Zucchini Crescent Supper Torte

This is a Pillsbury recipe I found in an older magazine. I can’t find the recipe online.

• 1 8 ounce can of refrigerated crescent rolls
• 4 slices of bacon
• 4 cups of sliced zucchini
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion
• 1/3 cup chopped green bell peppers (we didn’t use)
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup tomatoes, chopped, seeded and drained
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 2 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 375F.
2. Separate the crescent dough into the 8 triangles. Press into bottom and 3/4 way up the sides of an ungreased 9 inch springform or 9 inch square pan. Press to seal the perforations.
3. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet and drain fat, keeping 1 tablespoon in skillet. Crumble bacon and set aside.
4. Add zucchini, onion and green bell peppers (if using) to the skillet. Cook over medium heat until vegetables are tender. If mixture is watery, drain. (Ours did not get watery.) Stir in the crumbled bacon, tomatoes, salt, Italian seasoning and pepper and cook a few more minutes.
5. Spoon the zucchini mixture into the crust. Sprinkle with cheddar cheese.
6. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, Parmesan cheese, baking powder, salt, yogurt and eggs until smooth. Pour over vegetables and cheddar cheese.
7. Bake 50 to 55 minutes of until puffed up and golden brown around edges.
8. Remove sides of pan and cut into wedges.

Crustless Broccoli-Cheddar Quiches

This is a Martha Stewart recipe.

• Butter for ramekins (we used large muffin cups)
• Salt
• 10 ounces frozen broccoli florets
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• Pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Butter 4 8-ounce ramekins (or 6 large muffin cups).

2. Bring a medium pot of salted water to boil and add the broccoli. Cook 1 minute and drain. Chop coarsely.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, half-and-half, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Stir in broccoli and cheese.

4. Place ramekins on a rimmed baking sheet and ladle broccoli mixture evenly. Bake until golden brown, 35-40 min.

Verdict: I’m not really sure how this can be possible, but these had no taste to them, not even the cheese or nutmeg gave them taste. Overall, just very bland.

Savoury Broccoli Cakes

I can’t remember where I found this recipe.

• 12 trimmed broccoli florets (each one should fit into a muffin cup with room to spare)
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (we didn’t use)
• 1/4 cup strong cheddar cheese, grated (we used closer to 1/2 cup)

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the broccoli florets for 3 min. Rinse well in cold water. Dry the florets and set aside.
2. Beat the butter. Add the sugar. Add eggs, one at a time. Mix together the flour, baking powder, turmeric, cayenne and salt (if using). Add to the wet ingredients. Fold in the cheese.
3. Place one heaping tablespoonful of the batter into the bottom of each muffin cup. Place a single floret in each muffin cup. Top with remaining batter.
4. Bake 30 min.

Verdict: I haven’t really eaten much cayenne in the past because I can’t really eat spicy foods (even something that is at the completely lowest possible degree of spicy is too much for me sometimes). Turmeric is another ingredient I haven’t used in the past, so I wasn’t sure if I would like it. After this dish, I think I will continue avoiding these ingredients in the future. I found them both overpowering. I couldn’t taste the cheese or the broccoli. After a recent recipe I was a little worried that the sugar would make the dish too sweet, but that didn’t happen.

Broccoli Cheddar and Sausage Egg Muffin Pull-A-Parts

I found this recipe on another food blog.

• 6 Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits, from a can of 8 (they don’t sell these around here, but we used a can of 5 Pillsbury dinner rolls)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 cup of cooked broccoli florets, cut up
• 1/2 cup of cooked sausage, cut up
• 4 eggs
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Cut each of the 6 biscuits into 8 triangles and place into a muffin tin (we split our dinner rolls into 2 pieces each and used a large muffin tin. We also baked ours first). Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Split broccoli and sausage evenly amongst the biscuits.

4. Whisk together eggs and milk.  Pour evenly over each biscuit. Top each with cheese.

5. Bake 28-32 minutes until egg is set (and biscuit is done if they aren’t pre-cooked) and cheese is golden.

Verdict: These were very tasty. We made them larger than the original recipe called for, I think, because of how we had to modify based on what we had at hand. But it was like a little breakfast in a muffin form. Yummy.

No Fail Bacon & Cheese Soufflés

This is a Kraft recipe.

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup milk
• 3/4 cup combination of mozzarella and cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons bacon, crumbled
• 4 eggs, separated

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and stir for 1 min. Gradually add milk, stirring until well blended. Cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat and add cheese, stirring until melted. Stir in mustard and bacon. Stir in egg yolks, 1 at a time.

3. Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold into cheese-egg mixture. Pour into 12 lightly greased muffins cups (we made 6 large ones).

4. Bake 25 min until puffed and set (ours deflated as soon as they came out of the oven).

Verdict: Even though I probably used more cheese than the original recipe, these had no taste at all. They were pretty disappointing.

Vegetable and Cheddar Frittata

This is a Weight Watcher’s Recipe, although we didn’t stick to the healthy version they used.

• 2 tablespoons cilantro or parsley (we used parsley. I find cilantro tastes like soap)
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 4 eggs whites (we used 2 eggs)
• 3 eggs (for 5 in total)
• Cooking spray
• 1 cup corn kernals (we used canned instead of frozen)
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
• 16 cherry tomatoes, halved (we used 8, because we were only putting this in half the Fritatta as my sister doesn’t like tomatoes)
• 1/2 cup old/sharp cheddar cheese, divided

1. Preheat the oven’s broiler.

2. Combine parsley (or cilantro), pepper and eggs in a bowl. Whisk well.

3. Heat a medium skillet over medium heat. Coat with cooking spray. Add corn and sauté one minute (because our corn wasn’t frozen, we probably should have started with the onion to give it more time to cook; end result: the onions weren’t as cooked as we normally like). Add tomatoes and onion and sauté 1 more minute. Sprinkle with 6 tablespoons of the cheese.

4. Pour egg mixture over top. Tilt skillet and carefully loosen edges with spatula, to allow the uncooked egg to flow under the cooked egg.

5. Wrap handle of skillet with foil and place under broiler for 2 minutes or until egg has set. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Verdict: I liked this, though I personally find the combination of corn and egg a strange flavour profile. There is a sweetness to corn that doesn’t really work well with the taste of egg, for me personally.

Tiny Broccoli Quiches

I found this recipe online.

• 2 pie crusts
• 5 ounces of broccoli (if frozen, they should be thawed and drained), chopped
• 3/4 cup shredded Swiss cheese
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup egg product or 2 eggs (we used the 2 eggs)
• 1 teaspoon dill (we didn’t use, as we didn’t have any, but used oregano instead)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Lightly coat 36 muffin cups with cooking spray (we didn’t make them in regular sized muffins cups, but the bigger ones, so we made 18 instead of 36).

2. Prepare pie crust according to directions and, using a cookie cutter in the desired size, cut out 18 or 36 circles. Place each one into a muffin cup.

3. Divide broccoli and cheese evenly amongst the muffin cups.

4. In a small bowl, beat together eggs, milk, dill (or other seasoning) and salt. Pour evenly into the muffin cups (2 teaspoons for normal muffin sizes, 4 for the bigger muffins).

5. Bake for 25 min (ours needed almost 40 as they were bigger and we are always nervous when making quiches to make sure the egg is set).

Verdict: These were delicious. Like I said, I am always nervous when making quiches but am mostly always thrilled with how they turn out. Eggy and cheesy!

Bacon Omelette Roll

This is a Kraft recipe.

• 8 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 4 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 cup salsa, warmed (this was for serving and we didn’t use)

1. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, with ends extending over the shorter ends of the pan. Spray with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. Beat together eggs, milk and flour. Add in bacon and oregano.

3. Bake 14 to 16 min or until edges are almost set. Top with cheese and bake 2 more min.

4. Roll up immediately after removing from oven, starting at one short end and peeling off paper as you roll. Cut and serve with salsa (if desired).

Pre-roll

Post-roll

Verdict: I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get this to turn out as it should, but the rolling was successful and we made a nice looking very cheesy good omelette.

Bacon and Cheese Frittata

I originally found this recipe online, but I can’t seem to find it again.

• 5 slices of bacon
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 8 eggs (we used 6)
• 1/2 cup Fontina cheese (not sold at my grocery store or, at the least, out of stock this week. We substituted both cheese for 1/2 cup + 2/3 cup of a cheese called Bergeron)
• 2/3 cup crumbled goat cheese (see above note)
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to325F.

2. Cook the bacon. Drain. Crumble the bacon pieces.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and cook on medium-low heat until softened, about 7 min.

4. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add the bacon, onions, cheese, salt and pepper.

5. Pour into skillet. Cook on burner for 3 min, until sides start to set. Transfer to oven and bake until firm, 20 to 25 min.

Verdict: Like pizza, omelettes and frittatas are not my favourite thing in the world. I keep trying them in the hopes of finding one that will change my mind. This recipe was good. Even with a completely different cheese, it worked really well with the bacon. But it is not the recipe that changes my mind about frittatas.

Toad in the Hole Bake

I am not really sure where I originally found this recipe.

• 8 slices of bread
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 4 eggs
• 2 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled.

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

2. Cut a hole in the centre of 4 slices of bread, using a 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter. Set these bread slices aside.

3. Spread butter on one side of the non-cut slices of bread. (I didn’t do this. I just omitted the butter completely.) Place, butter side down, in a 13×9 inch baking dish.

4. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the cheese over the 4 slices of bread. Top with cut-out bread slices. Break an egg in the centre of each cut-out bread slice.

5. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bacon.

6. Bake for 15-20 min, until cheese has melted and egg has set.

Verdict: I kind of had the same problem with this recipe as I did with the Baked Egg with Potato, Bacon and Tomato recipe I tried: I am not fond of a non-runny egg. I eat eggs for the runny yolk, so this just didn’t work for me.