Slow Saturday Breakfast: Creamed Eggs on Toast

After a pretty heavy last post, let’s get back to something lighter…at least in tone, maybe not so much in calories. Most of my breakfasts tend to be on the healthier side, oatmeal, egg and veggie scrambles, protein pancakes, the occasional green smoothie, BUT balance is important and occasionally you have to indulge. Robert’s special breakfasts are usually of the french toast variety, but I tend towards the savory side of life to start my day. This recipe is a favorite, partly because it’s delicious and partly because it’s inextricably linked to two of my favorite people; my grandparents, otherwise known as Nana and Papa.

nana-and-papa
My grandparents on their wedding day ❤

Grandparents are literally the best, especially mine. My childhood is full of wonderful memories of time and summers spent with them and even in my teen years, when we lived 9 hours away from them, they never hesitated to jump in the car and make the drive to be with us. They were always there for the big things; birthdays, graduations, surgeries and the seemingly insignificant, like seeing us get ready for high school prom. When we went through the miscarriage they drove 6 hours just to give me a hug and take me out to lunch ❤ Like I said, the best.

ingredients

When we go to visit my grandparents there is no shortage of good food for any meal, but my grandmother always makes creamed eggs on toast for breakfast at least once during our stay. She told me it was one of the very first things she learned how to make in Home Ec class when she was in high school. I remember exactly nothing that I learned in my high school Home Ec class other than never put dish soap in a dishwasher. One of my group members made that unfortunate error and we all had to come to Saturday school for flooding the classroom.

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Slow Saturday Breakfast – Acorn Squash Egg in the Hole

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

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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Slow Saturday Breakfast: Sautéed Onion & Kale Breakfast Scramble

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a fantastic Mother’s Day yesterday. What a wonderful and so totally worthwhile holiday that one is…I mean really, does ANYONE work as hard and do as much for you as your mom?

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Judging from the outpouring of social media love I saw yesterday I would say the answer is no. I am clearly one of millions who thinks my own mother hung the moon, and as I’ve found with many things, I appreciate her more and more with each passing year. What is that old adage? With age comes wisdom? Something like that. It’s true though, as I get closer to considering becoming a mom myself, I wonder how in the heck my mom ever did it! When my sister and I were growing up my mother  kept our house spotless, did most of the yard work, did all the grocery shopping and laundry, had a home cooked meal on the table every single night, made sure neither of us ever wanted for anything including homemade, hand sewn Halloween costumes that she would whip up in the blink of an eye, attended all of our school and non-school events and shuttled us back and forth to whatever extra curricular activities or play dates were happening at the moment….oh yeah, and she worked FULL TIME! Superwoman, right?

Halloween
Proof of homemade costumes…this must have been the year Aladdin came out

My dad traveled for work 4-5 days a week when I was growing up so my mom was essentially a single parent, but she never missed a beat. Robert and I absolutely want children of our own someday but we’re not quite there yet. When I say we I really mean me, because if I’m being honest I sometimes find it overwhelming just to work full time, keep up our home and take care of Renly. If I can’t always find the time to walk my dog, how in the world am I going to throw children into the mix someday?!? Am I the only not yet parent who wonders this? To every working mom out there, I salute you! You are all superwomen! And to non-working moms, I salute you too because I can only imagine that being on call 24/7 is the hardest job of them all! I guess when the time is right for Robert and I, I can turn to my own superhero mom (and amazing mother and sister in law!) to help show me the ropes!

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Since I wasn’t able to be with my own mom, I spent yesterday celebrating the new mothers in my life, my in-laws! We had a wonderful day treating my mother-in-law, sister-in-law and brother-in-law’s mother (Did you catch all that…I know that was a lot of “in laws” to keep up with) to brunch. We took the boat to ELA’s, a seafood restaurant with yummy food and even better water views. Since I am a notorious planner I had already checked the menu out online.

I know, it’s a problem, I’m never going to change sorry  I’m working on it.

 veggies

I was glad I  checked it out because while delicious sounding, most of the options were pretty darn caloric. For example, Blueberry Stuffed French Toast – triple stacked cinnamon texas toast dusted with powdered sugar, stuffed with blueberries, cream cheese and walnuts, finished with whipped cream, fresh berries and syrup served with applewood smoked bacon strips.  Holy yum and holy heart attack, right? I decided I should make myself a healthy breakfast that would keep me from being ravenous at our 1:00 reservations and devouring all the stuffed french toast I could get my hands on.

 Ingredients

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Slow Saturday Breakfast: Smoked Salmon & Sweet Potato Hash

Happy Saturday! This might be the first time in a while that I’ve posted a “Slow Saturday Breakfast” on an actual Saturday. ASB2k15 allows you to be on the ball like that.

ASB2k15? Adult Spring Break 2015 (Hey-O)! You may be wondering how adult spring break differs from that experienced during your younger years. There is significantly less drinking, A LOT more sleeping and  since the weather has been positively terrible in Tennessee this week, a lot less sunburn. After a weekend in Hilton Head with my mom, we both packed up and headed back to Chattanooga on Monday. Since we’ve been back it has rained non-stop which means instead of playing outside with Renly, walking/shopping downtown and laying out like I planned to do, I have been napping, reading and playing lots of indoor tug-of-war with Mr. Ren and his favorite toys. I miss the sun but napping in my childhood bed like I used to do after a tough day of high school (hah) is not a bad alternative. File this spring break under ‘lazy’ ‘relaxing’.

Spring Break Renly
           Spring Break Renly

Another thing I have been doing a lot of this week is eating breakfast foods for as many meals as possible. It’s only fitting since I’ve spent the majority of this week in my pajamas (I know, I am SO fun and exciting, right?!?). If I didn’t have my darling husband to cook for, I could easily eat breakfast for all three meals a day. Robert doesn’t mind the occasional pancake dinner but he’s more of a traditionalist when it comes to mealtimes. Unfortunately for him, ASB2k15 is not one of the perks of his job. He’s been stuck home working all week while I’ve been binging on oatmeal and egg sandwiches. That of course means he’s probably been binging on all the unhealthy stuff I try to limit when I’m around, so he might actually be enjoying this ASB2k15 almost as much as me Smile

Hash 3

Before you start worrying about me actually turning into a pancake, I have made it out of the house a bit this week. On Wednesday my mother, sister and I drove down to Atlanta for some girl time. We shopped at some cute boutiques in the Virginia Highlands area and then made our way to the Westsides Provisions District for a little more shopping and some lunch. We ate at Star Provisions, which is more or less a deli counter/bakery in the front of Bacchanalia, one of Atlanta’s most beloved restaurants. We each ordered a sandwich, Reuben for mom, Muffaletta for my sister and I got the Banh Mi, my first. Holy wow, I wish I had stopped to take a picture of our lovely sandwiches but we were so hungry that they were gone before I even considered it. My mom declared her reuben the best she’s ever had and my banh mi was outstanding. We all liked the muffaletta the least and agreed it would have been better toasted. If you’re in Atlanta and into sandwiches (who isn’t into sandwiches?) I highly recommend Star Provisions. They also have some gorgeous kitchen wares and linens to peruse while you wait for your food, and last but not least, a Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams across the street. Ice cream is my favorite indulgence and I have been itching to try Jeni’s. I took advantage after our meal and followed up my lunch with two scoops: brown butter toffee crumble and brambleberry crisp. Delicious. It was the perfect ending to a lovely mother daughter day. It also fueled us for our final stop, Ikea. If you’ve never visited an Ikea, I can best sum it up by saying that it’s an experience. A very large, somewhat overwhelming, maze like experience. I’ll leave it at that.

Egg Lid On

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