Recipes

Baked Eggs & Tortillas in Creamy Tomato Sauce

This recipe took us by surprise. There’s no meat in here, but there’s still plenty of protein in it to fill you up! We were pleasantly surprised by how filling it was, as well as how very tasty it is! It’s also one of my budget meals, coming in at roughly $1.85 per serving.

Active time: 20 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves: 4

2 T. vegetable oil
1 large white onion, diced small
coarse salt & ground pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 T. flour
1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes
1/2 t. red-pepper flakes
1/2 c. (4 oz) half-and-half
8 flour tortillas, cut into 1/2-inch strips
8 large eggs
1/2 c. (2 oz) shredded cheddar

1. Preheat oven to 400F/200C. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium-high. Add onion and cook until translucent, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper; add garlic and cook until fragrant, 30-45 seconds. Add flour and stir to coat. Pour in tomatoes, scraping up browned bits. Add red-pepper flakes and season with salt and pepper. Cook until tomato sauce is thickened and bubbling, 2-3 minutes. Stir in half-and-half and remove pan from heat.
2. Spread 1 cup tomato sauce in a 9×13-inch baking dish. Place tortilla strips in an even layer over sauce. Spread remaining sauce over tortillas. Break eggs over top and sprinkle with cheese. Bake until sauce is bubbling and egg whites are set, about 25 minutes.

Just a quick note: if your casserole comes out not looking like mine, that’s okay. I mixed up the layers on mine! I forgot to put that remaining layer of sauce on before the eggs, so I cooked the casserole until the eggs were nearly set, then put on the remaining sauce and sprinkled it with the cheese. Still tasted great. 🙂

**Each serving has about 492 calories, 26 g fat, 23 g protein, 46 g carbohydrates, 8 g fiber**

Daily living

First Day of “Winter”

We have had a very mild winter here in our area of England. We got the occasional flurry of snow (once or twice), and we even got a dusting on our patio one morning!

Once in awhile there was a prediction of snow flurries, but if we got them during the night, they were gone by morning. They were getting snow back home (Wisconsin), and I was very jealous! Andrew is not a fan of snow. Snow = cold. And slippery roads. But I adore snow. When there’s no snow, winter just seems depressing. A nice blanket of white snow everywhere makes winter pretty. Plus I love bundling up in scarves and gloves!

Well, it finally happened. After a snow-less January, we got a prediction for snow again this past weekend (first weekend in February). I was skeptical. Then I looked at a more extensive weather forecast for our area, and saw that 13 cm was predicted. I looked it up…that’s about 5 inches. I was practically jumping for joy!

We were dog-sitting for friends of ours that weekend, so I actually did have a reason to look outside every few hours. We were getting very light flurries by 7pm, and then when I took the dog out again around 10pm we had this:

When we went to bed, we had about 3-1/2 inches! I only knew this because we had a measuring tape in the utility room right next to the back door. 🙂 Very handy when you traipse out in the snow in your pajamas to measure snowfall! Takoda, the dog we were watching, likes to go outside and then have breakfast around 6am, and by then the snow was done falling. But we had a whopping 5 inches covering the ground!

It was perfect snowman-making snow: wet and packable! No, I didn’t go out and make a snowman, but I did make a few snowballs (with my bare hands, brr!) to toss to Takoda (she wasn’t interested). And our yard looked absolutely beautiful with snow!

Since it was a Sunday, it was a pretty lazy day for us. We were hoping to have friends over for dinner, but the roads weren’t well plowed, especially by us out in the country. They didn’t get our road plowed until Monday afternoon! I did a lot of crocheting, Andrew did computer research online (he desperately wants to improve my old desktop from 2003…), and Takoda snoozed between coming by us for attention.

By now, a lot of our snow has melted, but I’m really hopeful for another snowfall or two before spring. At least I finally got my first day of “winter” weather in England!

Recipes

Lamb Meatloaf & Bacon Potato Bake

I’ve only tried a few meatloaf recipes, and this is one that I found that calls for lamb instead of beef. We really like the flavor of lamb, and it’s a pretty decent price here in England, so I try to cook with it once in awhile. It paired really well with this potato side dish!

Lamb, Balsamic, & Sundried Tomato Meatloaf

Active time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
Serves: 6

1 lemon
2 large eggs
2 T. balsamic vinegar
kosher salt & pepper
1/2 c. rolled oats
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 large shallots, finely chopped
1/2 c. sundried tomatoes, chopped
1 T. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1-1/2 lbs. ground lamb

1. Heat oven to 375F/190C. Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil. Using a vegetable peeler, remove 2 strips of zest from the lemon and very thinly slice on a diagonal.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, vinegar, 3/4 t. salt, and 1/2 t. pepper; stir in the oats. Add the garlic, shallots, sundried tomatoes, rosemary, and lemon zest and mix to combine.
(That’s ^ my favorite part of making meatloaf! :))

3. Add the lamb and mix just until incorporated. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking sheet and shape into a 9×3-1/2″ loaf.
4. Bake until the internal temperature registers 150F, 40-45 minutes. Let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

**Each serving has about 275 calories, 14 g fat, 141 mg cholesterol, 419 mg sodium, 26 g protein, 11 g carbohydrates, 3 g sugar, 1 g fiber**

And now moving on to the side dish:

Bacon Potato Bake

Prep time: 30 minutes
Bake time: 1 hour
Servings: 12

8 c. thinly sliced peeled red potatoes (I think I used about a dozen?)
2 T. flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 c. (8 oz) sour cream
2 T. butter, melted, divided
1-1/2 t. salt
1-1/2 c. (6 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 c. dry bread crumbs
8 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

1. Place potatoes in a Dutch oven; cover with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until tender. Drain; cool for 10 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, eggs, sour cream, 1 T. butter, and salt. Spoon over potatoes and toss to coat. Place half of the potato mixture in a greased 2-quart baking dish; top with half of the cheese; repeat layers.
3. Toss bread crumbs with remaining butter; sprinkle over the top. Bake, uncovered, at 350F/180C for 1 hour or until a thermometer reads 160F and potatoes are tender. Sprinkle with bacon.

**Each 3/4 cup serving has about 460 calories, 25 g fat, 142 mg cholesterol, 1045 mg sodium, 39 g. carbohydrates, 4 g fiber, 18 g protein**

Tada! Here’s your meal! 🙂