The boring type would be cleaning my closet or bathroom. I'm talking the food involved type. Spring cleaning my fridge! So this month, the Recipe ReDux theme is "Spring Cleaning." It wasn't difficult to realize that I had some ingredients that needed used up. Honestly, some of my favorite meals are thrown up by looking at what is in my fridge and just going with it.
So where have I been these past 5 weeks? Busy. Gosh I'm a terrible blogger. Guys I'm so sorry. So I'm in the food service rotation of my dietetic internship and if your at all familiar with food service, the hours aren't typical and there is food around me ALL DAY LONG. Sounds like a good thing from a money standpoint (and a food lovers perspective) but it probably isn't... but I'll get to that later. Because I haven't been preparing many of my own meals for the past month and a half, I haven't really been cooking or grocery shopping. Hence, no recipes recently.
So, when I was tasked with spring cleaning my fridge, there wasn't much to go through. However, I had recently bought a bunch of eggs on sale that were going to go bad, and had some veggies that were on their last leg, in addition to some chicken sausage in the freezer and then BAM! This recipe was born. Frittatas are no brainer recipes that you cant mess up. Throw in whatever you need to eat into the mix and then bake. Couldn't be easier. The best part is that I've had a grab and go breakfast for days now. Just pop a slice of the leftover frittata in the microwave and you're good to go. For those of you unfamiliar with frittatas, think of it as basically a crustless egg pie. SO DELICIOUS.
So if you've made it this far in the post, congratulations! I wanted to take a minute to share with you some of my personal observations while temporarily joining the world of food service management. Having the majority of my meals provided for has been nothing short of wonderful. However, it has put me in an environment forcing me to make choices I haven't had to make in a long time. As many of you know, I am a huge advocate for the concept that nutrition is dependent on us making educated choices; weighing the decisions of the food we eat. I don't think of any one food as good or bad. I think of eating as a series of choices. I think that it's okay to eat that cookie, as long as you understand that it might be less filling than eating Greek yogurt with fruit. Eating is all about understanding the choices we make in order to achieve balance. My typical stocked fridge at home is mostly filled with healthy snacks, fruits, and veggies so making the smart decision is usually pretty easy for me. However, being in an environment where all the healthy and less healthy options I could ever dream of are readily available has been nothing but challenging. I have made the conscious choice to pick the options like curly fries and cookies instead of fruit and baked potatoes. Having the less desirable choices around is tempting and choosing to not eat them is not easy. I've even gained a few pounds these last few weeks, however, I don't fall back on my opinion. Eating is not about the food options available, but the choices we make in order to achieve balance. I've chosen to eat cookies every day. That's my choice. It's not the fault of the facility I'm working in that I've gained a few pounds. They have not forced me to eat a cookie with lunch every day. I've decide to. I'm using this as a way to reflect on the experience. While I understand why some people may not always agree with my nutritional perspective, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on these past few weeks and relate it back to my soapbox.
I like this recipe a lot. You can literally throw in any veggies or meats you like. Get creative with your frittatas and tell me what add-ins you'll use!
Veggie And Sausage Frittata
INGREDIENTS:
3 eggs 4 egg whites 1/2 cup milk 4 cups cooked veggies (I used broccoli, red pepper, red onion, and zucchini) 2 links spicy chicken sausage, chopped (I like the sausages from Trader Joe's) 1/2 cup shredded pizza cheese mix (or your favorite cheese) 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese |
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 9 inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a mixing bowl, whisk eggs, egg whites and milk. Season with salt and pepper. Fold veggies and sausage in with egg mixture and pour into the greased pan. Bake frittata for 30 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the center. Cut into 6 slices and enjoy. Don't forget to save the leftovers! |