"Chorizo" and eggs

Today is Relay for Life in Lincoln, so most of my Saturday and Sunday is spent at the high school track, walking or running in circles, waving to people, slathering on sunscreen like it's my job, listening to local bands, and watching my sister be team captain for the top fundraising team- whoop!
Between all of that, I come home to shower, relax, do laundry, and post one of my top 5 fav "weekend breakfasts". I put that in "" because you could definitely eat this for any breakfast, but like most people, I define weekend breakfasts as something more than cereal, toast, fruit, a bagel, or sadly enough, America's classic weekday breakfast: nothing.
Weekend breakfasts are some of my favorite meals- they are slow. I'm not in a rush to shove 150 calories of Kashi down my throat. I can spend an hour making blueberry pancakes, or whole wheat waffles, or in this case, soyrizo and eggs.
All Mexicans can kill me now for taking a classic like chorizo and eggs, and making it vegetarian.
I swear it's delish. Our adorable neighbor girl came over last weekend to spend the night, and we chose to make this the next morning. She loved it!
You really only need three things: eggs, soyrizo and corn tortillas. Those are all MUSTS. If you do flour tortillas, the world may end.
You can add: cheese, sour cream, hot sauce, guacamole, or salsa. But why would use mess with perfect simplicity? I love the idea of tasting the actual flavors of a dish, something we rarely do, as there is flavor on top of flavor in most meals.
If you make these (and you should) try one plain and another with an accouterment- see which you like best.

I know, who doesn't love sour cream and guac?

Soyrizo and Eggs
serves 6
1 package corn tortillas (at least 12)
10-12 eggs, depending on size
3 tablespoons water
1 package soyrizo (Trader Joe's makes a great one)
salt, pepper and dried oregano, to taste
optional- sour cream, salsa, avocado

In a large bowl, mix eggs and water. Place into a lightly greased, hot skillet, over medium heat. SLOWLY cook the eggs- they get a creamier texture this way. Stir occasionally, lifting from the pan. When the eggs are still runny, but starting to take shape, add a dash of salt, pepper, and oregano.
Next, remove soyrizo from package and put into eggs- breaking into small bits.

Cook until the eggs are firm, the mixture is hot, and the eggs and soyrizo are fully combined.

Get a paper towel wet, and wrap tortillas in it. Place in microwave for 30-60 seconds, until warm.
Place some of the egg mix into the tortilla and DEVOUR.
Delicious, but optional: serve with fresh pineapple

Also, you should be informed that these are sitting on a totally neato Hercules (Disney movie) plate, I got when I was like 10. I know, I'm cool.

Megan Monday: BBQ chicken salad

The other day, Megan told me she made a recipe from my blog. She made crockpot chicken, but used pork instead.
Yay for cooking and making variations off of someone else's idea- she is a chef already.
As we talked about her success, I said how delicious the chicken or pork would be on a salad.
Although I did not follow my crock pot chicken recipe tonight, I did do some type of variation, which I threw on a salad.
At 10 am this morning, I threw a whole chicken and a bottle of BBQ sauce in the crock pot, and put it on low, until about 5 pm.
I know it seems tedious to use a whole chicken, and pick threw all the bones and skin, but I really feel like it gives you the most flavorful chicken.
Then, I put it on a bed of mixed greens with a sliced mango, avocado, tomato, and homemade onion strings.
Those are what I will proceed to share today.
Megan, these are not the healthiest part of a meal, BUT, when you're eating a salad, I feel like it gives you a little freedom to add some extra treats, without the guilt.
Honestly, you don't even need dressing for this salad, but you could top it with a drizzle of ranch, thousand island, or maybe a dollop of light sour cream.


Slice the ends off of a medium sized sweet onion (they are called Vidalia onions, over here in Cali).


Make a vertical slice down the length of the onion, not too deep, just enough to pierce the shell and top onion layer. Remove the shell and tough layer.

Then, cut the onion into thin round slices.
In a bowl, dump the onions in 1/2 cup of buttermilk, or low fat milk mixed with 1 tsp. vinegar or lemon juice (voila, homemade buttermilk!) After soaking for 5 minutes, throw the onions in a bowl of 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp garlic powder and just for kicks, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes.
In a skillet, heat 1/4 cup high heat oil- I prefer safflower oil.
Toss in your onions, but if your pan is small, do this in a few batches- do NOT crowd your onions- they will not get crunchy if you do.

When brown and crispy, place them on a paper towel to soak up some oil. Put them on top of your salad and eat, people, eat!


We ate this with cornbread muffins I made a couple weeks ago, and froze. I love when I have something already prepared and found a way to save it, rather than dump in the trash, after realizing they aren't going to be eaten. Plus, after heating them in the oven a bit, they tasted as good as they did the first time around- with a drizzle of honey, of course.

*itchtastic Brownies

Yesterday was infuriating. Do you ever have those days you think, "I'm pretty sure the cosmos decided that everything I need to go right today, will go positively wrong"?
I'm being dramatic, but yesterday was registration day for school and my internet was down and the system wouldn't let me register.
UGH.
I tried to be a grown-up which meant three things.
1. I didn't cry, scream or punch a wall
2. I went for a run (God bless the ability to run faster when you're frustrated)
3. I made brownies

Vegan brownies, to be exact. I copied these from my Skinny Bitch cookbook, which if you don't own it, get it. I will tell you now that it's 100% vegan, but don't run away. The recipes are manageable, indulgent and they will make you feel good abou tlowering your meat, fat and "bad food" intake- even if it's just for these brownies!
I will not post the recipe here, but I will say I modified them by omitting the molasses, adding semi sweet chocolate chips and topping the fidgey goodness with powdered sugar.
On a final brownie note, when I went to add the sugar, I was nearly out. I only had about 1/3 of what I needed. It seriously was one of those days. I was in no mood to go to the grocery store just for sugar, so I used some brown rice syrup, the chocolate chips and the powdered sugar to sweeten them up a bit. You could also omit some of the sugar by melting a sweetened chocolate bar, instead of the unsweetened one the recipe calls for.

Crazy Chocolate Covered Bananas

Today is crazy.
This means I am probably crazy.
You know what's good to do when you're feeling crazy? Make sure you have snacks that keep you from doing things like, ordering a trenta or venti or whatever size it is, frap, from Starbucks, or going through the drive thru at Taco Bell and ordering a cheesy gordita crunch, or calling Little Ceaser's and ordering a $5 pizza and eating it all by yourself. These are not suggestions of what to do, people.

When we were in Disneyland this year, I enjoyed a couple chocolate covered frozen bananas. I've enjoyed those a lot over the years. When I was a kid, my mom used to take me to the library. I would be giddy with excitement- big surprise. But not just because of the books, but for the treat after- a chocolate covered frozen banana, from the local ice cream shop.
Well, sometimes I don't want a whole banana, or 100 cals worth of chocolate.
Therefore, I'm making chocolate covered frozen banana bites. The perfect little pick me up for that 4 pm lull when you're not ready for dinner, but need a little something.
Megan, these are probably the simplest thing I will ever post here.


This is a banana. Some people wash their bananas, (that was not meant to be dirty.) I do not. But I am a maverick. (Sarah Palin may disagree)


I peel them.


Slice them into chunks.


Melt about 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate. You can do this in a double broiler or in the microwave (Put the chips in a glass measuring cup. Heat in 30 sec incrimnets, stopping to stir with a spoon, between each 1/2 minute).


Coat the banana slice.


Place on a cookie sheet, lined with foil, or in these cute little silicone muffin cups. Aren't they perfect?! Freeze. Eat. Say mmmm.


You can even give them fun little toppings; sprinkles, mini marshmallows, white chocolate chips, or these lovely pecans!

Happy Mother's Day Dessert

Double blog post day!

We started the day with waffles and ended the day with this...

Angel food cake and meringue icing from a new fav blog, Skinny Taste. There are lots of light recipes and they all have calorie counts and Weight Watchers points.


I copied the recipe exactly, except I used a traditional bundt pan for this cake, rather than a cupcake tin. However, I would change one thing:
-When you whip the egg whites for the cake, add the vanilla and water AFTER you beat the egg whites and cream of tarter. I feel like they bogged down the fluffy whites a bit.


Love ya, Mom. Oh, and these photos are also courtesy of her.

Mother's Day morning

Happy Mom's Day.
This is what I made for my mama.

Can you say, "YUM!"?
These were seriously good. I got them from a delightful blog, Noble Pig. They are from the blog's true Belgian Waffle recipe.



Running While Cooking's modifications:
-Instead of 1 cup butter (I nearly died when I saw that. I would have died if I had used that much butter.) use 1/2 cup butter and add 1/2 cup of milk, to the amount of milk already specified.
-Use non fat milk
-Top with strawberries (get the good local ones from a stand or farmer's market!), sliced almonds and homemade whipped cream


This recipe made about 14 waffles. I stuck the rest in ziploc baggies because they freeze really well...I love food that doesn't go to waste AND can be enjoyed another time.

Megan Tuesday? A workout.

So, I was going to photograph some food last night, after class, but it was accidentally eaten, thus I could not photograph it and post it here.
Forever being a Girl Scout, I was prepared with a work out post, for Megan, despite it no longer being Monday.

I think I've actually mentioned this work out to Megan before, but I've really gotten into it, as of late.

http://www.self.com/fitness/workouts/2009/02/workout-on-a-staircase-slideshow?mbid=enws_mow0421#slide=4

When it's too cold or hot to run outside, or I just can't find the motivation to get some miles in before or after work, I find that this 25 minute stairs work out REALLY gets my heart pumping and body sweating. It's such a nice change of pace. It truly is something awesome when you can go on a run and feel like you're not really working your body, but it always comes with a feeling of guilt- why am I not pushing myself?

I promise this 25 minute cardio buster and strength trainer will give you that feeling. Lately, I've been doing it 2-3 days a week.

The only modification I make to the work out: at the end, I put on any song on my comp/ipod that will really get my adrenaline going, and a jog up and down the stairs (as a cool down) until the song is over.
Another way to make this work out more challenging- during the 2 minute cardio portions, carry your hand weights for some extra resistance.