Foodie Friday: Cheesy Egg Breadbowls

This all started when I saw a picture of a deliciously cheesy, egg-filled bread bowl on Facebook. You may or may not already know I have an obsession with eggs. I think they're great, anytime, day or night. (See some of my other favorite eggs for dinner recipes here.) So of course I had to ask Google how to make it. Immediately. 

I reviewed a few recipes, and they all included sliced ham. After reading through the recipes to figure out the best way to make them vegetarian, I became convinced the ham was somewhat necessary, to prevent the egg from soaking into the bread, so I substituted it with sliced Tofurkey. For the bread I used par-baked mini paninis, and I used shredded lite mozzarella, both from Trader Joe's. And then I followed Recipe Tin Eats' instructions to the T. 

This recipe is ridiculously easy, takes less than 30 minutes start to finish, requires virtually no cleanup, and my pregnant self is already craving it again. Bonus: each bread bowl is under 300 cals (if you care about that kinda thing, which I do). We ate it for dinner, with a kale power salad from Sprouts, but I had leftovers for breakfast the next day, which I just wrapped in a paper towel and microwaved for about 30 seconds, and it was equally delicious. I can already tell this will be a go-to quick and easy post-partum dinner. 

What are some of your fave 30 minute or make-ahead meals?

Foodie Fridays: Eggs for Dinner

Poached Egg & Black Bean Stuffed Sweet Potato

Egg, Bean, & Kale Soup

Egg in a Basked Grilled Cheese with Broccoli

I LOVE eggs. Pre-pregnancy and during pregnancy, I ate them for breakfast every. single. day. But lately I've been on a toast with almond butter and banana kick, which frees up eggs to take a starring role at dinner time. (And just so you know, we didn't eat eggs for dinner every day this week, these meals were spread out over the past few weeks.) In my last Foodie Friday post I mentioned wanting to try out several of Buzzfeed's 21 High Protein Vegetarian Meals - and that's where all of these delicious egg dishes came from. I pretty much followed all the recipes exactly, except for the Egg in a Basked Grilled Cheese with Asparagus (I used american cheese and broccoli instead - stuff I already had in fridge, and it was so yummy!)

Here are the links if you want to try them yourself (and I highly suggest you should):

• Black Bean, Arugula, & Poached Egg Stuffed Sweet Potatoes (actually, I used kale instead of arugula - again, it's what I had on hand.)
• Bean, Kale, and Egg Stew - Dinner under 30 minutes AND the soup-hater (Joe) liked it!
• Egg in a Basked Grilled Cheese with Broccoli - This was another fast meal. I think it took about 10 minutes from start to finish, which is great for when Joe texts me on the way home to let me know he's hungry.

Also, in case you're wondering what kinds of salads we paired with our meals, here's a list (from top to bottom):

1. Spinach salad with blueberries and maple roasted brussel sprouts topped with a drizzle of honey and Trader Joe's orange champagne vinegar.
2. Spinach salad topped with Trader Joe's spinach stuffed mushrooms and Cardini's Asian Sesame dressing. (With sesame bread leftover from a Chinese restaurant on the side.)
3. Costco's kale salad with sunflower seeds, cranberries, and a poppy seed dressing.

Foodie Friday: 4 Interesting Ways to Eat Cauliflower

Cauliflower crust pizza

I have never been a huge fan of cauliflower, probably because the only way I've eaten it is raw on a party platter with ranch dip. But lately I've been seeing tons of cauliflower recipes floating around Pinterest, so if you're interested to know how they actually taste, I've tested a few out for you.

Cauliflower fried "rice"

1. The first recipe I've tried, and my hands down favorite, is this cauliflower fried rice. When I first read the ingredients list, I figured there was no way it could be that simple and actually taste like fried rice. I even almost bought a ready-made packet of fried rice seasoning at the grocery store, but it was not vegetarian. So I decided to do something I almost never do and I followed the recipe exactly. I'm so glad I did. It takes about 15 minutes to make and tastes amazing. I don't have to trick Joe into eating veggies, but I really think you could trick someone into thinking they're eating rice instead of cauliflower. I've made it at least half a dozen times and Joe and I both love it. For anyone who cares about calorie-related stuff, one cup is about 85 calories, compared with 220 calories for a cup of generic fried rice at a restaurant.

2. I bought some purple cauliflower at the farmer's market, and I wasn't really feeling purple fried rice, so I decided it was time to branch off and try something new. That's where this cauliflower crust pizza comes into play (photo above). I used almost the whole head of cauliflower, so I doubled the rest of the ingredients and made two medium/smallish-sized crusts. Unlike the cauliflower fried rice, I don't think you can trick someone into thinking they're eating real pizza. While it is possible to pick up and eat with your hands, it's much easier to eat with a fork. The consistency isn't quite the same as regular pizza dough, but the taste is really yummy. And it's only 265 calories for the whole personal-size cauliflower pizza, compared with about 600 for a Pizza Hut personal-sized cheese pizza, so I'll definitely be making this again.

"Rice" Stuffed Peppers - (it tastes more appetizing than it looks, I promise!)

3. As a variation on the cauliflower fried rice, I "riced" some cauliflower and sauteed it with soy chorizo, onions, corn, and mushrooms. I added that mixture to bell pepper halves, topped it with some enchilada sauce, and cooked it in the slower cooker on low for about 5 hours. I added cheese for the last fifteen minutes. Once again, so yummy and so filling! (240 cals per pepper half.)

Cheesy Cauliflower Bites

4. The most recent recipe I've tried are these cheesy cauliflower bites. They looked like a vegetarian version of kid comfort food, and they didn't disappoint. They came together really fast, I liked the texture, and they were very flavorful. In the future I'll experiment with different seasonings - maybe a cajun/spicy flavor for next time? These are only 98 calories per 6 nuggets. 

Another recipe that I'm excited to try, but haven't gotten around to making yet:

• Creamy Cauliflower Sauce (as an alfredo substitute).

Next up, Joe and I are working our way through Buzzfeed's 21 High Protein Vegetarian Meals.

From Pin to Reality: Berry Cobbler Recipe Review

I have at least 100 recipes pinned to various Pinterest boards, but I haven't done a whole lot of cooking for the past nine months or so. While I was pregnant and working the last thing I wanted to do was come home and cook. I just wanted my food ready fast, and preferably prepared by somebody else. But now that Ezzy is here, going out to eat isn't really an option, so I've been experimenting with fast, easy recipes.

I love fruity desserts, so when I found this 3 ingredient weight watchers berry cobbler recipe (see original recipe here) I had to try it. The prep time is under 5 minutes so I can throw this together while I'm getting dinner ready and it's done baking by the time we're finished eating.

Ingredients
1 box white cake mix
2 12-ounce packages frozen berries
1 can diet Sprite

Directions
Preheat oven to 350.
Pour frozen berries (don't thaw them) into a 9x13 dish.
Spread dry cake mix evenly over the berries.
Slowly pour Sprite over the cake mix, making sure there are no dry spots. Don't stir the mix though.
Bake at least 45 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. (It took me closer to an hour)
I serve this with lite Cool Whip.

Overall this is very yummy and we both liked it. My only complaint is that it's hard to make sure the Sprite covers all of the cake mix, so both times I've made it I wound up with a few powdery patches. Next time I'll try checking it after about 10 minutes and pour more sprite over any dry spots if necessary.

1/16th of the cobbler has about 140 calories. I love sweets though, so we ate about double that serving size.