I've been very sick for the past couple days. With a sinus infections and mild concussion (I WOULD manage to get kicked in the head by a crowd surfer...FAIL) I've been trying to keep myself from complete boredom. I've spent my past few days cooking, blogging, photographing, stumbling and watching TV. But when I woke up this morning, I had NO energy whatsoever and a mean cough. I told myself that I would not be fussing over any meals today and absolutely no photography or blogging, but instead rest up and sleep. Well, that lasted... until noon.
As my stomach growled, I looked in the fridge for something healthy, low carb and quick. Deli drawer: One single peice of turkey. Okay... Freezer! No chicken. No nothing. Oh, I'll make a peach and spinach salad! No freakin' peaches. How the hell did our fridge go from stocked to skimpy in a matter of 12 hours? Okay, I thought. Think. What's low calorie and low carb that I can throw together? OH! Egg whites! I'll make a fritatta! I opened the veggie drawer, and gathered whatever I could find, chopped em up and heated my skillet. Last thing I needed was eggs.
I looked in our egg basket. Three eggs. THREE. I needed at
least 5 if I was going to make an egg
white dish. Three whites would not cut it. Guess I'll have to make due, I thought. I started adding ingredients, and my '
fritatta' started looking better and better. I grabbed my camera, and shot a few pictures, just in case by some miracle it came out blog worthy.
By the time I threw it in the oven, I was getting pretty excited for how it would turn out. After a few minutes, I pulled the skillet out from the oven. It was colorful, and the aromas were to die for. I grabbed my camera *click click click click.*
I placed a plate over the skillet, and flipped the
fritatta over. It was perfectly baked, and beautifully golden brown. *Click Click*
My Macgyver skills may have paid off, I thought. You see, there's three ways new recipes can go. One, it looks pretty, but when eaten is an absolute disaster. Two, it looks decent, and tastes mediocre. Or three, it looks perfect and tastes even better. But, I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched. I prepared myself for disaster. After all, I'm not too familiar with fritattas, and definitely not when I'm lacking most of the main ingredients. I cut a corner off with the side of my fork, blew on it to cool it, and cautiously tasted it.
A white light blinded me, and I was deafened by angels singing
"Hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
I'm pretty sure at one point I saw God giving me a thumbs up. I've died and gone to Heaven I thought. My mouth screamed with joy and instantly formed a huge smile. My mouth watered and I did a victory dance around the kitchen island. If food could give you an orgasm, it would be this. The spices danced in sync with the sausage, the veggies sang in perfect harmony with one another. This is the BEST thing I've ever made, and one of the best I've ever eaten. It tasted what I've decided is the closest thing to perfection.
I quickly wrote down all of the ingredients before I forgot, and served myself another piece of heaven. I braced myself for what I thought was going to be at least a 500 calorie dish, but each ingredient had less and less calories than I expected. 34 plus 70 plus 80.. I added the calories, protein, fat and carbs. I white knuckled my pen as I added for a grand total of.....
250 CALORIES! For the WHOLE thing.
Someone tell me, has god come to Earth and started performing miracles in midwest kitchens? Have pigs become aerodynamic? Has Hell frozen over? How is something so delicious, so easy, so FILLING so low calorie? And HOW in the world did something so delicious come from a few simple ingredients? Now, I suppose I should stop ranting about how yummy my (miraculously) delicious lunch was, and I should share it. Well here it is. Prepare to bask in the glory of it's amazingness. (If I do say so myself ;] )
What you'll need:
olive oil
2 egg whites
1 whole egg
1 turkey sausage patty
1/2 roma tomato, chopped
1/2 cup spinach (a fist full)
1/4 cup chopped bell pepper
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 cup fat free mozzarella
1 tablespoon skim milk
1 tablespoon fat free chicken broth
rosemary
pepper
salt
Preheat the oven to 400. Lightly grease a skillet with olive oil, and heat to medium-low. Add the shallots and garlic to the pan with pepper, rosemary and salt to taste, and stir around to prevent sticking. When shallots and garlic start to sweat, add the turkey sausage. Break up the sausage patty into several pieces with a wooden spoon. Turn the heat to low.
In a bowl, whisk the egg, egg whites, milk and chicken broth, and season with a generous amount of rosemary, pepper, and salt. Set aside, and stir the bell pepper in with the other ingredients in the pan. Shred the spinach into smaller pieces, and stir into the egg mixture. As soon as the turkey is lightly browned, pour the egg mixture into the pan. Turn the heat to medium. Let the eggs cook until the bottom has set, and the top is still wet but not runny.
Take the skillet off the heat, and evenly sprinkle the cheese on the top of the eggs. Place the skillet in the oven for about 4-5 minutes, until the cheese is well melted. Remove the pan from the oven, season with pepper and salt and let sit for 2-3 minutes to set.
Place a plate over the skillet, and in one careful movement, flip the pan over onto the plate.
You're ready to eat! This can easily be eaten for any meal, but is not overfilling. Enjoy!
Make it your own:
Vary the cheese, use Colby, cheddar, American, or Parmesan.
Mix up the spices. Use fresh oregano, basil, thyme, etc.
Double the recipe, and serve in slices at brunch.
