Recipe

Clean out the Fridge Frittata

~ atastytrip ~ 1 Comment

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

Continue reading →

Baked Coconut Chicken Bites

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

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

Continue reading →

Super Simple Side: Pan Roasted Parmesan Asparagus

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

And just like that it’s almost August! Summer, where have you gone? Anyone have any tips for prolonging these next few weeks? If so I’m all ears. Besides being the first week of August, next week is also my last official week of summer break. True to style, we have packed a lot into it already. Robert has an end of the summer party with his tennis buddies on Sunday, my mother and sister are tentatively coming for a few days of girl time Tues-Thurs and then we leave for North Carolina to spend the weekend with my grandparents. On top of all of that (in just the first week!) we also celebrate my birthday and the anniversary of our engagement in August Smile  Robert and I got engaged in Las Vegas while on vacation with my family and it was hands down the best few days of my life. Our wedding was absolutely amazing, but getting engaged in Vegas was SO MUCH FUN! I’ll be sure to recap that fabulous trip next.

 

It probably isn’t traditional to celebrate the anniversary of your engagement, but Robert surprised me last year and I sure hope it becomes a yearly tradition (hint hint). He set his alarm to wake me up after he left for work and I found a sweet card by the bed telling me to get up and get ready because he was on his way home to pick me up for a breakfast date! There aren’t many things I love more than a breakfast date, and the fact that Robert took an hour away from a busy work morning meant the world.

 Anniversary

It was such a sweet surprise and a nice low key way to celebrate the best “yes” I’ve ever given.

 Olive Oil

As summer winds down, I hope everyone is taking advantage of all the yummy produce it has to offer. I guess technically asparagus is a Spring vegetable but whatever, we’re still enjoying it in this neck of the woods. Full disclosure, I used to dislike asparagus. It’s got a pretty distinct flavor, it definitely makes your trips to the bathroom more fragrant and getting a thick, not quite done stalk is quite unfortunate. Luckily, as my taste buds have matured and as I’ve been exposed to fresh, well prepared asparagus, I’ve developed a new appreciation for the pointy green little guys.

Continue reading →

Slow Saturday Breakfast: Tropical Baked Oatmeal

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

And just like that it’s Monday again. They always come back around so quickly don’t they? Robert and I had a great, full weekend. We went on a dinner date Friday night, spent Saturday on the boat with friends and spent Sunday at the beach celebrating the first birthday of a friend’s darling daughter.  It doesn’t get much cuter than a baby at the beach. Except maybe a baby Renly at the beach Smile

 Renly-First-Beach-Trip.jpg

On a serious note, I realized today that summer break is half way over Sad smile Four weeks down, four to go. Most of last summer was so full of wedding craziness that this one has seemed so much more laid back and relaxing. A girl could really get used to this! I am always ready and excited to start the new school year when it is time, but I will definitely miss all the sleeping in extra time in the kitchen.

Sliced bananas  Layered Fruit

During the school year I typically go to the gym in the morning on my way to work. This means waking up VERY early and packing my breakfast to eat at school. I relish weekend breakfasts during the school year because I actually get to take my time making something a little more laborious, and enjoy it with my husband!

Oat Pour  Egg Pour

Baked oatmeal is a great dish to enjoy slowly on the weekend, fresh out of the oven, BUT it is also perfect for the work week because it re-heats beautifully.  Mangoes can be tricky to cut, so if you are struggling (and haven’t youtube’d it yet) let me show you how I do it. The easiest way I have found to cut a mango is to basically slice it into thirds. The pit of a mango is flat and in the middle. You will want to place the mango upright on the cutting board and cut along the sides of the pit (from top to bottom)  so you are left with three pieces. The middle piece which contains the pit, and the two outside halves.

 How to slice a mango

These halves are where you will get your fruit. I then like to score the halves, vertically and horizontally, taking care not to cut all the way through the peel.

 Diced Mango

Continue reading →

Creamy Cucumber Soup

~ atastytrip ~ Leave a comment

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend! I loved visiting with my parents and we all had a fabulous 4th!

 Family

After spending the day roaming around town with my parents on Friday, we grilled out at home for dinner and then took the boat to get ice cream with Robert’s whole family. On Saturday we had a fantastic cookout on his sister’s new porch and watched the annual neighborhood 4th of July golf cart parade. All the kids in the neighborhood decorate their bikes, scooters golf carts and then caravan around the neighborhood and throw out candy while everyone watches from their lawns. This was my first year experiencing it but I thought it was such a cute tradition!

GC Parade GC Parade 2

It rained Saturday evening which was kind of a bust and delayed a lot of the fireworks, but we did manage to catch a few and enjoyed our time together nonetheless.

Festive Family
My adorably festive Aunt & Mother in Law

On Sunday my parents and I took a day trip to Savannah to celebrate my dad’s birthday in one of his favorite cities. He used to travel to Savannah often for work so he toured us around the city and then we came home and met Robert for a casual dinner out. Happy 61st Dad!

 Dad's Bday

I am missing my parents already but I am happy to do a bit of detoxing after a weekend full of barbeque, birthday margaritas and red white and blue desserts. Fun, delicious and oh so worth it, but it IS nice to get back on track.

Remember those herb pots my mother was bringing down, aren’t they great looking?

 Herb Pots

She had my dad make these cute wine cork labels, which I thought were adorable and will probably be replicating in the future.

 Cork Markers

Continue reading →