frittata Archives - Mamma's Cooking

Gluten-Free Breakfast Ideas

You always hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It also happens to be my favorite, but there never seems to be enough time! That is why I am a firm believer that breakfast is great anytime of day. When I have time, whether its morning afternoon or evening, I’ll make breakfast! Sometimes I’ll eat dinner for breakfast or breakfast for lunch, there are no rules 😉

My family’s breakfast preferences are on the sweet side, so I impose my savory tendencies on them as much as they allow. I’m not really a sweet person. I don’t really like waffles, unless there is fried chicken involved or pancakes unless they are wrapped around sausage. Breakfast Pizza and Gluten-Free Buttermilk Biscuits are two favorites in our house. A frittata is an easy way to get breakfast on the table fast and so versatile.

Frittata

Ingredients

8 eggs

½ cup of milk

½ teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 ½ cups of your choice of vegetable (peppers or asparagus or potatoes or mixture)

¼ cup of your choice of sausage or bacon (optional)

½ cup of your choice of cheese (shredded cheddar or feta)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together eggs, milk, salt and pepper. If vegetables and meat are not cooked, saute in oven proof skillet. Then pour egg mixture into pan and place in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes, until center is set and it no longer jiggles. If vegetables and meat are already cooked, just mix in with egg mixture before pouring into the pan.

I do sometimes give in to their many, many requests for sweet breakfasts. For pancakes, we usually use the Gluten-free Bisquick mix, but occasionally will make them from scratch using Cup4Cup GF flour or a variation like these Gingerbread Pancakes. These blueberry muffins make for a great breakfast on the go.

During the week however, we keep it simple and quick. My husband and kids mainly have cereal, yogurt or fruit and toast with Nutella. Even my kids who do not have celiac disease love Goodbye Gluten‘s gluten-free bread, which I can usually get at Wegman’s. When toasted, I even like it. I usually choose to top my toast with avocado or cream cheese and tomato or have a sunny side up egg. What are your favorite gluten-free breakfasts? I would especially love to hear your favorite smoothie recipes!

Easy biscuit recipe, frittatas and braised pork

I am not much of a baker (too exact for me) but this is the easiest biscuit recipe! I needed some bread and didn’t have any in the house or any butter, so I just googled “easy biscuit recipe” and this was one of the results. Takes 20-25 minutes, including baking.

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar (2nd time I made this I used 1 and 1/2 Tbsp sugar and used onion powder and garlic powder to make the biscuits a little more savory)
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup of oil
2/3 cups of milk

Directions:

Mix dry ingredients.

Put oil in measuring cup and add milk. Do not stir.

Add to dry ingredients.

Mix lightly to moisten ingredients and knead one or two times to form ball.

Roll out between two sheets of plastic wrap to about 1/2″ thick. [I didn’t even roll them out, just kneaded the dough and flattened it with my hands to the right thickness]

Cut into 2″ biscuits.

Bake on an ungreased pan at 475F for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

So easy! Karina loved it with some peanut butter and jelly on it. I ate it with some leftover gravy for breakfast and tonight I made a batch to have with pasta. I think next, I may try to sweeten them up with a little more sugar + add some blueberries, almost like scones.

I have been making a lot of wheat pasta bakes and frittatas, things that are easy for the boys (who will be a year old in a couple of weeks!) to eat with their hands. Frittatas are great and so easy. You can use up any leftover meat, potatoes, veggies you have and throw it in with some eggs that you have beaten with a little milk and a handful of shredded cheese and bake it until the center is firm.

Earlier this week I made some braised pork ribs with peas and harvest blend (from Trader Joe’s).

Rub pork with coriander, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

Brown pork in pan. Then pour about 2-3 cups of braising liquid. I used 2 cups of beef stock, 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and 2 bay leaves. Cover and put in 200 degree oven for 2-3 hours (for 2lbs bone in – use meat thermometer to make sure temperature is safe). Let rest and then serve.

This is the boys (11 months old) meal, shredded up the pork into bite size pieces.

This is Karina’s (3.5 years old) plate…looking like an adult plate now 🙂

This is the adult plate, with gravy! Took the braising liquid and reduced it, added a little more of each of the spices in the pork rub + a touch of apple cider vinegar, then thickened it with a little corn starch and finished with a pat of butter. Sooo good! This is what I put over the biscuits (above) the next morning 🙂

Brunch and other ramblings of the week…

As many of us parents know, brunch is often the best time to entertain. The kids are usually ready for snack and are in a good mood (most of the time), so parents can enjoy their coffee (or even a mimosa or bloody mary).

I’ve been practicing a frittata recipe that is super easy and tasty. Kids seem to like it too. Its a potato and cheese frittata I found on allrecipes.com. I like to use those websites to give me an idea on cooking time and amounts, but I have a hard time sticking to the recipe (usually because I don’t have all the ingredients in the house).

For four adults and two toddlers I use: 6 eggs, butter, salt, pepper, diced onions, garlic, fresh thyme (or any other fresh or dried herbs you have), shredded cheese (I used cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan once and substituted smoked gouda for cheddar another time), cream cheese or cottage cheese and potatoes (I used leftover mashed potatoes once and roasted potatoes another time). Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First, melt about 1Tbs butter in a nonstick skillet that can go in the oven and add potatoes. After potatoes are heated through add onions + garlic. (I found a little tip on one of the comments on allrecipes.com to separate the egg whites and yolks for a fluffier frittata.) Beat the egg whites until soft peak stage. Beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add salt, pepper, thyme, a Tbs or two of cream cheese or cottage cheese and some shredded cheese to the yolks. Then slowly add the yolk mixture to the egg whites. Sprinkle top of potatoes with shredded cheese then pour eggs over top and put in the oven for about 10 minutes (until top is light golden brown). I also sprinkled some more shredded cheese on the top. You can never have enough cheese 🙂

I’ve served this with turkey sausage or boerewors (a very tasty South African sausage that you can find at Uli’s in Pike Place Market) and some fruit. Today I also made my mom’s South African pancakes. Basically they are like crepes and then rolled with a cinnamon sugar.

We just got back from a trip to the East Coast. Travelling with toddler is not always easy, especially when there is a time change involved. Karina didn’t sleep much, but was always ready to eat. We even stopped at a Wendy’s one day and she wanted nothing to do with the jr. cheeseburgeer we got her. All she wanted was her turkey wrap (whole wheat tortilla with turkey cold cuts and havarti cheese. I was so proud! I’m sure this won’t last forever 🙂 She loved her Far Far’s grilled cheese sandwiches! Other than that, she basically only wanted to eat Craisins and goldfish.