Meatless Mondays: Spinach and Parmesan Souffles

The week before we left town on vacation, I was trying my hardest to use up my pantry and refrigerator staples without having to buy more ingredients that may go bad before I had a chance to use them. The meals of that week, as a result, were some surprisingly tasty and innovative dishes, which I am proudly going to be sharing with you in coming days. First up is these Spinach and Parmesan Souffles.

My latest copy of Cooking Light featured several different types of souffle, most of them sweet souffles. While they all sound delicious, and are on my list of things to try, I zeroed in right away on the one savory offering. This one sounded so good, and I had all the ingredients in my house, so I decided to make it for dinner one evening. I figured a side salad and some bread would round out this meal nicely.

This was my first souffle, and I was extremely pleased with the results. There seem to be a few secrets to a successful souffle, which the article in the magazine detailed nicely. The first important step is to coat your individual serving dishes, or ramekins, with something that will allow the egg mixture to cling easily to the sides of the dish and to climb up. In some cases, a sprinkling of sugar may suffice, but for these savory souffles it was breadcrumbs that did the trick. It allows the mixture to rise beautifully, while adding another layer of flavor as well.

The next step is to allow the egg whites to come to room temperature before beating them. Make sure no yolk gets mixed in with the whites; they won't rise otherwise. When beating the egg whites, you want to get them to medium, not stiff, peaks. When you lift a beater straight up in the air, the egg whites should stand at a 45 degree angle, not at 90 degrees.

Finally, the incorporation of the egg whites into the rest of the mixture should be done by gently folding. You don't want to mix vigorously; this will deflate your whites and decrease the lift of your finished product. A great technique when folding ingredients is to scrape the spatula along the bottom of the bowl, then turning the bowl a quarter turn and scraping down along the botton again. Repeat this until the mixture looks uniform.

As you can see, following these steps to the letter results in a pillowy, light, airy souffle that rises high above the rim of the ramekin. You'll want to present and eat them fairly quickly once they are out of the oven; they do deflate dramatically after about 5 minutes.

Not only do these souffles look impressive, they taste wonderful. They are tangy from the Parmesan, with those delicious ribbons of spinach running throughout, and the eggs form a lovely crust on top while being almost impossibly soft inside. I was thrilled with my first souffles, and I do hope you'll give them a try, too. They are so much easier than you think they are!

Spinach and Parmesan Souffles
adapted from Cooking Light
makes 4 souffles

Ingredients
Cooking spray
1 1/2 Tbsp. dry breadcrumbs
1 (6-ounce) package fresh baby spinach
2/3 cup milk (I used 2%)
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (2 ounces) freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 large egg yolks
4 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

Directions
1. Place a baking sheet in the oven. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Coat 4 (6-ounce) ramekins with cooking spray; sprinkle evenly with breadcrumbs, tilting and turning dishes to coat sides completely.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lightly coat pan with cooking spray. Add spinach; cook for 2 minutes or until spinach wilts, tossing constantly. Place spinach in a colander; let stand 5 minutes. Squeeze excess liquid from spinach. Coarsely chop spinach.

3. Combine 2/3 cup milk and the next 4 ingredients (through black pepper) in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring with a whisk until smooth. Cook for 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and bubbly, stirring constantly. Spoon mixture into a large bowl, and let stand for 10 minutes. Stir in spinach, cheese, and egg yolks.

4. Combine egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl, and let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Beat with a mixer at high speed until medium peaks form (do not overbeat). Gently stir one-fourth of egg whites into spinach mixture, and gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Gently spoon mixture into prepared dishes. Sharply tap dishes 2 or 3 times on counter to level.

5. Place dishes on preheated baking sheet; return baking sheet to 425 degree oven. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees; bake souffles at 350 for 21-24 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown on top. Serve immediately.

CEIMB: L.O.V.E. Wrap Sandwich

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly was a very simple, yet totally delicious, wrap sandwich. Ellie calls it the L.O.V.E. Wrap because it contains lettuce (L), onion (O), veggies (V), and egg (E). Plus, it makes quite a "love"-able sandwich, so the name does fit. This week's selection was made by Joanne of Apple Crumbles.



I assembled the ingredients for this wrap gradually, leisurely. I hard-boiled the eggs the day before we were to eat then, and chopped the bell peppers and onions early as well. I set aside just enough egg for my husband's wrap, and I mashed his together with the mayo and mustard. Since I normally cannot stomach mustard, unless it is totally mixed into something, and mayo makes me kinda sick, I just opted to eat my egg sandwich sans dressing. I didn't mind this at all; in fact, I sort of appreciated the simplicity. However, my husband raved about his mayo/mustard/egg mixture! So forgive me for not being able to speak from personal experience, but I do trust his opinion. So it was really good!

Thanks to Joanne for the quick, easy pick this week! I will definitely be keeping this one in mind when Easter rolls around, and I have more hard-boiled eggs than I know what to do with. If you'd like the recipe, it's on Food Network's site, here. For the CEIMB blogroll, click here.

Spaghetti Carbonara

I have my ever-changing opinions about Rachael Ray. Sometimes she drives me nuts. Sometimes I feel indifferent to her. Other times, like the other night when I made this Spaghetti Carbonara, I feel grateful to her. After all, it was only after watching her on The Food Network about 4 years ago that I became inspired to learn how to cook, once and for all. She seemed so passionate about cooking, and wanted to share that enthusiasm with her audience. Nowadays, I'm every bit as enthusiastic as she seemed to be when I first watched her. I love talking food, I love making food, and of course, I love eating food!

This Carbonara is one of the very first Rachael Ray recipes I had ever made. I had never eaten Carbonara before, but her way seemed very simple and quick, which I loved about it. The first time we did try this, I was in pasta heaven. As I have professed plenty of times, I just adore pasta, and eggs are right up there with it. Put them together, and you have a winner in my book.

Rachael's method goes like this: cook up some pasta, and then cook some pancetta in oil (which I think is redundant; I mean, why would you cook fatty pork products in oil?). Throw in your crushed red pepper, garlic, and white wine to deglaze the pan. Then, you temper 2 egg yolks by adding a bit of hot pasta water to them. This allows you to add in the egg yolks without cooking the egg to a scramble. You toss the pasta with the bacon and oil, then pour the yolks in and toss very well to heat the eggs through and make them almost creamy. So simple, so delicious! Throw on some grated cheese and parsley, and you have dinner!

I made my most recent version more of a one-dish dinner by adding a healthy handful of peas and fresh spinach. All the major food groups were represented here! I also used bacon in place of pancetta, because I think we just like the flavor of bacon a bit more. Instead of frying the bacon in oil, I baked it up in the oven, crumbled it, and then added it to the pan just before the garlic and red pepper. This would be great with shredded chicken, or shrimp, and I've seen Carbonara made with cream and other luxurious ingredients, too. For my money, this version just can't be beat. It's one of those back-pocket recipes that I've made countless times, thus negating my desire to never make the same meal twice. It's that good!


Spaghetti Carbonara
adapted from Rachael Ray
makes 4-6 servings

Ingredients
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 lb. spaghetti
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 lb. bacon
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
5 or 6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1 large handful fresh spinach (frozen can be used; just thaw and drain well)
2 large egg yolks
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional, I omitted)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place bacon strips on a cooling rack that has been set over an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 17-20 minutes, until bacon has fully cooked. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate, and then chop once cool enough to handle.

2. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water, add the spaghetti, and cook according to the package directions. Before draining water, reserve 1 cup of pasta liquid.

3. While the spaghetti cooks, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and chopped bacon; heat for 2 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and garlic and cook 2 to 3 minutes more. Add the wine to deglaze the pan and loosen any bits from the bottom of the pan.

4. In a small bowl, beat the yolks, then add about 1/2 cup reserved pasta water. This tempers the eggs and keeps them from scrambling when added to the pasta.

5. Drain pasta well and add it directly to the skillet with bacon and oil. Add the peas and spinach and allow them to heat through. Pour the egg mixture over the pasta. Toss rapidly to coat the pasta without cooking the egg. Remove pan from heat and add a big handful of cheese, plenty of pepper, and a little salt. Continue to toss and turn the pasta until it soaks up the egg mixture and thickens, 1 to 2 minutes. Garnish with parsley, if desired, and extra cheese.

CEIMB: Spaghetti Frittata with Salad Presto

As much as I love being in the kitchen, and as fun as it can be to make a complicated, elaborate meal for my family, sometimes it's great to have an old standby recipe like this one. For this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe, chosen by Marthe of Culinary Delights, I made Spaghetti Frittata with Salad Presto. Both recipes can be found in Ellie's So Easy book; they're listed on facing pages, and they're meant to be served together to make a full meal.

We love frittatas around these parts; they make frequent appearances on our breakfast table on the weekends. The thing is, they're usually prepared by my husband, and not by me. When I am in charge of breakfast, we end up with muffins, pancakes, waffles. You know, something nice and carb-y! When the hubs makes the food, however, we will more often than not eat eggs of some kind, preferably with bacon or sausage on the side. It's nice; we balance each other out that way!

Anyhow, I knew I could definitely use the practice with my frittata-making abilities, so I was happy to make this for dinner and give Andy a break. I was really excited for this one. Come on: pasta, eggs, cheese, sundried tomatoes, and spinach, just to name a few ingredients. There was no way I was not gonna love this! It's like comfort food on top of comfort food to me. It's full of flavor, it's very filling, and it doesn't take much effort to get it on the table. The salad is almost ridiculously simple, so it made a great counterpart to the egg/pasta dish. I was able to whip this together in no time flat, and it was gobbled up almost as fast.

So, thank you, Marthe! We loved this meal, and I already told my husband to move over, because there's a new frittata-maker in town! I intend to make this one over and over again. I can't wait to try this with different variations thrown in. I think it would be great with so many things added; just let your imagination run wild!

The original recipes can be found here and here. And of course, the CEIMBers' various interpretations of these recipes can be found by checking out the blogroll, here.

Potato, Sausage, and Egg Breakfast Casserole

I just love making breakfast casseroles. We eat them for breakfast, lunch, dinner, doesn't matter. They're good any time, they're great to eat as leftovers, and you can pretty much throw anything but the kitchen sink into them and they're still bound to turn out perfectly. I used this particular casserole recipe when I was just trying to use up some different ingredients I had lying around.

It includes some standard breakfast casserole staples: potatoes, green and red bell peppers, onions, and cheddar cheese. The vegetables were cooked until soft (the potatoes were parboiled and the peppers and onions were sauteed) and then tossed into an 8x8 baking dish. Then, the undisputed star of the dish is added: chicken sausage.

According to one of my sons, the sausage was the best part of the meal. I think I have to agree. I've never made a casserole like this with the precooked, sometimes flavored chicken sausage you can buy so readily in the grocery stores these days. It was really delicious. The kind I happened to use this time was sun-dried tomato and provolone, but certainly any flavor would be great. I debated whether to pre-cook them before adding them to the baking dish, but since they come already cooked when packaged I figured I'd be safe. I just chopped two links of sausage into manageable pieces, added them to my pan of onions and peppers while they were sauteeing, and then took the pan off the heat once the sausages were warmed through.

Then came some shredded cheddar cheese, and finally lightly beaten eggs were drizzled evenly over the top. The whole concoction was placed in the oven and baked until the eggs were set and fully cooked, about 30 minutes or so. I allowed it to sit for a couple of minutes once it had exited the oven, just to make sure everything was all set up properly inside. I don't know if that step is really necessary, but it worked for me!

This made for a very easy and delicious weeknight dinner for us. It's one of those recipes that could also be assembled at night, and then set in the fridge overnight until you pull it out and bake it in the morning. I cut the recipe it's based on in half, so if you made the full amount it'd be great to feed a crowd. Best of all, there are so many possibilities with this. You could throw in some chopped bacon or ham, leftover chicken, mushrooms or eggplant, or even sweet potato for a nutritious spin on the potato base. Go ahead, try it out! It was so good, even my "picky one" ate it.

Potato, Sausage, and Egg Breakfast Casserole

adapted from Breakfast Casserole III, on allrecipes.com

serves 4-6

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray

3 baking potatoes

2-3 links chicken sausage, any variety, cubed

1 Tbsp. butter

1/2 onion, diced

1/2 green bell pepper, diced

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

1 tsp. seasoning salt

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded (2 oz.)

6 eggs, lightly beaten

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Place the baking potatoes in a medium-sized saucepan, fill the pan with enough water to just cover the potatoes, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down slightly, and cook the potatoes until fork tender, 12 to 15 minutes. Drain the potatoes and cool slightly. Once cool enough to handle, chop the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Add them to a 8x8 baking pan that has been lightly coated with cooking spray.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. While the potatoes are cooking, heat another medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the butter to the saucepan to melt. Once it has melted, add the onions and bell peppers. Cook until the veggies are soft, about 5 minutes. Add in the cubed chicken sausage and continue to cook until the sausages are warmed through, 3-5 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with seasoning salt. Place onion mixture into the baking dish with the potatoes.

3. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top of the vegetables. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs and evenly pour on top of the sausage and veggie mixture. Top with salt and pepper, to taste, and then bake for about 30 minutes or more, until the eggs are set and the cheese is melted and slightly golden brown. (A knife or toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean.) Cool the casserole just slightly, a few minutes, and then cut into wedges and serve.

CEIMB: Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake

This week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe was chosen by Heide of Chez Zero. It was Ellie's Blueberry Almond French Toast Bake, from her book So Easy. Ok, I have to be completely honest here: we did not love this. Not at all. It's a shame, really, because we were looking forward to this one. And it turned out so pretty, too!



Now, there are a couple reasons why I think this did not work out for us, and I would love to try making this again with a few changes. For starters, the bread that I used was way too soft. I know I was supposed to use crusty, or day-old, bread. However, the bread I bought for this was this crazy soft bread that remained soft for three days! I bought it early enough that I thought for sure it would be stale by the time I needed it, but no dice. It's ironic, isn't it? The one time I really wantd my bread to become hard, and it wouldn't! Oh, well.



So that was my biggest problem. The finished product was really soggy, and I just don't like my french toast casseroles to come out that mushy. I like them to be firm and solid on the inside, with a nice crispy crust on the outside. I feel like there were too many eggs in this recipe. If I were to do it all over again, I would not use 8 (8!) whole eggs plus 8 egg whites. Instead I would probably use half that, at least. Both my hubby and I felt like the inner texture of this dish was just weird. It contained both qualities of cooked, soft scrambled eggs and mushy bread all at the same time. The taste itself was not bad, but it wasn't great enough to redeem the whole thing.

One fun thing I should mention, though: I decided to brulee the top, just for kicks. The top turned out to be the best thing about the french toast bake! It was easy; I just removed the dish from the oven when the bake time was complete, and sprinkled it lightly with granulated sugar. I switched the oven to broil and put the dish back in for a few minutes. The top became slightly charred-looking in some spots and extra crispy all over. The almonds got super-toasty, too. I thought it was really tasty, and it's a fun way to finish off a dish like this.

Thanks to Heide for the pick this week. I'm glad I got to try it, success or not. Besides, like I said, I'm now motivated to make this recipe again, but hopefully with improvements! Maybe the other CEIMBers made out better than me; you can check out the blogroll here.

Caramelized Onion, Spinach, and Bacon Quiche

Mmm, quiche. It combines two wonderful things, a pie with an egg dish, to make a great meal that can be enjoyed pretty much any time of day. It took me years to figure out just how much I really love quiche, and I think it's because when I was growing up I didn't care too much for Swiss cheese. Probably all of the quiches I had when I was a kid contained Swiss, so I just dismissed quiche as being just okay.

Now, of course, I realize that 1) Swiss cheese is yummy! and 2) quiche can be made just about any way you can think of, with any ingredients your heart desires. It's versatile like that. And this quiche in particular is, I think, just a fantastic mash-up of flavors and textures.

When I found this recipe online, I was struck by the interesting realization that this Caramelized Onion, Spinach, and Bacon Quiche was made with a refrigerated pizza crust, and not the traditional pie crust. Since I had a pie crust in my fridge and I needed to use it, I decided to forego the pizza crust option, but I tucked it into my back pocket for another day. I just followed the recipe and used pie crust where it said to use dough, and we were good.

What I liked about this quiche was the layering of flavors. You've got a nice layer of spinach, made creamy by sour cream (who knew? Sour cream was such a brilliant addition here, and that's saying a lot because I don't like sour cream unless it's baked into a coffee cake or something.). Then you have a nice, sweet layer of caramelized onions. This is topped by a salty bacon and cheese layer, and then your egg mixture is poured all over the top. One note about the bacon: I used turkey bacon, but the original recipe called for Canadian bacon. I'm sure this would be good no matter what bacon you choose. Obviously, regular old bacon would be the tastiest, but I really liked the turkey variation in this.

Caramelized Onion, Spinach, and Bacon Quiche
adapted from Cooking Light
serves 6

Ingredients
1 refrigerated ready-made pie crust
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp. olive oil
1/2 Tbsp. sugar
1 (10-ounce) package frozen, chopped spinach (thawed, drained, and squeezed dry)
1/4 cup low-fat sour cream
2 Tbsp. minced onion
1 cup evaporated skim milk
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 large egg whites
1 large egg
5-6 slices turkey bacon, cooked and chopped into pieces
1/4 cup (1 ounce) reduced-fat Mexican blend cheese, shredded

Directions
1. Heat a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the olive oil, then the onions. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the sugar, then continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Once the onions have browned and caramelized to your liking, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a 9-inch pie plate, unroll your refrigerated pie crust and flute the edges, if desired. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine the spinach, sour cream, and minced onion. In a medium bowl, combine the evaporated milk, salt, pepper, egg whites, and egg; stir well with a whisk. Stir 1/3 cup milk mixture into spinach mixture. Spoon the spinach mixture into the bottom of the prepared crust. Add the caramelized onions, and top with the bacon and cheese. Pour the remaining milk mixture over the top.

4. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet, and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the mixture looks set enough to remove the baking sheet (otherwise the mixture may leak out into your oven). Take the baking sheet out of the oven, but leave the pie plate in. Bake for another 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let quiche stand 10 minutes before serving.

CEIMB: Southwestern Hash and Eggs

It was nice, for a change, to make this week's Craving Ellie in My Belly recipe for people other than just the boys and I. This time, my mother and father in-law were here to enjoy the food with us! I noticed some other people in the group made this one for a quick dinner; we had ours for breakfast over the weekend.



This turned out to be a big hit at our house! If anyone liked it less than the rest of our household, it would probably be me, and I still really liked it. The only reason I was a little skeptical was because I'm really not a fan of black beans, at least not the texture, or tomatoes when they are whole. Instead of bigger tomatoes, I had purchased little cherry tomatoes, so they burst in the pan while cooking and became all squishy and yummy. In addition, I dislike runny yolks, so I had my fried egg just a little bit more well-done than everybody else.

It turns out the black beans had a similar texture to the potatoes themselves, so I had no real problem with them in this dish. With a big mouthful that contained other things, you hardly noticed they were there. I thought the seasonings were great (everybody else liberally added salt), and it was just perfect with a little hot sauce on top. I could see this totally working as a dinner, as well, but I would probably add some meat just to make it a bit more hearty.

This week's recipe was chosen by Melissa of It's Melissa's Kitchen. Thanks for the fantastic choice! The recipe can be found on Food Network's website, here. Oh, one last thing: I won't be cooking along with the Ellie group next week. I just don't do lamb, and besides I'll have a good friend in town visiting, so I'll be pretty busy. But I'll be back the following week for the pancakes!