As St. Patrick’s Day approaches, many people are looking forward to healthy (size-wise) portions of corned beef, cabbage, Irish whiskey and Guinness.  While I plan to partake in all those great things, I’m most excited about St. Patrick’s Day breakfast.  Every year, I try to find new ways to incorporate green into my omelets, pancakes, waffles and other morning dishes.

One of my St. Patrick’s Day breakfast dishes was so green that it was literally unbelievable.  I submitted a photo of my Green Egg Scramble to the popular food picture site FoodGawker and they wouldn’t accept it.  They said it “looked overproccessed.”  I can see how they thought that, but seriously, it was food coloring and green peppers – not Photoshop.

Today’s featured St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast recipe is festive but not quite as over-the-top.  It’s a basic breakfast casserole with accents of distinct green from spinach, green pepper, green onion, chopped jalapeno and a garnish of parsley.

You can get the original, printable recipe here, but please note in the comments how I included a few extra ingredients to add in more green.

The ingredients for this Green Egg Casserole are eggs, pieces of bread, milk, Monterey jack cheese, spinach, green pepper, green onion, jalapeno and parsley.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs and milk together.   Add all of the remaining ingredients (except the cheese and parsley) and mix well.  You don’t have to use multiple bowls like I did.

Pour the ingredients from the mixing bowl into a lightly greased casserole dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  Then, sprinkle cheese over the top and bake 20 minutes more until the egg is completely set.  You can test for doneness with a toothpick.  Insert it into the center of the casserole.  If it comes out clean, the casserole is done.

To serve, cut into squares and garnish with lovely green chopped parsley.

To make this breakfast even more appropriate for St. Patrick’s Day, do what I did.  Serve it with Potatoes O’Brien and coffee with a shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream.  If you happen to have little plastic clover sticks that say “Happy St. Patrick’s Day”, awesome!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

This post is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Green Egg Casserole

Other St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast Ideas:

Green Eggs & Ham

Green Egg Scramble

A breakfast strata is just a breakfast casserole with layered ingredients.  It’s best when you assemble it the night before and refrigerate it overnight.  The next morning: pop it in the oven, take a shower, watch a little George Stephanopoulos* and then… wham, bam, thank you ma’am… breakfast is ready.

Think of a simple farmhouse breakfast of sausage, toast and cheesy eggs with onions and peppers.  Now, imagine what it would be like to have all those wonderful flavors mingled together in a single, delicious bite.  That’s a breakfast strata.

This recipe features one of the non-glamorous superstars of breakfast… day-old bread.  You probably already know that day-old bread makes the best French toast.  It’s a little dry so it retains its structure but it’s also thirsty to absorb the egg, milk and other good stuff that make up French toast.  It’s the key to French toast that’s firm but pleasantly moist inside.   The same principal works for a strata.  After we assemble our strata (which includes slices of bread), we drown it in a French toast-like egg and milk mixture.

This dish elicited enthusiastic comments from the people I tested it on.  My Italian friend Pete said, “Dude, this is great. Is it cool if I get some more?”  My wife Kellie said, “Tell me about this.  What’s in here? I’m gonna have another piece.”

Nobody is 100% sure who coined the the phrase “leave ‘em wanting more.” It was likely either Walt Disney or P.T. Barnum.  Whoever it was, let’s just assume they were talking about a good Breakfast Strata.

Let’s assemble a strata…

For the quick and easy, printable recipe, click here.

There’s only 7 ingredients:  French or Italian bread, eggs, milk, sausage, onion, bell pepper and cheese.  For the cheese, I used a Mexican blend of Monterey Jack, Cheddar, Queso Quesadilla and Asadero cheeses.  You could use Cheddar, Pepper Jack or almost any cheese or combination of cheeses.

The first step is to fry up a pound of sausage in a skillet over medium-high heat.  Crumble the sausage with a pair of forks as it cooks.  After 5 minutes, add a chopped onion and a chopped bell pepper and cook for about 7 more minutes – stirring often.  You know it’s ready when the vegetables are softened and there’s no pink visible in the sausage.

As the sausage cooks, prep a 7×11-inch backing dish by smearing the inside with softened butter.  Also, cut your day-old bread into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch slices.  I used an entire loaf of French bread with just 2 slices left over to use for a sandwich later.

Place a layer of bread slices in the prepared baking dish.  As you can see in the picture, I laid down 6 slices of bread and then cut another slice in thirds so my layer of bread took up the whole surface of the dish.  Sprinkle half the sausage mixture over the bread, followed up by 1/3 of the cheese.

Repeat with another layer of bread, the remaining sausage and another 1/3 of the cheese.  Top that with a final layer of bread.  Pour a mixture of beaten eggs and milk over everything.  Top with the remaining cheese.

Place plastic wrap over the baking dish and refrigerate for 2 to 12 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, just remove the plastic wrap and place the strata in an oven preheated to 350 degrees.  Cook for 50 minutes to an hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry.  The strata seen above took 52 minutes.

Let it cool for about 10 minutes and then serve it up.

This strata also made great leftovers.  I refrigerated a couple pieces and had it for breakfast again the following day.  It was just as good (and possibly even better) than the day it came out of the oven.

This post is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Basic Sausage Breakfast Strata

If you’re curious about the oranges on the side, stay tuned.  I’ll have a post about that in the next couple of days.

* George Stephanopoulos is the co-anchor of ABC’s Good Morning America.  He is a small man at 5′ 6″.  When I said, “watch a little George Stephanopoulos,” I was referring to watching the morning show for a short period of time, not watching a random little man after you shower. Although, that’s the beauty of this recipe.  You can do whatever you want and breakfast will still be ready and waiting.

The Caveman Diet (aka The Stone Age diet; aka The Paleo Diet; aka The Paleontology Diet) is based on an understanding of foods that were consumed during the Paleolithic era.  During that time some 2.6 million years ago, our ancestors relied on hunting and gathering to provide 100% of their nourishment.  It’s a common belief among those on the diet that consumption of grains and any processed foods runs counter to the nutritional needs of man (prehistoric or modern).  They tend to lay blame for modern ailments on ‘unnecessary’ advances in food technology.

The simple rules of a Paleo diet are this: If you can’t pick it or kill it, you can’t eat it.

Disclaimer:  I don’t endorse this or any particular diet.  However, I do endorse that everyone on any kind of diet should be entitled to have a tasty breakfast every morning.

Foods To Avoid: All grains and foods made of grains, all dairy products, sugar, potatoes and all processed foods.

Foods Allowed:  Vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, eggs and nuts.

At first glance, you might assume that the Paleo Diet is no friend of breakfast.  Common recipes for pancakes, waffles, French toast, muffins, coffee cakes and hash browns are off-limits.  But a look through the MrBreakfast.com treasury of recipes turned up a number of very satisfying recipes that adhere to Caveman standards. Plus, there’s a bunch of recipes that can be made Paleo compliant with slight ingredient substitutions. Here are a few of our favorites. Ugga-booga.  Ugga-bogga.

Bacon Breakfast Cups – Follow directions for the recipe but skip the layer of bread at the bottom of each cup.  Bacon should be eaten in moderation on The Caveman Diet as it is considered too salty.

Stone Age Biscuits And Gravy – The biscuits are made with a combination of almond flour and coconut flour.  The gravy is rich, nicely seasoned and loaded with sausage.

Ham-Wrapped Breakfast Burritos – It’s a breakfast burrito but the tortilla is replaced by a hearty piece of ham.  This one has eggs, bacon, peppers and onion.

Bacon-Wrapped Breakfast Links – What’s better than sausage? How about sausage wrapped with bacon.  Traditionally, this is a breakfast side dish.  But on the Paleo diet, it can be a fun main course.

Broccoli And Bell Pepper Frittata – To make this recipe Caveman Diet appropriate, replace the milk with water and omit the cheese.  It will still be quite flavorful if you use fresh vegetables.

Simple Bacon Omelet – No adjustments are necessary.   Just be sure to limit your salty bacon intake to only once or twice per week.

Green Eggs and Ham Omelette – To make this recipe Paleo proper, just replace the butter with olive oil and skip the optional cheese and salsa (unless you know your salsa is paleontology-approved).

Scrambled Eggs In A Green Pepper – Roast a green pepper in the oven at 375 degrees until somewhat tender – about 12 minutes.  Then cut it and fill the halves with scrambled eggs.

Low Carb Spinach Scramble – To make this scramble Stone Age appropriate, put a dab of olive oil on a paper towel and wipe the inside of your pan instead of using cooking spray.

Afghani Eggs – Use the recipe as directed, but make sure to use olive oil instead of canola oil.  Canola and vegetable oil are must-avoid items on The Caveman Diet.  Olive oil and certain other un-pressed oils can be used.

Onion And Tomato Scramble – You’ll want to skip the toast that’s shown in the picture.  Besides that, this recipe is stone cold stone age appropriate.  Be sure to use olive oil where the instructions mention oil.

Eggs And Corn Scramble – For this one, omit the cheese and milk and replace the butter with olive oil.  If possible, replace the canned corn with 11 ounces of fresh corn kernels. Unfortunately, you must also skip the toasted English muffins shown in the picture.

Kentucky Scramble – To make this scramble applicable to the Stone Age Diet, use bacon dripping and not butter where that option is offered.

Mushroom And Herb Omelet – Replace the butter with olive oil and this omelet is Paleozoic perfection! Replace the toast in the photo with an apple or a carrot.

Fruit Smoothies – To wash down your Paleontology breakfast, consider blending together any combination of fresh fruit, fresh squeezed juice or berries (with a couple of ice cubes).  If a smoothie recipe calls for yogurt, replace it with a banana to achieve the creamy smoothness that yogurt provides.  If you throw enough good stuff in a blender, it can act as breakfast all on its own.  Visit our Breakfast Drinks section to get more ideas.

Other Omelets And Scrambles:  If you take a look through our Omelets, Scrambles and Egg Dishes recipe collections, you’ll find hundreds of other recipes you can easily modify. Just remember to skip any cheese, replace milk with water and opt for olive oil or bacon drippings instead of butter or canola oil.

Store-bought frozen breakfast burritos are disgusting. Often times, you wouldn’t know what you were putting in your mouth if the package didn’t tell you.  If I asked you to describe most store-bought burritos, you would probably say, “Oh… it’s some vaguely breakfast-flavored amalgamous gloop plopped into too much tortilla.”  Your words.  Not mine.

This phenomenon baffles me.  The majority of non-supermarket breakfast burritos are excellent.  To recreate the store-bought experience, you’d need a blender and some kind of solvent that removes color.

Luckily, fantastic homemade breakfast burritos are exceptionally easy to make and they freeze amazingly well.  They taste and look 1,000 times better than their store-bought equivalent.  In this post, I’ll show you how I make 10 days worth of frozen breakfast burritos in less than 2 hours.  You may never buy a frozen breakfast burrito again.

When making a bunch of frozen burritos, most of the ingredients can be prepared hours before assembly.  The exception is the eggs.  If you let them set out too long, they get dry and lose their tenderness.  For my burritos, I fried up 2/3 pound of sausage, 10 strips of bacon and two big handfuls of tater tots.  Then, I grated 1 cup of Cheddar cheese and 3/4 cup Pepper Jack cheese and a diced one red bell pepper.  I used 14 eggs to make 10 burritos.  I like to mix my eggs and meats so the main ingredients are uniformly distributed in the burritos.

Lay out as many tortillas as you can on a table or on the counter and fill the burritos as you please.  I use large or burrito-size flour tortillas.  If you offset the mound of fillings to one side, you’ll find it easier to fold the burritos.

I filled some with bacon, some with sausage and some with both meats.  Same with the cheeses.  Anything goes.  It’s a free-for-all of variety!

Once filled, just fold, fold, fold and roll.  Wrapping a burrito is much like wrapping a present.  The image above shows the technique that I use.

To prevent freezer burn, I double wrap each burrito in plastic wrap.  If you create a wide variety, it’s a good idea to label each one.

How To Microwave Homemade Frozen Breakfast Burritos:

Do you remember 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain?  He had a 9-9-9 plan to reform the U.S. tax code.  I have a 2-2-2 plan for heating frozen breakfast burritos.

Defrost for two minutes at 40% microwave power.

Flip the burrito and microwave on high for two minutes.

Let set two minutes.  2-2-2!

Here’s a sampling of how the burritos turned out.  Each one was heated days after they were frozen.

Sausage Potato Pepper Jack

Double Meat & Double Cheese

Bacon Potato Cheddar – For this one, I defrosted for 2 minutes, microwaved on high for 90 seconds and then topped with cheese and threw it under the broiler for 2 minutes.

Sausage Potato Cheddar

Bacon Potato Pepper Jack

More Homemade Frozen Breakfast Burrito Tips:

When preparing a lot of bacon at once, consider using the oven.  Just lay the strips out on a baking pan and bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes until well-browned.  Place cooked bacon on stacked paper towels to remove excess grease.

I find that frozen tater tots work better than shredded hash browns.  Strangely, the tots taste more like hash browns that the hash browns do when everything is reheated. I think it’s because the tots have such a defined fried exterior. Each piece is like a wee-small serving of hash browns – crisp and tender in each bite.

I recommend NOT putting salsa in the burritos before freezing.  I find that it can make parts of the tortilla soggy after heating. However, I do keep a lot of salsa handy for serving.

Check out these recipes for breakfast burritos:

Basic Sausage Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast Tortilla Wraps

Low-Fat Breakfast Burrito

The first omelette recipe ever recorded comes from an ancient Roman collection of recipes called the Apicius.  Dating back to the 4th Century AD, the recipe called Ova Spongia Ex Lacte can be translated to “Honey Omelette”.  I like to call it a Honey & Black Pepper Omelette because it sounds hipper and I can pronounce it better.

Here’s how the recipe appeared in the ancient text:

Ova quattuor, lactis heminam, olei unciam in se dissolvis, ita ut unum corpus facias. in patellam subtilem adicies olei modicum, facies ut bulliat, et adicies impensam quam parasti. una parte cum fuerit coctum, in disco vertes, melle perfundis, piper adspargis et inferes.

That roughly translates to:

Four eggs in half a pint of milk and an ounce of oil well beaten to make a fluffy mixture. In a pan, put a little oil and add the egg preparation without letting it boil. When one side is done, turn it out to a platter. Fold it, pour on honey and sprinkle with pepper.

For my version, I tried to stay true to the original but the milk to egg ratio was too high for my tastes.  I also eliminated oil within the egg mixture and modernized the cooking technique.  Here’s my recipe for the world’s first known omelette:

Honey & Black Pepper Omelette (Ova Spongia Ex Lacte)

3 Tablespoons honey
4 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 Tablespoons butter
black pepper – to taste

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the eggs with the milk until well combined.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. As the last bit of butter is melting, pour in the egg mixture.  Let it set for 20 seconds and then start lifting the edges with a spatula so uncooked egg flows to the cooking surface.  When the egg is nearly set but still glossy on top, flip the omelette in the pan and cook the other side for 15 seconds.

Turn the omelette onto a platter, folding it in half with the lip of the pan as you slide it out.  Drizzle honey over the top and fold the omelette in half again.  Top with more honey and a generous amount of black pepper.  Slice and serve.

Makes 2 servings.

It might sound weird having honey on an omelette, but it actually tasted great.  The honey contrasts with the warmth of the pepper to create a unique flavor.  It’s sort of like how every chocolatier is adding sea salt to their truffles lately.

So, that’s our omelette lesson for the day.  If you’d like to learn more about omelettes, check out The Omelette Collection at MrBreakfast.com.

Have a great breakfast tomorrow!

A can of soup has been a secret ingredient for home cooks since cans of soup were invented.  I suspect that it’s a secret of a few sly professionals as well.  Just a couple of Tablespoons of a cream of soup concentrate can dramatically change the flavor of scrambles, omelets and frittatas… almost always for the better.

This recipe was part of a vintage 1958 magazine ad for Campbell’s Soups called “Souper Special Budget Beaters.” (To see the full ad, click here.)  Above, you can see the dish as it appeared in the classic ad.  Below, you can see my revamped recreation.

I adjusted the recipe to make 2 servings.  My ingredients were 3 eggs, 2 Tablespoon butter, about 1/3 can cream of mushroom soup, a small handful of cheese and some parsley.  Not part of the original recipe, I also added 3 sliced button mushroom and some finely chopped chives.

The trick to working with soup is stirring it by itself first.  They make mention of that in the original recipe.  If you don’t stir it until smooth, you get lumps of soup in the egg mixture.  Those lumps will cook down in the frying pan, but why mess with it.  A quick initial stir of the soup just helps everything distribute more evenly.

My Super Souper Mushroom Scramble:

Saute the mushrooms for about 6 minutes in 1 Tablespoon of butter over medium heat until they became very tender and fragrant.  As they cook, beat the eggs with the soup.  Stir cooked mushrooms into the egg mixture.

Pour the egg mixture into the same pan.  Sprinkle with chives.  Stir and scramble until the egg is fully set.  Turn off heat.  Sprinkle with cheese and cover until melted.  Garnish with parsley and additional chives.

That’s all there is to it.  For all my fancy sautéed modifications, the star of this recipe is still the humble can of mushroom soup.  It was nice to get a more complex buttery mushroom flavor, but if you don’t want to mess around, just stir some soup in your eggs. The (mush) rumors are true.  It’s soup-erbly eggs-cellent!

I hope you have a souper day!

This article is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Souper Scramble

For over 150 other great scrambled egg recipes, visit the Scrambles Collection on MrBreakfast.com.

Check out other vintage breakfast recipes:

The Retro Breakfast Recipe Collection at MrBreakfast.com

Eggs and bacon sandwiched between a sliced glazed donut… crazy or genius?  I can report that it’s insanely easy and it tastes amazing.  Therefore, I’m leaning toward genius.  This recipe is a recreation of the Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich that was recently introduced by Dunkin’ Donuts.  Above, you can see my version.  Below, you can see the Dunkin’ Donuts version as it appeared in their press materials.  Believe it or not, their donut sandwich has only 360 calories.  Mine has a little more bacon.  I hesitate to recommend either version for your weight loss program.

The donut breakfast sandwich concept isn’t new. A few smaller donut outlets were doing them well before Dunkin’ Donuts put them in the news.  Buddha Belly Donuts in Sarasota, Florida offered a version with sausage.  Unfortunately, that shop is now closed. The Bleeding Heart Bakery in Chicago offered the Make-Your-Own Doughnut Breakfast Sandwich where you could choose any or all of the following ingredients to accompany the fried egg: bacon, ham, sausage, fried green tomatoes and Cheddar or Swiss cheese.  Strangely enough, that shop also closed recently.   Beware Dunkin’ Donuts!  There seems to be a trend.

I decided to try something quite controversial… I recreated Dunkin’ Donuts Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich using glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme.  Let’s face it, a Dunkin’ Donuts glazed donut is good, but Krispy Kreme is the current non-disputed champion for exceptional glazed donuts.

How To Make A Glazed Donut Breakfast Sandwich

Step One:  Acquire a glazed donut and carefully slice it with a serrated blade, trying not to dimple the beautiful sugar sheen of the glaze.

Step Two: Fry some bacon.

Since I was making multiple sandwiches with lots of bacon, I used the oven.  It’s a good tip to remember.  Whenever you want a lot of bacon done at the same time, just spread some slices out on a rimmed baking sheet and bake them at 400 degrees for 14 minutes.  No flipping is required and it comes out just as good and crispy as pan frying.

Step Three:  Fry an egg.

I guarantee that any properly prepared egg will taste great in this sandwich.  You could scramble, fry, poach or even use hard-boiled egg slices and you’re still in for a treat.

I decided to use an egg ring to make egg patties just so my sandwich would more closely resemble the Dunkin’ Donuts version.

When using an egg ring, beat each egg slightly in a small bowl.  Place a small frying pan over medium heat.  Rub olive oil over the inside of the egg ring with a paper towel.  Place the ring in the pan and then pour about 1/8th of a cup of water in the pan around the ring.  When the water sizzles, pour the egg in the ring.  Cover the pan, so the trapped steam cooks the top of the egg.  After 3 minutes, the egg will be mostly done.  Drain the water from the pan. Loosen the egg from the ring.  Flip the egg and cook one more minute or until completely cooked through.

Step Four:  Put the egg and the bacon in the donut and chow down.

Here’s the hardcore truth about Donut Breakfast Sandwiches: They’re kind of sloppy.  The glaze starts to melt from the warm fillings and the heat from your hands.  Have some towels ready.  For all the perceived indulgence of it, a nice biscuit or croissant is more complementary to eggs and bacon.  A plain biscuit is like a lonely person.  It’s not really complete until it finds a soul mate in the form of an egg, some jam or a piece of sausage. Donuts shine by themselves.  They don’t need anything else to be their very best.  But with that said, my final word on the subject is that donuts make awesome buns.

Cooking Note:  When making multiple sandwiches, keep your prepared bacon warm in an oven set to 200 degrees.  As you make each egg patty, you can also keep those warm next to the bacon.  When it’s time to serve, everything is good to go and you can have a very quick assembly.

Taco Bell recently started testing a new breakfast product in 3 select outlets in California… The Waffle Taco.  I haven’t been able to try their version myself, but I’ve been fascinated by the product ever since I saw a photo circulating around the internet.  Unable to get my hands on the real deal, I decided to try making it at home.

Above, you can see the version I made.  Below, you can see Taco Bell’s version.

My advice on making homemade Waffle Tacos is this… don’t do it.  It’s a huge pain in the butt.  For home use, the Pancake Taco is much easier to make and just as tasty.

It sounds extraordinary easy:  Make a waffle, fry some sausage, scramble some eggs and throw it all together.  Not so fast.

The first problem was that my waffles kept breaking. (You can see the Waffle Taco Test Kitchen above.)  My first inclination was to use square waffles, but those weren’t big enough to hold the fillings.  Next, I went with a round waffle.  In the end, they worked pretty well.   The serving size was way too big, but I wasn’t complaining about that when I was eating it.  I solved the breaking waffle problem by using a spatula handle to help curve the waffle and ease the rip-pressure on the natural seam of the waffle.  Again, I’ll stress that pancakes are much better to work with.  They fold easily and you have absolute control over their size.

The next hurdle was the sausage.  To make it like Taco Bell does, the sausage patty had to be large, thin and flexible.  The thing with sausage is that it shrinks in the pan.  Make your patty about 50% larger than you think you’ll need and you should be alright.

The final obstacle was getting my Waffle Taco to stand up straight for photographs.  I tried making a homemade taco rack out of a wire hanger.  No go.  Waffle Tacos have more weight and girth than traditional tacos.  I finally settled on using part of an egg carton to support my creation.  And I eventually realized – as everyone will – the best holder for a Waffle Taco is the human hand.

Now that you know the road ahead, here’s directions to make your own Waffle Tacos:

1) Fry a large, thin sausage patty until browned and thoroughly cooked through.

2) Make some waffles. (I used a recipe for Quick and Crispy Waffles that I’ve had success with.)

3)  Scramble some eggs.  I used 2 eggs for each Waffle Taco.  (For tips on scrambling, here’s my go-to method.)

4) Place the sausage in the waffle, fold and top with scrambled eggs.

5) Drizzle with real maple syrup and dig in.

Now that you know how to make Waffle Tacos, forget everything you just read.  Pancake Tacos are so much easier.  Trust me.

Incidentally, Taco Bell’s official Waffle Taco is selling for only 89 cents.  Here’s hoping that it goes nationwide soon.

Thanks to what I’m calling The Julia Child Pin Prick Method, I no longer use vinegar.  You bring the water to a full boil, prick one end of the egg with a pin and boil the egg in its shell for 10 seconds.  Then, reduce the heat to a simmer and poach as usual.

I’ve had fantastic luck with this technique, so I’m trying to spread the word.  I’ve just made a new cooking demonstration video (see above) and I’ve updated my article “How Do I Poach An Egg” with the information and included a cheat sheet which you can also find right here.

I hope you’ll give this method a try.  Poached eggs are great on their own with some toast, but you might want to explore some interesting breakfast recipes that use poached eggs.  I’ve got that covered…

Eggs Benedict

Eggs Blackstone

Crab Cake Benedict

Eggs Comtesse

You might also want to try:

• Poached Eggs with Lemon Butter Chive Sauce
• Eggs Poached In Italy
• Elegant Eggs (Croustades)
• Asparagus Eggs Benedict
• Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict
• Cheddar Eggs Benedict
• Dinah Shore’s Corned Beef Hash

Happy poaching!

March 9th is National Crab Meat Day.  What better way to celebrate than with a rich, delicious Crab Meat Omelette.  It’s loaded with fresh crab, green onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic.  As with any respectable crab dish, this omelette has a generous amount of butter which is well known to bring out the sweetness and general tastiness of crab.

For this recipe, you’ll need beaten eggs, fresh crab, part of a bell pepper, green onions, celery, butter and salt and pepper.  For exact measurements and the printable recipe, click here.

First, finely chop the bell pepper, celery, green onions and garlic.  Coarsely chop or shred the crab.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the bell pepper, celery, green onions and garlic. Stirring occasionally, cook until the peppers are tender – about 5 minutes.  Turn off the heat and stir in the crab.  Let it set for about 3 minutes to warm the crab.  Stir in the beaten eggs.

Pour the mixture from the saucepan into a medium frying pan.  Cover and cook on medium-low until the egg is mostly set – about 4 minutes.  Flip and cook the other side until the egg is completely set – about 1 minute.

I accidentally made my omelette too big, so I had to use a plate to help flip it.  If you need to do that, just slide the omelette onto a spare plate.  Place the now-empty frying pan over the plate and then give them a quick flip.

Turn the omelette out onto a serving plate, folding it in half with the lip of your pan as it slides onto the plate.

Incidentally, if you’re thinking of using imitation crab for this recipe, be sure to check the seafood counter of your grocery store first.  I was surprised to discover that real crab cost the same as the packaged imitation stuff on the day I was shopping.

So, that’s all there is to it.  From now on if anyone ever accuses you of being crabby in the morning, say, “Thanks, I am feeling sweet, buttery and delicious today.”

This post is a companion piece to the following recipe on MrBreakfast.com:

Crabmeat Omelette