Today's Breakfast: November 23, 2012

I was wide awake at 6am because my hips and knees hurt from being immobile for too long.  It didn't help that I forgot to turn off one of my everyday work alarms.  Once that sounded, I couldn't get back to sleep.  I tossed and turned for while and start thinking up more things to do with the pumpkin puree.  I decided to make pumpkin spiced muffins and started scouring Allrecipies for guidance as I figured someone had to have made them in the past.  I was right.

After taking Emmy for her morning walk, I headed over to Sprouts to pick up more pie crusts, wheat flour, eggs, potatoes, apple sauce, and dried peas.  Thankfully, they opened at 7am.  I felt a little bad that I was the first customer in the store.  The employees were clearly still getting stuff ready, but their doors were open.  I gathered my items and tried to smile at the groggy shelf stockers.

By the time that Nick woke up at 9am, I had made pumpkin-cranberry muffins and three pumpkin pies.  I was waiting for him to wake up before I made breakfast.  Since I had plenty of eggs, I decided to make a bacon-mushroom fritatta.  I also discovered coffee and Kahlua.  Boy, have I been missing out.  Someone had given us some last year, but we never opened it.  I was pretty sore from the run but didn't want to have a glass of wine at 8:30am (I'm not that much of a wino) so when Nick got up he made me coffee with a splash of Kahlua.  It was so good.  Now I see why people have it in the morning.  I'd much rather have that than a Bloody Mary.

I forgot to take a picture of the batter, but got a quick one in the oven.  I added
left over cranberry sauce for some extra texture.

As muffins usually go, these were not overly sweet.  They were quite moist
and fairly healthy for you as they were made with non-processed pumpkin,
homemade cranberry sauce, and whole wheat flour.  They were rather guilt free
for the day after Thanksgiving. 

I rendered the bacon until it was getting slightly crispy before adding in
chopped onion and sliced mushroom.  Once those were cooked down, I threw
in some cubed left over Thanksgiving ham.  I only added about a teaspoon of
salt since the bacon had plenty, but I didn't want it to be too bland with all of the
eggs.  This breakfast is not as guilt free as the muffins. 

I scrambled up eight eggs with a splash of water to make it fluffy.  On medium
heat, I covered the eggs to cook the edges before putting them into a 350 degree
oven for about eight minutes.

Because of all the bacon fat and the non-stick pan, the fritatta came right out
of the pan. 

This was a little mushroom heavy for me and made my mouth and throat itch
 (I'm a little allergic) but the flavor was awesome. 

Bacon-Mushroom Fritatta 

6 slices bacon, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

8-10 mushrooms, sliced

1/2 lb ham, cubed (optional)

8 eggs, scrambled

1 tsp sea salt

1 tbsp black pepper 

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Over high heat, render bacon until slightly crispy in non-stick pan; about seven minutes.  Add onions and mushrooms to saute.  Add cubed ham and toss until warmed through. Salt and pepper to taste.  Scramble eight eggs with a splash of water or milk to make them fluffier.  Pour eggs into pan and lower to medium.  Do not stir.  Cover pan until edges of eggs become firm.  Remove cover and put into hot oven for 8-10 minutes depending on how runny the center of your eggs are. Once the eggs become puffy in the center, remove pan.  Gently use a spatula to loosen edges of the fritatta before removing to cutting board.  Serve hot.  

Note:  I have to add my mushrooms at the same time as my onions so that they are fully cooked and "dead" otherwise I get a very bad allergic reaction to them.  If you like your mushrooms more firm, add later with the cubed ham.