5 Easy Brunch Recipes that use Yogurt

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Fervent Foodie

Breakfast is arguably my favorite meal of the day, and lunch, well, I love that too. Brunch, though? I just don’t get it. Seriously, I need to know–is it breakfast or is it lunch? Do you eat eggs Benedict or do you eat egg salad? Pancakes or paninis? Brunch is a big fat grey area, and I don’t like it one bit. I’m just one of those people. In fact, I’m morally opposed to breakfast for dinner.

Don’t stone me.

Despite my aversion, this weekend I stepped out of my comfort zone and invited some friends over for a yogurt-inspired brunch.

Take a look at the spread!

When preparing the brunch menu, my goal was to cook up a variety of tasty nibblets that incorporated Activia yogurt (since I had some Foodbuzz freebies to use). Heavy emphasis on tasty, of course.

The mainstay of our meal was my Western Sausage Crustless Quiche:
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Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Breakfast Braid

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Fervent Foodie

Morning, friends! I hope you all are lucky enough to have the day off of work like me. If not, well then I’ll try not to rub it in too much. I’ve spent a good portion of the new years weekend in the kitchen cooking up a fury. Ancho chicken tacos, sausage lasagna, and balsamic glazed pork loins, just to name a few. This Monday morning (did I mention I have the day off of work???) I wanted to make something special. So I threw together a delicious sausage and egg breakfast braid.

Isn’t it impressive looking?

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Breakfast on the Balcony

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

If only breakfast could start with this EVERY day:

Mmmmm veggies!

I’m heading to Dallas for training this week, so the BF and I decided to cook up a special “last” breakfast… Oh, and by “we” I mean ME, of course. There’s only one morning person in this relationship. There’s also only one pants wearer. I’ll let you guess who that might be

It was a crazy bright and sunny morning, perfect for enjoying a little grub on the balcony. Check out that beautiful tablescape!

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Clearly getting food in our bellies ASAP was at the top of the priority list.

I was especially excited to make breakfast this morning because I’ve been dying to try out my new Oxo Eggbeaters that came in my Food Blog Forum swag bag!

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YES! I love gadgets!!! And how cool are these eggbeaters? The beater section pops off the handle and is dishwasher safe. Honestly, I’ve never beaten eggs with egg beaters before–I usually just opt for a fork and whisk with all my might til my arm falls off. Holy cow did these beaters make life a heck of a lot easier. It was like the parting of the Red Sea…. the breakfast edition. I swear I could hear angels singing as I beat those eggs to perfection.

Using my beaten-to-perfection bowl o’ eggs, I made up a big batch of Mary’s special eggs (a list of the goodies I tossed in is at the bottom of the post).

Each serving went onto a low carb tortilla:

Topped with some low-fat pepper jack cheese and a bit of Frank’s Red Hot:

I also cooked up a pumpkin waffle using my Trader Joe’s Pumpkin pancake and waffle mix:

The waffle was good but not fall out of your chair delicious. Apparently, if you don’t fall out of your chair the recipe is crap in my book. I’m going to give the mix another shot in pancake form and see if it’s any tastier.

The wraps were fabulous. You really can’t go wrong with the “special” combo! I like to pop mine on the George Foreman grill for a few minutes to melt the cheese.

I mean, really. REALLY.

Mary’s Special Breakfast Burrito Wraps (serves 4)

3 large eggs
9 egg whites
3 turkey or chicken sausages (Harris Teeter Hot Chicken Sausage)
1 diced roma tomato
1/4 chopped red onion
4 white mushrooms, sliced
2 cups fresh spinach, thinly sliced
S&P
Franks Red Hot
4 Low Carb Tortillas (Tumaro’s)
2 slices reduced fat pepper jack cheese (I like Sargento)

Click here to see how I cook these babies up.

Stats on 1 burrito: 285 calories, 15g carbs, 10g fat, 42g protein, 8g fiber

Whew Wednesday.

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

HAPPY HUMP DAY!

AND HAPPY WEIGH-IN WEDNESDAY!

ANNNND HAPPY WHAT-I-ATE-WEDNESDAY!

Today was such a particularly packed Wednesday, I think I’ll rename it Whew Wednesday Smile

The day started off with a handful of Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins:

I affectionately call this the Cereal of the Gods. It really is THAT good. I also hear Barbara’s now makes chocolate peanut butter puffins. Don’t worry. I’ve added finding the new cereal to the weekend to-do list.

After I popped the puffins, I headed out for my interval run (which consisted of a short 2-interval series of 1 minute walking and 9 minutes running).

Post run, it was time for eggs and bacon … sprouted 7 grain bread. Mmmmmmm Smile

These are the eggs I make pretty much every day. I call them my fake out dippy eggs because it’s actually a 3 egg white scramble topped off with 1 dippy egg.

When you poke the yolk it oozes down over the egg whites and tastes just as darn good as a plate full of dippy eggs. Thumbs up

After the eggs, I headed to work (insert 2 hours of number crunching here) and around 10am it was time for Breakfast #2!

Overnight oats, my friends. Overnight.Oats. Yes, I STILL love and adore them. Yes, I STILL eat them every day.

(insert two additional hours of number crunching here)

2+2 = Lunch time.

Today’s lunch consisted of some leftover ground turkey taco meat that I threw onto a bed of lettuce along with some tomato, onion, black beans and corn:

If you are looking for a tasty side dish for Mexican food, try out this recipe for Corn and Black Bean Salad. I made it over the weekend, and it was super tasty and SUPER simple.

Afternoon snack consisted of an un-pictured apple and some cocoa roast almonds….

After work, I headed to Dandelion Market for happy hour with some coworkers:

The Dandelion Market is a tapas restaurant that serves up a variety of intriguing small plates. The atmosphere in the restaurant was rustic, yet chic. Dimly lit and extremely cozy.

I’d of felt equally comfortable sipping a cup of coffee in a chair in the corner as I did sipping a glass of cabernet at a table near the window.

Tonight I had the pleasure of sampling two of the tapas. First was the pepperoni flatbread. Isn’t it beautiful?

Don’t be fooled. This was not your typical peperoni pizza. This flatbread had cured peperoni, ricotta salada, a rustic tomato sauce, and BASIL. It was light and delicious, and honestly I think I could have ate three of them. The basil was the perfect finishing touch.

I also sampled the grilled steak skewers:

The steak was cooked PERFECTLY medium rare and was incredibly juicy. But what REALLY made the dish was the sweet and spicy honey soy marinade that came along side:

Coming from a lady who puts A-1 Steak Sauce on EVERY steak that goes in her mouth, you KNOW it must have been amazing if I devoured the entire plate without even pausing.

After dinner, I headed to TCBY for some froyo with the Charlotte Food Bloggers! Now, truth be told I am an ice cream snob. I worked at the world’s most fantastic locally owned and operated creamery throughout all of high school and college (biased much?), and during these years I had the opportunity to taste, sample, and create some of the most outrageously delicious ice cream concoctions.

So, frozen yogurt? Meh. Doesn’t really do it for me. Which is odd, given that this town is littered with Fro Yo joints. What DOES do it for me though is the crazy assortment of toppings all these frozen yogurt places have.

Here’s my combo of the evening:

PB and Cake batter froyo…. with a little cookie dough, some heath bar, a little brownie, mochis, Peanut Butter drizzly drizz, and some blueberries for good measure.

Let’s focus on what’s really important here:

Who’s with me?

Waffles in mah belly

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

I woke up bright and early this lovely Saturday morning to head to Day #4 of Body Pump. Apparently, sometime between Thursday and today the Y got new weights, which are LB weights as opposed to kilograms… Needless to say, I was thrown off by this ABSOLUTELY INSANE change, but I managed through the class Smile

When I got home I wanted something a little special for breakfast. Something delicious but balanced…

After some foraging in the kitchen, here’s what I came up with:

That’s

2 Eggo Light Whole Grain Waffles
1/2 cup Trader Joe’s vanilla fat free Greek yogurt
3 sliced up strawberries
1/4 cup of blueberries
2 tbsp Smuckers Sugar Free Syrup

And that, my friends, was a whole heck of a lot of deliciousness.

This may be my new Saturday staple Smile

Mmmmmmmm…

Stats on breakfast: 286 calories, 54g carbs, 3g fat, 14g protein, 5g fiber

What’s on the agenda today? I’ll be running some errands, hopefully grabbing a tasty lunch, then spending some quality time with the condo *hopefully* making a dent in the pile of boxes I now call home Smile

Seriously. Make this. Now.

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

Last weekend, I posted a super simple super quick recipe for the Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich.

Today, I made a repeat of that masterpiece with the addition of some Frank’s Red Hot:

I swear to you, this breakfast sandwich is eyes-roll-into-the-back-of-your-head delicious.

If you are a yolk lover like me (and a sausage lover for that matter) do yourself a favor and make this for breakfast. Immediately!

Stats on the life changer: 255 calories, 24g carbs, 10g fat, 20g protein, 3g fiber

Friday eats

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

Sooooooo… it has been FOR-EV-ER since I last posted about workday breakfast-breakfast-lunch. I guess I just got bored posting about the same things over and over again. But today, I figured what the heck. It’s Friday. Let’s do this.

Breakfast #1

Mary’s oh-so-special eggs!

I absolutely adore this B#1 every day! Sausage, eggs, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, spinach, and garlic? Come on!

Don’t forget the dollop of ketchup of course

Stats on 1 Servings of my Special Eggs (sans ketchup): 189 Calories, 9g carbs, 9g fat, 23g protein, 1g fiber

Breakfast #2

Oatmeal!

I was in the grocery store the other day and ALMOST bought some strawberries so I could make overnight oats… But it’s so stinkin cold outside that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Man I miss them So for today, it was standard microwaved quick oats with cinnamon and brown sugar… maybe my OO’s will make a return next week!

Stats on 1 Servings of oats: 165 Calories, 31g carbs, 3g fat, 5g protein, 4g fiber

Lunch

And that brings us to LUNCH. Mini cheesy meat loaf and a yumlicious side salad with Newman’s Light balsamic dressing:

Maybe it’s a midwest thing….. but I seriously adore meatloaf.

It’s comforting.

It’s meaty.

It brings me unfettered joy.

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

Stats on 1 mini cheesy meatloaf: 350 calories, 19g carbs, 17g fat (red meat, folks), 29g protein, 1g fiber

So what’s on everyone’s agenda this weekend? Here’s what I’ll be up to:

Eyebrow wax this evening (fun Friday night activity, no?)
Clean.my.house. Seriously. I’m living in filth.
Work.
Get some of my friends and family tax returns done… oh the joys of being a tax accountant
Buy the BF a bday present… I’m thinking outlet mall!
Possibly venturing out on a Luna Bar quest. Must find the new flavors STAT!
Super Bowl of course! Bring on the cheese!

Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich

Posted on January 31, 2011 by Fervent Foodie

Yesterday morning, I was the picture of perfection and actually woke up at the time I had intended and did NOT sleep through my alarm for a solid hour. Let’s hope I can keep this up all week!

I rolled out of bed, and headed straight to the gym for a 30 minute round-and-round on the ~~hamster wheel~~… elliptical. Then, straight from the gym (in all my sweaty glory) to the grocery store to buy all my foods for the week. Silly me forgot to pack a Luna bar or nourishment of any variety for my grocery conquest.

Bad news bears.

Needless to say, I was FAMISHED by the time I got home, and I was unfortunately facing a dilemma. Issue #1: I wanted eggs. Hot and dippy with ooey gooey smooth-as-butter yolk. Issue #2: I was also craving sausage…. as in Mary’s special eggs. I wanted yolk, but I wanted sausage. And I’m not talking sausage on the side. I’m talking sausage all up in my yolk.

It was at this precise moment that I concocted my PERFECT breakfast sandwich. The best of both of my worlds.

The Ahmygawd Breakfast Sandwich.

First, I sautéed half of a Honeysuckle Hot Turkey Sausage link (casing removed) in a pan:

Hello sausage! Ima eat you.

THEN I cracked an egg right on top of this mound of sausage:

The egg white dribbled down around the sausage and formed a glue to hold the whole shebang together. Once the underside was cooked, I flipped her over:

Whattttttt????? Insane.

And once that side was cooked (though not TOO cooked –we’re going for oozy yolk here) I slid the egg/sausage combo onto a toasted whole wheat English muffin:

World = Rocked.

Ah.my.gawd.

Stats on the life changer: 255 calories, 24g carbs, 10g fat, 20g protein, 3g fiber

What you’ll need:

1 link turkey or chicken sausage, casing removed
1 egg
1 English muffin
5 minutes to eat your face off

Eggcellent.

Posted on November 1, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

My kitchen is no stranger to eggs.

Shortly after starting this blog, it dawned on me that I really do eat an excessive amount of eggs. So I started thinking about possible substitutions I could make. Something healthy, clean, and full of protein. Something filling and delicious that gave me energy without spiking my temperamental blood sugar.

I searched high and low and ended up right where I started.

Eggcellent.

One of the MANY things I LOVE about eggs is that I can make them in a big batch. Typically, I cook up a 5 serving egg scramble Sunday night and that serves as my breakfast #1 for the workweek. Each serving of my scrambled eggs consists of 1 whole egg and 3 egg whites, which I season up with S&P, Red Pepper Flakes, and some Franks Red Hot.

I was feeling lazy Sunday night, so I ended up pushing back the egg-makin til Monday night this week. After work I headed to the grocery store to get the goods. I typically have some roasted broccoli alongside my eggs, but made a last-minute produce aisle decision to use up some of the frozen veggies in the freezer instead.

Low and behold I didn’t have any frozen veggies (dangit). You know, I actually think this was co-worker karma come back to haunt me. Recently, I discovered that roasted broccoli heated up in the community microwave makes the ENTIRE floor smell like butt. Apparently, I was oblivious to this smell for the last 9 months… Whoops! I guess it’s just pay back for those afternoon snackers who always burn their popcorn in the microwave leaving us with a 3pm funk. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! ;)

Luckily, I had 1 lonely large potato on hand (leftover from my Zuppa Tosacana). Eggs and potatoes. Can’t go wrong with that!

I tossed the potato into a bowl and seasoned it up with a drizzle of EVOO, some S&P, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper:

Then I popped them into a 400 degree oven for about 30 minutes to get their roast on. Once everything was done cooking, i evenly divided the goods up into four containers:

Tuesday through Friday B#1:

Now repeat 52 times and you have B#1 for the whole year… hahahah

QUESTION OF THE DAY: What are your go-to workday breakfasts?

N’awlins – part deaux

Posted on October 16, 2010 by Fervent Foodie

Day deaux in New Orleans started off as any vacation day should: A HUGE breakfast of course.

We woke up bright and early Err… we headed to breakfast at 11:30…. whatev. Our destination was the Old Coffee Pot Restaurant in the French Quarter.

To our surprise, Guy Fieri had just been to the restaurant last month! How cool!

The best part of the restaurant (in my opinion) was the AWESOME courtyard, which had a really intricate mural painted on all the walls.

Gentleman admiring the view:

The service was incredibly slow :-/ but I just had to keep reminding myself to take it easy. I’m used to a much faster pace of life than they have down here, that’s for sure. We were able to get some mimosas pretty quickly, so that helped to turn my frown upside down –>

For breakfast we decided on splitting the Creole eggs and potatoes:

And some creole pancakes with mashed bananas:

Jarrod REALLY liked both of the dishes:

I wasn’t real excited about them though. The banana pancakes were super tasty, just too sweet for my breakfast tooth. And I was really caught off guard by the creole sauce. I expected something spicy, but it turned out to taste more like spaghetti sauce! We decided I was thinking of cajun sauce. Hopefully I can score some cajun food in my belly this weekend

After breakfast, we walked around the French quarter:

We spotted Cafe Du Monde, which was one on my MUST-VISIT places… but since we were still full from breakfast, we didn’t stop.

Then we walked along the Mississippi River

Until we reached the Aquarium! Neither of us have ever been to an Aquarium before, so we were pretty pumped to check it out!

I soon realized it’s incredibly difficult to capture good pictures of an fish in an aquarium!

Jarrod checking out the fishies:

This one makes me laugh every time I look at it

There were two really AWESOME parts of the aquarium. First, was getting to touch sting rays:

Isn’t that out of this world??

In Jarrod’s words, the sting rays were “creepishly smooth.” I didn’t believe him til i mustered up the courage to touch one as well. After several missed attempts, I was able to brush my hand across one of the stingray’s backs. I immediately flung my arm from the water, squealed like a child, and ran over to Jarrod with my hand stuck out it front of me and a look of fright on my face. Hahaha.. I’m fairly certain I scared all the children waiting in line for their turns. What can you expect though, those things really are freakishly smooth!

The second BEST part of the aquarium was one of the final rooms on the tour that had a floor to ceiling GIGANTIC aquarium with HUGE fish, sharks, and turtles:

I could have sat in here for HOURS! So relaxing.

After the aquarium, we did some more site seeing and then stopped at the Crescent City Brewhouse for a drink:

Even though neither of us are beer drinkers, we both thought the fermentation tanks were pretty cool!

Next stop: Johnny Po-Boys for lunch!

We split the chicken po-boy and the shrimp po-boy:

Then headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep! First stop on the dinner path was Pat O’briens Courtyard:

This picture really doesn’t do the courtyard any justice (darn night time pictures). Just trust me that it was AMAZING.

For dinner we split the sampler, which consisted of Jambalaya, Chicken and Sausage Gumbo, and Red beans and rice:

This was hands-down our best meal to date in New Orleans. My favorite was the jambalaya, and Jarrod’s favorite was the gumbo. Don’t worry, we wolfed down the red beans and rice too

After dinner, we made a much anticipated return to Cafe Du Monde!

I have been waiting to try these Beignets (French doughnuts) for MONTHS.

That is an extreme amount of powdered sugar! Ready to dive in!

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These beignets were so hot and friggin delicious. Heaven in my mouth I kid you not. We may have to make another stop at Cafe Du Monde this weekend

After hitting up a few local establishments, we headed to the Casino to get our gamble on. I was feeling lucky, so I popped $5 into a 2 cent slot machine. About 5 minutes later, I decided to pull my money out:

Don’t worry, I lost the remaining 40 cents on a penny slot a few minutes later.

Jarrod nearly lost his $10, but luckily he hit the jackpot on his last spin and was able to get his total up to $9.94!

Given that I didn’t pay for any of my drinks, and that I got to keep the 94 cents because Jarrod hates having change in his pockets, I’d say I came out the TRUE winner this evening