Empty the Fridge Frittata

It is so thrilling to be a part of the Real Food Revolution! My mind has been whirling with all the possible recipes and ideas to share here. Truly, the most difficult part is knowing where to begin, especially since I don't want to disappoint anyone's high hopes after Carrien's glowing introduction. *gulp*

So let's just start with a recipe that I have been making every week, shall we? It has the ease of a no-crust frittata, the moistness of quiche, all with the simplicity of an oven omelet.

I love this recipe for many reasons. It's easy, gluten free, very flexible, and can be made ahead. I often have moms and children over for brunch and its a cinch to whip up the night before, bake partway and then refrigerate till morning. Soon before our friends arrive, I bake it the rest of the way. There's no need to limit it to breakfast though, as it also makes a tasty dinner when paired with a soup or salad.

This is one of those recipes that is great for using up the little odds and ends that seem to gather in my fridge, like bits of meat, veggies, herbs and cheese.

Feel free to use less or more of any ingredient. Believe me, I really just throw this all together and it has always turned out delicious.

Empty the Fridge Frittata

Main ingredients

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 8 to 12 eggs
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup sour cream, yogurt, or milk
• salt and pepper

Possible Additions

• Cooked meat (optional) - bacon, ham, chicken, hamburger, sausage.. I've even used leftover roast beef
• Fresh veggies - red or green pepper, spinach, zucchini, tomato, onion (raw or sauteed)..
• Fresh herbs - basil, parsley
• Cheese - sharp or mild cheddar, mont jack, feta...

Grease a pie dish generously with butter.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs and dairy. Season and stir in desired additions.
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on how many eggs you used, or till set.
Serve warm. This recipe is even delicious cold.

Introducing...

I a super excited to announce that the real food revolution has a new writer. I'll still be here, writing as infrequently as ever. [cough] In addition Tamra will be adding her thoughts and considerable expertise on healthy eating, and preparing real food on a budget. I've already tried some of her recipes and can tell you they are worth checking out.

If we're lucky perhaps she'll also tell us how she taught her kids to cook so that they are now a big help to her in the kitchen.

So look forward to her contributions in the coming weeks. I'm expecting great things.

Tamra also blogs at tamragirl.com, Klaty.com, is landscaping and planting french style vegetable gardens in her story book looking house, tends to her goat farm, and is mother to 6 children.

Cookware Giveaway

I was contacted by the PR people about this cookware giveaway. I thought I would let you all know in case you wanted to try and win some fancy new cookware. Just click the image to link over to the contest. Good Luck.

Baked Beans

I make these baked beans that I think are pretty good. I brought them to a wedding reception a while ago, BBQ themed, and a lot of other people seem too as well. They aren't as sweet as most of the store bought varieties. I'm always trying to duplicate the beans they make at this little BBQ and smokehouse place in Vancouver called Memphis Blues Barbecue House. The best. beans. ever! Oh, and the BBQ is good too.

Whenever someone asks me for the recipe I respond, "Oh, I just use the basic baked beans recipe from the More-With-Less Cookbook. And then I put in less molasses, use tomato sauce instead of ketchup, way more mustard and I add BBQ sauce and extra onions. And I use the crock pot." Then they look at me blankly and repeat their question, "Could I have the recipe?"

Apparently I didn't really give it to them after all. Well here it is. I shall try to record all of the changes that make it my recipe. You're welcome Barb.

Baked Beans

2 lb Navy Beans

4 qts water

Put in the crock pot and turn on low over night. *

In the morning drain, saving liquid.

Add 1/2 cup molasses

1 15/16 oz can of tomato sauce

1/2 cup prepared mustard

1 cup BBQ Sauce (without High fructose corn syrup of course)

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

5-6 dashes hot chili sauce

1 tbsp salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 large onion, chopped fine

1 tbsp minced garlic

2 bay leaves

Enough bean liquid to cover.

Stir together. Put lid back on crock pot and let cook on low for at least 4 hours.

Serve when ready.

Beans are very forgiving. If you taste it and think it ought to be sweeter, add more molasses. If you want it more tart, add more vinegar. Etc. You can adjust at the end if you need to. So tweak it until it's the way you like it. And then everyone will be asking you for your recipe.

* You can actually skip this step and cook it all together from the start in the crock pot, it just takes longer to finish then when starting with cooked beans. And you may want to soak them first.

**************
My friend Atara uses the basic recipe, she bakes it in the oven as intended. She puts a small ham in the middle and puts sauerkraut all over the top as it bakes. It tastes amazing. The ham is so tender when it's done. And the sauerkraut really compliments the flavor. I keep meaning to try this with my recipe to see how it turns out. At least the part with the ham.


photo by rick

Best Rice Side Dish Ever!!!

I invented this to go with a London Broil. I didn't have potatoes but I wanted something rich and flavorful to accompany the beef flavors. Here it is.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups jasmine rice

2 scant cups water

1/4 cup butter

1 medium onion

3 cloves garlic, crushed

salt

pepper

Method
Soak rice for half an hour or so in cold water. (You don't have to do this but it really improves the texture if you do.) Rinse several times in cold water until the rinse water runs clear.

Combine rice and water in a saucepan, (or rice cooker). Over high heat bring to a boil. Immediately turn down to low and cover. Let steam until all water is absorbed and rice is translucent.

Dice onion fine. In a heavy bottom frying pan or sauce pan, melt butter and add the onions. Cook over medium high heat, stirring often, until the onions start to caramelize. You can tell that they are doing this when they start to turn a golden brown color and smell amazing. Throw in the garlic. Saute a minute longer. Add the cooked rice, stir until combined. Add salt and pepper to taste. And serve.

This also tastes good the next day with leftover meat cut in pieces and added in when it's reheated.

Yam and Cranberry Spice Muffins

One of the reasons my posting has been so infrequent of late is that I've been mulling over the usefulness of what I write. See, I don't usually work from a recipe. I just throw stuff in a pot until it tastes right, and that's not the easiest thing to reproduce for other readers.

But, it's the way I cook. So if you're here I'm just assuming that's what you like to read.

Take today for example. I had a roasted and peeled yam in the fridge. I had half a bag of fresh cranberries left over. I decided to make muffins.

Now, muffins are not rocket science. They are hard to render completely inedible, regardless of what you add, as long as you stick to some basic rules.

You need flour, baking powder, eggs, oil, and liquid, the rest is just details. I used to start with a recipe, and then alter it to work with what I have on hand. That helped me to get an idea of proportions. Now, I usually wing it with what I know.

Today, I started with 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour, in a mixing bowl.

I washed the cranberries and put them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover them. I added a glop of sugar probably 2 TBSP and a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg. I let that boil just long enough for the berries to burst and then turned it off and set it aside.

I wanted a pretty dense grainy sort of breakfast muffin. So while the cranberries were boiling I added one cup of rolled oats and two handfuls of millet. (yes, I measure by the handful, it's very scientific.) Then I added 2 tsp of baking soda and 1/4 tsp of salt. (given how the muffins turned out I think next time I would add 1 tsp of baking soda, instead of the second tsp of baking powder. They were a bit more dense than I would like and the soda would hopefully fix that. Let me know :) Then I added a lot of ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I several shakes, lets guess 1 tsp each. Or more if you want.

Then I mashed up the yam and added it to the flour mixture along with the cranberry sauce. Then I added two eggs. And then I added 1/4 cup molasses for sweetening, and 1 tbsp of oil.

It was still a bit too dry so I added 1/2 cup of yogurt as well, 1/4 cup at a time until it was right.

I baked them at 325 for about half an hour. And they were all gone less than a hour later.

This recipe made 1 dozen large muffins.

And that my friends is how to bake on the fly. If you've made muffins once or twice you know what the batter should look like. Just make sure you have:

• a rising agent-Baking powder or soda, enough for the amount you have. My rule of thumb is one tsp per cup of flour or dried stuff, minimum.
• A binding agent-the gluten in flour is binding to an extent, but with so much other stuff in it as well you need another binding agent, in this case, the eggs.
• Oil-so the muffins aren't too dry. Again, because of the mashed yam in this I didn't need as much oil because the yam was moist enough.
• Seasoning of some sort-salt, spices, vanilla extract, it depends on what else is in your muffin.
• Sweetener-you can use sugar, honey, maple syrup, molasses, agave nectar, apple sauce, etc. You will adjust the amount of dry or wet ingredients depending on whether your sweetener is dry or wet. If it's dry, like sugar, you will need more liquid. If it's wet, you will need less of another type of liquid.
  
• Some sort of liquid to get things to the right consistency. You could use water, if you want, but that's just boring. I like to use milk, blended fruit, yogurt, buttermilk (Really fluffy muffins with buttermilk) etc. Or you can add powdered milk to the dry ingredient and just add water for a cheaper alternative to milk.

And there you have all you need to try and use what you have in your kitchen already to make some muffins, transforming leftovers into something else entirely.

Good luck.

Get a big knife

photo from viZZZual.com


Here's a really simple frugal food tip.

If you cut everything smaller, it goes farther.

If you cut smaller pieces of meat before you cook it it will stretch farther than large pieces without anyone really feeling deprived.

I cut dried fruit smaller when I make muesli. The flavor is more evenly distributed that way and it takes less fruit for the same result.

There's even science behind this. Remember high school chem when they told you that if you increase the surface area you increase the intensity of the chemical reaction? Same applies in the kitchen. Needless to say, I use my big chef's knife and cutting board every day.

The smaller you chop your onions the more flavor you get out of them in a dish, same with garlic.

Raisins can be chopped up smaller before putting them in baking. You can turn 1/2 cup of raisins into close to one whole cup just by cutting them into smaller pieces.

So go forth and chop smaller.

And share your frugal tips in the comments.