Breakfast Quesadilla

Saturday breakfast is one of our favorite meals of the week. We have a whole day ahead of us without work responsibilities and usually fun things planned. But Saturday breakfast can become a little bit of a hassle when you haven't been to the grocery store in a few days. So for this meal, we went with what we had left in the fridge.

Cheese, eggs, veggies and tortilla shells make for an easy quesadilla. The remnants of homemade salsa are a great topping. The kicker was leftover refried beans. This added extra flavor and protein when we didn't have any breakfast meats available.





Ingredients
1/4 cup onions chopped
1 medium mushroom chopped
2 eggs beaten
2 corn tortilla shells
Cheese
Refried beans


Recipe
Sauté the onions and mushrooms until cooked in a small amount of olive oil. Add the eggs and cook to the desired doneness (we went with slightly runny). Remove the eggs from the pan, coat with cooking spray (watch for sneaky gluten in cooking spray). Spread beans and cheese on one shell, add to the pan, top with eggs, cheese, and another tortilla shell. Cook for a few minutes, flip, and remove when cheese is melted.


Cut into quarters. Serve with hot sauce and salsa. Attack Saturday.

Gluten Free Go-To - Trader Joe's Hash Browns

Go-to - This can refer to any item or object which is the most commonly used or which you use without having to think about it, such as a food, bag, facial expression, etc. Your 'go-to x' is the 'x' that you will resort to most commonly when you don't have the inclination/time to come up with something more original, or else that you will just go to automatically - via Urban Dictionary (the definitive source for slanguage).

Everyone has go-to foods. The kind that you can always pull out of the fridge or freezer and whip together in a few minutes.

Peanut butter and jelly.
Grilled cheese.
Frozen pizza.
Mac and cheese.
Common theme - gluten (and to a lesser extent - dairy).
So what do we keep in the house as go-to items? We're glad you asked!

Breakfast is the easiest meal to make gluten free with eggs and breakfast meats fitting the gluten free profile. But what happens when you are out of bacon, peppers, onions, mushrooms, and salsa? Scrambled eggs are boring - but hash browns can add a twist in only a few seconds.
We keep a stash of Trader Joe's Hash Browns in the freezer for special occasions, just like Easter Sunday Brunch. They cook quickly and add a lot of flavor without any gluten.

We hope you enjoy them too.

 *We must thank Brittany's sister Brandi for introducing us to them.

Kale, Onion and Parmesan Quiche with a Sweet Wine

We had an abundance of kale  and onion, both of which needed to be prepared soon. With Easter around the corner, we figured a quiche would be perfect!

It was our first time preparing the dish. With a little help from the interwebs and the addition of our own tastes, we enjoyed this healthy dish for Easter Sunday brunch.

We added about a cup of sauteed kale, onions and spices to an egg mixture consisting of eggs, almond milk and dairy-free parmesan cheese, and baked it until cooked through. We prepared this a week before Easter and after baking, allowed it to cool then froze it until Easter morning.

Kale Sautee Ingredients:

- One large bunch of fresh kale, washed and chopped with stems off

- One small yellow onion, chopped

- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil

- 1/2 cup water

- Seasoning to taste: red pepper flakes, garlic, salt and pepper

Kale Sautee Recipe:

Heat one to two tablespoons olive oil on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, kale and seasonings. Sautee and mix until kale begins to soften, a few minutes. Add water, cover and reduce to medium-low heat. Keep on heat until kale has completely softened, drain water and put aside.

Quiche Ingredients:

- 4 large eggs

- One cup Silk Almond Milk

- 1/4 Cup Dairy-free parmesan cheese, plus a little extra

- Kale Sautee

Quiche Recipe:

Beat eggs, milk and cheese together. Mix in kale sautee. Add a little more pepper and red pepper flakes. Transfer the mixture to a 9" pie pan, sprinkle with additional parmesan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

We enjoyed our crustless breakfast with a Trader Joe's hash brown (soon to come) as well as an adult beverage in honor of my grandparents, who both passed away within the past five years and enjoyed themselves a glass of vino. They lived a majority of their lives together on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and specifically spent their last few years together in Solomon's Island. I was excited to find at Christmas that my aunt and mom both bought me a red and white bottle from Solomon's Island Winery.  However, I enjoy dry wine and these wines were a bit too sweet for me. I just so happened to be drinking cranberry-raspberry juice that morning and tried a little with some of the sweet, white wine... Delicious! I did equal parts juice and wine and it paired well with the hash browns and quiche!