Cheesy Apple Scrambled Eggs

This morning I was attempting to make eggs in a basket with a leftover Kaiser roll.  Unfortunately, the circles fell apart long before eggs got into them.  Fortunately, this problem led to some yummy inspiration.  Below is the recipe.  This is mostly an eyeball recipe since I was just using what I had lying around.

You'll need the following:

• 1 Kaiser roll cut in half and then into cubes
• 1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil
• about 1/2 cup of chopped apples (I used granny and gala)
• 4 eggs
• pinch of sea salt
• about 2 tablespoons of milk
• about a 1/3 of a bag of shredded cheese.

Start by melting half of the coconut oil on a skillet or in a pan.  Put the roll chunks on to start browning them.  Once they start to get crispy, add the apples and the rest of the coconut oil.

Bread and apples browning.

As the bread and apples continue to brown, crack the eggs into a large bowl.  Add pinch of salt and milk.

Eggs, milk, and salt.

Whisk eggs, salt, and milk until well mixed.

Whisked eggs.

Now add cheese.

Adding cheese to eggs.

Mix cheese until well blended.

Egg and cheese mixture.

Pour mixture over apples and bread.  Stir around to make sure all bread is well coated.

Adding eggs to skillet with apples and bread.

Continue to scramble until eggs are well cooked.

Fully cooked eggs, cheese, apples, and bread.

Serve warm and enjoy!  It was a hit with my husband, son, and mother-in-law.

Katie's Chicken Stroganoff (from scratch)

The original inspiration for this dish comes from my mom. I have no idea where she got it from, but it was always one of my favorites. Over the years, I've experimented with making it from scratch without the canned cream of whatever soups as I've worked to get back to basics and green up my life. Recently I made a Danish meatball dish (found here) that helped me come up with a better way to make the base sauce. So here is my recipe with yummy pictures below:

Cream Sauce Base Ingredients:
1/2 lb of butter
1/4 arrowroot powder or flour
3/4 cup chicken broth
11/4 cups milk
1tsp paprika (feel free to add more)
Salt to taste

Stroganoff Ingredients:
1/2 - 1 medium to large onion (I usually just use what I have)
6-8 large white mushrooms
2 tbsp butter
Cream base from above
8 oz or so chicken (I used canned since I don't have a lot of time with an 18 month old)
16 oz sour cream
1 bag of egg noodles
Paprika

First, start boiling your water for the noodles. You will cook and drain according to packaging.

Combine milk and broth in a liquid measuring cup. Start melting the butter for cream base in small sauce pan over medium-low heat. Once butter is melted for sauce, whisk in arrowroot powder till smooth. Begin slowly adding milk and broth mixture to the small sauce pan and keep whisking until thickened (this takes a long time, but I promise it will thicken). Once thickened stir in salt to taste and paprika, then set aside.

Roughly cut the onions and slice the mushrooms into slightly thick but not too thick slices. Melt the butter in a large skillet. Throw onions into large skillet and begin sautéing, I like to add more paprika to the veggies while they sauté. Once the onions are mostly clear, add in mushroom slices and sauté until mushrooms are well cooked. Add the chicken and the cream sauce. Stir together and heat for a few minutes. Then add your sour cream, stir until blended, and heat for a few more minutes.  At this point I throw the sauce and noodle into the big stock pot I cooked the noodles in and stir everything until combined. Dish out and garnish with paprika and enjoy!

Thickened cream sauce base before adding paprika

Mushrooms and onions sautéing

Mushrooms and onions cooked down and ready for the next step

Adding the cream sauce to mushrooms and onions

All mixed together

Plated and garnished on little dude-y's plate

I hope you all enjoy this recipe.  It's not low fat, low cal, or anything like that but it i mostly made from scratch and uses REAL food.  My little one seems to like it as much as his momma does. ;-)

Birthdays, Bike Ride, and More!

It was a busy, busy weekend for us! My husband's birthday was on Friday and we went out to celebrate Friday night and Saturday night. Friday was just the two of us (belated anniversary celebration as well) and Saturday was with some friends.

Happy Birthday Dear!

Saturday was a crazy, busy day all around. We got up early and rode our bikes on a metric half century (50 K or 32 miles) through some of the more scenic parts of our county. It was beautiful. It was the most miles I've ridden since I had dude-y and the first time my husband and I actually rode an organized ride together. I rode a century (100 miles) back in 2010 without him since he broke his toe walking down the stairs! Then he attempted the same century this past fall, but due to frigid temperatures and nasty rain, was only able to complete 82 miles. I know some of you reading this must think we're crazy and are thinking ONLY 82 miles!!! Don't worry, I think marathon runners are crazy! The first 13 miles of our ride were grueling! We were stiff, hungry, thirsty, and cold.  But after a lengthy rest and plenty of food and water, we finished the rest rather easily. After finishing up, we grabbed some food and then headed to a first birthday party for one of my friend's kids!  A quick showing at the party and then we finally went home to shower and get ready to go out again for birthday celebrations. Whew! I'm exhausted recounting this!  It was a good relaxing time though.  We went to a German restaurant and ate outside in the beer garden.  Great food, a little beer, music, and just a wonderful relaxing atmosphere with  friends was perfect.

We all slept most of Sunday! Even dude-y.  We planned on not doing much of anything till my brother called and invited us to go to a movie.  So my gracious and wonderful mother (who watches him all week) agreed to watch dude-y yet again for us and we enjoyed an evening out.  It was the first movie I'd seen in a theater since July 2011.  Yup, right before dude-y came.  I enjoyed going out, but now I'm still drained from the weekend and need some rest.  Alas, it's near impossible to rest when you have a super active 10 month old!  Speaking of, he's 10 months old today!  I still can't believe it's almost been a year! Time to get moving on planning his birthday party.