Red Pepper and Mushroom Frittata

My Mother-in-Law has been staying with us so I've been making some nice things for lunch. I've posted about frittatas before, but this is a nice quick version. This frittata was a great hit and totally yummy.

• 1.5 Red Peppers, fire roasted or roasted (and skinned - you can buy these or make them.
• 2 green onions
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 6-7 eggs
• 200g grated cheese

I used a cast iron skillet for this. Put a bit of olive oil in your skillet and fry the mushrooms and chopped green onion over med heat. While this is happening, beat your eggs, grate the cheese and chop up the red peppers. Now whisk these together in a bowl. Once the mushies are done, put them in the egg mixture and put a bit more oil in the pan. Mix up the egg and little to distribute the mushies and pour into the (hot) pan. Let it cook over med heat until the bottom is browned (you can lift up the side gently to see this). Don't let it burn.

Now fire up your broiler and put it under there until the top's brown. Giv ethe pan a little jiggle to see if it's cooked through. If it's a bit jiggly, turn on the oven (it should be up at temperature because of the broiler, so no waiting) and leave it in there for about 4 mins or so. Take it from the oven, let it cool slightly and feed it to your hungry MIL.

That's what it looked like when it came out of the oven. Excuse filthy stovetop vents!

Steak Sanga

I don't know if it's just us, but I can never eat all of a steak. They are often so huge! So what ends up happening is that I put leftovers into a tupperware. The problem is that it's really too small to constitute a meal. And it gets left too long and I throw it out.

Today, however, I had other ideas. I used two leftover steaklets and decided to create a Philly Cheese Steak-ish sandwich. There were two flaws with this grand plan, however:

1. I have never been to Philly
2. I have never eaten or seen a Cheese Steak sandwich

Oh.

I quick google revealed that it's onions, mushrooms, and steak sauteed and served with a cheesy sauce. What I did instead was this:

Sauteed an onion and mushrooms, then threw in the finely sliced steak at the last minute (it was already cooked, remember). I sprinkled some shredded cheese over the whole shebang and plonked it on my Rye bread which I mayo-ed. This is probably all wrong and if you're from Philly please don't kill me. It was delicious. Totally and utterly.

The Taste of Summer - Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pasta

Warm tomatoes and basil right from the garden are the taste of summer to me! And although it feels distinctly Fall-like now, we had a lovely summer pasta last night.

This year, we had two tomato patches - 16 plants in our raised bed (grown according to the Square-Foot method) and then about 5 in our front yard which were the leftover plants we had. Ironically, the ones in the back didn't do very well and became fairly diseased and didn't produce well, whereas the neglected ones in the front produced spectacularly, even though I didn't even stake them. The tomatoes were lying on the ground! Their one bit of attention was me putting some newspaper underneath the bunches of fruit.

Anyway. Because of their terrible neglect, some had soft spots on them, and this recipe is the perfect way to use non-perfect toms.

First, slice them thickly (1/2 inch), cutting out any yucky bits, wormy holes and the stem/core. Then lay them out in a baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Now chop up a whole heap of garlic - 4-5 large clove for 2 baking dishes worth and spinkle then garlic over. You should have a small heap on each piece of tomato. Now salt and pepper and (if you want to live really dangerously) a tiny pinch of brown sugar on each tomato (though this isn't necessary and I didn't do it this time). Then bake in a 350 degree oven for about 40 mins or until they are soft through and the garlic is browning. At this point you can put them in the fridge for a day or so (what I did), freeze them, or eat them on bruschetta.

When you want to eat them, cook up some linguine. While it's cooking, roughly shop your toms. Drain the pasta, chuck the tomatoes in with a good glug of good olive oil (1/4 cup?), more salt and pepper, and a handful or torn basil leaves.

Heaven. Plus, once you've done the tomatoes, dinner takes 10 mins, max. You can roast a whole lotta tomatoes at once and freeze them in packages so you can have the taste of summer all winter.

Back to School

Even as a kid, I loved this time of year. Yes, it means the end of summer but it also means new beginnings, new friends, school supplies, classrooms and even new resolutions for schoolwork. I guess that is why I find it so fun to be on the other end and have a kid going to school, because I get to shop for the stuff! Today's lunches are a challenging issue for most parents; with balanced school days gone are the long lunch and two recesses; the focus is more on bite sized snacks throughout the day. Top this with a "litter free" and "peanut free" policy and parents may be at a loss. Because my son is naturally a "snacker" and also has a nut allergy, I would like to share some resources for making normal lunches beautiful and fun.
First of all the containers: This year I will be taking a bento-style approach to  lunches. This takes care of the garbage issue and eliminates the eventual "smell" these insulated lunch boxes acquire a month into school:

Amazon

 

Lunch bots 

Goodbyn 

 Chapters

These are the top on my list. Now I'm not going to claim I know anything about filling these things, although I will share my adventures this year. I do know how to find peanut free snacks though, and I will be using these sites as inspiration:

Another Lunch

These women create lunches that are works of art for their children. Not everything is peanut free but they have some great ideas for holidays, themes, and lots of resources for products to make the lunches fun!

Bento for Kidlet

Dayliciously Bento

Bento Lunch

Some additional resources for inspiration! What about you guys? any special ideas for back to school, or places to buy cool boxes for kids? please share!