Breakfast Muffins and Spaghetti Con Crema Di Peperone

I think yesterday was my perfect temperature day – it was 64 degrees when I woke up, it didn’t get hotter than 73 degrees. Last night we had a cool breeze coming through the window requiring just a light blanket. Now if I can only find a place that stays like that I’d be a happy camper!

Right now it’s 51 degrees – by Thursday afternoon we will have 100 degrees – it just boggles my mind that we can live in a place that can vary by 50 degrees in just a matter of days.

So over the weekend when I was cleaning out my fridge, I noticed I had some refrigerator biscuits. I thought of making savory breakfast muffins for the week. The idea actually came from Kim of Mo’Betta – she made bubble up pizza for her kids and they loved it!

Savory Breakfast Muffins

makes 12 – each one is 95 caloires, 4.4 fat, 6.7 carbs, .2 fiber and 7 protein

Ingredients:

1 cup liquid egg whites
3 slices thin sliced Swiss cheese, chopped
3 ounces deli ham, chopped
1 cup baby spinach, chopped
3 large eggs
2/3 cup skim milk
salt and pepper
dashes of hot sauce
10 refrigerator biscuits

I cut up my refrigerator biscuits and divided them into my muffin tin. Then added the chopped spinach, ham and cheese. I mixed the egg whites, eggs, milk, salt, pepper and hot sauce and using my 1/4 cup measuring cup – divided the egg mixture between the muffin tins. They baked at 375 for 17 minutes.

My breakfast:

Well, my dough didn’t bubble up as much as I thought it would – so next time I would just put the biscuits on the bottom of the muffin tin and skip the step of quartering them. Super tasty – it tastes like a breakfast casserole in a muffin!

I couldn’t wait to get outside at lunch. I ended up being gone 55 minutes! I did my usual walk a song, run a song – my legs wanted to go super fast yesterday (for me) for some reason – felt good! My only problem was that I forgot my hat and my hair was all in my face.

I declared last week that this week was going to be the week of the salad! I bought a six pack of romaine lettuce and a big package of cole slaw mix. I grilled a chicken over the weekend. My dressing? A 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole mixed with Trader Joe’s light champagne dressing – delicious!

The problem with this salad? Um, raw cole slaw mix kind of tastes like ass. I even let the dressing sit for a while, but I couldn’t eat it – so I ate the romaine, carrots, cucumber and chicken. I’ll have to kick today’s salad up!

Like any food whore, I get my share of food magazines. One I love to read cover to cover is La Cucina. When I saw their recipe for Spaghetti con Crema di Peperone, I knew I wanted to make it, but I wasn’t sure Tony would be on board with a red pepper based sauce.

I did alter the recipe a bit because I didn’t add the proscuitto or arugala, but subbed in baby spinach and shrimp to ours. This really is a great week night recipe because it was ready in exactly 30 minutes.

Spaghetti Con Crème di Peperone

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 pound red peppers (three large)
1/2 pound roma tomatoes
2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon fresh oregano (or 1 tsp. dried)
salt and pepper
I also added crushed red pepper to my plate

While you bring your pot of water to boil for the pasta, heat the olive oil in a stock pot. Thinly slice the peppers and cook them for 5 minutes over medium high heat. Add water, tomatoes, sugar, salt, pepper and oregano, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 15 minutes.

Using your stick blender, blend the sauce. Once the pasta is cooked, toss the pasta into the sauce and let it sit for a couple minutes. This is a rather thin sauce but it did stick to the pasta – I ended up spooning a bit more of the sauce in our plates.

Here is the picture from the magazine:

My plate:

We both loved it – it was very light – perfect summer night pasta. The best part is that the whole sauce recipe comes in at 195 calories, 6 fat, 35 carbs, 11 fiber and 6.3 protein – or about 50 calories per serving.

A couple of things I found on Pinterest over the weekend – I love this one!

And this one made me laugh – maybe because I have a twin sister and I am the older one by 30 minutes! And not kidding, when I was six I remember crying my eyes out. My Mom asked me why I was crying I told her I thought I only got to celebrate my birthday for 30 minutes and Jennifer got the rest of the day!