slow roasted onion frittata with swiss chard, sun dried tomatoes & goat cheese

Fritattas are a great way to use up bits and pieces of left overs that are hanging out in the fridge. Take this frittata, a few slow roasted (or caramelized onions) were left from a salad enjoyed earlier in the week, a half bunch of swiss chard was limp and on its way out, and we were one egg yolk short of an egg.

So this delicious frittata made a quick week night dinner.



This dish makes enough for two people as a meal, or four if paired with a salad. I begged Nic to only eat one slice so we could have it the following morning for breakfast. It was that good.

slow roasted onion frittata with swiss chard, sun dried tomatoes & goat cheese

A quick week night dinner, or an impressive Sunday brunch - this frittata will please anyone at your table.

Ingredients::

1/2 tablespoon olive oil*

1/2 tablespoon Earth Balance

3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

6 chard leaves, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons vegetable broth

1.5 slow roasted onions or caramelized onions**

4 sun dried tomatoes packed in oil, roughly chopped

2 ounces goat cheese, about 1.5 inch round

4 eggs

1 egg white

3 tablespoons coconut milk

Salt and pepper to taste

To prepare::

In a cast iron skillet, heat oil and Earth Balance (or butter). Add garlic and saute 30 seconds. Add chopped chard and saute until bright green and wilted, about 2 minutes. Add vegetable broth and cook chard until evaporated. Season with salt and pepper.

Remove skillet from heat and add onions in a layer on top of the chard, then sprinkle on the tomatoes and goat cheese. 

In a separate bowl, quickly whisk eggs, egg white and coconut milk. Pour the eggs evenly over the vegetables and bake in a 350* oven for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly browned and eggs cooked through.

*Use the oil from the jar of sun dried tomatoes if possible

**Slow roasted onions are prepared by slice onion into thin rings, coating with olive oil, salt and pepper and baking at 300* for 90 minutes - 2 hours, or until nicely browned.

pancakes, eggs and beer for breakfast...?

Inspired by the back of a maple syrup jar from Ommegang Brewery, these pancakes made the perfect brunch for an otherwise crappy, rainy, Sunday morning.

The bottle of syrup in the fridge was (from Ommegang Brewery in Cooperstown, NY) suggested enjoying the syrup with some apple pancakes made with their Hennepin ale, which being without, I swapped out with Peace Tree's Blonde Fatale Belgian style ale. 

 

The pancakes and eggs were both fried in small amounts of coconut oil, making ever so slightly crisped edges on both, contrasting nicely with the soft custardy middles of each. Hints of fruit and just a bit of spiciness from the Belgian yeast pair nicely with the cakes & egg, without being too hoppy.

Stopping here would have sufficed. A savory breakfast and a cuppa coffee. Done.

But the lure of the sweet maple syrup couldn't be denied and soon these cakes were swimming in some of New York's finest.

This batch makes about 16 3-inch pancakes - a perfect breakfast for you and your favorite Sunday morning brunch guest.

Blonde Fatale Pancakes 

Slightly adapted, and reduced, from Ommegang's Apple Pancakes with Hennepin

Ingredients::

3/4 cup all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 egg yolk

3/4 - 1 cup Peace Tree Blonde Fatale or Ommegang Hennepin Ale

1/2 tablespoon melted coconut oil, plus more for cooking

1 egg white, beaten to soft peaks

2 fried eggs

Maple syrup

To prepare::
Mix flour, salt and sugar into a small bowl. Make a well in the center and add the egg yolk and 1/2 cup beer. Mix yolk and beer, slowing incorporating the flour. Add coconut oil and 1/4 - 1/2 cup beer until smooth. Use less beer for a thicker pancake and more for thin, custardy cakes. Gently fold in egg white. Let set for 15-30 minutes.
Place a cookie sheet in the oven and heat to 200 degree.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Add a small amount of coconut oil to prevent pancakes from sticking. Pour 1/8 cup of the batter into the skillet and cook until small bubble form on the surface, flip and cook 30 seconds to 1 minute more, or until both sides are lightly browned. Remove to cookie sheet in oven and continue baking until batter is gone.
Top a short stack with a lightly fried egg and drizzle with maple syrup.

apple cider donuts made with Bee Free Honee

It is that time of the year for everything pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin, and apple cider.

And Bee Free Honee, made from apples.

A month or so ago, I read a blog review singing the praises of a new product, Bee Free Honee. Intrigued by this vegan substitute for honey, I headed over to the website and was elated to find out that this was a Minnesota product!

I immediately emailed Katie to see if I could get my hands on a sample to try out and review on the blog. Days later, I had some in my hands and was dying to give it a try.

And then life got busy, and my bottle got pushed to the back of my pantry.

But once I got a free weekend, and the weather was just dreary enough where you had to bake, I decided to make some apple cider donuts and give this honee a try.



Apple Cider Donuts made with Bee Free Honee
A slightly sweet yeast donut with an apple cider reduction and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Perfect with a cup of hot apple cider on a crisp fall day.

Apple Cider Reduction

• 2.5 cups good apple cider
• juice of one large orange
• 6 whole cloves
• 6 whole allspice

Combine everything in a small sauce pan and simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup. Remove from heat, scoop out cloves and allspice, and set aside.

Apple Cider Donuts

• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/4 cup apple cider (not reduction)
• 2.5 tablespoons coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons Bee Free Honee
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground flax + 2.5 tablespoons water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
• 5.75 ounces whole wheat pastry flour
• 5.75 ounces bread flour

In a small pan, heat milk, cider, oil, Bee Free Honee, until oil melts. Set aside until lukewarm.

Make flax egg by combining ground flax and 2.5 tablespoons warm water. Set aside.

Add yeast to the milk mixture and let stand 5 minutes, or until frothy. Stir in flax egg.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add flour and salt. Using a dough hook, stir in milk mixture. Mix on low for 5-8 minutes until dough forms a smooth and elastic ball.

Let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Punch down and remove dough to a floured surface. Roll out until about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into whatever shape you want (I was crazy and opted for square donuts). Cover and let rise until double in size, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350* for 8-12 minutes, or until a light golden brown. 

Remove from oven and immediately brush with the apple cider reduction and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.

Enjoy.

(And then send your husband to all of your friends' house with samples so you don't eat them all.)

I loved the Bee Free Honee in this, and next time would skip the apple cider reduction and just brush the top of the warm donuts with the honee instead. I am not going to give up buying my local honey, but will continue to have a bottle of this in my pantry just to change things up a bit! Made with apples, just enough sugar, and lemon juice, this is a produce I would recommend to anyone.

Click here to see where you can find Bee Free Honee or find it on Amazon.

oatmeal apple cider pancakes {vegan}

There is nothing better than digging into a stack of hearty pancakes on a cold, dreary, {nearly} fall morning. And after hitting snooze a few dozen times (thus postponing my early morning run), that is exactly what I did.

After cleaning up some of the mess that was left behind after 9 solid hours in the kitchen yesterday.

These pancakes were very good. Like, hey - if you are planning on running 16 miles at some point today, go ahead and eat the.entire.batch.

Self control I have not.

These were especially tasty topped with a smear of freshly homemade pumpkin butter and a drizzle of syrup.



Oatmeal Apple Cider Pancakes
adapted from Mark Bittman's "Oatmeal Griddle Cakes", Food Matters, pg. 284



If you are looking for a light and fluffy pancake, these are not for you. If you are looking more for a stick-to-your-ribs type of short stack to warm up with on a chilly fall morning, these are for you. Serve with a mug of steamy hot apple cider and this is basically Fall on a plate!

In the mix:

• 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 t baking powder
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• pinch salt
• 1 flax egg (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons warm water)
• 1/2 cup apple cider
• 1/2 t vanilla
• 1 cup cooked oatmeal (I used scottish oats, old fashioned oats would work as well)

To prepare:

Heat a griddle to 350*

In a small bowl, make your flax egg. Stir together ground flax and warm water. Set aside.  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Set aside. 

Stir together the flax egg with the apple cider and vanilla. Gently mix in oatmeal. Add oatmeal mixture to flour and stir until just combined.

Test the griddle, it is ready when a few drops of water dance across its surface. Lightly grease with coconut  (or other) oil.

Pour batter onto the griddle. Cook until bubbles form on the top (about 2-3 minutes) and then flip and cook a few minutes more.

Serve topped with pumpkin butter (or apple butter) and warm syrup. 

This batch made 6 pancakes, which I promptly gobbled up, all the while reminding myself that I was going to run them off later.

I love this time of year mostly because I can walk into any grocery store and a huge display of apple cider is glowing, calling my name, begging me to take home a gallon. I was excited to see this local brand at New Pioneer yesterday. It is good, as you can see. I've already polished off about half of this container myself!

I suppose I should knock out this 16 mile run before I finish up my weekend cooking marathon!

Speaking of marathons...since when is October 2nd only two (TWO!) weeks away? 14 days until I attempt to qualify for Boston at the Twin Cities Marathon. I am shaking in my boots running shoes!

spar for the spurtle - steel cut oats with wild rice and dried blueberries

Okay everyone, I have a confession to make.

I LOVE steel cut oatmeal.

In fact, I love it so much that I had my manager at Hy-Vee order me a 25 pound bag of Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut Oats.

Crazy?

For sure.

But I seriously love the stuff. I eat it every morning for breakfast and enjoy a huge bowl of it before all of my long runs and races.

Plus, when you order in bulk like that, you can share it with your friends and get a super duper good deal.

So, when I heard about Bob's Red Mill Spar For the Spurtle contest, I knew I had to enter. The rules, create a dish using Bob's Red Mill Steel Cut oat and post a short video detailing how to make it. Scary, right! A video...of me talking?! By doing so, I was taking a step out of my comfort zone, but it was fun and funny...

Just see for yourself...



This dish I created featured Minnesota's own, wild rice and I must say, I was quite pleased with the end result. This is a quick dish (30 minutes or less!) that you could whip on on a Saturday morning and impress your friends and family. Who knew oatmeal could be so good?!



The prizes are awesome for winning this contest. Bob's Red Mill will select three finalist to go to Portland to compete in a live cook-off and the winner of that will travel on to Scotland with the Bob's Red Mill team to compete.

So, watch the video, laugh at {and with} me, but most of all, make sure you "LIKE" the video on YouTube. The more "likes" I get, the better the chances I have.

Pretty pretty please with a cherry on top like me!!

And if you were to share this and tell all of your friends to like the video too, I would be so very appreciative.

You could even tweet this - "I just "liked" @KierInIowa's submission for #sparforthespurtle and you should too! http://youtu.be/c94ZcbTvDrc"

carrot apple muffins

On the weekends I generally lean towards creating muffin-like foods in the PS kitchen. Muffins, fruit breads, scones, coffee cakes just scream grab a cup of coffee and sit around the kitchen table for hours with your family enjoying breakfast.

It's my mom's fault actually. Growing up she always had a batch of chocolate chip muffins baking on Saturday mornings as we woke up wiping the sleep from our little eyes. Not much has changed these days, except the muffins have been replaced with scones, and it is usually me making breakfast for her as she rolls out of bed.

(Mom! That scene just played in my mind and I really wish I could be spending the day with you tomorrow. Sad.)

Nic proclaimed these muffins/bread the best that I have made yet, and I might have to agree.

Carrot Apple Muffins/Bars



In the mix::

• 2 T ground flax
• 4 T water
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 t vanilla
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 2 T chia seeds
• 1 T molasses
• 4 carrots - grated (about 1.5 cups)
• 1 apple - grated (about 3/4 cup)
• 1 banana sliced into thin coins
• 1/2 cup almond flour (or flour of your choice)
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350*

Make your flax egg by combining the ground flax and water. Set aside.

In a medium bowl mix together applesauce, honey, vanilla, salt, almond milk, chia seeds and molasses.

Grate apple and carrots, slice banana - set aside.

Mix together almond flour, oats, whole wheat flour, baking powder, soda and pecans.

Stir dry ingredients into the wet, fold in carrots, apples and bananas.

I made some mini muffins and also filled an 8 x 11 (or something like that) glass baking dish.  The muffins took about 30 minutes and the bars took about 45 minutes.



These are especially delicious smeared with homemade peanut or almond butter!

They would also be awesome with some cinnamon stirred in. But Nic is a hater and I was a good wifey and kept it out of these just for him.

I am awesome. I know this.

apple cinnamon baked oatmeal

Oh hush. I know you are excited to hear about this baked oatmeal, don't deny it! :)

Seriously though, I went to bed on Saturday night dreaming up this baked oatmeal and sprung out of bed at 6:30 on Sunday morning to get to work. 6:30 people!!  I get a little excited about food...

This baked oatmeal surpassed my expectations in many ways. The best and most unexpected result, the texture was a cross between oatmeal and bread pudding. Win.

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal



In the mix::

• 4 T maple syrup
• 1/2 cups walnuts - roughly chopped
• 3/4 t cinnamon
• one apple - shredded with a cheese grater
• 1 banana - diced
• 2 T ground flax seed 
• 5 T water
• 1/4 cups raisins
• 1 cup old fashioned oatmeal - whirled in the food processor for a bit
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 t vanilla
• 1 T coconut oil + plus more for greasing the dish

Pre-heat oven to 350*

Grease your baking dish (I used a medium round glass one) liberally with coconut oil. Add 2 tablespoons maple syrup, 1/2 cup walnuts and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. Set aside.

In a small bowl, make a flax egg by combining ground flax and water. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine apple, banana, raisins, oatmeal, almond milk, salt, vanilla and 1 tablespoon coconut oil. Stir in flax egg.

Pour mixture over the walnuts. Make sure you choose a baking dish that is large enough to hold everything! Mine was overflowing.

Bake at 350* for 1 hour.



You might want to keep your eye one it while baking. Mine started oozing deliciousness.



Yum.

I was hoping I would be able to invert this once it was done and call it an upside down baked oatmeal, but it kind of fell apart. Oh well...

I topped mine with a splash of almond milk and a drizzle of maple syrup. OMG. I die.  It was so good and thee perfect way to start a Sunday morning! The walnuts + syrup on the bottom caramelized and were the best part of the dish - just what I was hoping for.



This could serve about 3-4 people, but Nic and I devoured the entire thing in 10 minutes flat. Okay okay, I savored it for at least 15 minutes.  With a piping hot cup of coffee................heaven.

weekend recap

Guest free is the way to be!  :)

Just kidding - however, after having guests for pretty much 10 days in a row, it is nice to have the house to ourselves!

This weekend was full to the brim with activities!

Friday:: After Ike and Kim left, I spent a while cleaning the house and getting it ready for our third and final set of visitors. I also managed to sneak in some work, even though I took the day off. When Nic got home, I debated whether or not I should head to the Y to get in a workout or head up to Iowa City to purchase a new workout item.  Clearly I chose the later and we made our way up to World of Bikes to test drive and ultimately purchase a new bike!

After test driving a fitness bike and a road bike, I ended up choosing the Trek 7.2. Although I like how the road bike felt a little better than the fitness model, the 7.2 is a more practical bike that I can use to get in good workouts, as well use for a commuting bike around town (meetings, grocery store, etc). Oh and...it was on sale. Win!

We got home just in time to get dinner going before Nic's parents, Barb and Kurt walked in the door.

Saturday:: Nic worked. Barb, Kurt and I enjoyed some leftovers for breakfast (I am sure they were very disappointed!) and then Kurt started working on some projects for us! I love it when the father-in-law comes to town!

We headed up to town around Noon to meet up with Nic and do some shopping around the square. Barb has been to most of the stores, so I suggested we head up to Kalona as they have only driven through.

In Kalona, after grabbing lunch at the Tuscan Moon and cookies at the Kalona Bakery, Barb and I both did some major shopping!  We found a happy balance between antique/crafty stores (for Barb) and bulk food stores for me.  Yes, we were both like little kids in the candy store!

If you are ever in the area, Stringtown Grocery is a must stop! I've only been there once before this weekend, but am kicking myself that we don't go more often. I walked out of the store with:

• Golden flax seed
• Chia seeds
• Adzuki beans
• Spelt berried
• Green lentils

We also found that they have quite a variety of organic, Amish raised meat for sale. Even though I rarely eat it, we now know where we can find locally raised meat to purchase.

We also made quick trips to the Kalona General Store (I walked out with split peas, apricots and coconut flakes), Twin County Dairy (we picked up two types of cheese for that night's dinner), and after a short drive down some country roads, ended up at JK Creative Wood & Gifts. Here, Kurt was like a kid in a HUGE candy store. He loves working with wood and we all ooohed and awwwed at their amazing work.

Barb treated Nic and I to a set of coasters.



Love them.

Upon returning home, I whipped up a very gourmet dinner for everyone. Tomato soup and grilled cheese. Seriously, it was gourmet - no canned soup or sliced cheese here! I was inspired by the new show on NBC, America's Next Great Restaurant. Have you seen it?? I've been craving a grilled cheese since we watched the first two episodes with Ike and Kim.  I was initially going to make up some saucy balls....but decided to keep it simple with the soup and grilled cheese.  Watch the show, you will like it!

The tomato soup I made was pretty much the same as this one, but I made a few changes and actually liked this version better. I think I will make it again sometime this week and will post the recipe then. There were not too many changes, but I want to get it up here so I remember the changes I made!

After dinner we all sat down to watch the movie, The American, starring George Clooney. Word to the wise, do not watch this movie with your parents. AWKWARD! There was a point where things were getting just a little too awkward and I had to tell Barb, "isn't this the part where you are supposed to tell the kids to close their eyes and cover their ears??!"We then shifted our focus to the pets while we anxiously waited for that loooooong scene to come to an end.

Our overall thoughts on the movie - meh.  Don't waste your time.

Sunday:: I was up at 6:30 to enjoy some peace and a cup of coffee before everyone else stirred. I made another quiche for breakfast - this time it was a spinach, asparagus, mushroom, red pepper and cheese quiche.  I used the same recipe for the crust as I did last Sunday, and would recommend that you keep the olive oil in the crust.



As it is the first day of Spring, it was only appropriate that we had our first thunderstorm of the season this morning! It was great (I love storms), but thankfully cleared up after breakfast so I could take the dog for a long walk. While I was out, Nic and Kurt replaced a few hoses on Nic car. It was no coincidence that I left just as they were starting this project...they both have a tendency to think any project will be relatively quick, but ultimately (okay, most of the time, not always) it ends up taking a lot longer than they expect and many four letter words escape their lips. Hey - not complaining...they like doing it, so kudos to them. For most repairs, I'd just rather take my car to the shop.

Speaking of my car - while working on Nic's car, they needed to run into town to get something and took my car. They made it to the end of the block, heard some weird squealing, turned around and the tire popped! When we removed it, we found the cause of the problem, the spring for the strut broke and punctured the tire!!  Seriously, soooo thankful it happened so close to home and going at low speeds - if they would not have taken the car today, I would have taken it tomorrow night to a Relay meeting and who knows what would have happened.  I could have been going 75 down the highway when the spring decided to break.  Anyway, looks like we will be shopping around for a new car this week! Even if this is a relatively cheap repair, my car has 250,000 miles on it and we've been planning on replacing it before I get really busy with work.

Barb and Kurt left after a quick bit for lunch around 3:00.



Nic and I took my new wheels out for a spin and covered about 9 miles. I love my new bike!



Lots of lounging around and watching TV is on the schedule for the rest of the night!

sneaking in workouts

111 friggin degrees. Oh yes - today.was.hot.real.hot.  Maia was even struggling on our 3 mile walk at 5:20 this morning.  5:20! Hot.hot.hot.

I even managed to break into a sweat during Core at the air conditioned Y this morning. OKay, maybe it wasn't due to the high temps, but the difficulty of the class!  So excited for this class - the instructor rocks, and actually makes sure you are doing moves correctly, so there is definitely no slacking!

I was hoping to get in a tempo run after Core, but that didn't happen. So I thought I would be way hardcore and bring some workout gear to my meeting tonight and planned to hit up the Y in that town for a run afterwards. I actually went to the Y, changed, walked into their cardio room and was soo unimpressed and thus unmotivated. Their treadmills must have been at least 10 years old and I was pretty sure running at speeds faster than 6 mph would cause it to collapse. 1.5 miles later I decided to call it quits and just hit the road. Huge waste of time!

Today's eats::



Finally going to have a full day in the office tomorrow - so much work to do!

Oh and in case you were thinking, "Wouldn't it be fun to take a road trip this weekend?!" Have I got the perfect destination for you!  Located in the heart of America, the PS Bed & Breakfast is offering a one-time-only night full of delicious food, sexy drinks and entertaining games! And if you book in the next 48 hours, a warm bed and breakfast will be thrown in at no cost to you! Don't wait, book today! Only 5.5 hours from the Twin Cities, the PS Bed & Breakfast is the perfect weekend destination.

colorful dinner

Whew! Today was a long one - up at 4:50AM and not home until 9PM. I was able to get in a solid 4.8 mile run and a 3 mile walk with the pup before the temps got out of control - feels good to get workouts out of the way and hammer them out in the morning. I look forward to making this a routine (for more than a week this time!)

Tomorrow my morning starts off with Core, a new class at the Y. So excited to focus some of time working out on my abs, I have been neglecting them for quite some time now.

Anywho...much of my day was spent on the road and in meetings. My last one did not get done until after 7:30 - so by the time I walked out of there I was ravenous!!  A quick stop at the Hy-Vee salad bar was just what my stomach was craving.  I considered something quicker (drive through McDonalds perhaps) but quickly pushed that idea out of my mind as I knew I would instantly regret the decision.

Look how colorful dinner was!



I loaded up on veggies, fruit, some cottage cheese for protein and splurged on a mini lemon poppy seed muffin.

The rest of today's eats::

Lots and lots of coffee got me through the day - until 1:00 when I crashed hard and had to sneak in a nap before I got on the road!  Lunch was the same as last night, but beefed up with zuchinni - delicious!

It rained quite a bit while Nic and I were on vacation (enough to warrent a call from our friends informing us that we had water in the basement...great!  Seems to happen every time we take off for an extended period of time). Although the rain did no good for the basement, it did wonders for the seriously neglected flowers in our yard!



We made a promise to ourselves that this fall we are finally going to take care of the grading issue in our yard.  It helps that one of Nic's {hot farmer} friends offered the use of his time, skid steer and help in locating a dumptruck full of black dirt! (er, I really hope this friend does not read my blog!!)

Off to get in a few minutes of reading before my eyelids get too heavy!