Eggs and Rice Omelette

Eggs and rice are delicious together. Here's a simple and satisfying omelette. It can be eaten on it's own or topped with mushrooms, bacon, smoked salmon, cheese or anything you can think of.

I've added chiu chow chili oil as a finishing touch, just to give it a little kick.

Eggs and Rice Omelette

Let's try this as more of a visual recipe this time:

Heat a skillet or saute pan over a high flame. Prepare the following:

4 eggs, beaten

1/4 cup leftover white steamed rice, reheated

4 white mushrooms, sliced

1/2 teaspoon hot chili oil (like chiu chow chili oil)

Saute the mushrooms until brown in 1/2 teaspoon of olive oil on the hot skillet.

Remove the mushrooms from the pan. Add the rice to the beaten eggs and mix well.

Pour the egg mixture and spread it across the skillet.

Flip the omelette over after two minutes. Try not to break it in two, but if that happens, simply try and patch it back together after flipping it.

Cook for another two minutes, and remove to a plate.

Serve with the mushrooms and chili oil.

ONE.org Sweet Potato Day

It's simple. Sweet potatoes are a super food.

If we can help farmers and families around the world to cultivate and eat sweet potatoes, we can make a huge dent in hunger, especially in children. That's why I'm joining ONE.org and my fellow bloggers this very first Sweet Potato Day.

I couldn't agree more with ONE.org's brief mission statement:

"Of course, everyone knows children need affection. But what many people don’t know is that nutrition is a hidden killer of nearly 2 million children around the world.

So we’re on a mission to make the sweet potato famous. Why? Because it packs a huge vitamin A punch, and it’s saving lives in Africa today. So let’s spread the word and get our leaders to step up and fight for good nutrition today."

I love sweet potatoes and have featured three ways to prepare them here. My daughter is a fan, mostly when I oven-fry them. I've served them to her since she was old enough for solid foods because sweet potatoes are packed with potassium, vitamin C, calcium, folate and beta-carotene. Check out these six benefits to eating sweet potatoes and you'll understand why I signed up to support ONE.org's efforts.

Here are some facts I gathered from the organizers of our sweet potato day blog-bonanza. I've mostly featured facts about nutrition for children. You can click the links below to get more information.

• Less then 1% of the US budget is spent on foreign assistance. These funds are at risk and if these smart programs are cut, millions could lose access to food, medication and AIDS treatment. You can see more facts here. If you'd like to help, send a letter to congress supporting the programs that create foreign assistance for AIDS treatment, food and medication.
• Nutrition is the hidden killer of nearly 2 million children around the world. The sweet potato is serving as the mascot for our cause and we're going to make it famous! Packed with nutrition and blessed with the ability to grow in many places, the sweet potato is literally saving lives. Click here to learn more and sign a petition. Effective agriculture programs in some of the world’s poorest countries are feeding millions of people, fueling economic growth and helping communities become self-sufficient.
• Malnutrition is associated with 35% of child deaths in the developing world (UNICEF, 2012, Child Info: Monitoring the situation of children and women, accessed February 1, 2011 http://www.childinfo.org/undernutrition.html).  The number of hungry people in sub-Saharan Africa is rising at an increasing rate. Between 1991 and 2000, the number rose by around 2 million a year, but between 2008 and 2011, the number rose by 6 million a year. (FAO, The State of Food Insecurity in the World (2012), http://www.fao.org/docrep/016/i3027e/i3027e00.htm [accessed 11 October 2012])

So get your knives out and start chopping, dicing or slicing those sweet potatoes. A super food if ever there was one, this recipe makes an easy vegan dish that has a bit of a kick and tons of flavor.

And, please take a look at the sweet potato-centric posts all of these wonderful bloggers have created, too:

Truffle Sweet Potato Frites from Savory Sweet Life

Sweet Potato & Black Bean Burritos from This Week for Dinner

Sweet Potato & Chicken Sausage Stew from Chefdruck

Honey Sweet Potato Biscuits from Food for My Family

Sweet Potato Burgers from Cutie Booty Cakes

What's Gaby Cooking and Sweet Potato Day

The Mission List and Sweet Potato Day

World Moms Blog and Sweet Potato Day

Go Graham Go and Sweet Potato Day

Cranberry Sweet Potato Crumb Cake from Barbara Bakes

Bourbon and Marshmallow Sweet Potatoes from Boston Mamas

Documama and Sweet Potato Day

Sweet Potato Bread Pudding from Eat the Love

Lamb Shanks with Sweet Potatoes and Sausage from Kitchen Gadget Girl

Love That Max and Sweet Potato Day

Celebrating Sweet Potato Day with Mom Trends

Sweet Potato Chili from Righteous Bacon

Cooking Sweet Potatoes for Picky Eaters from Rookie Moms

Sweet Potatoes and Global Health from Third Eye Mom

Indian Spiced Sweet Potato Kielbasa One Skillet Bake from Tickled Red

Sweet, Dude, Sweet Potato Breakfast Hash from Helen Jane

Oh My Sweet Potato Apple Bake from Bowl Licker

Wake Up a Mother

  (also found on 

Million Moms Challenge

)

Listening to My Lunch: Sweet Potato Salad from Gluten-Free Girl and The Chef

Enjoy and Happy Sweet Potato Day to all!

Sweet Potato Gratin

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced thin
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon ground corriander
• 1/2 cup peanuts, crushed
• 1/4 red onion, skin removed, sliced into thin rings

Method:

1. Heat a small pan to hot and add the ground spices. Toast on low heat for 3 to 4 minutes, until you can smell the spices heating up.
2. Add the coconut milk, making sure to incorporate any solids that may have separated.
3. Bring to a low boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes.
4. Coat a casserole dish with olive oil (I used a bit of the coconut spiced milk in the bottom of the pan to keep it simple).
5. Beginning with a layer of sweet potatoes, create alternating layers of sweet potatoes, peanuts and onions. Add some coconut milk before each layer of sweet potato is layered on.
6. Finish the layers with the remaining coconut milk, making sure the potatoes on the top layer are submerged. Sprinkle the remaining crushed peanuts on top.
7. Bake in a 375 degree F oven for 50 minutes, until the coconut milk is mostly dissolved and has browned well.

Enjoy!

Beet Marmalade: The Easiest Homemade Condiment

Want to impress your friends? This homemade beet marmalade should do the job. It's incredibly easy to make, and a great flavor combination.

All it takes is some cooked beets, lemon, ginger and sugar. The marmalade thickens as it cools, so don't be surprised at the consistency. Wait for it to completely cool in sterilized jars before spreading it on your favorite toast. Better yet, you can spread it on this great coffee cake to add a bit of savory to the sweetness.

I would like to say thanks to my cook-the-book partners. This is our last installment from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book. We started in July and ended today, with 13 chapters under our belts. I never would have tried half of what I did, so thanks for the ladies who blogged alongside me: Rachel, Aimee, Emily and Claudie. We had Sammy join us for a good bit of the book, too. It has been a pleasure getting to know each of you and I am amazed at the community that we have formed through our online alliance.

Enjoy the beet marmalade, and have a very happy and healthy new year!

Beet Marmalade

Ingredients:

• 4 medium-large beets, cooked and peeled
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 large lemon
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger

Method:

1. Put the beets in a food processor and process until coarsely chopped; or mash the beets by hand.
2. Transfer the beets to a heavy-bottomed saucepan and stir in the sugar.
3. Put the lemon and ginger into the food processor and process until finely chopped; or chop them by hand.
4. Add the lemon and ginger to the beet mixture and stir to blend.
5. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the marmalade has thickened a little.
6. This takes about 20 minutes – remember that the marmalade will get thicker considerably as it cools.
7. Remove from the heat and put up in sterilized jars if you are not going to use the marmalade for a month or more otherwise it will keep well in the refrigerator.

To learn how to sterilize jars, click here.

Marion Cunningham's Great Gluten-Free Coffee Cake

 I made a variation of Marion Cunningham's great coffee cake this morning. I used gluten-free flour and lactose-free sour cream. Maybe that makes the cake sound less tasty, but believe me, if turned out very well, and tasted almost like the real deal.

I've been working on gluten-free recipes for a few years. They always are good variations on the theme of the original full-wheat flour versions. They never taste exactly the same, so I wouldn't want to mislead you. It's a matter of getting used to a lighter textured pastry, a flavor change from the original. Different isn't always bad, just not exactly the taste you remembered.

Lacotse-free sour cream was a revelation to me. The texture is not the same, but the flavor is just as good and has brought back potato chips with onion dip into my life. I've never made a cake with sour cream, but had heard it would be extra moist, so I went to work.

I've never used a Bundt pan before. The batter was much thicker than I thought it would be, but it worked, I think, because of the baking soda. The cake turned out really light and crumbly. Not sure what kind of texture full-wheat flour would have yielded, but I was pleased with the results I got.

This is our second to last installment of the cook-the-book series of Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book. Check out the posts by my blog partners:  Rachel, Aimee, Emily and Claudie.

Great Gluten-Free Coffee Cake

from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book

one 10-inch tube cake

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups gluten-free flour (make your own or use this one from Gluten-Free Pantry)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup lactose-free sour cream (I used this one from Green Valley Organics)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or Bundt pan.
2. Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat for several seconds.
3. Add the sugar and beat until smooth.
4. Add the eggs and beat for 2 minutes, or until light and creamy.
5. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and stir with a fork to blend well.
6. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until smooth.
7. Add the sour cream and mi well.
8. Spoon the batter into the pan.
9. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a straw comes out clean when inserted into the center.
10. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes in the pan.
11. Invert onto a rack and cool a little bit before slicing.
12. Serve warm.