Menu for Wednesday

I've been feeling poorly lately. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure last October and have been struggling to balance all the things I need to for my health. We think my feeling poorly is due to the medication but I don't know. What I do know is that I am exhausted all the time which makes keeping up with this blog tough. I don't have enough energy in the evening to experiement with recipes nor do I have much of an appetite lately.
I'm grateful that I have such a wonderful husband who is willing to take over the cooking part of the household. He's doing a great job, now I just need him to read my mind about what recipes to experiment with and how to do it and I can keep up with this blog without a problem.
Yesterday, we had fried eggs on homemade brown bread (toasted). I love starting the day with a fried egg. Because we use cast iron we use very little oil to fry the egg so it's not a bad food to eat. We always eat the whole egg because research shows that the two parts of the egg balance each other perfectly. I know there is concern about cholestoral and the egg has gotten a bad reputation but science is always proving that whole foods are best.
Lunch, I opted not to eat the beautifully packed lunch my husband made me. I just wasn't up for it. My stomach was a little queasy so I got soup at the local cafe, along with a maple bavarian doughnut because those are my super weakness. I was sorry later because all that sugar made me feel more sick to my stomach. This doesn't affect my budget because I work hard to earn points for various programs to earn free gift cards. My soup and doughnut were thanks to a gift card from my insurance company.
Dinner my husband made chicken thighs with cornflake crusts. I'll have to get the recipe to share because it was wonderful. Then he made mashed potatoes (he calls them boiled potatoes) with garlic and a lovely salad from our bountiful baskets. It was so good I was a little sad there were no leftovers for my lunch.
We finished the night with a little homemade cocoa. We've gotten this down to where it's almost healthy. Last night, he added a splash of the irish cream coffee syrup which did increase the sugar content slightly (we've got it down to 1/4 cup for 3 servings). We like cocoa on cold snowy nights - did I mention it snowed yesterday? So much snow and I so desperately want spring.

Souppa Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon Soup)

I'm craving soup so this weekend I am going to try this recipe. I've carried it around for years and I like the idea of lemon and eggs. I think it will be a good complement to whatever we opt to make with it.
I, also, plan on making garlic soup since I have several heads of garlic that need to be used. Both soups are filling and rather low cal so that'll be good.

Souppa Avgolemono (Egg-Lemon Soup)
6 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup rice or orzo pasta
3 eggs
1 lemon, juice of (or more)
Bring broth to boil in saucepan, and add rice or orzo. Cover and cook on medium low heat for 20-25 minutes (rice) or 10 minutes (orzo). While the rice cooks, lightly beat the eggs and the lemon juice together. Remove the broth from heat. Slowly mix about one cup of the hot broth into egg-lemon mixture. Add to the soup gradually while stirring. Place saucepan back on the heat, and stir until soup is heated through (DO NOT BOIL).

Egg Fu Yung

For me, Egg Fu Yung is not really a recipe but more a concoction. It's an asian inspired omelet that is served with a sauce. I use almond sauce and add a little more soy sauce to taste. The sauce is salty which goes well with the eggs and veggies. You can make the omelets in pancake form or like scrambled eggs depending on your mood.

Egg Fu Yung

2 eggs per person
vegetables - bean sprouts, onions, peas, corn, carrots - whatever (canned, fresh or frozen).

Scramble eggs in a bowl. Pour a pancake sized amount into hot oiled skillet. Top with veggies and let cook until partially set. Flip and cook until completely set and browned.
Serve with sauce.

I like sauted onions so I sauted the onions. Mixed six eggs with 1/3 of a can of peas and 1/3 can of corn (drained). When the onions were how I liked them then I poured over the eggs and scrambled the whole thing. The flavor is nearly the same but it's not firm while the pancake method actually makes something that can be eaten by hand.

Almond Sauce
2 tbs. butter
1 cup milk
1 tbs. cornstarch
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tsp. onion powder
Almonds, chopped
Melt butter in sauce pan. Add cornstarch to cold milk. Add to butter with other ingredients except almonds. Heat until thick over medium heat. Top with almonds.

(Omit the almonds if desired for the eggs)

Quiche

I am so behind and really ran out of recipes so much earlier than I expected. I know that Quiche is not Irish but this version has a bit of an Irish flare.
I often skip making Quiche in a crust since my family really doesn't care for it that way but feel free to use a pie crust for your version.

Ham and Cheese Quiche
2 red potatoes, cubed
1 tb dried rosemary
1 cup cubed ham
1 premade pie shell
1 cup shredded cheese
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teas all-purpose seasoning
oven to 400. place potatoes and rosemary in a microwaveable dish. cover with damp paper towel and microwave 2 minutes until almost cooked through. cover the bottom of the pie crust with potatoes, ham and cheese. whisk together eggs, milk and seasoning - pour in pie crust. put in oven for 35-40 minutes until eggs set.