Quick FIX Frittata

This veggie frittata is a delicious and super easy anytime meal portion for the Quick 21 Day Fix.

Quick FIX Frittata

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons of olive or avocado oil
• 8 eggs
• 8 Cups veggies (5 C chopped spinach, 1 C green onions, 1 C mushroom, 1 Red Bell pepper)
• 2 Blue containers (1/2 C) grated Parmesan and/or Mozzarella cheese (opt.)
• Pink Himalayan sea salt, black pepper & oregano to taste.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Saute veggies in hot oil until spinach is wilted. (About 4 minutes)
3. Beat 8 eggs.
4. Add seasonings and cheese.
5. Pour into pan with veggies. Stir slowly so it's well mixed, leaving the heat on.
6. Transfer pan to oven and bake 15 minutes.

Let  set for 5 minutes outside the oven before dividing into 4 equal pieces. 1 serving is 1/4 of the frittata.

FIX proportions: 1 Red, 2 Green, 1/2 Blue, 1 teaspoon.

Enjoy!

Mini Veggie Egg Cups

I've been inspired by a new round of the 21 Day Fix and viewing posts and videos from the program's creator, Autumn Calabrese to create more recipes for my "Fixers."  This recipe is simple and easy and came straight from the 21 Day Fix Extreme Eating Plan booklet.  I whisked up 2 batches and put one in the freezer.

I have included the recipe below and some pictures from when I made it.  At the very bottom I have added a link to a video Autumn created while making these egg cups.  I consider cooking an art and just like any form of art, the interpretation of the recipe is truly in the eye of the chef.  You will  see that we took slightly different paths, so do what works and is easiest for you.

Ingredients:

• Non-stick cooking spray
• Reynolds Aluminum Foil Jumbo Muffin cups (optional, you don't even have to use Reynolds, but just make sure the paper liner can be removed.) 
• 12 large eggs
• sea salt of Himalayan salt (Mineralize) and ground black pepper to taste
• Oregano, Basil and/or Marjoram to taste (this isn't in the recipe but I love any one or all of these spices in my eggs!)
• 1 10-oz. bag raw baby spinach finely chopped (I made a double recipe and had a hard time utilizing 2.5 5-oz. bags, so do your best)  
• 1 medium red bell pepper, finely chopped
• 2 green onions finely sliced

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Lightly coat a 12 cup muffin tin with spray.  (I prefer to use the Reynolds Aluminum Foil Jumbo muffin cups with this inner paper removed because I strongly dislike washing more dishes than necessary and I really don't want to get inside 12 or 24 muffin tins to catch what got stuck.  Spray the baking cups just like you would the pan and don't forget to remove it when reheating in the microwave.)
3. Place eggs in a bowl and whisk to blend.  Add in seasonings, if desired and stir.
4. Chop veggies and add them to the whisked eggs.  Mix completely.
5. Spoon egg mixture into tins evenly.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out cleanly from the center.

Servings:

2 muffin cups is 1 GREEN and 1 RED.

These will last ~1 week in your refrigerator.  They can also be frozen.  Check out Hatch Green Chile Extravaganza for more muffin cup ideas. 

Check out Autumn's video too! http://www.teambeachbody.com/teambeachbodyblog/nutrition/recipes/mini-vegetable-egg-cups

Hatch Green Chile Extravaganza!

One way I stick with healthy eating is to enjoy fresh seasonal foods.  Fresh New Mexico Hatch Green Chile add a flavorful twist to nearly any recipe you may normally make.

I had to read up a little so I knew when to be prepared for this season to come up every year.  I've added a link to a blog that gives a small amount of info for my readers as I create this post: http://www.hatch-green-chile.com/when-is-hatch-chile-season/.  As I write this, I know that there is a slight bit of urgency to get this out.  I mainly want to share some of the items I created or 'spruced up' with green chile.  I hope it inspires you to create some of your own or try some of mine and enjoy the deliciousness this season has to offer!

If you haven't checked out my first "Green Chile" post, check out: Hatch Chile Mini Quiches.  So after creating breakfast, I moved onto dinner.  

Green Chile Sliders:

Green Chile Sliders are a delicious twist on your traditional slider.  Some recipes I saw topped a regular slider with green chile, but I prefer the chile mixed in.

So I mixed up about 2 pounds of 96/4 ground beef with a little pink Himalayan salt, black pepper, oregano, cumin and marjoram to taste.  Just sprinkle it in!  I never truly measure my seasonings and if anything, you'll add too little over too much.  I diced 4 large roasted chile.  I definitely took a short cut on all my recipes by buying the chile already roasted.

After thoroughly mixing all ingredients, I formed on huge patty so I could divide the burgers evenly by scoring the huge patty into even sections, just like slicing a pie.  I learned that trick from an episode of Rachel Ray as a way to prevent "the runt" burger.  Another trick I learned from the same episode was to make the center of the patty thinner than the edge of the patty.  This ensures the burger is cooked evenly through and without crispy edges.

I formed all the burgers and cooked them for about 5 minutes at 400 degrees on my panini grill press.  One of the tips I learned from the "Good Stuff" cook book is that the key to a good burger is the bun.  I served these sliders on butter toasted Kings Hawaiian rolls.  The book also suggests to use a higher fat content in hamburger meat, but as you can see, I chose 96/4 so that I could toast the buns with a little bit of butter instead.  With the seasonings and the green chiles the lower fat content of the meat was just fine for this tasty treat.  1 slider with a salad was enough for me.  My football playing son, however had 3 sliders and salad.  It was absolutely delicious and I was proud of this quick and tasty meal!

Green Chile and Flank Steak Breakfast Tacos:

A couple days later, I went back to breakfast.  On a whim one morning I whipped up some Green Chile and Flank Steak Breakfast Tacos!  I'm not sure why I call them breakfast tacos.  I grew up eating breakfast burritos in Colorado.  When I moved to Texas, all I heard about were breakfast tacos.  All the same ingredients, just slightly different folding and or rolling!  So don't get upset if I'm completely wrong about this, but I believe the burrito is folded at the ends and rolled.  The taco is folded in half and then most times folded again, but since its a soft flour tortilla it really seems like a roll to me.  Either way it's YUM!!  My son ate 3!


This recipe is as simple as the burgers.  Dice up some green chiles, onions and cooked flank steak (ours was left over from dinner the night before).  Heat in a spayed skillet with 1 TBSP olive oil.  I cracked 10 brown eggs, but if I didn't have brown eggs, I would have done 10 egg whites plus 2 eggs.  Season with oregano, basil, black pepper and a pinch of sea salt.  The more seasoning the better for eggs.  I absolutely love basil and/or oregano with my eggs.  When the eggs are finished, heat the whole wheat flour tortillas and fill with your ingredients.  I added cheese for my son's tacos and salsa for both.  Since I love to have my breakfasts prepared ahead of time, breakfast tacos/burritos are great to make and reheat.  

New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Stew:

Finally, back to dinner with a New Mexico Hatch Green Chile Stew.  I can't take credit for the recipe, though.  I found it at: http://mjskitchen.com/2013/01/new-mexico-green-chile-stew/.  I froze 2 containers for 2 easy and delicious dinner or lunch in the future.  This stew was a little too spicy for my son's liking, but it was delicious and super easy to make.

 Since you have the recipe at the link, I don't need to elaborate on it too much.  Except for some of the small changes I had to make.  I don't typically make changes to a recipe the first time around, but I did choose to use my own homemade stewed tomatoes because they are delicious!  I even added Hatch Green Chile to the tomatoes.  I also had to use a meat tenderizer to pound the coriander seeds as I did not have a mortar and pestle and wasn't certain I needed to buy one.  

I also used my Ninja for everything, except toasting the coriander seeds, because its so easy.  Just one pot.  I prefer the Ninja over my Crock pot simply because I can sear or brown meat in it.  I also think meat has a distinct 'Crock pot' taste that I'm not too fond of, but I do not get that taste with my Ninja.

What kind of dishes do you love to make with New Mexico Hatch Green Chile?  I'd love to find more healthy dishes to make when I get that New Mexico Hatch Green Chile craving, so share, please.  Thank you!

Hatch Chile Mini-Quiches

I absolutely LOVE New Mexico Hatch Green Chiles!  Not sure what made them so special to my palate, but when it's there harvest time in late July/early August, I can't help but come up with new dishes or try out new recipes that include them.

Finely chopped green chiles

So, last week, one of the dishes I created was Hatch Green Chile Mini-Quiches.  Since I track my nutrition using 21 Day Fix containers these can easily be converted and they contain a lot of veggies.  I also happened to be going through my monthly clean eating challenge at that time, so I also had to ensure the ingredients followed the rules of the challenge.  If you'd like to join one of my free clean eating challenges, head on over to www.techifitness.com/nutrition and add your name to my contact form or find me on Facebook - Kara Henson or Facebook - Techifitness.

OK, we really came here for the recipe right?!  I'm so glad you did.

Hatch Green Chile Mini-Quiches 

9 Farm Fresh Eggs
3 C Spinach, chopped
1 C white or yellow onions, diced
3 TBSP chopped cilantro
2-3 roasted New Mexico Hatch Green Chiles (about 1 C), finely chopped
Himalayan Pink Sea Salt (to taste)
Ground Black Pepper (to taste)
Oregano, Marjoram, Chives (fresh or dried, to taste)
Red Chile Powder (opt.)
3 Chicken Sausage Patties (or any lean breakfast sausage), crumbled

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees    
2. Chop veggies and add to bowl
3. Beat eggs add to bowl
4. Add seasonings and mix well (I love eggs with tons of flavor so I use a lot!)
5. Add in sausage crumbles

Scoop ~1/4 C into muffin tins, coated with cooking spray or lined with foil tins.  I detest cleaning muffin pans, (probably because I only have cheap pans), so I always use foil tins with the paper liner removed.

Bake at 350 degrees for ~25 minutes.

Makes 1 dozen or 6 servings.  Each serving is 1 Red, and 1 Green.

More green chile recipes coming soon!  I'd love to hear what you make with your green chiles.  Share a link to the recipe or share your pictures here or on Facebook!  Show me some green chile love!