Showing posts with label Toasty Breakfasts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toasty Breakfasts. Show all posts

What do you do when you wake up at 5:45 in the morning really hungry? Like so hungry you can't go back to sleep but you don't want to be standing by the stove making breakfast kind of hungry.
PS: this excludes folks who keep cereal at home and enjoy having it in the morning.
Me, on the other hand, I don't enjoy sweet stuff so much in the morning. I'd rather have idli or dosa or puttu or idiyappam or any of those nice savoury things. Toast & eggs are always welcome too! But all of the above requires being near the stove and really who wants to do that early in the morning. 

Which is when you say hello to casseroles. The easiest breakfast in the world where all you need to do is shred some bread, add in some veggies of your choice, whisk a couple of eggs in milk, throw it all in a dish and bake for half an hour. If your stomach can wait for half an hour that is.
Mine does wait, cos the end product is so good and feels so indulgent while not being really indulgent at all. How could it be? All you've done is changed around toast and eggs to a casserole. Perv that I am about toast, my toast probably takes more effort on the stove than this.


To add a little more sparkle to this plain dish, I drizzle some extra virgin olive oil before baking and well, while serving. I'm extra indulgent about olive oil these days. You can use any kind of spice mixture - pepper, chilli flakes, za'atar and probably even add a chilli sauce to the custard mix if you're so inclined. I'd add sausages and other cooked meats if I feel like having a meaty casserole. There actually is no recipe for a casserole. Or atleast the kinds I make. All you need to remember is a ratio of 2 eggs to 1 cup milk. I also occasionally go for 1 egg for 3/4 cup milk, but then that takes longer to cook. Today 2 eggs to 1 cup milk works. You could also use cream instead of milk or half milk and half cream. Whatever floats your boat. 



For this recipe I used a 7" x 3" baking dish. And it serves one really hungry person. It can also be stretched to two not so hungry people.

Ingredients

4 slices day old bread shredded by hand
2 handfuls baby spinach torn
1 large tomato sliced

2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Extra EVOO & chilli flakes to serve (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 C
2. Shred the bread and evenly distribute in a baking dish
3. Top with spinach and tomatoes. Toss around if you want it evenly distributed. I just layered them.
4. Whisk eggs, milk, salt & pepper in a bowl
5. Gently pour over the bread mix and let it spread it evenly.
6. Press down on the mix from top with a spatula and let the bread soak up the egg mix.
7. Let it rest for 5 mins (if you have patience)
8. Drizzle olive oil on top
9. Bake in oven for 30-35 mins till the egg mix has set but is slightly jiggly.
10. Slice up to a plate, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil & chilli flakes
11. Serve!

Voila! Breakfast ready.
The best part? You could also make this in advance and warm it up when it's time to eat. Wooohoooo!!!

Baby Spinach & Tomato Breakfast Casserole


Spread a little goat cheese
Spread fig slices
Poach an Egg and place on top
Add some fried bacon
Drizzle balsamic vinegar
Salt & Pepper
Voila!
Breakfast is yum!

Figs, Poached Egg & Bacon on Toast



Roasted Strawberries! Have you tried them when I told you to last time? Click the previous sentence for the recipe.

This is part of my bad girl breakfast series when I go ahead and up my toasts to another level altogether. This one has Roasted Strawberries, Feta & Mint leaves on buttered Toast.


Roasted Strawberries on Toast

It doesn't need any further explaining, does it?



Tomato, Basil & Feta on Toast

#BadGirlBreakfasts Part 5 - Creamy Garlicky Mushrooms on Toast


At some point I stopped going adventurous with the pics, I just want to get the contents across. This is what the final product looks like. No embellishments, no setups and right on my kitchen top.
This is exactly as it looks. I took inspiration from a Garlic Mushroom dish I always serve as a vegetarian appetizer for dos at my place. The only change I made is using cream instead of using cream cheese and omitting wine in this version. I also didn't add any parsley which I think the original recipe called for.

Creamy Garlicky Mushrooms on Toast

#BadGirlBreakfasts Part 4 - Creamy Eggs on Toast


When I first moved out of home and to Bangalore, there was this café right next to my house, Rendezvous. My cousin Riya and I spent quite a few evenings reading books and eating sandwiches there. Run by a couple, it was a cozy, homely place for us to spend our evenings than at our cramped rental. My favourite over there was their Egg Club Sandwich. A double decker of a sandwich with lovely toasted bread filled with an egg & mayo mix and also something else I couldn't identify but made me love it all the more.


Creamy Eggs on Toast

#BadGirlBreakfasts Part 3 - Caramelised Onions & Sausages on Toast


I'm writing this up pretty quick. You know what you need with this one? Its right up there in the title.
Caramelised onions. Which is exactly why I have a post on How To for Caramelised Onions. Click the previous sentence to go to the recipe. I still haven't gotten around to changing the link colour. See, I make life so simple.


Caramelised Onions & Sausages on Toast

#BadGirlBreakfasts Part 2 - Banana & Coconut flakes on Toast


These are not regular bananas. These are the other bananas, the big long ones from Kerala. You also get them in Cuba, Nigeria and I think Miami cos that's what Jon Favreau picked up in the movie 'Chef' and he called them plantains!!!
Do ya hear me people??? Plantains!!!! I grew up calling these bananas plantains till I was very properly corrected by my sister and my friend that no, they are bananas.


Banana & Coconut flakes on Toast

#BadGirlBreakfasts Part 1 - Poached Pears & Bleu Cheese on Toast


Remember one day I woke up and said I'm going to have a breakfast project on Facebook? I actually did go through it. It just took some time to work out things just the way I wanted.

I wish, I wish, I wish I could say this is really complicated. But the only point I wanted to make was Toast is not just Toast when you make a little extra effort. Ask me. I've almost never bothered to have breakfast before heading to work. Always was the hungriest by lunchtime and lasted on endless cups of coffee and biscuits.


Poached Pears & Bleu Cheese on Toast


It seems silly of me to post a how-to post on this blog... considering I'm not an expert on most things, especially not this. But I tried poaching eggs for the first time today and it worked. It really worked! And I'm really excited about it. And then I got this super click of my first egg (well not literally my egg.. but you know) with the yolk running down just the way I wanted it to.


How to Poach an Egg

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