Hash brown Egg Cups

Tony was flipping channels last week and texted me something like “a taco shell made of bacon filled with potato and cheese.”   He was watching a show about a food truck that sells only bacon centric foods.  www.getyourlardon.com.

Since Tony is my muse most of the time in the kitchen, I decided to make hashbrown egg cups.  I did a quick google search and took this recipe as my base.  Here is my version.

Hash brown Egg Cups

• makes 4 servings, 3 cups each serving: 207 calories, 8.8 fat, 18 carbs, 2 fiber and 11 protein

Ingredients

• 12 ounces shredded potatoes (I used Ore Ida brand)
• 1 cup egg beaters plus 1 egg, beaten well
• 2 tablespoons fat free half and half
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 slices of cooked bacon, chopped
• 2 ounces of American cheese (3 slices), divided

Heat oven to 350.  Press 1 ounce of shredded potatoes into a 12 cup muffin tin, making sure to spray with Pam.  Push the hash browns down and press up the sides.  Bake for 30-35 minutes, until starting to get golden brown.

Remove from the oven.  Beat the egg beaters, egg, salt, pepper, and fat free half and half together.  Divide among the hash brown cups.  Sprinkle with the chopped bacon.  I cut my cheese into 4 squares, and placed a square of cheese on top.  Return to oven and bake 10-15 more minutes or until the egg is set and the cheese is melted.

For breakfast I had 3 egg cups and a cup of watermelon.  I just reheated them in our office toaster oven – I may or may not have splashed them with Tabasco before consumption.

Even though there was a chance of rain, I got out for my walk.  It started to drizzle the last 10 minutes, but no big.

Tony and I went out for Chinese on Sunday.  They had lunch specials for $8.75.  I got an egg roll, 2 crab rangoons, spicy pepper chicken with shrimp fried rice.  It felt like I was eating forever and barely made a dent!  I cooked up some more zucchini and had some of the leftover stir fry.  Yup, that’s a circle of sriracha to kick it up a notch!  Or what Tony would call a burning ring of fire.

My store had chicken legs on sale for $1 a pound.  I decided to try Chicago Chef Art Smith’s fried chicken recipe.  Now you have to plan ahead for this recipe.  You have to brine it one day, the second day it soaks in buttermilk, and then you are ready to go.

The only problem I had was that these chicken legs were huge!  I ended up having to finish them up in the oven, so what should have been a 30 minute meal to make at most, turned into almost 50 minutes.  Next time I’ll look for smaller legs!  One of the secret ingredients Art Smith uses is Old Bay seasoning.  I did tone down the cayenne a bit for Tony’s sake, so I used hot sauce on my chicken.  Tony is convinced I’ve burned off my taste buds by now with all the hot shit I eat.

See what I mean – look how big that chicken leg is on my dinner plate!

Since its dipped in flour twice, it was extra crispy.  And since we cooked it in our deep fryer, it wasn’t greasy at all.

I have to show you this panini I made over the weekend – Tony and I had a light supper after our Chinese on Sunday.  I made a rosemary ham and sliced blue cheese panini.  If you can find sliced blue cheese at your store, I highly recommend it – its not overpowering at all – check out how melty it got!

It’s 7:25 in the morning right now, but I could actually have that for breakfast.

More good news!  Hannah got a letter from Roosevelt University.  They are offering her a renewable $7,000 annual academic scholarship!  Way to go Hannah! So proud of you!

I am looking forward to tonight – having dinner with my Momma!  I can’t remember the last time I saw her and it’s the first time I’ve seen her since she’s been back from staying with my brother.  Charlie’s second round of chemo is this week.  My mom will probably stay home this month, my nephew is graduating 8th grade, and then will head back in early June.

Stats for Monday:

• 1492 calories, 56 fat, 148 carbs, 11 fiber and 60 protein
• 40% calories from carbs, 34 from fat and 26 protein
• 30 minute stretch before work
• 50 minute walk at lunch

Alright, gotta jump in the shower – make it a great day!