Weight Watchers Points Plus Breakfast

So I went to my first meeting last week. Yep, a real Weight Watchers meeting. It's been a while since I did the online thing WITH the meetings, and this time it's going to stick. I'm ashamed to say that I am the heaviest that I have ever been, and it's time for a change. In college I lost almost 50 lbs doing the WW plan, so this time I'm going to keep it all off. The new plan is different--more carb based, which sucks in one respect but in another, it's not half bad. You can eat as many fruits and veggies as you want for 0 points, you have a higher point value than on the old plan, and hopefully it works the same way!

Of course, in doing Weight Watchers, the key to success is still enjoying food, and not thinking of it as a diet. It's a healthy lifestyle. And guess what, kids? I can still eat delicious breakfast foods. In fact, I can make amazing breakfasts for less than 10 points a pop. And still eat cheese. Boo-Ya!

So I've made this omelet twice already because it's REALLY good and only takes about 10 minutes from prep to dine. As well you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of Mexican breakfast. My love for Chilequiles should speak for itself. Of course, tortilla chips would drastically raise the point value of my breakfast, so no mas for now.

Weight Watchers Mexican Omelet

• 3 egg whites beaten
• 1 oz sharp cheddar cheese shredded or sliced (you can lower the point value by using reduced fat, but I don't)
• 3 tablespoons black bean salsa
• 1 medium vine ripened tomato sliced
• 1/3 cup fresh sliced avocado
• sea salt
• ground black pepper

  Pour the beaten egg whites into a small, heated pan sprayed with PAM. Let the egg cook through until the top is almost cooked as well. Then, gently flip the entire egg. Add the cheese to one side of the round egg, and fold the other half over the cheese. Slide the omelet onto a plate with the sliced tomatoes, garnish with salsa and avocado. Then sprinkle the tomatoes with sea salt and black pepper. Voila! Breakfast is served.
Weight Watchers Points Plus Value: 7

The best part about my little weight watcher's omelet is that this will fill me up for a decent amount of time. I won't be hungry until lunch. And worst case scenario, if I am hungry, I can eat an apple or two without wasting any points at all. I call that a win.

Breakfast Sandwiches

Dear faithful viewers,

I have not been very dedicated to this blog. I have spent a  great deal of time writing for my work blog at ImIn. Of course, I haven't forgotten about the breakfast love. So I thought that this morning, I would post about one of my favorite things in this world:

The Breakfast Sandwich

Oh yes. I had one this morning (A Dunkin Donuts Turkey Sausage Flatbread is only 7 points in the Weight Watchers World--more about that later). It was sort of tasty (not going to lie...the flatbread tastes like cardboard.)

I've decided to inform you of my top orders at my main breakfast locations for the almighty breakfast sandwich.

In no particular order, here goes.

• Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Biscuit with the Round Egg instead of the Folded Egg at McDonald's
• The folded egg is gross. I don't know what they do to that thing, but it is not real eggy goodness
• I sometimes switch this up with the (Sausage McMuffin on a Biscuit instead of an English Muffin)
• Bacon, Egg, and Sun-dried Tomato Cream Cheese on Spinach Florentine Bagel at Einstein Brothers
• Occasionally switched up with Six Cheese Bagel or Asiago Bagel. *drool*
• Turkey Sausage Egg White with cheese on a Croissant at Dunkin Donuts
• Also delicious with additional meat (preferrably back, as they sometimes over cook the sausage)
• Bacon, Egg, and Giardinara Cream Cheese on a Jalapeno Egg Bagel from Jake's Bagels (Aurora)
• Dude this thing is massive. You'll need a fork and knife
• Bacon, Egg, and Cheddar on a Cinnamon Crunch Bagel from Panera
• I occasionally add extra bacon
• This thing is life changing, I swear
• Chicken Apple Sausage, Egg, and Cheese from Caribou Coffee
• No modifications necessary--It's that good

So those are just a few on the list of my breakfast sandwich joys, but try them out. Taaaaasty.  Of course I'm totally missing Potbelly breakfast--they had a pretty tasty breakfast sandwich as well. Wendy's did a terrible job in their brief stint with breakfast. Burger King needs to change the egg that they use. Gross. White Castle is barely edible (but remind me to tell you about homemade White Castle breakfast.

Enjoy!

Traditional Breakfast

My Breakfast: Eggs Over Medium, Ham off the Bone, and a Bagel with Giardinara Cream Cheese

The traditional breakfast consists of eggs, a starch, and meat. I covered all of the important food groups this morning with double protein (eggs & ham), starch (egg bagel), dairy (cream cheese), and fruit/veggie (OJ).

My breakfast was delightful, and I was super proud of the eggs, especially. I managed to cook them pretty darn perfectly. I thought it was kind of funny, though. I'm always spouting off on Yelp about how restaurants do or do not know how to properly poach an egg, and I rarely poach my own eggs anymore. I think it's faster sometimes not to, but it's just amusing that I'm such a poached egg elitist and I barely do it myself.

I really have to tell you about that ham, because it rocks. Ham off the Bone comes in the deli meat section, right next to your Oscar Mayer, Budding, and Hillshire Farms. It's in a little Tupperware looking container with a yellow lid. The BEST pre-packaged deli ham for your money. It tastes like that deliciously spiral cooked ham. It's awesome. Trust me. Just try this stuff.

The bagel is from Dominick's--my all time favorite grocery store. God, I love that place. Plus the bagels are always fresh and relatively inexpensive.

The cream cheese is from Jake's Bagels & Deli. I love this place, and get excited when I have to drop the BF off at the train, as it is conveniently located across the street. I feel super guilty that my bagel breakfast isn't from my favorite bagel shop when the cream cheese is (oh irony, you dirty devil, you), but I'm trying to pay off a credit card bill, and it was either get bagels or cream cheese...and Thursday I went with cream cheese. I love love love their Giardinara cream cheese, the salsa cream cheese, and I just tried the seasonal pecan swirl cream cheese. Oh wow. It's like dessert. Bring on the graham crackers.  I was a little sad to see the pumpkin cream cheese go, but hello, pecan swirl. :)

Sun-dried Tomato & Basil Chicken Sausage with Eggs

I know, I know, it's quite a mouthful, but so so delicious! I had this really tasty sun-dried tomato and basil chicken sausage that I bought at Woodmans. I sliced it up into small pieces, and nuked it. I was in a rush this morning, don't knock my methods! The nuker is designed to make things easier and more convenient. Then I topped the tasty sausage pieces with some shredded Romano cheese, as you know how I feel about cheese. I nuked it a little longer for melty goodness. I made some delightfully over-medium eggs to top my meaty cheesy goodness with, and voila! Breakfast!

Of course, I had a few mishaps...

I may have overcooked the sausage just a teensy bit. It still tasted delish. Also, I had mad issues with the eggs this morning. they wouldn't flip right, so it was just a big ole mess. Both eggs broke in the pan before I could put them on to the sausage. Of course, they still had some gooey goodness, but they didn't look pretty enough for a picture.

Guess I should have used PAM. ;-)

Chilequiles Are My Favorite Breakfast

 

Can I just say that this was pretty much a fiesta in my mouth. Fiesta. The flavors. The colors. The fun! 

Seriously, I savored every last bite of my newest creation. 

So, this morning, I did a mental inventory of what ingredients were available in the bf's kitchen. As always, chips and pico (a staple in this house) were among my options...

Chilequiles it is! 

I used the Tostitos Hint of Jalapeno for a little extra flavor in my breakfast (like I actually needed it). I softened them up in a pan with some of the pico (and all of the juice from the pico). Then, I put them on the plate, added some horseradish havarti and some queso crumble cheese (yum!). I melted the cheese on top in the microwave for 30 seconds. I cooked up some eggs over medium (I have seriously been having problems with cooking eggs lately! They kept sticking to the pan...I'm going to go buy some PAM and see what happens. 

I put the eggs on top of the cheesy tortilla chips, diced half an avocado on top, added the rest of the pico, and as a final garnish, a small dollop of light sour cream. I also used some medium garlic salsa (like I needed more flavor). 

Let's just say I was a happy breakfaster this morning.

Apple and Swiss Egg White Omelet with Walnuts

 

So, after two mornings of cold Chinese food for breakfast (taking one out of the BF's breakfast book), I decided it was time for a real breakfast. But what to eat...

After trolling the fridge, I happened upon Amish Baby Swiss, from the Cheese People, of course and apples. These two delightful items happen to go very well together on a regular basis...so I thought to myself, this is a brilliant plan.

I busted out the eggs, and decided on an egg white omelet with apples and Swiss cheese. I chopped the apples into small pieces and shredded the cheese. Let's just say I was very generous with that cheese... :)
I then scrambled up the egg whites (and I cheated a little bit with just a smidge of yolk.)

Then I heated up a non-stick pan with some cooking spray (I don't trust non-stick pans) and tossed in the apples for a little warming. I poured in my egg mixture and let the magic happen.

After a few mishaps with not so perfect omelet gone scrambled eggs, I decided that I'd use this sneaky little trick I learned about omelets. After it was mostly cooked, instead of flipping the whole thing over, I piled on the cheese into half of the flat egg, folded it over, laid it on a plate, and.... I nuked it. Yeah, I put it in the microwave to ensure melted cheese and fully cooked egg... It tastes great that way, I promise. After nuking the omelet, I added a few more apple pieces to the top for garnish.

While I was taking my initial picture of breakfast, I thought to myself, I should add something and I wished I had a little rosemary to garnish it with. But I didn't. So instead, I added some walnuts to my delightful omelet of joy. It was, to say the least, happiness. The walnuts were an excellent decision. Overall, two thumbs up. Fine breakfast fun. I love a good omelet. :)

 

Hangover Breakfast

 "And last but not least, the wonderful crew at McDonald's for spending hours making those Egg McMuffins, without which I might never be tardy." -Travis Clueless

So last night was a bit rough on my system...Thanks to a six pack of Grimbergen (*drool*), a Blue Moon, aaaand an Oktoberfest...Whoops. Woke up this morning to rain, rain, rain...and wanted to go back to sleep. Unfortunately hangover won't let me sleep until I've consumed some water, some advil, and some breakfast.

Cue McDonald's for the catchall cure-all. I have a general plan of attack when it comes to hangovers. If I'm totally nauseated, then I bring in the big guns with Alkaseltzer morning relief. Otherwise, I go straight for McDonald's Breakfast. I know I know. Bad...but so so good! There's a non-essential amino acid in eggs (cysteine) that breaks down the toxins that cause the hangover. Also containing this substance is pork (mmmm insert sausage McMuffin with egg here) so your hangover is on the way to recovery with this happy breakfast. Although greasy food doesn't actually help hangovers, I always seem in better spirits the morning after drinking with a nice crispy hash brown...or two... In college it was always about those delicious potato triangles (sometimes dipped in liquid cheese sauce...I know sounds gross...but come on...it was college).

If the McD's breakfast ceases to work or isn't your thing, bring out the big guns with a vanilla frozen custard shake from Culver's. It helps. Really. I can't explain why, though I think it has something to do with that cysteine stuff again...


Regardless, I had a delightfully bad for me breakfast, and I'm okay with that.

Breakfast Recap

Sorry kids! It's been awhile since I've had time to write for my own blog...you know getting paid to write the ImIn.com blog kinda takes a lot of my writing time...Then there's my new obsession with Yelp reviews.. You can check my breakfast section for reviews of tasty and not-so-tasty morning meal eateries. I've been doing a lot of McDonald's breakfast, thanks to Monopoly: Both McMuffins, hashbrowns, and medium drinks are all on the game piece list....So of course I make the occasional breakfast visit.

This morning was pretty rockstar breakfast though. Now that I'm on a limited budget (Oh yeah, I got T-boned by a freaking doe on Monday night...and have a $1000 deductible), I have to spend well...nothing most of the time. So no more McD's for a while...maybe ;-)  So I did an egg scramble with egg whites, red potatoes, horseradish and chive havarti (thanks to-you guessed it- Rick and the Cheese People of Beloit, and called it a meal of JOY.

Another choice meal that I created for the bf and bestie, A last weekend:

Italian Breakfast scramble with canadian bacon, tuscan herb cheese curds (Thanks again Rick!), fresh basil, and topped with a drizzle of the tomato soup I made from scratch with the recipe from Alex's Day Off. I changed a few things (I added fresh basil chiffonade, and used white wine instead of vermouth. We also didn't do the melty cheese because we had grilled cheese and steak sammiches. Yum Yum Yum.)

I promise I'll stay motivated and write more. I will I will.

Italian Breakfast Scramble

Tuscan cheese curds. In my eggs? Delicious? You don't say. Well, you don't, because you don't know. You. Don't. Even. Know. But I do. And it rocked. Om nom nom. So I started with some fresh chopped red onion (a staple in the fridge) and sliced grape tomatoes from the Aurora Farmer's Market (also a staple in the fridge). Let it heat up in a pan. The add 3 egg whites, and let that cook up for a bit. Mix it up, top it with the Tuscan cheese curds, and garnish (yes, I said garnish) it with a fresh chiffonade of basil and voila! Breakfast is served.

The cheese curds, obviously from The Cheese People of Beloit, purchased at the aforementioned market...yum yum yum. Have you ever cooked relatively fresh cheese curds? Still freaking squeakin' in my dang mouth. Holy delightfulness, Batman!

I've had some pretty great breakfasts this past week, but haven't had time to log them all. Let's just say that the cheese and I are gettin' pretty creative in the kitchen. And I'm sure that you'll hear all about some of my tasty treats eventually when I remake/perfect them. *drool*

In other news, yesterday's breakfast was a homage to McDonald's Monopoly, which of course, I'm not too thrilled with...they changed the game on me. and there were kinks in the system. and it was un-fun. But last year, I won a $50 gas card to Shell...so I'll keep playing. Gotta get my SASE ready for mailin'! In case you're wondering, here is the list of breakfast items to get your grubby little hands on game pieces:

medium drink
McCafe bevs (smoothies and frappes, but not coffee!)
Egg McMuffin
Sausage McMuffin with Egg
Hashbrowns (2 for $1.49, people)
Oatmeal

I'm thrilled that I don't have to get any of the strange breakfast sandwiches and I can enjoy a less than terrible for me egg McMuffin of joy.

Breakfast Wrap

Last night, headed to dinner with V. So this morning, I had a bunch of leftover Flat Top food...the girl gave us a ton of roti bread to take home with our entree (apparently, you can take the food home for an extra couple of bucks (like $2.50 more than the unlimited trips price). That's a $2.50 lunch. sweet.

Clearly, I love turning my leftovers into amazing breakfast concoctions. It's one of my favorite ways to get creative with my breakfast. There are very few things that aren't improved upon with cheese or eggs. Very few. By the way, just wait until one day I tell you about my White Castle breakfast scramble. It's a heart attack on your plate but MAN is it good! One day, my friends. One day.

So, for breakfast, I took one of the roti breads, nuked it for 30 seconds with a little bit of water so it doesn't dry out. Then I topped it with my egg scramble. The egg scramble consisted of Mom's homemade giardinara (which by the way is a little like a spicy muffaletta with peppers, olives, celery, carrots, olive oil, and spices), turkey ham and 1 egg. The flavor combination was outstanding. I wrapped the scramble into the roti and ate the delightful breakfast like an Asian-Italian taco (talk about fusion cuisine!)

Overall, it was a really delicious breakfast, and I highly recommend you try something to the likeness of this joyous breakfast combination. More tasty early morning meals to come!

Have a great day, kids!

Grilled Cheese and Eggs

Imagine for a second this delightful menu item:

Gruyere, aged cheddar, mozzarella, Brie, roasted tomato concassé, fried
shallots, candied bacon confetti melted in parmesan crusted sourdough

Now imagine it open face with an egg on top. Yep. Pretty f*ing delicious. Excuse my language, but it was truly that delicious. Last night we ventured to Lady Gregory's for an awesome dinner and drinks. You can check my review at Yelp for the tasty experience that it was.

So this morning, I nuked it (got the cheese all melty and the bread all soft) and topped it with the aforementioned egg for an amazing breakfast.

Yesterday's breakfast was an Irish breakfast, as I spent the morning watching my first Irish football game at Gaelic Park with the bf and fam. This game is intense, btw. It's like football and soccer and rugby combined...hardcore fans and unpaid athletes. That's dedication!

Anyways...breakfast....eggs, potatoes, bacon, bangers, black pudding, white pudding, and Irish soda bread. I only nibbled on the bf's breakfast (basically, at the meaty stuff), as I had a baby shower to attend, but man it was good. For those of you who don't know...

Bangers= Irish breakfast sausage. Creamier than your standard breakfast sausage. Super yum.
Black pudding= Blood sausage that's been deep fried.
White pudding= Oatmeal sausage.

All of them are delicious and you should try them at least once.

Tastes Like Potato Pancakes!

The fine Cheese People of Beloit have yet again brought me another delicious cheesy breakfast concoction. Actually two.

On Wednesday, I made a delightful ham and baby Amish Swiss (of course from those brilliant cheesemongers of Wisconsin) egg white scramble. It was fast easy and undeniable delish. plus, with my light cran-raspberry juice, breakfast was only 6 points on the Weight Watchers scale. (Three egg whites is a whopping one whole point!)

Yesterday was cold pizza for breakfast, which doesn't have quite as much of a healthy eating ring to it, but cold pizza for breakfast rocks! I've been eating cold pizza as breakfast food since high school...and it's always there in all of its delicious glory. Dad and I had Roundheads the night before, so it was tasty pizza. The only prob was that there were a few too many onions and I had to swipe those puppies off due to my unnatural fear of botulism, which can be caused by eating leftover onions. (Usually only once they've been left sitting out, reheated, yadda yadda yadda...but I don't care about the fine print. Hence UNNATURAL fear.)

This morning was the best , though. With another delightful cheese from the Cheese People (a caraway seed gouda), I created a breakfast treat that I'm still day dreaming about. Frozen hash brown potatoes, a little ham, this amazing cheese, and 3 egg whites made an awesome potatoe-y scramble that seriously tasted like cheesy potato pancakes with eggs on top. YUM-O.  I was incredibly happy with my breakfast choice, and I highly recommend you check these guys out.

How to Reheat Restaurant Pancakes

yeah, sounds simple enough, but really...you don't even know. Our waitress at Honey Jam suggested that we make PB and J sandwiches out of them instead of trying to reheat...It sounded pretty tasty...Cute...if I were 10...As an adult, I want pancakes. With syrup. And Butter.

So here I am, in all of my breakfast glory, to tell you how to properly reheat restaurant pancakes for a fast and easy delicious breakfast of JOY.

Step 1: Butter. Layer the pancakes with a couple shavings of real butter (none of that fake crap).

Step 2: Syrup. You can use real or light...though the real is going to offer you a more decadent pancake. I'm just saying. layer that as well. You want the pancakes to soak in this delish sticky stuff.

Step 3: Nuker. Pup that baby in the microwave until the butter melts. Usually between 45 seconds and a minute for perfectly hot and soft pancakes.

My breakfast rocked. Left over Honey Jam Pancakes.

Saturday was another yummy Honey Jam experience with best friend, TBC.
Sunday was a Yelp-worthy experience that you can read about here. Let's just say disappointment at breakfast time sucks.

Apricot Brie and Egg White Omelet

This morning, yet another well-timed, perfectly made omelet of joy. I'm getting really good at this. (I remember when I was a kid and would try to make an omelet and end up with eggs EVERYWHERE from trying to flip the damn thing over in the pan. I now realize that the trick to making a perfect omelet is letting it cook mostly through before flipping and adding ingredients...In order to do that without burning the egg part, you have to let the uncooked egg slide under the cooked part, thus never crisping the outer egg. Then flip. Then add ingredients. Then fold. It's that simple.)

I use egg whites when I make omelets, because why use the extra cholesterol, when I'm not really going to taste the yolky goodness anyways. I reserve my yolk eating for when its runny and delicious. :D

So the cheese obviously came from my friends at The Cheese People of Beloit (where I buy my cheese at the Aurora Farmer's Market on Saturday mornings--YUM!) A tasty brie layered with a light hint of apricot (and I believe almonds). Awesome happy goodness.

The rest of the week was tamale from the farmer's market, Honey Jam, Juicy-O, BK, and McDs....yeah it's been one of those breakfast weeks.

Southwest Scrambled Eggs

3 egg whites, some fresh cilantro, red onion, and texochili cheddar from The Cheese People of Beloit (my favorites!) made up my delicious breakfast this morning. I garnished it, as you can see with some ripe on the vine tomato slices, avocado, black pepper, and sea salt. Yummy happy eggy breakfasty goodness. You know you love eggs as much as me...so try this one out. Is delightful.

Rosemary Eggs in a Bird's Nest

This morning, as I was making my lunch, I thought to myself, hmmm what should I do with this slice of ciabatta bread from my sandwich roll (obviously, too much bread will take away from the sammich...), so I thought...hmmm delicious eggs and ciabatta bread...rosemary...ham...truffle oil...mmmmm

So I started with the rosemary and ham (but we had a small dilemma with the ham--totally overcooked it) and some cooking spray, cooked it in a pan to add some flavor...then added more rosemary (fresh from the garden, mind you) and a tiny bit of truffle oil. Put the slice of ciabatta bread (sans a small hole cut out with the top for the cooking spray...) into pan....crack egg into hole. Cook. Flip. Set on plate. Make new ham. Top "nest" with ham. Garnish with rosemary. Drizzle with truffle oil. Eggs a la Chrissy...Happiness.

Go make your own delicious egg combination. Tell me your favorite and most unique! Go. Now. Just do it.

Top 10 Breakfast Reasons Why I Haven't Posted...

10. Leftover Indian Food (Cold)
9. Just Cheese Curds
8. Cold Chicken
7. McDonald's
6. Dunkin' Donuts
5. Leftover Greek Food (Cold)
4. Non-standard Breakfast Sausage
3. Chips and Salsa
2. Cupcakes



And the number one reason why I don't always post about my breakfast...



1. Sometimes, I skip breakfast...


I didn't yesterday or this morning though!

Yesterday was delicious Chilequiles (one of my favorite breakfast delicacies.) Tortilla chips cooked in a sauce or salsa until they're a little soft. Then, I added Portobello mushrooms, cilantro, jalapeño, tomato, and red onion. Mixed it all up, like a Mexican breakfast skillet. Then topped it with cilantro and chive farmer's Jack from Rick my favorite cheese monger at The Cheese People and a delicious egg over medium. A dollop of sour cream to cool the jalapeño heat and voile! Breakfast of JOY.

This morning's breakfast was a simple conglomerate of sun-dried tomato sausage, a few basil cheese curds from the aforementioned cheese monger, and two eggs over medium. Of course, I managed to over-cook the eggs a bit...but it worked well with the sausagy goodness of my breakfast.

Balsamic Portobello and Raspberry Bellavitano Scramble

I think the name says, well, most of it. Yum! This morning I glazed a sliced Portobello in balsamic vinegar and a little sugar, added 2 egg whites, and some freshly grated raspberry Bellavitano (a delightful conglomerate of Parmesan and cheddar cheese) for a really tasty scramble.

Things that I think I might change next time around:

1. I didn't drain off the balsamic from the mushrooms, leaving a little excess liquid in my eggs
2. I would probably use 3 egg whites with the amount of mushroom and cheese in the scramble
3. I would maybe add some fresh basil as a garnish...

Happy Breakfasting Kids!

Breakfast Cheeseburger

So, yesterday morning, there were no bagels, English muffins, or even bread for toast in the house...But there were eggs...and cheese (obviously)......and uncooked turkey breakfast sausage...and hamburger buns. Yep. Hamburger buns. So I took out two pieces of the raw turkey sausage...rolled them together...and flattened them into a hamburger patty.

I cooked the patty and an over hard egg, put them on a bun with a kraft single and voila! Breakfast of champions! Easy peasy, nice and easy! It only took 10 minutes to put this tasty meal together.

This morning I had something similar, though it tasted (well, way better)...I stopped at Caribou for an apple chicken sausage breakfast sandwich with cheddar and egg on a ciabatta roll. Yum. Just. Yum. I have to admit that sometimes restaurants do it better...and Caribou rocks my breakfast sandwich world.

In other news, started the new job this week! Monday is my last day as a "teacher." It's crazy, but I'm excited to be writing as a profession.

Little Miss Muffet Sat on Her Tufffet Eating Her Curds and Eggs.

So my story starts last week. With the Aurora Farmer's Market at the Aurora Transportation Center. I went for some tasty treats (including cheese, of course.) It was rainy and awful out, so I took some shelter under the cheese tent. Sampling cheese and deciding on my purchases from The Cheese People of Beloit, I found myself "hanging out with the cheese guy." So instead of just standing there, he put me to work! How fun it was to help out and spend my morning cutting, talking about, sampling, and selling cheese! I had a blast. My new pal, Rick invited me back anytime, and I left a happy cheesy girl...with lots of delicious cheese, including an espresso bellavitano (a mix of cheddar and asiago), a cilantro and chive farmer's jack, an aged cheddar infused with blue, a goat gouda (maybe? It was goat something)...and sweet pepper cheese curds! The curds are the breakfast cheese of choice this morning,  I sliced em up and turned them into an omelet with my Lenders onion bagel and Sun-dried tomato and basil cream cheese. :) If you can't have fresh bagels, Lenders are definitely the best. A happy Chrissy for sure!

Perfect egg white omelet

Yum yum

7 Cheese Denver Skillet

Yes, SEVEN cheese.

On Sunday morning, the bf had to wake up earlyish to work, so I promised a tasty breakfast. We had gone to Woodman's the night before to get snacky stuff for watching a movie. Knowing the bf has an affinity for skillets, I told him we could do a skillety breakfast, so we got a few extra ingredients and went on our merry way.

So for the delish breakfast, I still had a ton of cheeses in the fridge, so I decided to use a few of them for the skillet topper. Hashbrowns (which I kinda probably should have used the non-stick pan because I couldn't get these crispy without scraping the pan, but they were still good) with a little season salt, green peppers, red onion, and diced ham (we got the carver ham from O-S-C-A-R M-A-Y-E-R which rocked btw.) Then I topped the potatoes with the seven cheese mix (4 Italian blend-mozzarella, provolone, asiago, and mild cheddar, with marble co-jack, gruyere, and beer cheddar) all grated together. Then I added the eggs (the bf does over easy...I do over medium). Of course, we also had bacon with the breakfast of joy. :D. Everyone loves a little pork in the morning...or a lot...or any time...

The bf can attest to the quality of my breakfast product this morning. Plus I may as well add...Restaurant quality for half the price and with half the calories. I didn't use any butter or oil in my concoction. Winning.

What Did You Eat Today?

Sorry for the lack of blogging in recent days...It's been one hell of a week. We drove to Columbia, Missouri (8 hours-ish) and back last weekend for a college buddy's wedding... Work's been busy, and I've been job hunting (my current position ends in August.) I have wonderful tips for appreciating the free continental breakfast provided by hotels (We stayed at La Quinta mostly because K (my butter churning sister from a past life) wanted free waffles...which she failed to wake up in time for on Saturday morning... Lucky for K, I brought her yogurt, bagel, and cream cheese, because I NEVER miss breakfast...especially a free one. What can I say? I'm a good Pollack.
Tips:

1. Always bring extra up to your hotel room. You may need a snack later. Your bestie may have missed breakfast. Your bf might get hungry, too.
2. If there's free waffles, make them...They are delicious. Like really really good.
3. Wake up in time for this free meal. You're paying enough for the hotel room...utilize your resources.

So on Tuesday morning, I made an awesome set of tacos... beer cheddar from our trip to Wisconsin (Ren Faire--circa the salty pancakes) and the stop at The Mars Cheese Castle, which was an utter disappointment, if I hadn't already mentioned that. Sorry...I'll start again. Beer cheddar, half a fried egg, fresh avocado, and salsa atop a corn tortilla, multiply by 2 for a full meal and happiness.

This morning was the open faced sammich of joy. Multi-grain toast, layered with Gruyere, and topped with 2 over medium eggs and a little kosher salt. Wow. I was super happy with my choice! I'm off to work now, but have a great day! Out of curiosity...What did you have for breakfast this morning?

A Comedy of Errors

So it has been a pretty busy week. I forgot what it was like to work a job that doesn't have regular computer access to do all of my computery things! Anyways, I'm going to try something different with the format. Instead of trying to list all of the different breakfasts that I consumed this week...I'm going to tell you the really tasty ones and the ones that come with interesting stories....
On Saturday, the bf, TBC, and I were planning on driving up to the Ren Faire in Kenosha to meet up with a bunch of my cousins. So instead of going out to breakfast, I suggested that I would make breakfast for bf and TBC. I was really excited to try a recipe for fluffy pancakes and adding blueberries into them. Sounds delish right? So I put the mix together and wait for the boys to arrive in the kitchen. I start making the first batch, and taste the batter...which is REALLY salty... I start thinking about what I put in the batter and look at the bag of sugar...and realize that I had put salt instead of sugar into my gigantic batch of pancakes. After throwing out the batter, I told the boys it was going to be fast food breakfast for all! BTW, Dunkin Donuts turkey sausage egg white sandwich is awesome on a croissant.  Hmmm that sounds good right about now!

On Sunday, I made my favorite... Rosemary crepes with ham and gruyere, topped with portobello mushrooms and an egg over medium. An excellent start to a day at Comiskey!

My favorite crepes!

On Tuesday, I made another perfect omelet (Look how pretty below!!) with two slices of ham and a whole lot of gruyere cheese! I dined on the veranda (Aka in the backyard) and enjoyed my tasty tasty breakfast of joy in the warm sun with some OJ. Mmmm...This was after the power went out...and before the power went out again (WHILST I WAS IN THE SHOWER!)  Well, I'm off to make this morning's breakfast--two delicious eggs over medium with toast of some sort. Going to see Harry Potter tonight at midnight...I'm going to be so tired! But I'm SO EXCITED! Have a great weekend, kids!

 

Lousiana Cheesy Omelet and more

I think the vertigo may be ebbing, finally. :) So posts may become more frequent...though the way I tend to run out the door after eating or while eating...we'll see. We had a busy holiday weekend 'round these parts...not to mention, I still actually had to work on Monday morning!

Sunday
I consumed fried rice for breakfast. Don't judge me. It was awesome...and I would totally do it again. My mama would have been proud.

Monday
The plan was to leave a few minutes early and purposefully get some McDs or something similarly bad for me yet delicious...Well, I got distracted by someone who talks a bit...and didn't get to leave when I planned...That being said, I had to throw together something fast... Bread and cheese. My gram used to make this for me when I was a kid...I loved it. Best with white bread, though I used whole grain...put cheese on bread. nuke until melty. consume. that's it. I used swiss and cheddar...one on each slice of bread. Next time, I think I'd nix the swiss... it was meh.

Tuesday
I had an egg burger with cheese...errr an almost over hard egg with American cheese on a hamburger bun.... :) It was stellar.

Wednesday
I made an awesome omelet. The best type of cheese for a plain cheese omelet is American. It melts really fast and tastes delish with the egg. I used one egg and one egg white in my little egg pan from college (I would hide it in my room so I always had my egg pan, remember, K?) It was a perfect omelet...I'll upload the picture this afternoon. I topped it with Louisiana hot sauce, which gave it more flavor and a kick! Awesome. I love hot sauce.

Thursday
This morning I made two eggs over medium with a piece of whole grain toast and ranch seasoned cream cheese. I used to hate ranch, so this may shock some of you. I started consuming ranch during the brief attempt to give up cheese for lent...I was looking for all sorts of temporary substitutes, and found that my wings dipped well in ranch. Winning, right? So was my breakfast. Catch y'all later.

Eggs On What?

So yesterday morning, I decided I'd go quasi traditional on you...2 eggs over medium (are you getting an idea of how I like my eggs? Discussion on perfectly cooked eggs to follow...) and an everything bagel thin with sun-dried tomato and basil cream cheese (Thank you, Kraft, for all the things you do to make my life happy.)

Last night was a stay in with Chinese food and veg out on the couch kind of night...so we had a ton of leftover Chinese food...My thought process was simple. What would be the most likely thing I would eat with eggs? Fried rice? Nah... Beef Kow? maybe...but probably not... Empress or General Tsaos Chicken? Meh... Fried Shrimp?...maaaaybe... Potstickers? hmmm....dumpling goodness...pork (kind of like sausage)...hmmm....

So I sliced up two potstickers, nuked 'em, and topped them with (wait for it) 2 eggs over medium. Big surprise there, right? Surprisingly, really good. I was delighted with the breakfast choice.

Ok, now for my discussion on eggs. I have no particularly favorite way of cooking my eggs, as I personally enjoy most types of eggs. I don't like runny whites at all, in any way...but otherwise, I'm open to options. I think I've only had 3 people in my life (other than servers who are paid to do so) ask me how I like my eggs... 1. My mom, even though she doesn't always, and usually she knows how I like them anyways...but she has cooked made to order eggs for me since childhood. My mom kind of rocks 2. V's mom. *happy sigh* breakfast at their house was GREAT. 3. I'm pretty sure somewhere in the grand scheme of breakfast, some dude may have made me breakfast and cooked the eggs to order... But typically, I prefer to make them myself, because I'm a bit of a control freak, and know what I want and how I want them.

Eggs: As I Believe Them To Be

Eggs Over Easy- Not my favorite, but they should be very runny yolks and mostly hard white with no crisp edges
Eggs Over Medium- Slightly runny yolks with hard white and no crisp edges
Eggs Over Hard- Hard yolk, hard white, crisp edges
Sunny Side Up- GROSS.
Basted- Now, I have yet to actually make a basted egg, but if I ever feel the need to extra clog my arteries...this is the one I'd go with. Cook the eggs in butter. Use baster to top the eggs with more hot butter. 
Hard Boiled- I'm still perfecting this type of egg, but its best cooked in a metal pot (no non-stick) the shell should peel right off
Soft Boiled- A shockingly tasty variation of the boiled egg...hard white, but not quite hard yolk (not runny though)
Poached- A perfectly poached egg is poached medium unless requested otherwise...I always pat mine dry with a napkin or paper towel before consumption...I don't like it watered down...
Scrambled- They should not be plastic-y and foldy like McD's folded egg... (I prefer the round egg. Every time.) They should be light and fluffy, not crispy or runny
Cheesy Eggs- These should be superbly cheesy. Preferably at least one slice of cheese per egg...if not more. Scramble to personal preference.
Omelets- Should be folded over the tasty ingredients, not cooked with them. That is more of a frittata.

Ok, I'll get off my high horse. How do YOU like your eggs, should I ever cook them for you?

Locksley and Baghel! You can't miss!

I am currently typing this from the bf's fancy shmany computer tv, which is not as easy as I would like, but I do get to see my blog on the big screen...which kind of rocks. Three delish days of breakfast for your readimg foodie pleasure.

Tuesday
Lox and bagels anyone? Still actively tryimg to be consciencious of what I'm eating, I had one of those bagel thins by Thomas. It was the everything bagel, and didn't taste too shabby once toasted and topped with stuff. The "stuff" being a thin layer of cream cheese, thinly sliced tomatoes, fresh salmon, and thinly sliced red onion. The only thing that may have improved it would be some capers...mmmm capers... *drool* Hopefully, I made my bagel eating girlfriends proud.

Wednesday
Ate fresh again with Subway...I wanted to try the breakfast sub...I think the jury is still out on this one...I did appreciate the egg white...but the cheese isn't completely adequate for the size of the sandwich...there's too much bread, and not enough bacon...I'm just saying...I'll stick with the flatbread one for now.The five little hashbrowns were tasty though!

Thursday
This morning I made a cheesy omelet with Irish Dubliner cheese and swiss cheese. Let me just say this: I truly believe that part of the quality in one's food comes from the quality of the equipment. I have never made such a perfect omelet. I'd like to thank the bf and his roommate for use of heaven...AKA their kitchen. My omelet was served with sliced tomatoes and this amazing tropical juice made from veggies. :)


In other news< due to a shot in my right arm, I feel like I got beat up with a baseball bat. one that happened to have a needle right on the hardest impact spot.

Italian Skillet

So, all this week, I start work at 10 AM, so I should be able to post more frequently with less running out the door...but there are several things that tend to occupy my time, and make me forget to write.... Word Bubbles, Words With Friends (my screen name is Jelliebean530 if you want to start a game with me.), reading Game of Thrones, and Angry Birds. What can I say? I'm easily amused.  The vertigo is still bad, but dramamine helps. We'll see how it goes.

Yesterday, the bf and I met up with T out in Aurora at Blueberry Hill.  The food was great, and the prices were reasonable. For less than $7, I had 2 poached eggs, 2 pieces of turkey sausage, and a biscuit and gravy. They poached the eggs pretty perfectly, which is often hard to find at a restaurant. The turkey sausage was the patty style, which is the best in my opinion. The biscuit was awesome, and the gravy was really good too! You can get a coupon from the website, as well, which I always appreciate.

This morning, after watching the bf eat his Irish skillet yesterday, I wanted to make a "skillet" of my own. I concocted an Italian skillet, with basil hash browns (cooked in olive oil), topped with the 4 Italian cheese blend, two over-medium eggs, a dollop of marinara and a chiffonade of basil. Sounds yum, right? I thought so too.

My Italian skillet

I Almost Skipped Breakfast Twice This Week!

So after a trip to the doctor, I realize that I paid for a doctor to tell me I have vertigo. Seriously...like I didn't already know that. Anyways, I suppose it makes sense: my frequency of migraines, my inability to watch a 3D movie, and my dislike for the really really spinny rides at Six Flags (although the roller coasters are totally fair game).  Looks like I gotta suck it up and consume dramamine for long car trips...

Anyways...without further ado: a week of breakfasting highlights!

Monday
Monday morning, I made a quick  breakfast as I was racing out the door-you know how I roll--toss an over hard egg with some cheese into a corn tortilla with hot sauce and jet out the door...Always fast, easy, and delightful!

Tuesday
I ended up staying at the bfs on Monday night after a random decision to head there after work. In my morning rush, I figured I would stop at Starbucks or Caribou and grab a breakfast sandwich...alas...I drank my breakfast on Tuesday morning with a fat free vanilla cappuccino from Speedway...It was fast and on the way and I sort of just forgot to grab something to eat while I was there! Shocking, I know.

Wednesday
After the killer storm on Tuesday night, during which V took me to a stellar fancy shmancy meal at the Capital Grille (damn was that delicious), I had some very tasty leftovers.

Before getting into the breakfast--let me describe the aforementioned storm: V and I had just left the restaurant. The sky still had color, the wind was picking up, and we raced to the car. Within 2 minutes, the wind was raging, rain was pouring down in buckets, and the sky was black as black can be. We got to the first intersection, the power went out (including the stop lights), the emergency lights went on, and the sirens went off. At this point, I'm panicking, but flying through options in my head: gas station? too small. M's apt? No M doesn't live there anymore. R/K house? too far. Local bar? Closest place that seems safe. Done and done. 30 seconds after beginning the run through, I direct V to the nearest bar.  We waited it out (and got a little booze in my system) until the bad had passed, and headed home.

Now the breakfast. I had this kona crusted gigantic mammoth rare steak...which I sliced a few thin slices of, put into a tortilla (are we seeing a pattern here?) with an over hard egg (SORRY V, I know you didn't want it mixed with eggs, but steak and eggs ROCK) and some 18 month aged cheddar cheese, for a friggin phenomenal-nothing-can-top-this-breakfast-taco taco. Plus it appears I'm always racing out the door for work. Expect better blogging next week with several late start days...

Thursday
Another tasty use of my leftovers from Tuesday night...parnesan truffle fries. Yes. Parmesan. Truffle. Fries. Now, I don't particularly like french fries. But I love cheese. and I love truffle. and together, they make fries taste pretty darn awesome.  Now fries kind of reheat like crap, so bear with me as it wasn't so much the french fry-ness, as it was the cheesy truffly flavor...cooked in a pan for a little crisping....topped with an over medium gooey delicious eggy of joy...mmmmmm

Friday
So I tried to stop at Caribou for an apple chicken sausage, egg, and cheese sandwich on ciabatta...except that the Caribou I stopped at doesn't serve breakfast sandwiches! I wasn't about to let myself go to work 2 days in a row without breakfast, so I raced over to the McD's and got a bacon McGriddle. You've got to admire the pancake-wich. It's got the little gems of syrup built in, so you're eating pancakes, with less messiness! then add the savory goodness of the bacon, the egg, and cheese.... *sigh* Funny, it kind of reminds me of the time (when I was a kid) my dad made french toast, only to discover we had no syrup...and he put cheese on top of it. I didn't know what to do with myself...It seemed so unnatural. I've come a long way from that I think...

Saturday
This morning, I had some Dubliner cheese and crackers at the bf's place...but I was busy writing a report, so I didn't get to make breakfast yet. Perhaps the bf will awake soon and I'll have something delicious. :D I'm thinking...chilequiles...tortilla chips cooked in sauce (hot sauce or salsa) mixed with meats and veggies, and topped with eggs. :) Happiness.

Enjoy the weekend kids!

The World Keeps Spinning

So I apologize for the lack of breakfast posts: I've been having some REALLY awful vertigo. I feel as though I am in a constant state of dizzy. Staring at a computer screen is kinda difficult. I haven't even really played Words With Friends lately...and I'm pretty darn obsessed with my fancy phone scrabble games...Dramamine is my best friend, though it doesn't help all of the dizzy...it ebbs the dizzy.

But this blog isn't about the vertigo. This blog is about breakfast...And so I bid you, enjoy:

Thursday
I spent the night at the bf's house, after dinner with his family. I love cooking breakfast in his kitchen because there's all sorts of great kitchen-y stuff! For breakfast, I cut up one of the leftover red potatoes from dinner, and mixed it with chopped ham for a skillet type base. Topped it with swiss cheese and an over medium egg (I do love those!). Easy, fast, and YUM!

 Friday
After a late night at the bar, I woke up a little too late for anything, but I managed to make time for a quick breakfast "pizza". When I was a little girl, my gram used to make me cheesy bread for breakfast--take a couple slices of white bread, top with cheese, nuke for 20-30 seconds. Voila--cheesy bread of JOY. I used the 4 Italian cheese mix and then decided I'd make it a sammich with a little fresh basil and marinara sauce. A fantastic breakfast on the run.

Saturday
So I was running around early this morning and stopped at BK for a croissanwich...but they were so AWFUL at the drive through, that I decided F-this and pulled out of the drive thru...I went about my running around business, and finally got breakfast at the Walmart Subway. I was surprisingly impressed with subway's breakfast. The hash browns (though only 4 of them) were crisp and had lots of flavor.  The sammich: flatbread with bacon, egg, and monterey/cheddar was toasted and just like regular Subway, topped with whatever the hell you want...I had yellow peppers, tomato, onion, and chipotle sauce...It was AWESOME! Much better than the English muffin sandwich I had the last time I tried Subway for breakfast. Yay.

Sunday
This morning, I was at the bf's again...I always wake up way earlier than him! Last night, we stayed in and made late night lamb fajitas (I even got him to help...sort of) for dinner (at 11!) Homemade pico de gallo, homemade guac, and then make shift fajitas, seasoned with garlic, season salt, and chipotle tabasco (I didn't have much to work with, but that shit made some STELLAR flippin' fajitas...) 

Why am I talking about dinner, you ask? Oh right, because it  made an awesome breakfast this morning! I am of the belief that by adding an egg to anything makes it "breakfast." So I cooked an over hard egg, cut it in half, popped half in each of the corn tortillas with the fajita stuffs, and called it breakfast (with some home made red hash brown potatoes) I highly recommend the breakfast fajitas.


 I'll keep y'all posted on the vertigo, but until it's resolved, posts will be longer, but more spaced. <3

Hot Sauce: I Put That Shit on Everything.

Well, since Monday left me exhausted, and yesterday wasn't much better...I passed out at 10:30 last night and woke up before 5 (yes BEFORE 5) am this morning. The storm wasn't really helpful either. So I tried to fall back asleep...for over an hour, before I finally got up to make breakfast. This provided me plenty of time to actually write about breakfast at breakfast time! I'll tell you about yesterday first because I was pretty impressed with another quick play meal to run out the door with.

I'm not sure if I told you, but we don't have a toaster. Why? I couldn't tell you...but we don't. So toast and other toasted products are heated in the oven. After the broiler fire fiasco, of course, we can't use the broiler anymore...so I had to bake my toast...which gave me time to run around and get dressed, etc. etc. I nuked some bacon (not optimum, but bacon is bacon no matter how you cook it, right?), and pan-fried an egg white. I put a piece of American cheese on top of the egg and covered the pan until the cheese was melty. Combined all ingredients for a fast and easy breakfast sammy of joy!

So this morning, with the early wake up, I thought I would make something super delightful...but then I got lazy and made this:


More breakfast tacos.

1. I have a thing for corn tortillas.
2. I'm on a Mexican kick.
3. I don't know if you've noticed but I make things different every time, even if they have the same name....

These tacos were no different (and by that I mean they were a slight variation on whatever I've made before--which, without reading past blogs...I'm not even sure I remember them...)

I put some Tastefully Simple Corn and Black Bean Salsa (my favorite!) in a small egg pan and let it simmer. Then I cracked two egg whites over it, and let them slowly scramble together for a super mixed consistency thing. Wrapped the mix in corn tortillas and topped it with a tiny bit of aged cheddar cheese. Then some Texas Pete's Hot Sauce from.... (wait for it)...North Carolina (I know, right? You were thinking Texas).  This was a gift from the Region IV JCI Senate booth at their States party on Monday night. I was honored to be a judge in the competition and had a great time with some very inspirational Jaycees. Plus I got some AWESOME hot sauce. Thanks, H for asking me!

Both breakfasts delightfully edible. Both successes.  See you tomorrow!

Just Another Manic Monday!

Wow what a weekend!

Saturday 

I started with Saturday's amazing breakfast--I just whipped up a strata for the boyfriend and the parentals bright and early...I managed to sleep until 9:30 (which is impressively late for me, though I suspect it has something to do with the inner ear/vertigo thing I've been dealing with lately.

Tasty strata of joy was inspired by the fact that there was a half loaf of french bread becoming a giant crouton on my kitchen counter. A good Polack doesn't waste that shit...so I decided I'd turn it into breakfast (I promise it didn't taste state and hard once it was soaked in my egg casserole.  Inside the strata was eggs(half without egg yolks) a small amount of milk, a little bit of cablanca cheese, marinated portabellos, orange bell peppers, red onion, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and of course, the bread.

Happiness. Healthy Happiness.

Sunday

Sunday I woke up in Peoria (Mama S-a good friend from college had her bachelorette party.) Now, if you're ever in Peoria, I highly recommend visiting One World Cafe for its eclectic and delicious combination of tasty treats. I had an awesome breakfast "bungle" AKA bagel sammich with egg, 3 cheese mix, and crumbled bacon....with a side of rectangle-y hashbrowns. mmmmm....My not-so-hangover couldn't have been happier! I only wish TC were there. He hearts One World more than I do!

Monday

Another fast paced-shit-I'm-going-to-be-late kind of morning, I raced out the door a little after 7am to pick up J on the way into the first day of working with the kiddos. Before I left, I took 6 minutes to whip up some Italian-esque corn tacos....I know, sounds gross right? 2 corn tortillas, 1 egg cooked to medium in homemade giardinaira, then scrambled lightly, with a little 4 cheese Italian blend. Tossed a little hot sauce on there for good measure (why the hell not?) and rolled 'em up into lil taco wraps... :)

Breakfast in the City

Preface: I wrote this a few hours ago…Enjoy.

The train ride to Oak Park was so fun, I though I would do it twice! I got on the wrong train this morning. This is apparently what happens when one gets a little intoxicated, leaves her car at a hotel, and has her mother drive her to the train station early in the morning. She gets on the first train that stops, even though she isn’t 100% sure that it’s the RIGHT train.

Oops.

So here I sit at Ogilvie Transportation Center. Waiting for the next train to Oak Park…which is in 20 minutes. I’m going to just barely make it to work on time. Wait, strike that…I’m going to be late…Shit. Well, there’s at least time to brag about my city-style breakfast.

Allow me to gloat about Burrito Beach for a moment. I LOVE this place.

1. They always have tasty tacos at night/lunchtime when you want a snack at the train station.

2. They give out a foursquare special of free chips and guac! Sa-weeeet!

3. They made my breakfast this morning. Winning for them.

For breakfast I got the low carb scramble—a conglomerate Mexican bowl of egg whites, guacamole, salsa, bacon, cheese, tomatoes, and jalapeños…with the free chips/guac! I’ll have some of that for lunch, but I used the chips to scoop the breakfast treat like breakfast nachos! Almost as good as chilequilles!  

A happy tummy…a late employee…a tired Chrissy…this is going to be a fun day…last day of training though! :D

Have a GREAT weekend, kids! See you Monday J

Did Someone Say Fire?

Good morning early risers! I'm at work a little early today, so I figured what better time to elaborate on my amazing breakfast from the last two days! Yesterday I had an awesome omelet with ham, rosemary, havarti cheese, and egg whites. Only 5 points on the weight watchers plan and super filling! A little watermelon to compliment it and wow. I love seedless watermelon. So yum. This morning was a bit more of an adventure in breakfasting. Let me preface this by saying that we don't have a toaster. We toast bread under the broiler. Our broiler died several months ago, but magically revived itself recently. Well, this morning, I went to toast my bread for the ham, overhard egg, and american cheese sammich (7 points)...as I opened the oven to peer inside, it seemed a whole lot brighter than usual. And there was a funny sound in the back of the oven...and I looked a little closer...and there was a fire in my oven! Lucky for us its electric, so all I had to do was turn the broiler off. But its been an exciting morning! In addition, its raining buckets and storming like crazy. My lunch bag broke on the train because it was so wet...I got to work soaked to the bone and almost had a panic attack when thunder cracked so loud my ear drums hurt! Well, I'm safely at work, cold, and wet with soaked pants. Awesome.

Breakfast Tacos!

So, this morning, I started Weight Watchers. It was a decision that I've made several times before. It has always worked for me when I follow it, so summer seemed like a good time to start.

Well, last night I did some grocery shopping and got lots of tasty and healthy options. For a healthy breakfast, my meal wasn't lacking.

2 corn tortillas with 1 egg/1 egg white scrambled, 2/3 oz of cheese, and 2 pieces of reduced sodium bacon. 8 points. And worth it. (My lunch was all salady and good for me, so I didn't need to have fruity veggie breakfast.) Just watch...tasty breakfast WITH weight loss. It'll happen.

Better Late Than Never!

So this was quite the busy weekend. I worked my 8-5 and my retail job on Friday for a total of 12 hours. Then, on Saturday, another twelve hour day between the retail job and the catering side job. What can I say? I like to be busy…

Saturday

Breakfast on Saturday was awesome. A great start to the day after a long week.  I had some baked red potatoes that I cut up and browned in a pan. After they were nice and crispy, I cooked some baby spinach and added that amazing cablanca cheese for some cheesy spinach, which I put on top of the potatoes. I finished it with two over-medium eggs, for a healthy and filling breakfast to last me the day.

Sunday

Twizzlers.

Yes, I had black licorice Twizzlers for breakfast. Then I went grocery shopping before the Sox Game (WHOO HOO!) and the wonderful (although unfortunately, a Detroit Tigers fan) Cheese Show demonstrator, Amy, fed me a real breakfast of….

CHEESE!

I love the Dominick’s Cheese Show. Love. Heart. Every Saturday and Sunday at Dominick’s, they display all sorts of tasty cheese concoctions. Here, I learned that adding a little mayo to grated cheese with jam or a Tastefully Simple seasoning makes a cheese dip that is typically a hit with parties.

Monday

Today was a run out the door, no time for breakfast kind of day. (I have those a lot lately, I guess!) I stopped at Starbucks with my work buddy, J, and discovered that this particular Starbucks does not make breakfast sandwiches! FAIL. Epic freaking fail. So, thankfully Mom cut up some watermelon for me to put in my lunch, which made for a decent and healthy breakfast (added to my caramel Americano.) Heart.

Stay Cheesy!

Who Loves Tamales? I Do I Do!

So last night, for another tasty birthday dinner (Hey, I got A LOT of coupons for free meals, ok), we went to Chevy's for some Mexican fare. My meal was free and I got a sombrero! Everyone should go to Chevys for their birthday, complete with dinner and a party hat! It shall be useful for cinco de drinko next year. We all got the 3 course dinner (soup/salad, entree, and dessert!) and mojitos. YUM. After 2 bowls of chips and tortilla soup, there was no way I could finish my tamales and have room for fried ice cream, so I thought to myself, "perfect breakfast option!"

I love tamales. Love. Heart. Yum. I spent a great deal of time searching for the perfect tamale. My love of tamales came about 2 years ago, when I was visiting my aunt in North Carolina, and we ate a TON of homemade tamales. They were phenom, and that's when I put eggs on them for breakfast. I was pleased, and decided that tamales were the way to go. So I started checking out the local taco joints for the best tamale. Some were too dry. Some were too spicy. Some weren't bad, and some weren't good. I came across the winning tamale about a year ago, when a friend opened his own restaurant. Rancho Viejo has the best tamales. The owner, Angel, makes them fresh and tops them with cheese and sauce. Happiness. :)


Chevy's didn't do too bad with their tamales. The meat was tender and not dry. The masa was flavorful. The sauce was pretty good. I knew that topped with eggs, shredded cheddar cheese, and salsa, I would have a winning breakfast. Which I certainly did. I love it when everything surrounding my eggs is so flavorful that I don't need to add salt. I hate adding salt. I did NOT have to add salt. :D

Off to work kids! Have a great day.

Cheese is Always Good for You

You know, this breakfast thing when working an early-ass job is a learning experience for me. I wake up around 6 in the morning. Sometimes, it isn't easy to make breakfast that early, especially when one has a train to catch! I'm working on it, kids. I promise. In the meantime, I'd like to thank J and Starbucks for the Venti Caramel Americano and cheese/apple/almonds set for breakfast. This was a surprisingly sufficient meal to get me through the morning at work. A small piece of brie, gouda, and cheddar cheeses, a half an apple, sesame cracker, almonds, and craisins=success!

I really want to figure this system out where I'm not buying fancy coffee and on-the-go breakfasts from Starbucks, Caribou, or the likes though. Without having to wake up ridiculously early! This will be fun! Otherwise, sorry about the miniscule post :) Gotta get back to work, you know!

I Dined in the Sunshine Today :)

So this morning, I woke up with plenty of time. I had an extra 20 minutes before this train ride, so there was time to putz around, do nothing, AND make breakfast before jetting out of the house and making the mad dash to the train...(yeah, thought I left the cell phone at home, turned around, and realized it was in my bag the whole time...FAIL. The lady at the Lombard train cashier station gets a big fat BOO! from me. She's ridiculously slow, makes people late for the train, and over charged me for my ticket to Oak Park.

Today, I had the aforementioned solid breakfast that I was discussing yesterday. Egg white scramble with baby spinach, homemade giardinara (Mom makes the best--green olives, carrots, jalepenos, celery, oil, and Italian seasonings), and cablanca cheese. Cablanca has replaced Australian cheddar as one of the
favorite staple cheeses in my fridge drawer (living with the parents, I get a drawer to hide my super special food stuffs as I spend way too much money on cheese). Mostly, this is because my liquor store no longer carries the cheddar. Sad.

*SHAMELESS PLUG* I promise not to have too many of these...

With the delightful scramble, I enjoyed some toasted beer bread (A la Tastefully Simple--which you can purchase from yours truly here.) I love the beer bread...It's SO flippin' easy and delish...and makes great breakfast stuffs.

Funny story-typically I drink water and coffee...sometimes a little juice...and once in a great while (when its there) I drink pop (not soda, not sodie, not coke, pop). So this morning I had a little Diet 7 Up. To this day,  I still can't drink that without tasting the vodka from my college days. Thanks Mama S! She taught me that we always drink our vodka with diet pop(yes pop) because we don't need those extra calories!

See ya tomorrow!

Four for the Price of One-A Polack's Guide to Leftovers

So, as Saturday was the busiest day known to man, Sunday was equally as crazy, Monday was my birthday, and I was running on minimal sleep, I figured that one big Tuesday blog would suffice for this little project of mine. Now, just because I was crazy busy (Working not one, but two jobs from 9 am until about 10 pm), doesn't mean that I didn't take the time to enjoy an amazing breakfast.

Friday night, I had a few friends over to enjoy the anniversary of my birth (which is tomorrow). Because of my incessant need to buy 27 different kinds of cheese, and my friends' understanding of my cheese obsession (oh yes, OBSESSION), I ended up with a tasty variety of cheesy goodness. So both yesterday and this morning's breakfast utilize the cheesy-ness (I'll be making some homemade mac and cheese tomorrow!)


Saturday

I consumed one of the tastiest breakfasts that I've had in a while. I cooked the last 2 pieces of bacon from the bacon wrapped stuffed jalepeno peppers. The I cut a slice of leftover beer bread, used a shot glass to poke a hole in the bread, and grilled the bread in the remaining bacon greasy goodness. I dropped an egg in the bread hole, fried and flipped the bread/egg combo. Topped it with the bacon and melted cablanca cheese(a semi hard goat cheese that I highly recommend). A-MAZ-ING.

Sunday

I made an egg scramble with the stuffing from the aforementioned jalepenos (cream cheese, gouda, pineapple, and jalepeno). Fast, easy, and tasty. I woke up pretty early for this one, and had some cleaning to do, so I didn't want to go all out.

Monday

I woke up on birthday morning at the bf's house, where he has stocked the fridge with Corn King bacon (my fave) and eggs. After coaxing him into waking up for bacon, I finally got him out of bed for an easy peasy bacon, cheesy egg (scrambled with cheddar), and English muffin breakfast. He commented to me about how as the birthday girl, I probably should have had someone cook me breakfast...but really...I wanted bacon. He had bacon. He doesn't cook bacon. or eggs. Really, he doesn't cook at all. (He did toast the English muffins and make juice....AND he cleaned up. Winning in my book). So I cooked breakfast and it was bacon-y and happy.

Today

Today is the first day of my new job as a clinician at a learning center. It is vitally important to have a good solid breakfast before such an important event. But of course, waking up at 6am isn't conducive to a well made meal...particularly because I am always running late...I left the house with a bottle of water and a 90 calorie snack pack (okay, that came from my car snack pack box--also known as a glove compartment). I realized that there was a Dunkin Donuts on the corner of Main and St. Charles, and grabbed a coffee (YES!) and breakfast sandwich. Coffee was great but the sammich left something to be desired. Note to self: NEVER get sausage sammich from DD. It was like eating seasoned cardboard. Boo. Next time, I'll just eat the bagel.
So here I am, sitting in the (ok, one of many) downtown Oak Park Starbuck's (Thanks for the gift card, J!) typing blog of joy. And I'm off to the new job in t minus 10 minutes! Wish me luck! <3

Ok, Now I'm Showing Off...

So I considered just eating one of the funfetti birthday cupcakes I made myself last night for breakfast this morning. But then I thought about you and the blog, and I felt guilty. So I dug through the fridge for something edible and breakfasty. I wanted to show off, and make something that wasn't a crepe. Then, I thought about going out to breakfast and cheating you out of a Chrissy original again. Then, I considered plain ole eggs and toast. But we're not there yet. I've got to impress you with my breakfast creations. So I took out some eggs...and decided on a frittata...but what to make?

After a little mixing and pouring and baking, 30 minutes later, I had a six cheese pizza frittata. Using all egg whites(yeah, I wasted the yolk, but sometimes a girl has to hold off some of the cholesterol, ok?), a little bit of milk, parmesan and romano shaker cheese, and pizza seasonings(marjoram, oregano, basil, onion, and garlic), I put this tasty baked omelet in the oven for 20 minutes. Then I took it out, topped it with marinara and 4 cheese shredded mix (asiago, mozzarella, provolone, and cheddar), broiled for 2 minutes, garnished it with a basil chiffonade, and voile! breakfast of champions!

Let me take a moment to obsess about my mini herb garden--the fresh rosemary and basil are merely the start of my fantastic collection of herbs that I intend to care for. For about $3 at Walmart, you can get a decently sized plant that will last you WAY longer than the pre-packaged fresh herbs at Trader Joe's. Also, not that I don't adore Trader Joe's (They have a great gruyere cheese and there's always free samples), but don't buy your basil plant from them. Every single one I've had got this basil disease and died at a certain height.

So, overall, a delicious breakfast, and healthy too. But let's be honest here. I ate the cupcake, too.