I like to have fun in the kitchen. One of my favourite games to play is “will it waffle?” I have had great success with croissant dough and halloumi cheese. It’s just so amusing to put stuff, other than waffle batter, into the waffle iron and see what happens. I have had less success with my other favourite kitchen game, “can you blend it?” Let’s just say that apple pie milkshake was not one of my greatest creations, and leave it at that.
I discovered the idea of using Tater Tots on bonappetit.com. They did a loaded tater tot waffle version, complete with bacon, chives, sour cream and cheddar. I left out the bacon and topped mine with a fried egg, because everything’s better with an egg on top, right?
The amount of Tater Tots you need to fill your waffle iron depends on the size and type of waffle iron you have. I have made it twice now, once in a Cuisinart Belgian waffle maker and once in a regular President Choice waffle maker. You will need to add a second layer of Tater Tots for a Belgian waffle maker, as the grooves are deeper.
Here’s a video to show how it all comes together:
The Tater Tots go in frozen. I discovered that the best way to ensure an even waffle is to let the tots cook for about 2-3 minutes. Then open the waffle iron and see if there are any gaps or holes. Fill them in with more tots and continue cooking for a total of about 9-12 minutes. I used a medium high heat.
Everyone I made them for loved the nostalgia factor. Most had not had Tater Tots since they were a child. Shockingly, my friend Ed had never even heard of Tater Tots! Clearly a deprived child. I will be making these for hm very soon.
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, it’s no secret that I love breakfast for dinner. There is something about those typical morning foods that seem to soothe and calm me. Just think about it. By the end of the day, when we’re feeling tired and a little bit overwhelmed, we need some serenity. I think there is also some sort of illicit pleasure in breaking the rules. I’m an adult now, and I can eat breakfast for dinner if I want!
When I saw Tim Robinson’s recipe for “Hearty Kale breakfast Bowl” on thefeedfeed.com, I knew I wanted to have it for dinner. I adapted his recipe slightly, adding in some butternut squash and seasoning it with smoked paprika and garlic. It takes about 35 minutes to roast the potatoes and squash, but during that time, you can prepare the other bowl ingredients.
The bitterness of the kale is perfectly balanced by the fatty richness of creamy avocado and oozy egg yolk. The cubes of potato and squash turn into crispy little nuggets. Crumbled feta adds a hit of salt. Don’t skimp on the red pepper flakes! This dish hits all the right notes.
Tim suggests using leftover grains instead of the potatoes. Farro, barley or rice would be excellent substitutions.
Rösti potatoes are considered by some to be the national dish of Switzerland. Essentially, they are a giant potato pancake. They differ from latkes in that they do not contain any egg, flour or other binding ingredients. They can be made with either Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes. The Yukon Gold is a bit waxier and will result in a slightly crispier rösti.
The key to a successful rösti is low and slow cooking and enough fat to achieve crispness. I like a mix of butter (for flavour) and vegetable oil (to keep the butter from burning). A non-stick pan is ideal for making rösti.
You could certainly serve the rösti plain, as a side dish for dinner, but I love to treat it like a blank canvas and add toppings. My topping of choice is always fried eggs! It’s no secret, that I adore breakfast for dinner. I’d happily eat eggs for every meal. I decided to serve it with a Shakshuka sauce on the side, as I didn’t want to make the rösti soggy.
Shakshuka is a Middle Eastern/Northern African dish with eggs poached in spicy tomato sauce. Last summer, my daughter and her fiancé were living with us at the cottage. She made brunch for us almost every Sunday. I always requested her homemade sourdough and Shakshuka. She used the recipe from cookieandkate, and I just love the flavours.
A handful of arugula and a sprinkle of crumbled feta and cilantro finished the dish off perfectly.
Although this post is titled “Bagel Breakfast Sandwiches”, I’d never actually eat this for breakfast. I’m never hungry in the morning and usually it’s just a bowl of oatmeal or some yogurt and fruit. But, I’m a big fan of breakfast for dinner. When my kids were little, we’d have waffles and ice cream if my husband was out at a meeting. He would have never considered that dinner. We loved it.
Although I’m giving you a recipe for this sandwich, it’s really more of a guide. Feel free to use whatever you have on hand. I had leeks, kale, peppers and some leftover plant based Italian sausage.
I sautéed the veggies, shredded some cheese, then added them to some beaten eggs and poured them into a greased sheet pan. It only took about 8 minutes to bake in the oven.
Since there are just the two of us, we had leftover “egg circles”. They reheated up perfectly for breakfast with a piece of toast the next few morning, and lunch the day after that.
I toasted up some everything bagels, melted some Gouda cheese on the bottom and topped my egg patty with sliced avocado, tomato and arugula. Cheddar and an English muffin would be yummy. Ciabatta bread and Gruyere would also make a fine match. Just use up whatever is lingering in your vegetable crisper and cheese drawer and you’ve got the makings of a very fine dinner!
I’m a big fan of breakfast for dinner. We have eggs for supper at least once a week at our house. A burrito is the perfect way to wrap up your dinner in one neat little package. These burritos check all the boxes for a satisfying meal. Here’s how it all comes together.
I have recently discovered “Beyond Meat Spicy Italian Sausage”. It’s a plant based protein, that so closely resembles the real thing, it’s amazing. I’m always on the lookout to reduce my consumption of meat, and I have tried many “meat alternatives.” Most of them are sorely lacking in texture and flavour. This one did not disappoint. This is not a sponsored post, I just really love the product. I removed the “meat” from the casing and sautéed it in a pan, breaking it up into little pieces, until browned and crispy. I have used it as a pizza topping, mixed into frittatas, and tossed it with pasta and tomato sauce.
You can assemble and wrap the burritos ahead of time and stick them in the fridge for a few hours. Heat them in a 350°F oven for about 15 minutes to heat them through and melt the cheese.
There is no end to the fillings you can use. Sautéed onions, black beans, salsa, hash browns, mushrooms, or spinach. Get creative.
Egg-in-a-hole used to be one of my favourite meals as a child. I loved taking the little round piece of toast and poking it into the center of the egg, watching the runny golden yolk ooze out. I had completely forgotten about this egg dish until Tieghan Gerard, over at Half Baked Harvest, had the genius idea to turn it into a new way to eat avocado toast.
She topped hers with mashed avocado, corn, nectarines and feta cheese. We are not quite in nectarine season here, so I decided to roast some little cherry tomatoes with the corn. Mine got a topping of ricotta salata, basil and cilantro. A squirt of hot sauce or some pickled jalapeños would also be quite delicious if that’s more your jam.
The tomatoes and corn spend about 20 minutes in a hot oven, getting all golden brown and delicious. This gives you time to mash the avocados and make the egg-in-a-hole toasts.This is comfort food at its finest. It would make a beautiful brunch, but I love it best for dinner. There is something a little bit indulgent about having breakfast for dinner.
Don’t know what the weather’s like in your neck of the woods, but here in Ottawa we’ve been under siege. Earlier this week we set a one-day-record for snowfall with over 50 centimetres (that’s almost 20 inches) burying the city. The old record of 41 centimetres was set in 1947. Whoopee for us!
Perfect time to cocoon, binge watch Netflix and make oat and maple waffles. I finished off all five seasons of Friday Night Lights in a few short weeks and I’m having Tim Riggins withdrawal. My husband can’t believe that after watching all those episodes, I still don’t understand football.
We started watching House of Cards, but my husband doesn’t understand the concept of binge watching. He restricts us to one episode a night. The man has incredible self-control. I decided to see if I could break down his will power with waffles. These waffles are the creation of whole grains maven Kim Boyce. Her 2011 book “Good to the Grain”is a veritable whole grains baking bible. Kim and co-author Amy Scattergood go beyond just substituting whole grains for all-purpose flour. They delve into 12 different whole grain flours and teach us what each one has to offer. I love that they are not whole grain militants. Many of the recipes have some all-purpose flour in the mix, because the lightness that you get from AP flour is sometimes necessary for superior taste. And first and foremost this book is focused on good taste!
Start with sifting the oat flour, oat bran and all purpose flour. The batter is sweetened with maple syrup. They are light and fluffy, thanks to beaten egg whites.Make sure you preheat the waffle iron to high and brush on lots of butter. We topped ours with a fried egg, because everything tastes better with a fried egg on top! This is one food trend I am happy to follow.
When you are used to cooking dinner for a family of five every night, finding yourself alone for supper comes as a bit of a shock, a pleasant one, mind you, but still, quite a jarring change to the system. Having solitary meals quite frequently this past summer got me curious about what other people fix for dinner when they are flying solo.
Out to dinner this week with a bunch of friends, I posed the question to the table. Almost every man at the table said they ate a bowl of cereal or picked up some take-out, while practically every woman said they made a salad with some fish, chicken or eggs mixed in for protein.
Really???
Are my sister Faith and I the only ones to conduct a frantic search for our spouse’s hidden chocolate stash, dump the Party Size pack of peanut M&M’s into a bowl (because our mom raised us right, and eating out of the bag is for animals), guzzle a diet coke from the can (because it tastes better that way, right?), and call it dinner?
The late Laurie Colwin, wrote about this very subject in her book, “Home Cooking.” “Dinner alone is one of life’s pleasures. Certainly cooking for oneself reveals man at his weirdest. People lie when you ask them what they eat when they are alone. A salad, they tell you. But when you persist, they confess to peanut butter and bacon sandwiches deep fried and eaten with hot sauce, or spaghetti with butter and grape jam.”
I suspected that because I posed the question in public, where answers would not be anonymous, that not everyone was being 100% honest with me (just a hunch!). So I sent out an email to about 40 of my closest friends and relatives and posed the question, with the promise of zero judgement and total anonymity.
The replies came flooding back almost immediately. I was so relieved. Yes, these were my peeps. I knew they wouldn’t let me down. Here is a sampling of some of my favourite confessions.
Entire bag of baby carrots (but he/she only did this once because their skin turned orange)
Stacy’s Pita Chips with guacamole (Impossible not to finish entire bag as they are laced with some secret substance that causes addiction)
Frozen Purdy’s Mint Meltie Bars (had never heard of these and I think I am going to be very sorry I learned about them!)
$1.39 Double Cheeseburger from the McDonald’s extra value menu (I think this person was putting me on…I don’t believe it for a second!)
Turkey hoagie and a bag of chips (That’s a sub sandwich for those of you not from Philly!)
Now, lest you think that I subsist on a steady diet of Peanut M&M’s and Diet Coke, rest assure, I mix it up. Sometimes it’s a bowl of Kettle Brand Baked Sea Salt Chips (the only baked potato chips that do not taste like baked cardboard) with a chaser of Villa Sandi Prosecco.
I think that we are looking for comfort when we are dining alone at home. Cooking for yourself should feel slightly indulgent and not at all a chore. After all, you only have yourself to please, no spouse or picky kids! Sometimes, comfort means something warm. When that craving hits, this is what I make myself:I always have eggs, cheese and tomatoes in the house.
I’d love to hear what you eat for dinner when you are home alone! Leave me a confession comment.
