Easy Recipe Vegetable Frittata for 2

Easy Veg Frittata

Easy Veg Frittata

This is an easy recipe for a vegetable frittata that would be great for a brunch, lunch or dinner. This frittata goes together quickly and if you plan for it, you can even use up any leftover vegetables you might have from last night’s dinner.  This recipe is great for beginning cooks as it tastes terrific and (the way we made it) is actually a twist on a simple plate of scrambled eggs.  As always, our ingredients came from Trader Joe’s!

We got this idea from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters book. He actually calls the recipe “More-. Vegetables-Than Egg Frittata and it is on page 170.  We read his recipe and then modified it slightly for the items we had in the refrigerator today. We also modified the dish to be more like “scrambled eggs with lots of goodies” instead of a classic frittata which come out more like an eggy “cake” that you can serve in wedges or slices. We actually prefer the scrambled egg style, so that is what we created.

Mark notes that you can use cooked or raw vegetable when you make this frittata and that is what we did. We had some leftover zucchini from dinner a couple of nights ago, and then added in some fresh vegetables. We used slightly less vegetables then the original recipe called for, and would plan to use more next time.

Ingredients (serves 2):

  • Olive oil (for the pan)
  • ½ small sweet onion, sliced or diced
  • 2 -3 cups sliced cooked and raw vegetables (we used spinach, zucchini slices, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms) (the original recipe called for 4 to 6 cups of veggies)
  • ¼ cup fresh basil leafs (we did not have any fresh basil and used a spoonful of pesto in the egg mixture instead and that worked perfectly)
  • 1/3 -1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (he says optional, but we say use it!)
  • 2-3 eggs (we used 3 eggs for the two of us)

Lets Cook!

1. Heat the skillet (non-stick) over medium heat, and add a spoonful of oil.  Now add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes while you get all the other vegetables ready.

2. Add the chopped up vegetables (except any tender leaf like spinach or the basil leafs) and continue to cook until they are cooked and heated through the way you like them. We like our vegetables “crisp-tender” so that you can stick a fork into the vegetables and it goes in easy, but the vegetables are not “mushy”. When the veggies are ready, season them lightly with salt and pepper

3. While the vegetables are cooking, crack 3 eggs into a bowl and whisk together. Add some salt and pepper and the cheese (and pesto if you are using it).

4. When all the vegetables are ready, add the leafy vegetables (the spinach) and stir them around the pan for a minute. When they start to wilt, add the egg mixture to the pan and stir around the pan and continue to cook like you would for regular scrambled eggs. The eggs will cook, the cheese will melt and in a few minutes you will have a great frittata.

We are sorry to admit that this dish smelled so good that we just FORGOT to take a picture to show you the end result. Sorry. Next time we will try to control ourselves better and take a second to snap a photo.

We hope you try this recipe. We enjoyed making and eating this recipe so much that we are planning to make it again soon. We thought this recipe was easy and tasted GREAT.

If you are just learning to cook, are starting to cook more at home and/ or have joined the Food Revolution, this recipe would be a great one to master as it is very flexible and forgiving. You can use any kind combination of vegetables and cheese you have on hand, and this is also a great way to use up leftovers at any time during the week.

We recommend you “plan” to have some vegetables handy for the next time you are planning on serving eggs at your house.

Hey, did you make this frittata? What combination of vegetables and cheese did you use? Please take a minute to leave us a comment and let us know.

THANKS!

Easy Salmon Dinner any night of the week

Trader Joe's Easy Salmon Dinner

Here is a great meal that is sooo easy to prepare that any night will some how seem to be a special occasion. So now when you have had a super busy day, or are just running around crazy, plan to try out this meal and see how easy a delicious meal can be with the help of Trader Joe’s.

This meal is not only healthy-ish  for the most part, salmon, green beans and potatoes…  (OK maybe the scalloped potatoes are NOT the most healthy choice, – but all things in moderation, right?– and these are GOOD! ) but this meal looks good, tastes great  and has these bonuses as well:

  • Bonus# 1 : This fantastic meal only has 3 main ingredients!
  • Bonus#2 : This delicious meal only takes 20 minutes to cook!
  • Bonus#3 : This wonderful meal is easy for new cooks!

How can this be, you ask? Well, because Trader Joe’s has taken care of all the prep work for you. When you roll into Trader Joe’s looking for something new and exciting, please give this one a try…

Ingredients:

  • Trader Joe’s Scalloped Potatoes with Quattro Formaggio (in the refrigerated case, near the pasta in our Trader Joe’s)
  • Fresh or Thawed Salmon Fillets
  • Frozen Green Beans

What to do:

1. Start with the Salmon. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Oil a glass pan (like a pie pan), or another size that you have. If you don’t have a glass pan, then use whatever pan you like, and just line it with tin foil. Rinse the salmon and pat dry with paper towels.   Place salmon in the pan, and sprinkle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Place the fish in the oven and set the timer for 20 minutes.

2. Next start the scalloped potatoes.  Following the package directions, remove the cardboard surrounding the potatoes and place the package on a cookie sheet or other kind of pan, and peel back one corner to allow the potatoes to vent. Place the potatoes in the oven next to the salmon for 20 minutes.

OR following the package directions for the microwave and cook so that the salmon and the potatoes are done at about the same time.

3. Next is the green beans.  Cook in your favorite way. My favorite is to place beans in a small pot with a lid, and cover the beans with water. Heat on the stove (medium heat) until they are as tender as you like them. I say give the beans about 5 minutes and then test the beans with a fork every 2 minutes and see how tender/ soft they are getting. Drain off the water when they are done, and then you can add  salt and pepper and butter if you like.

OK when everything is ready, serve em up!

We just love this simple (salmon and green beans) and yet rich (oohh those scalloped potatoes) on a cold busy night.

Drop us a line to tell us how you liked your Easy Salmon Dinner…

Happy Cooking!!!

Finished Easy Salmon Dinner

Easy Chicken Dinner from Jamie Oliver

Trader Joe's Easy Chicken Dinner

Trader Joe's Easy Chicken Dinner

Here is a great, easy recipe from British Chef Jamie Oliver.

We were checking out Jamie’s website last week, and this wonderful recipe just sorta “poped” off the computer screen. Maybe it was the chicken legs all brown and toasty looking, or maybe all those little cherry tomatoes. It is hard to tell, but we can tell you that once we saw that photo, we were making out our shopping list for a trip to Trader Joe’s to purchase all the needed supplies. (OK- we are not the biggest fans of red chili so we did not include that in our recipe)

Ingredients:

  • Chicken Legs (or leg quarters, but we bought legs ’cause we like them)
  • Fresh basil leaves
  • Cherry Tomatoes
  • One head/ bulb  of garlic
  • Olive Oil/ Salt/ Pepper

Serve with some crusty bread to grab all the sauces!

Ohhhh the smells……

This easy one-pot dish that just smells heavenly while you let it cook away (yes the directions say to cook for one and a half hours! eeks that was a LONG time to smell someting this good.)

We sorta followed the recipe that Jame had on the website. Here was how we cooked this delicious dish:

1. Preheat the oven to 350. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and brown the chicken legs in a pan.

Trader Joe's Chicken Legs

Trader Joe's Chicken Legs

2. While the chicken is browning, separate the garlic into individual cloves and set aside.

Trader Joe's Garlic Head

Trader Joe's Garlic Head

3. Wash the basil in a bowl of water and rinse. Then pull the leafs off the stems, and set aside.

Trader Joe's Basil

Trader Joe's Basil

4. Wash the cherry tomatoes and  then cut in half.

Trader Joe's Tomatoes

Trader Joe's Tomatoes

5.  Place the garlic cloves, the basil and the tomatoes into a pan. Toss them together with a few spoonfuls of olive oil.

Tomatoes, basil and garlic

Tomatoes, basil and garlic

6. Place the browned chicken legs on top. Next time we make this, we will brown the chicken a bit more.

Easy Chicken Dinner

Ready for the Oven

7. Into the oven for one hour and thirty minutes. Stir half-way through the cooking, but be sure to keep all the chicken on the top of the dish. It will brown better that way.

Easy Chicken Dinner

Easy Chicken Dinner

Well, what do you think? Again let us caution you that the smells that came from the kitchen while this was cooking  were just unbelievable.

We hope you try this Easy Chicken Dinner sometime soon!

An Easy & Tasty Lunch Idea

Trader Joe's Garlic & Herb chicken sausages

Today’s tasty lunch idea came directly from Trader Joe’s!

After the great taste of those Mango Sausages, we checked out the chicken sausage section to see what other great sausages were available.  We chose this package: Trader Joe’s Garlic and Herb Chicken Sausages.

These are fully cooked sausages that only took about 10 minutes to heat up in a pan on the stove.  Our guess is that you could heat them in the microwave even quicker.  They would also be a great lunch to take to work, as they are “Break Room OK” meaning they heat up quick and do not have a strong smell.

Anyway we just heated them up and browned them a little in a pan and served them with Trader Joe’s Dijon mustard, and a little side salad with a fresh lemon-Dijon mustard dressing.

Here is the recipe for the side salad:

Salad stuff that you like such as:  Baby spinach leaves, sliced baby carrots, sliced cucumbers or zucchini (we used zucchini as they just looked better at Trader Joe’s), cherry tomatoes and red onion slices.  Use amounts that make sense for the number of people you are serving. Or try…. We were just making lunch for the two of us, and we still have way to much salad. Oh well, perhaps it is a start towards tonight’s dinner?

Fresh Lemon-Dijon salad dressing:

In a  bowl squeeze out the juice from one small or 1/2 of a large lemon. Remove any seeds that come with the juice.  This should be about two tablespoons of lemon juice. Then add a teaspoon of Dijon mustard (or more if you like) and a little salt and pepper. Wisk together. Add olive oil, about 4 Tablespoons in a thin stream while you are whisking at the same time.   Taste the dressing on a piece of spinach or a carrot and see if you need more oil. Add more oil, until the dressing has a nice balance, and you enjoy the taste.

Toss the salad with about 1/2 the dressing and then see if you need more. If you still have some dry leafs, then add another spoonful of dressing and re-toss.

These were a nice mild sausage, that had good flavor without being super-strong flavored.

And like we already said, we served the salad and the sausage with a little extra mustard on the side…. Yum!

Have you tried these sausages? What did you think?