Recipe

Savory Fall Hash

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Every Sunday afternoon, before I make my weekly trek to the grocery store, I ask Robert what he wants to eat that week. And every Sunday afternoon, Robert tells me the same three things: stuffed mushrooms, Salad with fish on top, That stuff in a bowl. 9 times out of 10, I take exactly 0 of those three suggestions. Why? Well for starters, Robert doesn’t really like my stuffed mushrooms. He forgets this, and then when reminded he admits that “yeah, he isn’t really sure why he always suggests them, they are just the first thing that pop into his head.” I burnt both of us out on salads with grilled fish on top last summer, so that is usually out too.

Squash

His saving grace, when it comes to meal suggestions, is definitely “that stuff in a bowl”. It is MUCH tastier than my stuffed mushrooms and Robert truly does love it, so it makes a somewhat regular appearance on our dinner table during the cooler months. It has a few too many ingredients to come up with a comprehensive name, so we’ll go with savory fall hash…unless of course you want to just call it “that stuff in a bowl”. Whatever works.

Kale and Onions

SKO

The recipe itself is quite easy, but there is a lot of prep work involved. Chopping, chopping, chopping.  You could buy pre-cooked and crumbled sausage, already diced onions and pre-chopped butternut squash and make your life much easier. Or maybe you’re one of those people that finds chopping vegetables cathartic and prefer to do it all yourself. I’m not really into veggie chopping for relaxation but I’ll remain a DIY girl until my local Publix figures out the pre-diced squash bit. Whatever you fancy, the end result really is worth it.

Apples and Rice

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Slow Saturday Breakfast – Acorn Squash Egg in the Hole

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Happy Friday! It’s ALMOST the weekend…hallelujah! I have really been dragging all week thanks to the time change, so I am more than ready for a few less scheduled days to get me back on track. Of course, true to form, Robert and I will be traveling this weekend so I’m not sure how much rest I’ll actually get.

After work today we are heading to Clemson for the Florida State game. This is the first game we have been able to attend all season and for once I may be just as excited as Robert! We are renting a big house with Robert’s parents, aunt & uncle and cousins and are planning a big tailgate with our friends! I am in charge of breakfast on Saturday and although I am planning on crowd friendly biscuits and breakfast casserole, I wanted to go ahead and share this yummy fall breakfast with you!

Plated Close Up

Growing up, my father’s mother, Grandma Mary used to make us ‘eggs on toast’ (also known as ‘egg in the hole’) for breakfast when we were visiting. She also made them for us whenever we had tummy aches in which case she would add a glass of coke to the side. She swore the carbonation calmed your stomach. I’m not sure if it was her grandmother magic or the fact that the bubbles made you burp, but it really did work! My grandmother passed away nearly 12 years ago but I still think of her fondly every time I see an ‘egg on toast’!

Fast forward to now, when I am not only older, but more into veggies and less into carbs. I’m still not at all into stomach aches, but that’s neither here nor there. I saw a variation of this recipe in an old issue of cooking light and decided to give it a try. The basics are essentially the same, but you swap out your slice of toast, for a slice of acorn squash…genius!

Acorn Squash

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Clean out the Fridge Frittata

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Breakfast foods for breakfast, breakfast foods for lunch, breakfast foods for dinner. These are a few of my favorite things.

Close Up

I have long waxed poetic on this blog about my love of all things breakfast. I could eat breakfast foods all day long, and some days I actually do. Like today. I had a spinach smoothie for breakfast (spinach means its basically a salad so this could technically be lunch..right?), oatmeal for lunch (Which exploded in the work microwave..bummer), and last but not least I’ll be dining on the rest of this delicious frittata for dinner tonight.

Ingredients

Oatmeal for lunch typically means I’m completely out of groceries and need to make a trip to the store. While I am currently out of groceries, I will not be making a trip to the store any time soon since we leave for Bermuda on Wednesday! I talked about this trip on the blog many posts ago when it was first planned and seemed forever away… well, it’s finally here! Between treadmill falls (which is almost totally healed, hooray!) and a few tough weeks at work, I am more than ready for a few days away with Robert (and the rest of my family too of course :). My aunt and sister-in-law chose the location and accommodations and have done the majority of the planning thus far. They are both fun and have great taste so instead of going into my typical “plan everything to the minute” vacation mode, I’m looking forward to just going along for the ride and seeing what they have up their sleeves! If they need any suggestions once we get there I did happen to find this fun helmet diving activity on TripAdvisor…

Helmet Diving

I’m not sure if her face is screaming “This is TERRIBLE!” or “This is AWESOME!” but either way, I’m in.

Ok, so back to the frittata. Wasting food is a personal pet peeve so when we are headed out of town I try to use up everything perishable in the fridge before we go. What better to do with random ingredients than make a frittata? I mean EVERYTHING goes with eggs, am I right or am I right?

 Crisped Potato slices saute

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Easy Crock Pot Sausage and Peppers

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Do you ever have a morning when your bed is literally just TOO comfortable to leave? When your room is slightly too chilly, your blankets are perfectly warm and your pillows are positioned perfectly?

Renly in chair
Renly says this chair is too comfy to get out of…

I had one of those this morning and when I DID actually get up and drag myself to the gym, it was no small feat. I didn’t go to bed particularly late last night so I’m going to attribute my difficult rising to the weather. Yesterday the weather decided that it was officially time for fall. I wore a jacket to work and for the first time in months my car windows weren’t fogged due to the heat. I don’t particularly love the cold but I DO welcome hearty, comforting (easy!) crockpot meals!

peppers and onions Browned Links

When you work all day and have limited time to prepare dinner at night the crockpot is a godsend. My grandmother gave me my first crock pot when I started college and it was one of the first things I ever cooked with. When Robert and I got married I retired my original slow cooker and registered for one with a timer. It’s pretty difficult to ruin anything in a crock pot, but we lost a few meals my first year of work because neither of us got home in time and they simply cooked too long. We still have crazy long days sometimes so the crockpot with the timer was a game changer. You set your cook time, and once it has lapsed the crockpot automatically switches itself to the warm setting, so your food is warm and ready without being overdone. They are more expensive than the base models but very worth it.

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Baked Coconut Chicken Bites

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Is August really over already? I feel like Labor Day is the unofficial end to summer which has been making me quite sad…that is of course until I bought a sweater last Saturday. Then I promptly remembered how much I love sweaters, and scarves, and boots (can’t forget boots!) and even hats! One thing I do NOT love is pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin baked goods are another story but hopefully that’s enough to set me apart from every other “basic” 28 year old girl in America 🙂

Close Up

End of summer means back to work. Back to work means a lot less time in the kitchen. Less time in the kitchen means batch cooking is once again my new best friend! Heyo! I am big on trying new recipes and we rarely have repeats, but I do rely on a few staples when we are short on time. Enter, Coconut Crusted Chicken Bites!

coconut Toasted Coconut

I love fried chicken in all its forms (except wings…too messy and bony, bleh), but I NEVER fry foods at home. A. I’m scared I’d burn myself and B. Crusty baked chicken tastes equally as delicious and is so much better for you! Before I discovered the secret to crispy “baked” chicken, I made many a bird that came out soggy and did nothing to mimic the fried texture I was aiming for. Then one day I read a recipe that called for a rack and that made ALL the difference. When the chicken sits up and the heat is able to circulate all around it, everything cooks evenly and gets nice and crispy. I use my cookie cooling rack since it is oven safe, and it works wonderfully. If you have had similar experiences and thus snub your nose at baked fried chicken recipes, try this method, I guarantee you’ll change your tune!

Coconut-bc-panko

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