Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Day 1 ~ 30 Days of Nothing Challenge

Day 1

Breakfast
I do not like to eat breakfast.  I never did as a child; I just can't adapt to it.  When I wake up, the last thing I want to do is cook and I'm not at all hungry. Eating breakfast every day is another habit I'm hoping to pick up during this month. To cope with my breakfast hatred, I decided that I should look into breakfast casserole type meals that will feed us for several days.  I present to you my first breakfast dish: French Toast Bake.
It is amaaaazing. I found the recipe on Pinterest at sheldonrachel.blogspot.com.




Ingredient Checklist
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
1 cup brown sugar
1 loaf Texas toast
4 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Directions
1. Melt butter in microwave & add brown sugar....stir till mixed.
2. Pour butter/sugar mix into bottom of 9 x 13 pan....spread around
3. Beat eggs, milk, & vanilla
4. Lay single layer of Texas Toast in pan
5. Spoon 1/2 of egg mixture on bread layer
6. Add 2nd layer of Texas Toast
7. Spoon on remaining egg mixture
8. Cover & chill in fridge overnight
9. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes (covered for the first 30 minutes)
10. Sprinkle with powdered sugar
11. Serve with warm maple syrup (I don't do the syrup part)

- Crack eggs & get them started (on low)
- Melt butter in microwave
- Add brown sugar & stir together



I changed up the recipe a little bit by using regular bread instead of Texas toast and left the crusts on (no food is going to waste here).  Instead of powdered sugar, I topped the dish with a mixture of cinnamon and milled flax seed (for protein) and added a layer of juicy blueberries in the middle.   
A few weeks ago, Patrick & I decided to go blueberry picking on a farm.  We picked 10 pounds of berries.  What we didn't think about was how to store (or even eat) all those berries.  So five pounds went in the freezer.  I'm sooooo happy I had them for this recipe.  Its perfect, and with the sweet berries, no syrup is necessary.  
(Look at all those berries! We picked two buckets full!)



Lunch
Okay, I didn't each lunch today, but that's going to change.  In the past, I would have either gone without lunch or grabbed a bottle of water and a pack of Twizzlers.  Tomorrow, I'll take my lunch like a big girl.


Dinner
I know we're focusing on healthy, but I really just wanted comfort food tonight so I made Baked Potato Soup and Almost-Caprese Salad Sammies (both recipes invented by me).

The sandwiches were made with the leftover butt slices from the bread used to make French toast this morning.  I toasted them, then added a layer of sundried tomato pesto sauce (we've had the jar forever, and there was just enough left for two sandwiches), a thin slice of mozzarella cheese and a handful of basil leaves from our garden.  Mmmm.  I've never thought of using basil in a sandwich before. It was really good.
Here's the soup recipe:



Ingredients (makes 4 servings):
4 cups water
1/2 stick butter (or 4 tbs)
2 cups mashed potato flakes
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp dried onion flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup diced green onions

Directions:
Boil water in a pot
Add butter, dried onion, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning
Turn heat down (the soup will bubble and splatter if its too hot) 
Whisk in potato flakes, milk, and cheese
Garnish with green onions and serve

You can also add a chicken bullion cube to the water.  
The green onions were cut from the few that I re-grew in a jar of water in this post.  I make this soup often in the winter.  Last year, my mother-in-law took me to Sam's Club and for some reason I decided to buy this giant box of mashed potatoes.  Its so big that its almost comical.  Look at this thing - there were 60 servings in here!  
I used powdered milk for the first time in both of these recipes.  It felt weird to mix up milk, but i don't taste a difference in the food.  I'm wishing I'd stocked up on butter, though.  I love butter.




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