Dinner Leftover Deliciousness

The other night for dinner I made this Sweet Chili Lime Tofu and Butternut Squash and Coconut Milk Rice.  It was delicious, but I ended up with tons of leftover rice.  So, for dinner tonight I made a soft boiled egg and sauteed the leftover rice in a cast iron skillet.  The rice got nice and crunchy like bibimbap.

Baked Eggs and English Muffin Bread

Once in a while you stumble upon a recipe that changes your life, or at least the part after work when you're starving and need to eat like, now. That happened to me Monday night while hosting an Oscars party. The food theme of the party was "Breakfast for Dinner" so along with strawberry syrup and waffles, raspberry squares, carrot cake, and bacon corn muffins I also decided to try out two recipes I found on Pinterest. 

Abe and I eat a lot of English Muffins so when I saw this recipe for English Muffin Bread I couldn't wait for an excuse to make it.  The best part?  The recipe makes two loaves.  I had also filed away a recipe for Baked Eggs Cups.  The best parts?  They're only 100 calories and take only 12 minutes to bake (and about 30 seconds of prep time).

Recipe: Ceasar Salad Dressing

I've loved Ceasar salad ever since I was a kid, but it was only a year ago that I first tried making it at home.  It was so easy and so delicious that it became a staple for weekday quick meals after work, for Sunday football games, and for watching The Bachelor with friends.

Everyone says they love my dressing, but I have to admit I don't do anything extraordinary, I'm just glad my friends aren't afraid of garlic!  Every batch of dressing is a little different since I eyeball everything.  but below I wrote down the basics of my recipe.

In a small food processor combine:

• 4-5 large cloves of fresh garlic
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/8-1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil (start with 1/8 c. and add more at the end if needed)
• 2 anchovy filets*
• 1 egg*
• 1/3 cup of freshly shredded parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp. of cracked black pepper

Pulse in the food processor until it's creamy, but a little chunky.  Add more cheese/olive oil/anchovies/black pepper/garlic to taste.

If your dressing is too thick just add a little more olive oil.  If it's too thin add more cheese and garlic.

For the salad I sometimes I add tomatoes, sometimes I make crusty croutons, and sometimes I don't even use Romaine lettuce (argula and kale taste delicious with this dressing).

* = optional.   The dressing tastes great without the egg, so feel free to leave it out if raw egg grosses you out.   The anchovy is optional as well, but you'll be changing the flavor of traditional Caesar.  It doesn't taste fishy so give it a chance if you can!

Bread Pudding

So it's 2 days before the BUST Craftacular and I am close to ready, but not quite - actually, I have so much to do and it's so busy at my other job I can't really even think during the day. So I finally got home tonight after running a couple hours worth of errands and what did I do? Make bread pudding of course! And it was delicious. (See below for the devil's dessert)

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 slices white bread, crust trimmed
• 1/4 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 cups milk
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

PREPARATION:

Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly butter a shallow 12x8x2-inch baking dish. Butter bread slices generously with the butter. Cut each slice into 4 squares. Sprinkle raisins over the bottom of the prepared baking dish then arrange bread squares, buttered side up, over raisins. Sprinkle bread with the cinnamon.

In a saucepan, heat milk just until bubbles form around edge; remove from heat. Add sugar, stirring until sugar is dissolved.

In a large bowl, beat eggs; stir in hot milk mixture then stir in vanilla. Pour over bread in baking dish. Set baking dish in a larger baking pan then add about 1/2 to 1 inch of very hot water to the larger pan. Bake at 350° for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove baking dish from the larger pan of water and let cool for about 15 minutes before serving. Can be served warm or cold. Refrigerate unused portion.
Bread pudding recipe makes 8 servings.