Mushroom Spinach Baked Egg Casserole

Good morning!  I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready for 2013.  If you didn’t catch yesterday’s post, I am running a 31 Day Abs Challenge for the month of January.

Did anyone do their timed plank yesterday?  I did and my time was 4:05, which is close to my personal best plank record of 4:30.  I know I’ll get that back up there!  Today’s challenge is to sneak in some crunches before you go to bed!  Beginners, do 25.  Intermediate folks, do 50.  And if you are advanced, shoot for 100.  Don’t forget to leave a comment on this post or on my Facebook page once you’ve completed today’s challenge!

Moving right along, I wanted to share the recipe for the Christmas breakfast Tim and I made on Christmas morning.

I recently subscribed to The Food Network magazine, and one of their breakfast recipes caught my eye.  Since making something different for breakfast on Christmas morning is now a tradition of ours, I thought this one would be fun to make.

Recipe inspired by The Food Network.  Note the recipe below serves 6 people, even though we cut down the ingredients to serve 4.  Also, some of the ingredients below are altered from the original.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for brushing
• 1 small yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound white mushrooms, sliced
• 6 cups baby spinach
• 6 slices wheat bread, lightly toasted
• 6 large eggs
• 1/2 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• Salt & pepper

Directions

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat.
2. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden, about 8 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms and cook, undisturbed, until they begin to brown, about 2 minutes.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste; continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 4 more minutes.
5. Stir in the spinach and cook until wilted, about 2 minutes.
6. Remove from the heat and let cool.
7. Brush a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with olive oil (or in the case of four servings, 8×8).
8. Arrange the bread in the dish in a single layer with the edges slightly overlapping, then spoon the mushroom-spinach mixture on top.  If making ahead, cover and refrigerate overnight.
9. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
10. Crack an egg onto each piece of bread; season with salt and pepper.
11. Pour the milk evenly over the top and sprinkle with the cheese.
12. Bake until the egg whites are set, 25 to 30 minutes.

This was really good and definitely something different.  I would recommend this as something to serve if hosting a brunch, it definitely was too much food for just the two of us on Christmas morning, despite cutting down the ingredients.

Doesn’t that egg look kind of weird and gross up close like that?  I swear it wasn’t gross.

Does anyone else have any Christmas breakfast traditions?  Ever baked an egg before?  Any favorite brunch recipe suggestions I should try?

Happy Wednesday!

A Healthier Breakfast: Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes

Happy Thursday, folks.

First things first!  If you haven’t checked out Whitney’s guest post from yesterday on how to make running more fun for the New Year, you definitely should.  I’m also giving away a free Nike + iPod sensor, so just click over to this post to enter the contest!  I’ll be announcing the winner tomorrow morning.

Now onto healthier breakfasts!

Is one of your New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or choose more nutritious options for meals and snacks?

If so, you should turn your long-term resolution (it’s just the desired outcome folks!) into a SMART goal and outline specific ways that you’ll do this each day and week.  For example:

• Replace crunchy snacks like chips with sliced peppers or baby carrots
• Drink seltzer water in lieu of soda
• Eat smaller meals throughout each day

Here’s another idea!

Make your pancakes more nutritious:  Turn them into protein pancakes!

Do you love pancakes?  I definitely do.  While I never really crave a whole stack of regular pancakes, even having just one (what I would normally opt for) is a high carbohydrate option that isn’t so good for you.  I had never really heard much about protein pancakes, or considered making them myself, until I started blogging and following other health and fitness blogs.  Now, I don’t think more than a few days go by without reading about some kind of protein pancake that other bloggers are coming up with.

Protein pancakes are beneficial because having more protein generally leaves you feeling more full.  This prevents hunger for a solid amount of time, prevents over-eating and unnecessary snacking, and is great for weight control.  Also consider how distracted you can get when focused on hunger pains instead of your daily work.  Eating a high protein breakfast will help sustain you throughout the day and give you more brain power for the important stuff!  And if you are getting bored with other high protein breakfast options (eggs, meats, yogurts, whole grains with nut butters) protein pancakes are a new option to add to your breakfast repertoire.

On Christmas morning, Tim and I decided to give protein pancakes a whirl for our own little Christmas breakfast together.  We followed a recipe for Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes, as seen on Carrots ‘N’ Cake.  We also tried to make them green with a drop of food coloring to keep with the Christmas spirit, but they didn’t really look that festive.  More like goop.

We made up for our festive fail by dancing around to Christmas carols in the kitchen instead.

Apple Cinnamon Protein Pancakes

Note:  This recipe makes 2 pancakes, make sure to increase the ingredient amounts if cooking for a larger group. 

Pancake Ingredients

• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup liquid egg whites
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Apple Topping Ingredients

• 1-2 medium apples (depends on how much topping you want!)
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions

1. Dice apple into small pieces and then mix with lemon juice, water, and 1 tsp of the cinnamon.  Cook in a pot on medium heat for 5-7 minutes until most of liquid has evaporated and apples are soft.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together pancake ingredients.  (Here is where we added the green food coloring)
3. Preheat a skillet (medium-low heat), spray with non-stick spray, and pour in the batter while shaping it into a pancake with a spoon.
4. Heat until partially cooked and flip pancake.
5. Once cooked the pancake is cooked through, remove from heat and top with cinnamon apples.

Note:  This looks more like a big glob of something gross, not a green pancake.  I promise it’s tasty!

The protein pancakes definitely had a different taste to them, but I liked them!  So did Tim.  He actually couldn’t finish his one pancake, and usually he is the one going back for multiple servings.  They definitely filled us up for the day before the big Christmas dinner at my parent’s house.  And we both loved the way the apples tasted after sautéing them!

For a side we made sweet potato home fries:

Saute the sweet potatoes and add spices of your choosing!  Ours came out a bit burnt, but at least the leftover potatoes from when I made maple-roasted sweet potatoes didn’t go to waste.

Are you a big pancake fan?  Ever tried protein pancakes?  Do you have a go to protein pancake recipe?  Does anyone have any healthier recommendations for toppings besides syrup?

Here are some other protein pancake recipes that I’ve bookmarked in the past.

• The Fitnessista’s Gingerbread Protein Pancakes
• Peanut Butter Fingers’ Greek Yogurt Protein Pancakes
• fANNEtastic Food’s Yogurt Pancakes with Blueberries
• SarahFit’s Low Carb Pancake Recipe

I can’t wait to try them all!