Eggs Lorraine

 

This week I thought I would share the recipe for what has become one of my all time favorite breakfasts when I want to treat myself. It is a bit rich but it is so easy and is made from things that are pretty normally in my fridge. It is a bit rich so it is more special occasion than everyday. I thought with Mother's Day coming up it was a great time to share this.

 

 

So if you want to treat yourself or someone you love this is a really good way to start a day.

One of my favorite things about this recipe is it can be made for any number of people. You just need an individual casserole dish for each person so it doesn't matter if you are making one serving or a bunch of servings.

This is baked in a small casserole dish, one that holds about 1 ½ to 2 cups and it should be fairly shallow. I have done this in round dishes (like in the pictures today), square dishes and oval dishes and they all worked just fine.

The prep for this is super easy you just coat your baking dish with either cooking spray or butter. Then layer the ham and sliced Swiss cheese in the bottom of the dish and add the 2 eggs. Then mix the sour cream with a bot pf salt and pepper and dollop on top of the eggs.

Bake this until the eggs are done the way you like them and enjoy. (See I told you it was super easy)

You can find the printable PDF of the recipe here.

Eggs Lorraine

2 slices of deli ham

1 slice Swiss cheese

2 large eggs

1 Tablespoon sour cream

a pinch each of salt and pepper

minced chives (optional)

 

 

 

Preheat the oven 350°

Lightly coat a 1 ½ to 2 cup casserole dish with butter or cooking spray. Place casserole dish(es) on a sheet pan to make it easier to get to and from the oven.

Add the sliced ham the prepared casserole 

 

 

 

                                  and top with the cheese slice.

Carefully break in the 2 eggs side by side on top of the cheese slice.

In a small bowl whisk the sour cream with the salt and pepper. Dollop the sour cream on top of the eggs.

 

 

Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes or until the eggs are cooked the way you like them.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with minced chives if desired.

Serves 1

Baked Oatmeal

 

Today we are doing some more investment cooking. If you aren't familiar with that term you might know it by other names, basically we are going to do some cooking today so that we can eat in days to come. We are going to make a pan of baked oatmeal that we can wrap in individual portions then heat and eat on mornings when we want a quick and yummy start to our day that will fuel us right up to lunch time. 

 

 

There is one confession I need to make before we go on, even though I love baked oatmeal I really don't like regular oatmeal. I mean yeah, if it is the only option for breakfast for whatever reason I would probably eat it but I wouldn't enjoy it. However, baked oatmeal I look forward to eating. It is so good and can be changed up depending on the dried fruit you add to it. I find that with this recipe dried fruil works better I have a slightly different recipe that I make with fresh fruit that I will try to remember to post someday.

Today for my dried fruit had some dried cranberries leftover from something else and a few leftover dried apricots that I cut up to be about the same size. I then added some golden raisins to make the full amount needed. It is a wonderful combination but I have to say my very favorite combo is the dried tropical fruit that I used to buy. I haven't looked for it in the stores here but I am sure they have it too. Really any combination of dried fruit you like or have on hand will work really well. If you change it up every time you make it you will have a lot more variety. It's even okay if your dried fruit is a bit more dried than you would normally use. The baking plus the freezing will help soften it a bit. Not sure exactly how hard too hard is but I have definitely used some raisins that were getting to the almost hard as a rock stage and while they were a bit more chewy they were fine.

This time I baked in an 8” by 8” baking pan, I like to use this size because it creates a nice thin baked oatmeal that bakes quickly and also freezes and reheats quickly. Other times I have baked this in a muffin pan and also in a loaf pan. These result in a thicker product that will take longer to get baked through and will take longer to both freeze and reheat. It is really up to you what pan you use.

I do think that lining you baking pan with parchment is important just because you can lift out the baked oatmeal in one piece and easily cut it into the 4 pieces. If I cut it in the pan I find this much more difficult to get evenly size pieces.

You can find the downloadable/printable PDF here.

Baked Oatmeal

1 ½ cups old fashioned rolled oats

½ cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ cup dried fruit of your choice, chopped if needed (about the size of raisins)

Preheat oven to 350°F

Prepare your baking pan by lining it (I used an 8”x8” baking pan and lined it with parchment paper)

In a medium mixing bowl combine your rolled oats, brown sugar, spice, and salt.

In a small bowl combine your milk, egg, and vanilla.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Add the dried fruit and mix until well combined.

Spread into your prepared pan and bake at 350°F for 25 to 30 minutes, longer if you are using a smaller pan so your mixture is thicker. You want the mixture to be set and a pick inserted in the center should come out clean.

Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove (parchment paper and all) to the counter to cool to room temperature. 

When cool cut into 4 equal pieces.

Wrap in plastic wrap and put in a labeled freezer bag. Place in freezer to store.

When you are ready to eat remove your piece of baked oatmeal from freezer, unwrap and place in a microwave safe bowl.

Heat in microwave until heated through, mine takes about 1 minute 30 seconds but your microwave might differ.

Serve as desired, I like a bit of milk or half & half poured over mine.

 

 

Makes 4 servings.

Meatloaf Cupcakes

 

Since the official cupcake for the month of April actually posted the last day of March since I wanted to get it to you in time for Easter I thought I should post an extra cupcake this month. No this is not a sweet dessert cupcake it's a savory main-dish cupcake. I've been planning to share this for a while and now seemed like a good time. 

 

These are really and cute. The meatloaf forms the “cupcake” base, then mashed potatoes are used in place of the frosting and they are topped off with some cheese sprinkles.

I love a good meatloaf and I made some last minute tweaks to this recipe and it turned out even better than normal. One of the benefits of meatloaf is it is a great vehicle to add a few extra veggies to your meal. This time I only have onion and some pepper but another fantastic addition is grated carrots.

For the peppers I used some of the small sweet peppers that you can get in the produce department. I love the flavor of these both in recipes and just to eat, they are so much better than typical bell peppers. A small bag of them is just a few dollars and the perfect choice for the small family since they are so versatile.

I really think the panko bread crumbs are one of the secrets to a really good meatloaf, they always make my meatloaf turn out the perfect texture. 

 

 

You can find the downloadable/printable PDF of this recipe here. 

 

 

Meatloaf Cupcakes

½ pound ground beef

¼ cup Panko bread crumbs

¼ cup finely chopped onion

¼ cup finely chopped sweet pepper

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 Tablespoons ketchup

salt and pepper to taste

You will also need:

About 2 cups of mashed potatoes (I used 2 medium potatoes)

¼ cup shredded cheese of you choice (I used a Mexican 4 cheese blend)

Preheat oven to 350°F

In a medium bowl combine the ground beef, bread crumbs, onion, pepper, garlic, and ketchup along with salt and pepper to taste. 

 

 

 

 Divide the mixture among 4 muffin cups. Bake at 350°F for 40 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F.

Meanwhile make your mashed potatoes the way you normally would. You could even use instant ones if you would like to . 

 

When the meatloaf cupcakes are cooked through top them with the mashed potatoes. You want them to look like frosting that is heaped up.

 

 

 

 

 Then sprinkle with shredded cheese. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Place back in the oven just until the cheese melts. 

Makes 2 servings