Avocado Bacon Omelet

A healthy omelet that is quick and easy for any morning. Tasty and only takes 10 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
1 tbsp milk/cream/etc
Herbs if desired
1/2 diced avocado
1 tbsp crumbled bacon (I used the stuff in the jar)
1/4 c Parmesan or mixed hard Italian cheeses
1/4 - 1/2 c vegetables if desired or on hand

Servings: One good healthy breakfast

Instructions:
Scramble the eggs with the milk, and herbs if your using them, as much as you like. Want a fluffy omelet, scramble the heck out of it. Want a dense omelet, scramble less. Pour the egg into a ~8 inch pan coated with cooking spray. Let cook a minute or two and then sprinkle the bacon, cheese and avocados on half of the omelet. Add the extra veggies if your using them.

When the bottom is cooked flip half the omelet over the other half, let cook. Then flip the whole thing and let the other half cook through to make sure all egg is cooked and cheese is melted.

Eat hot and steaming!

Nutritional Information: 450 calories, 23g of Protein and while it does have 33g of fat, it is healthy fat, it pretty much all comes from the avocado.

Recipe From: Made it up, used it a few times just decided to write it down and look at the overall nutritional values

I have made these numerous times, just thought I would take the time to write it down and talk about nutritional content. Super easy, tasty and healthy.

You can really use any cheese you want, if you want to make this in a California fashion use Monterrey Jack. But I wanted to cut calories and hard Italian cheeses have fewer than most soft cheeses. I keep some grated in the fridge at all times, toss it on all sorts of things and no salt needed because the cheese has plenty.

You can add extra vegetables if you have them on hand, but I don't like most vegetables in my eggs but green and red peppers would add some crunch if your so inclined. Use herbs as you see fit, basil goes well, so does garlic and Italian herbs.

Savory Carrots

A quick easy side dish for savory carrots. I am not a carrot fan normally, but in my quest to eat healthier I found these to be pretty good. Nice flavor, good for your waist line.

Ingredients:
1 pound carrots (Baby or sliced as you like)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (I just sprayed the pan with pam)
1 Leek
1/4 cup hot water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Dash pepper
1 Leek or 1/2 an onion
1/4 c Parmesan cheese

Servings: Depends on how many carrots you want to eat, probably 2-4

Instructions:
In a skillet, saute carrots and garlic in oil (or use a EVOO sprayer on occasion) for 3-4 minutes, then add leeks and saute for 1-2 minutes. Careful not to burn the leeks, if they are browning too fast turn down the heat or move onto the next step.

Add water, salt, thyme and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and cook for 8-12 minutes or until carrots are tender and most of liquid has been absorbed. If there is too much cooking liquid left when carrots are finished remove lid and cook for a minute. If you run out of water before they are finished, add a dash more until finished.

Once the vegetables are done, removed from stove and toss with Parmesan cheese. Serve warm.

Recipe From: Inspired by Allrecipes.com

I am not a fan of carrots in general, just not really my think. But vegetables are good for me so I should eat them. I am really not a fan of glazed carrots, sickly sweet and nothing tasty. But these are savory, garlicy and with just a hint of cheese.

You could easily use half an onion or shallots instead of leeks, but I happened to have a leek on hand to use. Just make sure to saute the onions or shallots before adding the carrots for their little saute.

I also didn't use the extra oil, I just make sure to spray everything on occasion with my olive oil mister of if was getting sticky. I also used a good non stick pan and this helps cut down on the needed fat.

Cookie Dough Truffles

Tastes like real cookie dough minus the raw eggs wrapped in chocolate. If you like cookie dough, this is going to hit home like no other comfort food.

Ingredients:
8 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
2¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1½ lb. semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate, coarsely chopped
Mini chocolate chips (for garnish)

Servings: 30-40 truffles

Instructions:
Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls.

Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for 1-2 hours or until very hard and frozen.

When ready to dip the truffles, melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water (double boiler). Removing only a few truffles at a time from the freezer dip each chilled truffle, one at a time, coating in chocolate, use a fork to remove and tap gently to remove the excess. Use a fork and the edge of a knife (I use a fondue fork) to slide the truffle onto a silicone sheet or wax paper.

If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become soft and less frozen, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.) If using mini chocolate chips for garnish, sprinkle on top quickly after dipping each truffle before the chocolate sets. Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Recipe From: Dainty-Chef.com

I was stunned at how much these tasted just like cookie dough. Right down to the gritty butter sugar texture. If your one to eat raw cookie dough, this is going to hit the spot. The one warning I have is that they have the texture of cookie dough too. You will need to freeze these in order to dip these. Then your going to have to really keep these in the fridge or they will start to sweat after they are dipped.

But another good recipe to add to your truffle collection!

Peanut Butter Cheesecake Truffles

There might be better peanut butter truffles out there, I am not sure, but there wont be easier. These come out creamy and packed with peanut butter flavor. This recipe is just a modification of the Oreo Cheesecake Truffle recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 package Nutterbutter Cookies
1 (8 ounce) package Cream Cheese, softened
2 (8 ounce) packages BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate or Chocolate Almond bark (what ever chocolate you want to use really)

Servings: ~30-40 truffles

Instructions:
Crush the heck out of ~36 cookies or so, your looking for about 3 cups of crushed nutterbutters. I did this with my little mini chopper, but you could easily do this with determination, a rolling pin and a bag. While the recipe is forgiving a few chunks are not so bad, you want the bulk of the cookies to be down to coarse sand size. Feel free to blitz a few extra cookies and set aside if you want to sprinkle the cookie bits on top.

With the ~3 cups of cookie sand, add in the 8 oz package of cream cheese and blend until smooth. I did this in my kitchen aid as blending it smooth with a spoon was proving unwieldy. You want this to be smooth, really smooth and well mixed. Don't worry about crushing the cookies more, get out the hand mixer or use the stand mixer and mix well but don't whip, no need to get air in there.

You should end up with something the consistency of play dough or a little thinner, this stuff should be thick (hence the difficult to mix). If it seems too thin to work with or your house is too hot, put it all in the fridge, covered and let it chill for a bit. Then take it out and roll it into balls. I used my 2 tsp cookie scoop* leveled (found this to be a good 2 bite truffle size) to measure out the "dough" and then rolled it into balls using my hands.

Once these are in ball form, chill them! Heck if you want freeze them. Your about to dunk them into melted chocolate and the colder they are the "cleaner" your chocolate will stay. So if you don't want crumbs in your chocolate, chilling is crucial and if you don't want a mess, it is still important.

Pop these in the fridge or freezer for an hour or two or over night. When your ready, bring the ~16 oz of your preferred chocolate up to temp in a double boiler**. Don't cheat and use the microwave your going to end up going back and forth warming and stirring and wasting a lot of time. Once the chocolate is melted, take some of the truffles out (do this in batches and keep the rest in the fridge or freezer).

Drop one truffle at a time into the melted chocolate, turn over gently to coat and then remove with a fork, tap the ball on the edge of the boiler to remove excess chocolate. Carefully use the edge of a knife (I used a fondue fork) to slide the ball onto waxed paper or a silicone sheet. If your going to sprinkle cookie bits on top, do it now before the chocolate cools. Repeat, for what seems like ever, with all of the cookie balls.

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Store leftover truffles, covered, in refrigerator.

Recipe From: I made it up, tried it out and found it to be satisfactory. Try it with any cream filled cookie and it should work out well.

Some notes
*I used to think people who used cookie scoops were Nancy pants who didn't like to get their hands dirty. I bought the set of 3 after seeing so many sites using them, and now feel I should kick myself for waiting so long. Well worth it, use them all the time now.

**I cannot stress enough the importance of the double boiler on a project like this. The microwave method is going to be a huge pain, don't skip this part. You have 30-40 of these to do. Just get a a medium sized pot and a glass bowl. Fill the put 1/4-1/3 full of water and place the bowl on top. The water should not touch the bowl. Turn the heat onto medium, you want the water to simmer. Toss all the chocolate on top and stir as it melts. This will keep your chocolate the perfect temperature. And don't spend money to buy one, glass bowl and pot work great and you already have them.

I thought these were easy and the best part, oven free. I wont say super quick, dipping all these guys took a bit of time though you get faster after your first few. Using a silpat was perfect and any extra chocolate around the base could easily be broken off after so don't worry about a little waste on the silicone.

Easy, almost no bake (only melted chocolate) and they had a strong peanut butter flavor while still being creamy and smooth.

Eggnog truffles

Soft creamy boozy eggnog goodness. Over the top rich and strong eggnog flavor

Ingredients:
130g white chocolate, finely chopped *
1 ½ tablespoons heavy cream (or commercial eggnog)
1 ½ tablespoons rum – or to taste
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg – or to taste**
cocoa powder, for rolling the truffles

*I used Godiva, you MUST use good quality white chocolate in this recipe. No white chocolate baking chips!
**I used a dash or two more, but my nutmeg is old and low quality

Servings: This made 8 (2 tsp) truffles

Instructions:
Place chocolate and cream/eggnog in a small heatproof bowl and melt over a saucepan of simmering water (Double boiler), stirring until creamy and smooth. Remove from the heat, add the rum and nutmeg and mix to combine. Taste! See if you need more rum or eggnog. If you want a more boozy taste add a bit more with a little bit more chocolate. If you need more eggnog taste add more nutmeg.

Set aside to cool, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours or overnight. Using a small cookie-scoop or a small spoon, make truffles with 2 teaspoons of ganache per truffle and roll into the cocoa powder.

Place in fluted paper cases. Keep refrigerated. Truffles can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

Recipe From: TechniColorKitcheninEnglish.blogspot.com

I found these truffles to be amazing, my favorite truffle recipe of all time. No really, doesn't get better than this. I don't think I will ever try another eggnog truffle recipe, this one was perfect!

I used Godiva white chocolate, commercial store bought eggnog (super thick stuff, not all homemade eggnog will work, use heavy cream if in doubt), Captain Morgan Private Select Rum and rolled them in Hershey's unsweetened cocoa powder.

They did come out a bit soft, in a good way, but these need to stay refrigerated or you will need to add in some more white chocolate. The same thing if you want to dip them, they will need more white chocolate to firm up. I would not however recommend dipping them, they came out perfect rolled in cocoa powder.

Popovers - Success!

I've always wanted to try making popovers and have had the King Arthur Food blog recipe saved for a while. Now I had just had a conversation with TWO people the day of making these where they mentioned they have never had good luck with popovers and have given up. These worked perfectly on the first try. I don't think I can take credit for my success, I think it is all due to the recipe. It worked really well and I used a regular muffin pan.

Ingredients:
4 large eggs, warmed in a cup of hot water for 10 minutes before cracking
1 1/2 cups milk (skim, low-fat, or full-fat), lukewarm
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
3 tablespoons melted butter

Servings:
17-18 popovers, you will need two muffin pans!

Instructions:
Fully preheat the oven to 450 degrees F! <-- This is important to make sure the oven is fully up to temperature before starting. Position a rack on a lower shelf. Grease muffin pan thoroughly (I used Pam). Thoroughly whisk the eggs, milk, and salt. Add the flour all at once, and beat with a wire whisk. There shouldn't be any large lumps in the batter, but smaller lumps are ok. Whisk in the melted butter, combining quickly.

Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake the popovers for 20 minutes without opening the oven door! Reduce the heat to 350°F (again without opening the door!), and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes, until they're a deep, golden brown.

If there is a little bit that isn't browned, you run the risk of collapse. The first pan I cooked till every visible spot was a very deep golden brown and I thought this made them a little overcooked. But the second batch had a few small spots that hadn't turned golden brown yet and there was a smidge of collapse, but nothing resembling full collapse. They were still hollow in the center. They even made their own holes on the bottom so I didn't need to make holes in them to prevent sogginess.



Not having cooked popovers before, I would not have guessed they were finicky based on this recipe. I highly recommend it for your next bread making experience. Next time I will be trying variations with adding powdered Vermont cheddar, herbs, and may favorite I have seen - corn and chive (Smitten Kitchen but with the King Arthur Baker's Banter recipe).

Recipe From:
King Arthur Flour Baker's Banter Blog

Whirl Cookies

Whirl cookies are a source of great controversy in the Bechberger household. You either fall on the side of white swirl on the outside or chocolate swirl on the outside. There is a difference! This year I just made the white on the outside, but I secretly doubled the chocolate in the chocolate recipe and I love how it came out.

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (if you used unsalted butter)
4 squares/ounces melted chocolate

Servings:
Makes about 30 cookies

Instructions:
Mix all the wet ingredients then add the dry ingredients. The dough is often soft enough to add the chocolate to half the batch at the end if you would prefer.

I find it easier to either make two batches; one all white and one all chocolate or halve the recipe and make each separately. The half batch proportions are 1/2 cup butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon salt and if chocolate 4 oz melted chocolate.

Roll out each dough between saran wrap. You could chill the dough if you want to roll it with a rolling pin, but I am impatient and roll it freshly made between two pieces of saran wrap. Roll each to 1/4 inch thick in roughly the same shape. Rmove the top layer of saran wrap on each and lay dough side together. Again remove one side of saran wrap and roll up like a jelly roll.



You can chill the dough to slice, but I find it so much easier to just go ahead and slice with dental floss. place the floss under the log and cross over the top. Pull on the floss in opposite directions and you will get a nice perfect slice no matter how warm the dough is.



Place slices on parchment paper and bake for 8-10 minutes (just barely starting to turn golden on the edges) in a 400 degree F oven.


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