a bean counter's food blog
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
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
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:
Helloooooo cheesy meaty goodness!
Continuing on with my Cooking Light recipe rampage, the other night I cooked up some of the Cheesy Meat Loaf Minis featured in a recent issue of the magazine.
Super simple to throw together, and really really friggin tasty.
First up, I measured out all my ingredients like the oober organized little cook that I am (see the list at the bottom of the post).
Here are the goods:
I decided to go with New York style white cheddar cheese. I can’t say that I’ve ever tried that type of cheese before, but holy cow (no pun intended) is it delicious!
Cheeeesseeeeeee 🙂
Next up I sautéed the onion and garlic… The recipe called for 1/2 cup onion and 2 cloves garlic. Of course we all know that means you are actually supposed to use 1 whole cup of onion and no less than 3 cloves garlic.
Naturally.
The recipe also called for toasting of the breadcrumbs… Just be careful not to burn them! (AKA I burnt my first.. and second batch… dangit!)
Once the onions were nice and soft and the bread crumbs were toasty, I tossed all the goodies into a bowl along with 11 ounces of 90% ground sirloin.
Why do I always feel the need to include pics of the raw meat on my blog?
Good question…
This batch made 3 mini meatloaves, one of which I had for dinner along with some steamed broccoli with lemon juice:
This picture makes me start salivating uncontrollably….
Apparently, my body has been secretly feigning for a little red meat in its life!
Mmmmmgghhhhhhhhhh……
Meat.
Stats on 1 mini cheesy meatloafy: 350 calories, 19g carbs, 17g fat (red meat, folks), 29g protein, 1g fiber
Mini Cheesy Meatloaves Ingredients List (serves 3)
Speaking of droolworthy, I went to El Jalapenos in Barberton for dinner this evening and got a seriously amazing chicken fajita salad. I literally did not stop to drink, speak, or breathe from the moment it hit the table. Check out the insanely huge burrito my friend Allison got:
Insanity!!!
Can’t believe the weekend is here! Woot!
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:
Talk about a happy accident!
Once I got home from the grocery store, I was on a mission: to make the couscous stuffed chicken featured in this month’s Cooking Light. I had even pre-snipped the recipe out and hung it up at the stove:
Hard core.
I was pretty excited to try this recipe for a few reasons. First, I have a giant tub of Rice Select Tri-Color couscous in my cabinet that has been begging to be used. Second, I love any excuse to use my meat mallet.
Let’s be honest… I like any excuse to type “meat mallet” 
Even though the ingredients list is fairly long the dish came together pretty easy. First, I pounded the chicken breast out to about 1/4 inch thickness and sliced in half. For the couscous mixture, I brought 1/4 cup of fat free low sodium chicken broth to a boil then added 1/4 cup of the couscous. Then you cover the couscous, remove it from the heat, and let it hang out for about 4 minutes.
Then add in the flava:
The Cooking Light recipe called for olives (BLEGH!) and olive oil, which I omitted and instead subbed in sundried tomatoes and spinach. Divide the couscous mixture between your chicken breast halves:
And them roll them up jelly roll style…. Easy right?
Ummm not so much. I had a couscous blow out and half of the filling fell out! So, I went with my guts and seared the chicken on all sides, then plopped into a baking dish and kind of mashed the extra couscous mix on top of the chicken.
Then I popped it into a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.
And VOILA!
Couscous crusted chicken!
The couscous got a little crispy in the oven, and it reminded me a lot of breaded chicken!
Of course I had a salad on the side.
Overall, the couscous crusted chicken idea is AMAZING. Now I just need to come up with some sort of sauce to go along side… Hmmmmm……
Stats on 1/2 of the Couscous Crusted Chicken Recipe: 203 calories, 16g carbs, 4g fat, 26g protein, 1g fiber
Couscous Crusted Chicken Ingredients List (Serves 2)