Mac-n-Cheese Omelet

Mac-n-Cheese Omelet

Mac-n-cheese  is an easy recipe and it doesn’t take very long to complete.  It’s also fun to experiment with different mix-ins.  Like with eggs, you can throw just about anything into a bowl with macaroni (or any pasta for that matter) and a bit of cheesy (or tomato, or pesto) sauce, and it will taste fantastic.  Most people think cheddar (or American) cheese when they are making macaroni but it is just as tasty to use mozzarella, or gouda, or just about anything else (including soy cheese) if you like.  On its own, however, mac-n-cheese just doesn’t give you a full meal.  You need some more protein, and of course fruit and/or vegetable.  I recommend throwing some mushrooms into the pot with your noodles (broccoli would be good too) and serving this with a side of vegetables or a salad (or fruit salad).  You could also experiment with the mac-n-cheese recipe, next time I’m going to throw some TVP, tomatoes, mustard, and onions to make veggie burger mac.  That might be enough of a meal on its own without the eggs, however.  Today is the just the basic job, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it anyway.

Ingredients

1/3 cup mac-n-cheese

2 or 3 eggs

Splash of milk

Teaspoon (or less) truffle oil and/or shredded cheese (both optional)

Directions:

I’ve already put up a bunch of omelet recipes, so you probably already figured out the basics all on your own.  I will provide you with a few quick steps, however.

1. Pre-heat a medium sized frying pan, and coat with butter-flavored cooking spray or butter or margarine.
2. Take 1/3 to ½ a cup of cooked macaroni and cheese and mix it in a bowl with the eggs, milk, and (optional) truffle oil.  Make sure that there isn’t more pasta than egg mixture or else you’ll end up with something more casserole-like. 
3. Cook the omelet in the frying pan, flip, add the optional cheese, fold in half, and finish cooking.

Leftover Spinach Pie Omelets

Leftover Spinach Pie Omelet

Spanakopita is and has been one of my favorite foods for a long time now.  I love Greek food, especially in a restaurant with friends or family.  It’s one of the few meals that doesn’t work well for single people on their own.  Sure, it is possible to make small servings of the different types of food at home (I can’t just have spinach pie).  There are many wonderful different vegetarian Greek recipes, some natural and some easy to turn meatless.  I think it’s best to share the meal with a few people and get to try a bit of everything (moussaka, spinach pie, saganaki, fried zucchini, soups, salads, etc.).  So, when we go out (or stay in) for Greek food, we usually end up with leftovers.  As I’ve said before, I love leftovers but—as I’m sure you know—I don’t always like to eat the same exact meal twice in one week.  So, I’ll take my leftovers and do something creative with them.  The last time my family had Greek food, the spanakopita was all we had to take home.  So—as I often do—I chopped up the leftovers and threw them into a pan with some eggs.  This turned out to be an amazing combination and I thought I’d share it with you all.

Ingredients:

2 or 3 eggs

One small piece (between ½ and 1 cup) of leftover spanakopita, diced

Splash of milk

Dash of garlic power and oregano, or any “Greek Seasoning” spice blend (optional)

Additional Feta Cheese (optional)

Directions:

1. In a medium sized frying pan, melt a pad of butter or margarine with the burner set to medium.
2. Blend the eggs, spinach pie, milk, and (optional) spices in a bowl until thoroughly mixed.  The eggs should be nice and fluffy.
3. Pour egg mixture into the pan, and heat on the stove’s low to medium setting.  Every so often, use a fork to pull back the edges of the eggs so that it will cook thoroughly.
4. When the omelet is mostly cook, flip over so that the top part can cook.  Add the extra cheese and fold the top half of the omelet over and serve.

Leftover Veggie Burger Omelet Sandwich

Leftover Veggie Burger Omelet Sandwich

Ingredients:

1. Two or three eggs
2. Splash of milk
3. One (or two) left over veggie burgers, copped. 
4. ¼ cup shredded or one or two slices of cheddar cheese
5. Sautéed mushrooms, grilled onions, (optional)
6. 1 bun, Kaiser roll,  or any other bread or roll
7. Ketchup, mustard, relish and/or pickles, lettuce, tomatoes), etc to top

Directions:

1. Place a small amount of smart balance spread (or butter, margarine, etc) in a medium frying pan and allow it to melt.  Spray with non-stick cooking spray  (preferably butter flavored)
2. Cook the (optional) onions and/or mushrooms in the butter while mixing the other ingredients.
3. Crack and beat the eggs in a bowl with the milk, and veggie burger chunks.  If you want your tomatoes cooked, mix them in now too.  Then, pour into pan and turn the heat to low.  
4. Heat evenly, using a fork to push the egg mixture back every so often so that as much of it as possible will get cooked.
5. Flip over, sprinkle on the shredded cheese.  Fold the omelet over the cheese and finish cooking.
6. Once finished, place inside the bread/ buns and top as you like.   If you are using cheese slices instead of shredded cheese, place it on top of the omelet or on one side of the toast or cold roll. 

It wasn’t always easy to find a good veggie burger.  Even these, it can be a struggle but there are a dozen brands available now.  Even small town Mom & Pop grocery stores sell them now.    Some people like the veggie burger patties made from grains and vegetables but I find those disgusting.   Who wants to pour ketchup and add pickles to a fucking pilaf with and peas and carrots?  It’s a side dish, not a sandwich!  But everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, and if you do like the rice burgers they will work in this recipe too.  Personally, I like to work with Boca burgers—or Quorn—or anything made from soy, because it tastes like a real hamburger.  

As for this specific recipe, I used to make eggs and meatless sausage all the time, but it wasn’t until I started to work on the cookbook that I considered mixing together veggie burger with an omelet.  I  have several “leftover” omelets because I think mixing extra food with eggs is a great way to deal with leftovers without getting bored or having to eat the same thing every day.  However, when I first started experimenting the soy burger omelet, it was completely bland.  Then it hit me: treat the leftovers like a regular burger and pile on the toppings. 

So, I mixed cheese and burger chunks in with the eggs, and put it on a pretzel roll and ate it open face (with half the omelet and toppings on each side.   I really like mushrooms and cheese on my veggie burgers so I put them in my omelets too.  But, as I always say, if you don’t like things the way I suggest you are free to experiment with your own condiments.  You could either go without the onions and/or mushrooms, or you can cook them separately and throw them on the bun with the other toppings.

Leftover Tofurkey Scrambler

If you’re like me, you enjoy leftovers but sometimes get bored of eating the same thing 3 times in one week. As a chef I’ve spent most of my life enhancing leftovers. I add olives and vegetarian bacon bits or veggie burgers to Mac-n-cheese, throw some spices and extra veggies into pasta, and I have been tossing leftover Indian food into a pan with some eggs to make leftover omelets. I recently realized that I can use just about any leftovers (save for pasta and pizza) for omelets or scramblers. I’ve been experimenting for months and I do have a few finished ‘leftover’ or “garbage” omelets but I haven’t had the time to type them up yet. In honor of the holiday season I’m posting my leftover Thanksgiving omelet and scrambler recipes first.

Leftover Tofurkey and Cranberry Omelets

Ingredients

1. 3 eggs
2. 1 piece of a cooked tofurkey roast (diced or chopped) and the rice that was in the middle of the slice.
3. 3 or 4 tbsp of cranberry sauce (more if it doesn’t have whole or chopped cranberries in it)
4. Splash of milk
5. Dash of poultry seasoning
6. Butter flavored cooking spray
7. 1 tsp butter or margarine (to grease pan)
8. ¼ cup or less tofurkey gravy (heated)

Directions

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add milk, and beat with a fork until blended.
2. If you haven’t already done so, cut separate the tofurkey “meat” from the rice, and cut it into medium sized cubes. You don’t want them to be too much larger than the pieces in the picture.
3. Add the tofurkey chunks, rice, and cranberries/ cranberry sauce to the eggs and stir until evenly mixed.
4. Melt the butter or margarine in a medium sized frying pan and add cooking spray. Do not overheat. If your butter starts to bubble, the flame/ burner is on too high.
5. Pour the mixture into the pan and cook over a medium flame.
6. Allow the scrambler to cook evenly, stirring occasionally so there won’t be any raw bits.
7. The time it takes to do this will vary depending on your stove, and how high of a flame you use. The eggs should be fluffy when finished. The rice may prevent your omelet from holding together as one big piece which is why I listed this as a scrambler.

Leftover Indian Food Omelets

Leftover Indian Food Omelets

Ingredients:
1. 2 or 3 eggs
2. ½ to one cup of leftover vegetarian Indian food dish. I used Palak Paneer from India House in Buffalo Grove IL. This recipe also works with the frozen Palak Paneer dinner from Ethnic Gourmet, and will work with any other dish, preferably something without too many chunks of vegetables. If it is “chunky” you can just dice the vegetables and/ or cheese so they will fit in the omelet.
3. 1 pad of butter, smart balance spread, or margarine

Recipe:
1. Heat the butter in a small or medium skillet, and spray with non-stick cooking spray (butter flavor, or flavorless is best, do not use olive oil flavored spray!)
2. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the leftovers, and whisk until fully mixed.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan, heat evenly, flip, and fold.
4. Slide the omelet out of the skillet and onto a plate. Serve with French fries, potato chips, fruit, carrot sticks, applesauce, bread/ toast, or rice.


I love omelets, as I’m sure I’ve already mentioned. I also love leftovers. One way to add a slightly different taste to previously eaten food, or to add extra protein to a meal of leftovers is to add them to an omelet. I will be introducing more leftover omelet recipes, because it works with all sorts of different kinds of foods. Veggie burgers, cheese plates (or saganaki), beans, stir fry, Chinese food, Mexican food (minus taco or burrito shells), vegetarian moussaka, tofurkey, just about anything except for leftover pasta could work.

Farmer’s Cheese and Asparagus Omelets

Farmer’s Cheese and Asparagus Omelets

Ingredients:

¼ cup chopped asparagus

2 tablespoons of farmer’s cheese (crumbled)

2 to 3 eggs

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

Dusting of paprika

Directions:

1. Gently boil the asparagus, making sure not to over cook it. I personally prefer canned asparagus, because it makes this a much easier process.
2. Heat and grease the pan, using the butter (or margarine)
3. Scramble the eggs with a fork (adding a splash of milk if desired) and then mix in the asparagus, paprika and about ¾ of the cheese, and then pour it into the pan.
4. Allow the bottom to cook evenly, gently pulling at the sides of the omelet with a fork or spatula in order to get as much of the egg mixture cooked before you flip the omelet[1]
5. Sprinkle the remaining cheese into the center of the omelet. Then fold it in half and flip one last time to make sure the eggs are fully cooked, and the cheese melted. If you want, you can sprinkle a little more paprika over the top for more flavor.

My older brother introduced me to farmer’s cheese. It’s basically dry cottage cheese, but the stuff works great. It’s good for omelets, and blintzes, and other things. Unfortunately, it’s a tad bit bland (hence the paprika) so you don’t want to eat it plain or use it for a toasted cheese sandwich. Be careful when buying the stuff, it sometimes can contain rennet, which is a definite no-no for us vegetarians. Anyway, enough for the lesson. The way I came up with this recipe was pretty simple. I was sitting around a few days ago, thinking about how I was adding omelets as a section to the cook book and trying to come up with a couple of different types. The first thing that popped into my head was a cottage cheese omelet. I didn’t think that it would work right, though. The cottage cheese would be too watery. Before June, I would have been stuck drying out the cottage cheese myself, but now I know better. When making this omelet you might also want to add a little salt and black pepper if you don’t like paprika. Garlic would also work alright, just make sure you don’t use too much.

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[1] I prefer to flip omelets using a spatula, rather than throwing it up in the air and hoping it lands correctly.

Truffle Butter Omelet

I discovered the greatest substance in the world a few months back, Epicurean Black Truffle Butter. I love truffles and mushrooms to begin with, and when I first found the stuff, I decided to use it to make an omelet. It came out tasting fantastic, so I made another one the very next day, and decided to share it on my original blog. So, here's the recipe.

Epicurean Omelet

Ingredients

¼ cup Portobello mushroom, diced

3 teaspoons of Epicurean black truffle butter or any truffle butter you can find.(BTB)**

2 eggs

¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup milk

*truffle butter can be quite expensive, and is sometimes hard to find.  If you have no choice, mix the leftover juice from cooking the mushrooms with the eggs

Instructions

1. melt 1 teaspoon of BTB in a small to medium sized frying pan
2. Add the mushrooms and let cook for about a minute, before pouring in half the milk.
3. Cook the mushrooms in the milk and butter, stirring occasionally
4. in a bowl whisk the eggs with the rest of the milk
5. Drain the mushroom pan and then add the diced Portobellos to egg mixture
6. melt the rest of the BTB in the empty pan*, or if you prefer in a second pan
7. Pour the eggs and mushrooms into the frying pan
8. cook the eggs until light and fluffy, then add the cheese
9. fold the cooked omelet and serve with potatoes, toast, or a bagel

*if you have milk and TBT left over, pour it into a small container and refrigerate or freeze for later use.