggs

Saturday mornings are sacred, especially the ones that don't have locked-in agendas or time restrictions. This is one of those and what better way to start it than with not one kind of eggs, but three kinds: avocado baked eggs, cheesy spinach tomato baked eggs, and accidental baked mini egg white tacos. P.S. Ignore the messy dining room table. I thought about taking the time to clean things up and wipe things down but this is a real dining room table complete with messy toddler oatmeal and mom & dad's must-have caffeinated drinks.

What are these happy accidental egg white tacos I speak of? Keep reading! Sometimes things don't turn out exactly as you expect but that's okay because things can turn out even better -- and yummier!

ONE: Avocado Baked Eggs

Ingredients

• small eggs
• grape tomato halves
• large avocados
• sea salt
• spray canola or olive oil

Preparation

• Cut avocados in half. Remove pits. Scoop out avocado from the center until it can fit an egg.
• Spray baking pan with oil. Stand avocado on baking pan. Keep as even as possible.
• Crack egg into bowl and pour into avocado.
• Top with sea salt.

Tip 1: Use small eggs and large avocados. I tried to find big enough avocados to fit a whole extra large egg in them but it just didn't quite work out.

Tip 2: Use a cupcake baking pan to cup the avocados. I've seen others use foil to create avocado stands which works too but I prefer using the baking pan since I'm baking other eggs without avocados too.

Tip 3: For a smooth cleanup, spray down the baking pan really well with canola or olive oil. If you don't oil it up well, expect spending the rest of your day soaking and scrubbing tough baked-on egg whites.

Cooking

Preheat oven to 400. Bake for 15 minutes for soft baked eggs. The longer you bake, the more well-cooked the yokes. Another simple breakfast.

TWO: Cheesy Spinach Tomato Baked Eggs

In the same tray, I added two extra eggs for cheesy spinach tomato baked eggs. See recipe here minus the spam.

THREE: Accidental Egg White Tacos (with scooped-out avocado and large eggs)

I love baking tomatoes in general and these grape tomato halves are perfect for baking. I took a baking cup, popped in the scooped out avocado, sprinkled a bit of sea salt, and put the tomatoes on top for an avocado grape tomato pie. Because the whole egg didn't quite fit in the avocados, some of the whites ended in the baking pan and became an accidental egg white taco shell when I scooped out the avocado halves. To make it a mini egg taco I took a spoon of the avocado grape tomato pie into the baked egg white and turned it into a mini egg taco.

Yay to happy accidents!

Cook More: Baked Eggs with Spam, Spinach, and Grape Tomatoes

Happy May! Ack! It’s May already! I've taken a short break from updating the blog because I had some work-related travel at the end of April. That also led me to get pretty ill and we're at the tail end of the whole family getting through it! I was highly contagious! After much rest and recovery, today, I’m back to share a baked eggs recipe adapted from the one pinned from Fit Foodie Finds. I added Spam, spinach, and grape tomatoes.

Delicious and easy to make Baked Eggs with spam, grape tomato, and spinach.

I made this yesterday for Mother's Day. A day off for me is to be able to cook for my family... or at least attempt to. :) I made this brunch for my mom and family. It wasn't anything fancy but it just looked so beautiful with the different colors coming together in a muffin tin.

Spam may not be the healthiest with the sodium levels, but I've always been a fan. I became an even bigger fan when I went to Hawaii and ate Spam musubi for the first time. So once in a while, we'll have a meal with some Spam -- and it is a delicious one. To help with the saltiness, I don't add any additional salt to whatever I'm cooking and I add fruits to compliment the meal.

This recipe makes 6 baked egg muffins.

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 3-4 ounces of diced Spam
• 3 large grape tomatoes sliced in halves
• 1 1/2 handfuls of roughly chopped spinach
• unsalted butter
• pepper
• apple slices (garnish and compliment Spam)

Preparation

• Generously rub muffin tin with unsalted butter.
• Sprinkle a spoon full of diced Spam into each cup.
• Layer chopped spinach leaves over spam.
• Break eggs into each cup, carefully, keeping yolk intact.
• Add one half of each grape tomato to each cup.
• Add a chopped spinach leaf to the top.
• Sprinkle some more Spam around the yolk.
• Add fresh pepper and a very small smidgen of butter to the top of the Spam.

Cooking

Preheat oven at 350. Bake for 15-17 minutes depending on cooked you prefer the yolk. Serve with slices of apples and toast for a delicious and easy breakfast. So simple, so beautiful, and so delicious.

Get cracking those eggs!

Cook More: Toddler Meatloaf with Rolled Oats

I had always wanted to try making meatloaf but as an amateur cook, it seemed rather daunting with so many ingredients and the pressure of cooking it thoroughly but still keeping the inside moist and delicious.

Freezable Meal: Toddler Moist Meatloaf Meatball with Rolled Oats Recipe

I adapted and tested out this pinned recipe for meatloaf made for the toddler in mind. Thank you, Modern Mom! I especially love the oats option in place of bread crumbs. Here's my adaptation.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup rolled oats (instead of any dry oatmeal)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup green peas and 1/2 diced tomatoes (optional veggies of choice)
• Smashed diced tomato puree (instead of ketchup)
• Cooking spray

Preparation

1. Mix ground beef with rolled oats and egg with the best utensils: hands.
2. Add veggies and shape into meatballs.
3. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray and place each meatball in each.
4. Top off with smashed tomato puree for a baked on ketchup.

Cooking

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place tin in oven and bake for 50 minutes.

Freezable Meal: Toddler Moist Meatloaf Meatball with Rolled Oats Recipe

Break meatball in half and serve to toddler along with some chopped lightly blanched spinach for a deliciously moist and healthy meal. I freeze the rest of the batch and steam heat them for lunch or dinner for the babe.

The inside stays moist from the diced tomatoes and peas. I forgot some onions, so I'll definitely be trying this again with onions and carrots.

Happy baby belly!

Cook More: Spinach Mushroom Onion Cheddar Muffin Quiche

Continuing my quest to cook more, I tried out another pinned recipe this weekend. Great for breakfast on the go, this Food.com recipe is the perfect bite-size savory morning treat.

Spinach Mushroom Onion Cheddar Muffin Quiche from Food.com recipe in real life.

Ingredients

• 9 eggs
• 1 (10 ounce) bag Baby Spinach
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 10 button thinly sliced mushrooms (added this ingredient)
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper

Preparation

• Lightly grease muffin tin and set aside.
• Saute the chopped onions in a pan with a drizzle of oil. Before onions are cooked through and translucent, add mushrooms. Lastly add spinach until it is just slightly wilted.
• Crack eggs in a bowl and beat as if making scrambled eggs. Add salt and pepper to taste.
• Into the greased muffin cups.
• Add a spoon of the onions, mushrooms, and wilted spinach in each cup.
• Top with 1 tablespoon each of shredded cheddar cheese.
• Then ladle enough egg mixture into each muffin cup to fill the tin about 2/3 full.

Cooking

Preheat oven to 375. Bake little quiches for 10-20 minutes. Depending on the size of your muffin tin cups it may be more or less. My mini ones cooked throughly around 15 minutes.

Let your quiche-muffins cool for 10 minutes in the pan. They come out fairly easily, and just pickup with a wooden spoon and put in a plate to finish cooling and serve.

This was my first time making a quiche and what I learned is that you can pretty much saute and add anything to it in place of the veggies above. By the way, did you notice my laziness in getting already chopped red onions instead of having to chop them myself? It saves time and it's easier. It's still fresh and organic, so why not? I'm so glad I found this recipe.

Eggs are a wonderful food!

Cook More: Pear Banana Blueberry Muffins

Staying committed to cooking more means more simple and quick recipes that work for adults and babies. In my search for a baby-friendly breakfast muffin, I came across this awesome sugar-free apple banana blueberry muffin recipe from Bluebird Kisses.

Pear Banana Blueberry Muffin (No sugar added) Recipe adapted from BlueBird Kisses. Ingredient not shown above is the pear.

I adapted the recipe to suit my needs:

Ingredients

• 2 bananas
• 1 cup of grated pear (instead of apple)
• 1/2 cup of apple juice (instead of 1/4 cup)
• 3/4 cup of fresh or frozen wild blueberries (instead of 1/2 cup)
• 2 cups of flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of melted butter
• (no cinnamon)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder

Preparation

1. Melt butter. Peel bananas. Grate 1 whole pear (maybe 2 depending on size of pears).
2. Mash the ripe bananas, add the melted butter, egg, apple juice and grated pear and whisk everything together.
3. In a separate bowl mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and sift together.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk some more. Add the blueberries.
5. Scoop mixture into the muffin tray.

Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees (instead of 370 as I found that this worked better on my oven) and grease a muffin tray (I used butter and mini cupcake tray). Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Break a muffin in half. Serve with a side of yogurt and steamed pear for a yummy and moist breakfast. My 15-month old loves it.

Yummy!

Cook More: Baked Chicken in Shiitake Mushroom Broth

Newbie cooking requires simple recipes with basic ingredients. Baked chicken thighs is a newbie staple because prepping is rather easy and the oven really does all the cooking. I adapted a Martha Stewart baked chicken thigh recipe with a Chinese twist. This recipe feeds four to eight with one to two pieces of chicken per person and largely depending on whether you have appetizers and hearty carbs to complete the meal.

Baked Chicken Recipe with Shiitake Mushrooms, Onions, and Carrots 

Ingredients

• 8 chicken thighs
• 3 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms
• 1/2 cup chopped carrots
• 1 cup chopped white onions
• Garlic powder, garlic flakes, ginger powder, black pepper, cayenne, soy sauce

Preparation (10-15 minutes)

1. Slice shiitake mushrooms. Dice carrots and onions. Place at bottom of baking tray.
2. Trim chicken of fat. Lift skin from thighs enough to season with soy sauce and garlic powder. Rub the rest of the chicken with garlic powder, garlic flakes, black pepper, cayenne, and soy sauce. Place on top of mushrooms.
3. Store in fridge until ready to bake.

Cooking (45-60 minutes)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put tray in oven and bake for 45-60 minutes or until chicken is thoroughly cooked (meat thermometer reading of 165 degrees closest to the bone).

Spoon shiitake, onion, carrot, and broth over chicken. Serve with couscous over a bed of wilted spinach or make it a chicken on the bone salad minus the couscous. So delicious and so simple!

What's your favorite simple recipe? I am always looking for new simple recipes to test.

Easy Appetizers & Delicious Desserts

I find entertaining difficult, especially with a baby. However, if you preplan a simple menu, most of the work can be done ahead of time with your regular weekly local market visit.

A cheese and cured meats platter with a small dish of olives is an easy appetizer to create. Everyone loves attention to detail. Add flags made with labels and toothpicks for that extra fun touch.

When in season, grab a cantaloupe, cut in small pieces, top with prosciutto for another delicious and easy-to-assemble platter.

Once you get to the dessert portion of the meal, fix cups of teas, coffees, or just pour glasses of milk to accompany a delicious brookie (brownie cookie) or two.

My introduction to baking all started with a recipe from the Clinton Street Baking Co. With each batch I would adapt it to a different craving. "The Science Behind Baking Your Ideal Chocolate Chip Cookie" by Anne Miller from the NPR Blog was a real game changer! For a consistent size and round shape, use a small ice cream scooper.

There are several different flavors here with each batch making 12-18 depending on how big you scoop each. The recipe even suggests creating your variety with white chocolate chunks, walnuts, or peanut butter chunks in place of the semisweet chocolate chunks. These can be made a day in advance to take the pressure off of having to prepare a dessert the same day.

To tie the meal together visually, add a few more flags to the brookies labeling the different variations. So what do you think?

*The Clinton Street Baking Co.'s recipe was something I had clipped back in November 2010 from Daily Candy. Oh how I miss Daily Candy!