Secret Recipe Club: Breakfast Salad

Time for Secret Recipe Club. This month I had Terri with Our Good Life as my blog. It was a lot of fun. Terri is a retired principal. My kids start school this week, so this seemed like the perfect time to peruse her blog (she even has some teacher appreciation gifts on her blog if you're interested).

I clicked on this recipe because my Japanese sister-in-law is always eating things like vegetables for breakfast and it always seems like such a lovely, healthy idea. But then when breakfast comes I'm like, "Pass the starch please." So, yes, I clicked on the recipe with good intentions. I stayed on the recipe, however, because it was similar in mood to this amazing lunch I've been making all summer with avocado, egg, and toast. I figured if I could eat a version of that meal for breakfast, then that my life would be pretty much perfect. And it is.

This simple meal is satisfying on so many levels. It's beautiful, colorful, with the right balance of salt and acid. It's hearty yet healthful; protein-rich, with good fats and vitamins. It's not expensive either (though it looks like it should be).

Breakfast Salad
adapted from Our Good Life
Serves: 2
Prep and cook time: 5-10 minutes
Cost: $2.55
avocados: $2.00, eggs: .20, cilantro: .15, lemon: .20

Note: I didn't really measure because I'm evil like that. It still turned out great. I think that I used a bit less cilantro and a bit less salt than called for. Also, I was completely lazy in making the dressing for this and basically just tossed everything in and it was good. The moral of the story being that this recipe is good enough to be lazy with. Sounds like a winner to me.

2 medium, ripe avocados
2 eggs
1/2 C chopped, fresh cilantro
1 small clove garlic (I omitted because I didn't have any and didn't think powder would be the same, but it would have been amazing with it; that said, if you need to spare your breath for kissing or something, it was also amazing without)
1 tsp sea salt
1 medium lemon, juiced (you're just going to use the juice)
dash of red pepper flakes

Dice the avocado. Then throw in the chopped cilantro and chopped garlic. Add salt and lemon juice, and red pepper flakes. Note: In the original recipes she mashed the cilantro, garlic and salt with a pestle and mortar then combined with olive oil. I seriously just tossed it all in and it was fantastic.

Now cook up your egg. Terri poached hers, but I just cooked mine over easy. Note: While I'm being truthful about how completely lazy I am and how this recipe still came out gloriously, let me say that I started cooking the egg while preparing the other ingredients. I'd intended to have it with just a bit of a runny yoke, but got it cooked till it was firm. It was still amazing with the other ingredients. I'm craving it as I type.

Enjoy!

PRINTABLE RECIPE

An InLinkz Link-up

Best Loved Black Beans: Free Book Giveaway

Sometimes I hijack this blog for my own greedy purposes. Which is what I'm doing today. Well, sort of. Because this isn't really for me; it's for you.

I'm doing a giveaway of my new YA book, Grey Stone. You get a free copy of the book plus a $10 Amazon gift card.

So hop on my cheapalings. You know you love useful, free things. Find the link for the GIVEAWAY right HERE.

And because you also deserve a recipe, I'll give you a super cheap one in honor of the character (from Grey Stone) Pietre. In Grey Stone, the humans are the lowest of the races, forced to try to live and farm on the most destitute and sterile lands in their world. Pietre gets pretty hungry at a certain point in the book. Bet he wishes he had the internet so he could look up this recipe and make it.

Lucky for you, you do. I'm giving you the easiest tastiest black beans ever. I don't looove black beans. I like them fine. I eat them in certain recipes. But I rarely just make black beans and eat them. Correction: I used to not just make black beans and eat them. Now I do. Because these are delicious, super quick, and super flavorful. They can be eaten with rice or tortillas or chips or thrown into salads or just spooned out and snacked on. Enjoy.

Best Loved Black Beans
adapted from Food Love
makes about 4 C
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cost: $1.70 (that's about $.45/serving)
beans: 1.20, tomato juice: .30, seasonings: .20

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp taco seasoning
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 15.5 oz cans black beans (drained and rinsed)
2/3 C tomato juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 fresh chopped cilantro (optional)

In a skillet, heat the olive oil, then add all the seasonings (except cilantro if using). When they're fragrant, add black beans and tomato juice.

Simmer for 8-10 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.

Remove from heat. Add cilantro if using and spoon away.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Dumb Easy Dessert: 3-Ingredient No Churn Peach Mango Ice Cream

I was going to do shameless marketing post using a recipe inspired by the characters in my book, but then I made this and, since it is 100 and trillion and bazillion degrees here (and humid), I just had to post it.

Shameless marketing for my book will just have to wait for my release date on the 28th. Or, wait, I can work some shameless marketing in right now by inviting you to join the giveaway I'm hosting. Win a free book and a $10 Amazon gift card! Go here to sign up.

Okay, marketing is done. Now make this ice cream. If you've got frozen fruit on hand, it takes only five minutes to make. You only need a good blender or food processor, some frozen fruit, and a can of sweetened condensed milk. For this, you get cold beautiful perfection.  Now I call this Peach Mango (and that was a very good combination), but the first time we made it just with peaches, which also blew us away. I imagine it could be made with a variety of other frozen fruits although peaches and mangoes do give it a creaminess that you might not have with, say blueberries or something like that. My point here is that you should feel free to experiment and if you don't have a bunch of frozen peaches on hand, you shouldn't be afraid to try this with another fruit.

But we had farmer's market peaches that I'd bought for $.50/lb and $.50 mangoes, so we went with this combination.  

3-Ingredient No Churn Peach mango Ice Cream
adapted from Saving Room for Dessert
serves 4-6 smallish portions
prep time: 5 minutes
Cost: $4.00 (less if you use cheap farmer's market fruit like we did)
peaches: 2.00, mangoes: 1.00, sweetened condensed milk: 1.00

Note: You can buy these fruits pre-frozen at the store. No shame in that. But I got a steal on my fruits and froze them myself. As a bonus, the peaches particularly were super fresh and amazing.

Note: When this is first done, it will be a creamy soft-serve texture. After it sits in the freezer for a day, it will look more like the pictures above. Both are amazing, but we ate almost all of ours in soft-serve state.

3-4 peaches slices and frozen (skin can be left on or peeled off)
1-2 mangoes, frozen
1/2-1 can sweetened condensed milk

Add fruits to a food processor (or a good blender). I added about half, pulsed and chopped, then added the other half, pulsed and chopped, so that I had some chopped up, icy fruit. Then I added the sweetened condensed milk and pulsed, then just let the processor run. I did not need the full can of sweetened condensed milk, but if your blender or food processor is struggling, feel free to add some more. This might make for a slightly runnier finished product, but I'm pretty sure you still won't regret this dessert.