Breakfast in Bread

With Mother's Day upon us here is a simple breakfast that looks very special. You can use a heart cookie cutter instead of the round biscuit cutter mentioned in the recipe.

Breakfast in Bread

1 egg, fried or poached
1 tsp olive oil
1 stalk of asparagus
1 piece Canadian Bacon or about 1 oz of ham chopped
3 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 or 1 tbs of diced tomato
2 tsp parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 slice of toast
Non-stick spray

This recipe is for 1 egg, you can multiple by however many eggs you are making. You will need a biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter, I used round but any shape will do) a little less than the width of a piece of toast. If you have 2 biscuit cutters the same size and shape it will be even easier.

In a pan put 1 tsp of olive oil and heat to a shimmer add the asparagus and ham. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes. cook for another 2 minutes, until ham starts to brown. Set aside.

Start making your egg, if you are frying spray the cutter with the non-stick spray and place with the non-cutting side down in the pan. Crack the egg into the cutter. This will keep the egg shape the same size as the hole in the toast. Start the toast. Cook egg to desired doneness. When egg is done carefully remove egg from cutter. Then use cutter to cut a whole in the toast. Remove the piece of toast that you cut out and put toast on plate. Put egg in the hole in the toast. Now top with ham, asparagus, tomato mixture. Sprinkle the parmesan over the whole toast.

Manchego and Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast

Did you ever have a craving for some food or type of food so you plan the whole meal around that item? This weekend my craving was for southwestern food. I found a recipe and thought I could add some southwestern seasoning to that and it would be really good. Since it was a new dish I followed the recipe closely, a little to closely. After I was done and had the dish in the oven I turned around and saw my southwestern seasoning sitting on the cupboard behind me and realized I never added it to the dish. Now to come up with another recipe for the chicken. Well here is the recipe I came up with.
Note I used Manchego cheese in this recipe if you can't find it you could use parmesan. Manchego is available in grocery stores around here so I assume it is readily available elsewhere. If you have not heard of Manchego it is a semi-hard cheese, that comes from the La Mancha area of Spain. It is made from the milk of the Manchega sheep. The cheese is rich with a buttery and slightly spicy flavor. Manchego quickly became a family favorite when we tried it a couple of months ago. I think it is worth looking for if you haven't tried it before.

Manchego & Asparagus Stuffed Chicken Breast

This recipe is for 1 breast, just multiply by the number of breasts you need. You won't have to double the olive oil just use enough so the breasts are sitting in the oil.
2 tsp olive oil
1 chicken breast butterflied, cut in half so that it opens like a book
dijon mustard, enough to coat the inside of the chicken book
3 thin asparagus stalks, hard ends removed
1 thin slice manchego cheese, about as long as the breast
1 thinly sliced piece of ham

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium high heat. While the oil is heating spread the chicken breast out like a book and cover the inside with dijon mustard. Lay the 3 stalks of asparagus on the bottom half of the breast, then the cheese and the ham. Fold the top slice of the chicken breast over the stuffing. It should now look like a regular chicken breast with stuffing.

Place the breast in the pan carefully, so it does not fall apart. cook until bottom is golden brown. Flip the breast over and cook the other side until browned.

Tilapia Topped with Shrimp, Asparagus and Spinach

Have you ever seen a recipe and just knew you could do it better? A while back I saw a recipe where the person fried fish, shrimp and asparagus and then stacked them on top of each other. This weekend I decided to see what I could do to improve this dish and here is my results.

Tilapia Topped with Shrimp, Asparagus and Spinach

2 tilapia fillets
12 shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup baby spinach leaves
4 to 6 asparagus spears, cut into 2 inch pieces
2 tsp butter, cut into 4 pieces
1 lemon, juice and zest
2 tsp parsley finely chopped
Non Stick Spray
1 cup cooked brown rice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Spray 2 individual baking dishes with non-stick spray. Place 1 tilapia fillet in each dish. Top fillet with 1/2 of the spinach, then place the 1/2 the asparagus on top of that. Top the whole thing with the 1/2 the shrimp. Then sprinkle with 1/2 the lemon juice and dot with the butter. Bake for about 20 minutes, until shrimp and fish are done.

Remove from oven then remove fish from dish. Add rice to the dish and mix with the butter and lemon left in the dish. Place the fish on top of the rice and garnish with the parsley and zest.

Shrimp Alfredo Pizza

When I come up with ideas for new recipes one of 2 things usually happens. I make it and it fails miserably and you never read about it, I do have to threaten Annette never to mention it or I will make it for her again. Or I make it and it turns out good enough for me to publish and I don't have to hide behind things the next time I see you. Shrimp Alfredo Pizza was one of those recipes that I thought you may never see in print, but it actually turned out to be very good. My main concern was making an Alfredo sauce that would not be thin and run off the pizza and all over the stove. I used shrimp, asparagus and spinach on this pizza. You could use all veggies (any combination that you want) or chicken instead of shrimp.

Shrimp Alfredo Pizza

Alfredo Sauce:
1 5oz can of 2 % evaporated milk
3 oz low fat, low sodium chicken broth
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tbs butter
3 tbs all-purpose flour
1/4 c Parmesan cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste

Pizza Crust:
Make your favorite crust or buy one

Toppings:
2 tsp olive oil
12 oz shrimp
1 oz frozen spinach, finely chopped (you can use fresh)
6 small stalks asparagus, cut into 1" pieces
I cut some basil into ribbons and sprinkled on top for a garnish.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. If you have a pizza stone make sure that is on the center shelf, so it heats up.

Sauce: put milk, broth and garlic in a microwave safe bowl and heat until steaming, about 3 to minutes. Remove and let this cool for a minute or 2 before using. In a large sauce pan over low heat add butter. When butter melts add flour and whisk until mixed with butter. Then add the milk mixture slowly and whisk it while adding. Whisk this mixture until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Add the parmesan and whisk until Parmesan is melted and incorporated into milk mixture. Poor this back into bowl and set aside.

Toppings: in the sauce pan heat olive oil. Add asparagus and cook for 2 minutes, add the shrimp and spinach and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat.

Spread the sauce over the pizza crust. Then spread the toppings over the sauce. Then place the shrimp over the other toppings. Cook for about 10 minutes. When it comes out sprinkle with basil if using.

Breakfast in Bread

Every Sunday morning while my wife is getting ready for church I make eggs for breakfast. I try to come up with something besides fried, scrambled and poached. This was my idea for last Sunday, it certainly isn't a new idea, but I haven't tried it in years. If you have ever made eggs in a hole, eggs in a basket or whatever you want to call it you will know that the toast and the eggs don't always cook at the same rate., so you end up with burnt toast and raw eggs. So I cheated.

Breakfast on Bread or the Toastest with the Mostest


1 egg, fried or poached
1 tsp olive oil
1 stalk of asparagus
1 piece Canadian Bacon or about 1 oz of ham chopped
3 cherry tomatoes, 1/2 or 1 tbs of diced tomato
2 tsp parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 slice of toast
Non-stick spray

This recipe is for 1 egg, you can multiple by however many eggs you are making. You will need a biscuit cutter (or cookie cutter, I used round but any shape will do) a little less than the width of a piece of toast. If you have 2 biscuit cutters the same size and shape it will be even easier.

In a pan put 1 tsp of olive oil and heat to a shimmer add the asparagus and ham. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes. cook for another 2 minutes, until ham starts to brown. Set aside.

Start making your egg, if you are frying spray the cutter with the non-stick spray and place with the non-cutting side down in the pan. Crack the egg into the cutter. This will keep the egg shape the same size as the hole in the toast. Start the toast. Cook egg to desired doneness. When egg is done carefully remove egg from cutter. Then use cutter to cut a whole in the toast. Remove the piece of toast that you cut out and put toast on plate. Put egg in the hole in the toast. Now top with ham, asparagus, tomato mixture. Sprinkle the parmesan over the whole toast.