Mama's Brunch

I love watching Food Network, I gain a lot of my inspiration for cooking from here. Bobby Flay is a pretty incredible cook, I love his show Brunch at Bobby's. Brunch is my all-time favorite meal. I absolutely love it. When I became a mom I knew I would want to host a brunch with all the mamas and babies. After a few months to get my bearings, I was able to do so. I utilized one of Bobby Flay's brunches as my foundation and tweaked the recipes just a bit to fit in my cooking style.

Orange-Ricotta Pancakes with Fig Compote

3/4 cup flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp  baking powder
salt
1 cup ricotta cheese
3/4 cup milk
3 eggs, separated
1/2 tsp vanilla
orange zest
butter

Fig Compote
12 oz figs
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup trail mix (or any nuts you have around)
salt
pepper

Mix dry ingredients together. Then combine ricotta, milk, egg yolks, vanilla and zest in a separate bowl until smooth. Beat the egg whites in a standing mixer until stiff. Add dry ingredients to the ricotta and milk, fold to combine. Whisk in small amount of egg whites to lighten the batter, then fold in the remaining egg whites. I heated up my griddle and brushed the surface with butter. Use 1/3 cup to scoop batter onto the griddle. When bubbles start to appear, flip.

Add all ingredients for compote together in a small sauce pan, cook over high heat and stir frequently. Should take about two minutes for the figs to soften and break down. Pour into bowl for serving.




Italian Home Fries

3 Tbsp butter
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion, sliced thinly
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow pepper, diced
1 1/2 lbs small new potatoes, diced
8 oz Italian hot sausage, remove from casing
1 Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
drizzle olive oil
salt & pepper

The night before (to save time) I chopped everything up and put it into a ziploc bag. I stuck it into the fridge and the next morning, heated up the butter on the griddle and poured the ingredients onto the griddle pan. I added the fresh herbs once the onions, peppers and potatoes started to cook. The smell is incredible! Once the sausage is browned, cooked through and potatoes are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside, your home fries are done!

Soft Scrambled Eggs with Italian Cheese and Tomato Bruschetta
1 loaf of Italian bread
olive oil
salt & pepper
3 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
handful of basil, julienne
10 large eggs
4 oz Italian cheeses

Preheat grill pan over medium heat, slice bread, drizzle with olive oil and place down on pan. While bread toasts, toss tomatoes, olive oil, salt, pepper and julienne basil in a bowl. Once bread is toasted, mound the tomato mixture on top.

Melt butter into a large saute pan over low heat. Crack eggs into a separate bowl and whisk until fluffy. Add in coarse black pepper. Add eggs into the pan, mix gently with rubber spatula. Fold in cheese and after a few minutes remove from heat. Serve eggs with bruschetta.

Orange-Pineapple Mimosas
champagne or prosecco
orange juice
pineapple juice

I love changing up mimosa flavors, find any yummy juice or nectar and top that off in your champagne glass.

Blueberry-Fennel Ice
ice cube tray
water
blueberries
fennel sprigs

I decided to jazz up my ice for serving water, so I put a few blueberries and fennel sprigs in the cube tray. Freeze and it looks pretty with the color. You can use any fruit, herbs, etc.


It was so wonderful to get together with my great mama

friends and to see their babies. Our little ones played and we took some adorable pictures. This brunch is great for any gathering.

Enjoy! xo Lo

All Wrapped Up- Part One: Making Frozen Meals for Family

Now that I am 36 weeks pregnant I am making all those last minute preparations for our sweet girl's arrival. Of course, one of my biggest concerns is food...what will we eat? Thankfully, my best friend has rounded up some helpful family and friends who have offered to cook us meals during those first few weeks home with our Halen. But I know they can't provide every meal for us, so I've decided to do a frozen food series for new moms, families on the go or even for family reunions.

My first recipe for my frozen food series is breakfast burritos. My husband and I are huge fans of breakfast...especially me. So I wanted to make sure we'd have something yummy and satisfying when we're up in the wee hours.

Breakfast Burritos

24 tortillas
10 eggs
1 package of sausage
1 can black beans
2 large red potatoes
1 cup (+) colby jack cheese
salsa

When I originally found this recipe it wanted everything to be pre-made, frozen hash browns, etc. Well even though I am trying to save time by making food ahead doesn't mean I want health aspects to suffer. So I bought everything as naturally as I could and cooked it all myself. You can get any tortillas you like, I really like the ones that are half flour, half corn. Eggs, I always purchase free-range, brown eggs. For the sausage, I purchased hatch green chile sausage for a bit of a kick. I love my black beans and think they add not only extra protein to my burritos but they're so yummy. Red potatoes are healthier than your regular potatoes, colby jack cheese melts really well. And any salsa you prefer.

First thing you want to do is dice up your potatoes rather small and cook them in a large bottom

skillet with some olive oil. Once they start to brown, add in your diced sausage (you can also use ground sausage). Once those two are fully cooked and on the crispy side, scramble your eggs and pour them in the skillet. Turn your heat down and gently fold in your egg mixture. Add a pinch of salt and pepper, continue to fold. Once the eggs start to hold together and don't look runny you're about done. Add the egg mixture into a bowl and set up your wrapping station.



 You'll need plastic wrap, two large freezer Ziploc bags, your grated cheese and black beans ready to go. I would tear a few pieces of plastic wrap at a time so I didn't have to stop my process each time I needed more plastic wrap. Lay your tortilla down on the plastic wrap, fill with egg mixture, top with grated cheese, and a spoonful of black beans. Use the plastic wrap to wrap up the breakfast burrito nice and tight and set to the side.

Continue process until you've used all your eggs and tortillas. Then date and label your freezer bags, add the wrapped breakfast burritos inside, let out all the air, zip shut, and add into your freezer.









When you're ready to eat your frozen breakfast
burritos, simply take the number you want out of the bag, heat up add salsa on top and dig in! These are perfect for any mom-to-be preparing for her little one to come home, for a mom on the go preparing food for her family or even preparation for a family reunion coming up (since summer is around the corner!).

Enjoy! xoxo Lo

Campfire Cookin'

My husband and I went camping this weekend and realized that many people don't understand how delicious your meals can be cooked over an open-fire with a starry night while spending quality time with those you love.

Our first night we chose something pretty simple:

Beer Brats with Blue Corn Tortillas and Mustard

1 package of beer brats
1 package of tortillas
mustard

First you need hangers, sticks or some long fork skewers to fire roast the brats over the open flame. Once the brats are sizzling and brown you toast the tortillas and add the brat, squirt a lil mustard on top and ta da! Simple and delicious.

We spent that evening laughing and holding hands in the middle of the woods.

The next day we planned a big breakfast:

4 eggs
6 slices of thick-cut bacon
2 red potatoes
2 slices of toast (preferably homemade)

Firstly, when you are cooking while camping you want to start with the bacon because it naturally creates grease that you can use to cook everything else. Place bacon in the pot and set over the open flame, take one strip of bacon and slice it up into little pieces. Place these pieces into a separate pot with the chopped potatoes. Once the bacon is sizzled, remove from pot and add to a paper towel and crack the eggs into the greased pot. Once the potatoes are done, pile them into the serving bowls, add bacon on top. Place bread in a pocket of foil and toast on fire grate. Once the eggs are done place them on top of the bacon/potato pile and lastly grab your toast.

For dinner our last night camping we had to create something out of nothing, we had a backpacker's meal of freeze dried chicken and dumplings. Which didn't seem like enough so we had two red potatoes left, some bacon and some extra barbeque sauce. We decided to bake the potatoes, sizzle up the bacon and crumble it on top of the potatoes with barbeque sauce on top...that was a surprisingly, yummy side dish!

Use your imagination while camping, anything you want to have you can...you just have to be creative.

Enjoy life every moment at a time! xoxo Lo