KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – OVERNIGHT OATMEAL WITH STRAWBERRIES AND CINNAMON

This morning when I woke up at 5:00 a.m., since I was not able to make my overnight oatmeal last night (I forgot eh!), I hurriedly mixed up a cup of rolled oats, some leftover strawberries (from the hubby’s recent trip to Baguio), cinnamon, maple syrup and low-fat milk which I then popped into the fridge while I exercised some thirty minutes on the stationary bike. After an hour of mommy duties (cooking, cleaning stuff) I took my bath, got dressed and took a ride to work with my baon/breakfast in tow so that when I arrived at the office at around 9, my overnight breakfast oatmeal is ready to eat...just like it was prepared the night before - yummy! (the strawberries were a bit sour though maybe because they weren’t in season. Next time I’d try putting them in syrup the night before to make them sweeter.)

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES - BACON AND TOMATO OMELETTE

This was supposed to be a frittata…but the ingredients came up short and I could not make it fill up a 9-inch plate and so it became an omelette. I used the same ingredients though and practically the same process – I started out with frying the bacon in a bit of oil, none at all if using a non-stick pan. Then I sautéed the garlic, onion and tomatoes and removed from pan. Next is beat three eggs in a bowl, dropped the sautéed ingredients, added some grated cheese and then I reheated the pan. If cooking as a frittata, you just let the eggs set in the pan and when it seems solid enough invert onto a plate and return to the pan to cook the other side. But since my ingredients would not fit the entire pan, I decided to cook it as an omelette, I just dropped half of the mixture into the pan and folded the egg in the middle until the edges are set. I did the same to the other half of the mixture and then served with rice or bread.

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES – MEAT AND VEGETABLE FRITATA

This recipe can usually be done with leftover giniling that is cooked with bell peppers, carrots and potatoes. But if you don't have any leftovers, you can make one from scratch. Start with browning the meat then saute in garlic and onions. Add the diced carrots, potatoes and bell peppers. When the vegetables have cooked, stir in three beaten eggs and lower the heat to allow the eggs to set. You may cover the pan with a tight lid to ensure that the eggs are fully cooked or you may invert the fritata to a plate and cook the underside. Once cooked, serve the fritata at once with catsup on hot toast or rice. Happy eating!

KITCHEN MISADVENTURE SERIES 59: French toast and Sunny side up bread

Today, I decided to forego our usual breakfast fare of rice and fried meat or fish and instead cook the bread I bought yesterday in two different ways. Actually, there is another reason why I made the bread into this, you see last night I saw some loaves on sale – at Buy 1 Take 1 prices and I figured since they are not yet expired but on the brink of expiring…why not! It turns out to be a wrong decision though coz when I opened the bread, I saw that the texture isn’t as fine as my favorite bread, Gardenia, but instead its full of airholes (parang buhaghag). I knew at once that the kids and the hubby would not like it and so rather than see the bread go to waste, I made them into French Toast and Sunny Side Up Bread!

For the French toast, you will need one egg, mixed with 1/4 cup of sweetened condensed milk and 1/3 cup of water. Then, place some butter in a non-stick pan dip both sides of the bread in the milk-egg mixture before frying in hot butter until golden brown. Flip the bread over to brown the underside and that’s it - the French toast is done!

The Sunny side up bread is also easy. Just make a hole in the bread and then carefully drop the sunny side up egg inside the hole and wait a bit until it gets cooked. No, I did not flip it anymore to cook the other side because the kids want the eggs to be mushy in the center. I just transferred the egg to a plate using a spatula and that’s it, sunny side up bread. I served the breads with sopas to make our breakfast a bit more filling.