Veggie-Packed Poached Eggs Great for Breakfast

Veggie-Packed Poached Eggs with Toast

As a nation, we don’t eat enough veggies. It’s not hard to eat a salad or have cooked veggies with dinner, but getting veggies in for breakfast can be a challenge. Sure there are omelets, but I wanted something quick and easy.

The theme for Recipe Redux this month is to “break out of the breakfast boredom.” For me, I just purchased a microwave egg poacher., based on a strong recommendation from one of my best friends.

Microwave Egg Poacher

I opened my fridge and grabbed raw spinach, a red bell pepper, mushroom, green onion, sharp cheddar cheese, and then to spice it up a bit, some turkey pepperoni slices. I also added some dried dill weed as I love the combination of eggs and dill.

Place eggs on bottom and top with assorted veggies

Assemble any veggies you have on hand

It all goes together very fast and cooks in the microwave for only a minute or two.

Veggie-Packed Poached Eggs

Ingredients:

2 large eggs

6 slices turkey pepperoni, finely diced

1/2 green onion, trimmed & finely diced

1 mushroom, finely diced

1 tablespoon finely diced red bell pepper

1 tablespoon finely diced raw spinach

1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed

1 tablespoon shredded reduced-fat sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

Crack eggs into each cop of the microwavable egg poacher; pierce yolks with fork.

Divide remaining ingredients equally among two cups, on top of raw eggs.

Microwave, covered, for 1 to 2 minutes, depending on how runny you want your eggs and the wattage of your microwave. Let rest for 30 seconds.

Makes 1 serving.

Nutrition Information per Serving:

201 calories, 12 g total fat, 5 g saturated fat, 387 mg cholesterol, 0 g dietary fiber, 19 g protein, and 415 mg sodium. One serving of this low cost recipe provides an excellent source of riboflavin, vitamin D and calcium and a good source of vitamins A and C.

Cost per Serving: $0.83

Pricing Note: all ingredients were at “regular” prices.

Poached eggs right out of the microwave in 1 - 2 minutes

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Enjoy Fresh Peaches All Year 'Round with Peach Sorbet

Peach Sorbet Anytime of Year

Summer is over. Fall is here. In Delaware, homegrown peaches have been available all summer. Many are grown in my state while others are coming from the South. While the theme this month is on freezer meals, I'm going to focus on freezer desserts -- peach sorbet made from fresh peaches.

The recipe is very simple: fresh peaches, water and maple syrup or honey. That's it.

Here is the recipe:

Fresh Peach Sorbet
4 cups fresh peach cubes (1/2-inch cubes)
2 Tbsp water, divided
2 Tbsp maple syrup or honey, divided

Place peach cubes on wax paper-lined baking sheet and place in freezer for at least 2 hours, or until frozen solid.

Frozen peach cubes

Place 2 cups of frozen cubes, 1 tablespoon water and 1 tablespoon maple syrup in food processor. Pulse on and off repeatedly until peaches are completely mixed. Scrape sides with spatula periodically.

Peaches in food processor

Scoop into serving dishes or transfer to plastic container with lid. Repeat process with remaining peaches, water and syrup. Serve immediately or freeze up to 2 weeks.

Processed peaches in plastic container

Makes 8 servings (1/2 cup each)

Nutrition Information per 1/2-cup serving (with maple syrup):
28 calories, 0 g total fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 0.6 g dietary fiber, 0.4 g protein, 7 g carbohydrate, and 0 mg sodium.

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Pumpkin Butter in a Crockpot

Pumpkin "Butter" made in a crockpot

 

The theme for this month’s Recipe Redux is to share a recipe that uses a crockpot. Crockpots are used today more than ever by busy families. The NPD Group, a market research firm, found that in 2008 usage of slow cookers had reached an all-time high with 12% of households using them. Although I haven’t seen recent figures, I venture to guess that number is much higher today as our lives continue to get busier and busier.

I love fall and one of the reasons I do is because I love pumpkins. I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin breads, pumpkin soups, even pumpkin chili. So when I saw the challenge for this month, I decided to do something with pumpkins. I wanted to see if a slow cooker could be used to make pumpkin butter.

Pumpkin butter is a little misleading as there really is no butter in the recipe. It is really a spread. The traditional way to make pumpkin butter is to cook the pumpkin and other ingredients on a range top. However, the pumpkin splatters and can make a mess. With a crockpot there is no splattering and no mess.

I found baby pumpkins at a nearby garden center.

Because the outer layer of the raw baby pumpkin was difficult to cut with a knife, I started by roasting the pumpkin whole, on a baking sheet for an hour.

Roast whole pumpkin on baking sheet

Once the pumpkin comes out of the oven, let it cool. Then cut in half. Scoop out seeds and guts.

Scoop out seeds and guts



Mix roasted pumpkin pulp with other ingredients

 

Then transfer the pulp to a crockpot. Add other ingredients and mix well. Cover and let cook on low power for about 4 hours.

So now that you’ve made the pumpkin butter, what do you do with it? My favorite way is to spread it on whole grain toast. Yum. You could use it on pancakes or waffles. You could stir it to cooked oatmeal. You could make a parfait, alternating rows of pumpkin butter, slightly sweetened Greek-style vanilla yogurt, and granola. You can dip fresh fruit into it, such as apples, Asian pears, or banana slices.

Pumpkin Butter will keep in refrigerator for 2-3 weeks

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Here is the complete recipe:

Pumpkin “Butter”

Ingredients:

1 pumpkin (about 3-1/2 lbs)

Non-stick cooking spray

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp lemon juice

 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place whole pumpkin on baking sheet lined with foil and sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake whole pumpkin for 60 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes.

Remove stem from cooked pumpkin and slice pumpkin in half. With large spoon, remove seeds, guts, and strings. (Seeds can be washed and roasted, if desired.) Scoop out cooked pumpkin flesh with spoon and place into crockpot. Mash. Stir in maple syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla; stir well. Cover and cook over low heat for about 4 hours, depending on desired thickness of pumpkin butter. Turn off heat. Stir in lemon juice. Serve. Keep refrigerated.

Makes 2-3/4 cups (or 22 2-tablespoon servings).

Nutrition Information per Serving (2 tablespoons):

28 calories, 0 g total fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 1 g dietary fiber, 0 g protein, and  1 mg sodium. One serving of this low cost recipe provides an excellent source of vitamin A.

Cost per Serving: $0.33

Pricing Note: all ingredients were at “regular” prices except pumpkin which was featured for $2.50 each.

 Be sure to check out these other crockpot favorites.