Canadian Bacon Breakfast Cups

This is another variant of the bacon & egg in a muffin tin recipe. This time I  used Canadian bacon and these little bits of goodness are great to make in a batch and keep in the refrigerator for fail safe low-carb breakfasts.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
1/4 cup of red pepper or green pepper diced
1/4 onion diced
shredded chedder cheese
6 slices of Canadian bacon

Directions

• Saute peppers and onions
• add eggs (with a bit of milk if you want) and scramble lightly.
• Cut a slit into each piece of Canadian Bacon
• Make a cone shape and set into a muffin tin
• Fill cones with egg mixture
• Cook in oven or toaster oven for 10-15 minutes at 325 until bacon is warmed through.
• Remove from oven.
• Add a bit of cheese to the tops and put under broiler or back in the oven until the cheese melts.
• Eat as is or eat with a simple salad of tomato, avocado, salt & pepper. 

Mini Stuffed Peppers & Stuffed Pepper Pasta

I have to admit, I hated stuffed peppers as a kid. Now, I think they are wonderful. Here is a vegetarian version. Make a big batch and then use the leftovers for a equally yummy pasta dish.

Ingredients:

About 30 mini sweet peppers. Cleaned out and tops removed.
1/3 cup of chopped parsley
About 10 large Swiss Chard leaves.
2 cloves of garlic - microplaned
1 cup of ricotta
1/3 cup of finely grated Parmesan
1 Bottle of your favorite pasta sauce.
1 egg

Directions:

Saute finely chopped greens and garlic in a tsp. of olive oil or bacon grease.
I cooked mine in the bacon pan after breakfast. lol. 
Let greens cool and then mix with ricotta,
Parmesan, parsley and one egg.
Mix well.

Dump the entire jar of pasta sauce into a deep oven safe casserole or bowl. One that has a cover is best. Line up your peppers so they are standing upright in the sauce.
Fill them with the cheese mixture and bake at 350 until fork tender and cheese mixture has set. You will have a lot of sauce leftover and if you are only feeding 3-4 people you will have plenty of peppers leftover, too.  So, the next night - make pasta!

Stuffed Pepper Pasta

Chop up remaining stuffed peppers into large chunks. Cover and refrigerate.
The next day, warm up and serve with the pasta of your choice.

zucchini pasta

I love pasta. I love bread. I love carbs in general. Sadly, they don't love me.   So, in order to cut the carbs I indulged in my love for kitchen gadgetry and purchased the Paderno turning slicer. My goal: to make zucchini pasta. Today I fetched a fairly large zucchini and busted out the slicer. I was pleasantly surprised. It was incredibly easy to use and my big zucchini created a giant bowl of "noodles". 

making zucchini noodles 

Directions:

Place zucchini noodles in a large pot with an inch or so of boiling water. 

Put the lid on and let the noodles steam until they are al dente. They shouldn't be crunchy or mushy but somewhere in the middle.  Once the noodles are ready drain them; they create a lot of their own juice. Drizzle on garlic infused olive oil and salt & pepper to taste.

Top with your favorite sauce, cheese, peppers, etc. Tasty!