Recipe for a Happy Tummy

Upon realizing that we had a dozen or so eggs that would soon expire, I knew exactly what to do with them.  You can find a more formal recipe here: Ham & Cheese Bake Recipe, or you can do what I usually do and make it up as you go along.  Here's what you'll need:

The Basics: Eggs, Milk and Bread

The Variables: I used Ham, Tomato, White Brick Cheese and Parmesan.

Now, here's what you do:

Take about 4 or 5 slices of white bread, remove the crust, and cut into small cubes.  Beat 8 eggs together with 1/2 cup of milk or so.  Whatever ingredients you may choose, chop into small pieces.  I eyeballed the amounts of each, and I love cheese so I used a little extra.  1 cup of each ingredient should be fine.  I also anticipated that the tomatoes would add extra water to the mix, so I threw in a bit more bread to balance it.

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Next, take a baking dish (I used a 9x9) and spray with cooking spray...don't forget!!

Layer the ingredients so they are spaced pretty equally.   I saved the parmesan for the final step and it turned out very good!

Pour the egg mixture over, covering the whole mix.  If there is not enough liquid to cover the ingredients, you can add a little more milk/egg.  If there seems to be too much, take a few extra cubes of bread and soak it up a little.

Now you're ready to let the bread soak up all the eggy goodness, so cover and refrigerate for an hour or so.  You can let it sit over night, too.

If you're like me, then your pan spills in the fridge.  If this happens, have your husband clean it up.

Then, add another egg and some more milk and pray it turns out.

After  an hour you're ready to bake.  Your ingredients have become quite good friends and the bread has nearly dissolved in the egg.

Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until it looks ready- that's what I did!  When the eggs look cooked and it doesn't look runny anymore, it's probably good.  You can add more cheese to the top and bake for another 10 minutes, or until it's browned a little, and it turns out looking like this:

It's not very pretty, but it sure is tasty!  And it is easy to take to work for lunch, so I know I will have a happy tummy today.  I hope you have the chance to try this sometime, too.

Suppertime

Lately M & I have been eating out a lot because I'm so busy (and he only knows how to cook a few things.) This can be costly, and I'm devising a plan to free ourselves from the addiction to the convenience and enjoyment of eating out so much. Ideally, we'd eat out two - three times a month. I'm imagining all the extra money we'd have around if we restrained ourselves a little (though the cost of groceries is nothing to rejoice about these days!) So I've come up with a basic meal plan and could use some input. If you have any favorite recipes that fall into one of the following categories, do share!

MONDAY: Soup night - I work late on Mondays and will utilize my lovely crockpot for these.

TUESDAY: Casserole night? I work from 9 - 7 on T, but I have a short break in the morning where I can come home and prepare something to be ready to cook for when M or I get home.

WEDNESDAY: Pasta or Rice night. I have time during the day to prepare something, but work very late, and M will have to finish the cooking part when he gets home or reheat what I've cooked during the day.

THURSDAY: Meat night. Or M's choice night. I don't work until the afternoon so I can prepare the meat during the day and ask M to cook it when I'm on my way home. Or M can pick something he'd like to cook and prepare it while I'm at work.

FRIDAY: Fun food night! Think homemade pizza or breakfast for dinner.

SATURDAY: Left-overs night

SUNDAY: Roasted meat night, chicken, pot roast, etc. Leftover meat can be used for the coming week's recipes! I also hope to use my *extra* time on Sunday to get other things ready that I may need throughout the week to simplify the weekday process.

I've got a number ideas for soups and meats; I could use some for casseroles or other easy hodge-podge meals!