Tag: egg

Baked Eggs in Avocado

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

Normally, I wouldn’t advertise for warm avocado.  I mean, that’s just weird.  But combined with a soft egg and runny yolk?  It becomes like butter.  This is the breakfast of champions, friends.

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

First you will need to scoop out enough of the flesh so that your eggs will fit.  Go ahead and just eat that scooped out avocado plain, yum.  Place the avocado halves into a muffin tin or ramekins to hold them in place and catch any egg drippings.  If you want, you can add a teeny bit of water into the ramekins to prevent the spilled egg from burning.

I find that the best way to get the eggs into the avocado is to crack each one into a small bowl.  Then, carefully scoop up the yolk with a spoon and place it in the hollow.  Then spoon the white on top until it is full.  Save any leftover white for another use.

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

Season with salt and pepper and bake in a 425 deg F oven for 15-20 min, until the whites are set.  The yolks might cook on top, but the bottom will still be runny.  Grab a spoon and dig in!

Well Dined | Baked Eggs in Avocado

If you want to totally ignore the fact that you were trying to have a grain free breakfast and spread that sucker on some buttered toast, I wont blame you.

One Year Ago – Quinoa & Kale Crustless Quiche
Two Years Ago – Mediterranean Salad
Three Years Ago – Best Lasagna Ever

Butternut Squash Carbonara

Well Dined | Butternut Squash Carbonara

By now, you guys should have figured out that I love butternut squash and pasta together.  I could practically rename my blog “The Butternut Squash Blog”.  So when I saw someone grate butternut squash so that it dissolves into their velvety carbonara sauce, you know I was all over that.  Especially because I had a nasty cold and wanted comfort and didn’t care that the pasta wasn’t whole wheat.

Well Dined | Butternut Squash Carbonara

The original recipe used buccatini, which I love, but I couldn’t find any at the store.  I did see these gorgeous long fusilli noodles though.  I have to say, after having cooked with them twice, I wouldn’t actually recommend these.  It takes longer to cook than advertised and the inside is still crunchy (not al dente – crunchy), while the outside has gotten soft so that it breaks apart and doesn’t stay long and beautiful.  Sigh.

Well Dined | Butternut Squash Carbonara

Anyway, grate up that squash (just a little chunk, not even a whole one) and toss it into a pan with a little rendered bacon fat, butter, and garlic. (more…)

Homemade Veggie Burgers

Well Dined | Homemade Veggie Burgers

Oddly enough, Melissa (Smells Like Brownies) and I both ended up with no plans for the 4th of July this year.  So we decided to go about our weekly vegetarian lunch as usual and, in spirit of the typical holiday food, decided to try making veggie burgers.  Based on her memory of a particularly delicious restaurant version and a couple of online recipes, we came up with our ingredients.

Well Dined | Homemade Veggie Burgers

Mushrooms and lentils were to be the base; with the help of carrots, onion, garlic, and cheddar cheese.

Well Dined | Homemade Veggie Burgers

We seasoned with salt and pepper, thyme, and dry mustard, then bound it together with breadcrumbs and egg.  We saved the “fancy” breadcrumbs (panko) to form a bit of a crust on the outside of the patties.  We learned the hard way that you definitely want to let the mixture chill in the fridge for about 30 min before you form the patties, or you will have a hard time. (more…)

Fresh Homemade Pasta!

IMG_0883

I have been wanting to learn to make my own pasta for years, so I was super jealous when my friend Melissa (you know her by now) got a pasta roller for Christmas.  I had been thinking about getting the Kitchen Aid attachment (versus the hand crank kind) but it is very expensive and I had read reviews about them breaking and being hard to clean.  Melissa said that her manual roller was very easy to use, and invited me over to try it out / teach me how to use it.

Our first experiment was Spinach Ravioli with a Creamy Tomato and Veggie Sauce – yum!

IMG_0872

The first step is to make the filling.  Saute diced onion in butter, then add in frozen spinach (thawed and drained) to cook out any liquid.

IMG_0874

Add in ricotta, Parmesan, and an egg yolk. (more…)

Hard “Boiled” (Baked) Eggs

I discovered this method of hard cooking eggs (attributed to Alton Brown) via Pinterest and Greetings from the Asylum.  The concept is that baking them instead of boiling them is more consistent and results in less gray, less smelly, more creamy eggs.

As you can see, the eggs will sit perfectly on most oven racks and it doesn’t matter how clean the rack is, because you will be peeling the eggs.  Bake them at 325 for 30 minutes.

As soon as you take them out (with tongs), plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking (and prevent that grey ring around the yolk that happens when they cool too slowly). (more…)

Easter Dinner

We didn’t really do anything for Easter this year, and I didn’t want to let it pass without a little bit of celebration – so I made some adorable little egg dishes in honor of the holiday. (more…)