What Should I Cook For My Class' "Breakfast Party?"

The class I'm teaching has its exam period on Monday from 8:00-10:00 am (I know, it's painful, especially for a Monday. The plus is that it's smack at the beginning of exam week and is forcing me to grade papers in a timely manner). My students and I decided to have a "breakfast party" while we finish up the last round of paper presentations. I told them I would make them something good, but I'm kind of at a loss as to what to make. I'm thinking some kind of oatmeal breakfast-bar-type thing or maybe mini quiches, but am open to suggestions.

What would you cook for breakfast for 24 tired and stressed freshman and sophomores? It needs to be easily portable!

*Addendum: I ended up making some cereal bars with rice krispies, raisins, brown sugar, flour, honey, and granola: basically mix and then bake for 20 minutes. They were just ok, but my students brought tons of good food, including doughnuts, Christmas cookies, and a 3/4 full jug of orange juice that had been used to make screwdrivers the night before.

In Which I Finally Make Frittata

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you know I am a big fan of egg dishes (see here, here, and here). Eggs are easy, healthy, and can be dressed up to taste really delicious with only minor time and effort.

I frequently come across frittata recipes on food blogs, especially on 30 Bucks A Week (they are always whipping up these incredible looking frittatas from random ingredients they have laying around. It's intimidating in a weird foodie way). I never had the oven-safe pan required to make one, though, until I recently bought a cast-iron skillet.

I like making brunch on the weekends, so I decided to try a frittata last Sunday morning and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it actually was. I sort of quickly threw this together after googling a few recipes, and it came out really well. It's easy enough that it doesn't feel like work, but tastes good enough that it feels a bit more festive (special? weekend-worthy? I don't know) for a Sunday brunch. I'm thinking frittatas could also be good for dinner, with a little salad and some some crusty toasted bread.

Spinach, Asparagus, & Feta Frittata

hands-on time: 10 min total time: 20 min

6 eggs (I used 2 eggs, 4 egg whites)

splash of milk

7 or 8 asparagus stalks, woody ends removed, chopped into 1 in pieces

handful of torn baby spinach

2-3 green onions, chopped

feta cheese to your liking (I used an herb blend)

2 glugs olive oil

chopped garlic to taste

an oven safe pan or skillet

1. Preheat oven to 450. 

2. Saute the asparagus with the chopped garlic and olive oil, about 5 minutes, until it turns a bright green.

3. Stir in the spinach and green onions, cook until spinach wilts.

4. Beat eggs thoroughly with just a splash of milk added, then pour into pan, making sure eggs are evenly distributed throughout pan.

5.  Sprinkle about half of the feta on top, then cook eggs and vegetables on low heat for 4-5 minutes.

6. Once the mixture has begun to set (but there is still egg liquid in the pan), add the rest of the feta and transfer to oven for 7-10 minutes.

7. The frittata is ready when the cheese is melted and the egg is set, but not browned; you can try inserting a fork or toothpick to see if it comes out clean. 

The feta that I used was extremely salty, so there was no need to add any more salt to this recipe, even after cooking. I loved this frittata so much I made another one the very next day, with tomatoes, spinach, and shredded Mexican cheese. I think the shredded cheese may have actually turned out better than the feta, and the tomatoes added some necessary juiciness. This would be easy to tweak by using different greens, adding onions or other vegetables, or changing the ratio of egg whites to eggs. 

Swiss Chard Quiche

My trip to Central America has been significantly delayed due to the eruption of the volcano Pacaya in Guatemala, as well as tropical storm Agatha, so I've been hanging out in Baltimore for a bit longer than I originally planned. Check out the sinkhole caused by the storm in Guatemala City:



!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luckily, I anticipate spending most of my time in Guatemala in the city of Antigua, which is (so far) sinkhole-free. Since I've had a longer stay in Baltimore, I've had more time to cook, and I have successfully converted my family to liking swiss chard. Last night, I made an onion-chard quiche for dinner; I'm a big fan of quiches because they're easy and easily customizable. Quiche also seems appropriate at any time of day; it's not at all like eating a hamburger at 9 am, which always feels weird to me. If you eat a quiche at 9 am, it feels like breakfast. If you eat it at 7 pm, it feels like dinner.



Swiss Chard Quiche

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 (to 1.5) cups of grated cheese (I used a mix of cheddar and some weird artisanal sundried tomato cheese I found in the fridge)
1 cup milk
3/4 bunch of swiss chard, chopped
3/4 onion, chopped
1 pie crust
couple tablespoons of olive oil
splash of lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

1. Finely chop the onion and cut the stems off of the chard. Saute in the oil until soft, 5-7 minutes or so.
2. Roughly chop the chard into bite size pieces, add to the pan.
3. Add a splash of lemon juice, cook until chard is fully wilted; it will become much smaller and a much darker green. I added salt, pepper, and garlic powder here, as well.
4. As the chard wilts, blend the milk, eggs and cheese together in a bowl.
5. When the chard is done, stir it into the eggs mixture.
6. Pour mixture into pie crust.
7. Bake at 375 for 35-40 minutes.



8. Let the quiche sit a few minutes before cutting.

We ate the quiche with a tomato, avocado and parmesan salad. This recipe could easily be modified by using spinach in place of chard, leeks in place of onions, adding green onions on top, adding fresh basil, adding tomato, adding green peppers, adding cooked bacon, adding broccoli, you get the picture. Basically, you can modify this recipe to suit your particular tastebuds, using any vegetables you want; just saute them a little before you add them to the egg mixture. I should add I've made basically the exact same quiche without a crust, so if you don't have a pie crust or just want a lighter version of the recipe, it's just as good without. This quiche tastes even better the next day, especially for breakfast.