Poached Eggs, Pre-Exam Protein Powerful Italian Chicken and a Beef Wellington Preview

Poached Eggs in Silicone Muffin Liners

Poached eggs make for a healthy breakfast served on whole grain toast or an English muffin.  Or if you're going low-carb work atop steamed asparagus and lox.

My mom gave me the handing little yellow egg poacher pictured below (FREE! with purchase of Helmann's mayonnaise).  But, making a single poached egg at a time would be painstakingly slow so I had to improvise.

A couple of years ago I was on a clean-eating morning muffin kick, and I bought these silicone muffin liners because I was sick of half of my muffin sticking to the paper liner.

I coated them with a little butter and they made picture-perfect poached eggs.

Poaching eggs is actually a bit of an art.  Here are few tips I've come across:

- Choose a shallow wide pan that's easy to slip the eggs in and out of.

- Be sure to only let the water get to a simmer (never a boil), otherwise you end up with chewy eggs.

- Eggs only take about 3-5 minutes to cook (be careful not to overdo it and end up with solid yolks).

 Pre-Exam Protein Powerful Italian Chicken

My sister-in-low and fellow blogger extraordinaire has been inspiring me to experiment with low-carb cookery.  It's agonizing for me to try to swear off scrumptious breads, pasta and cereals.  I needed a quick, healthy meal the night before one of my big exams so I invented this modified version of chicken parm.
Choose boneless, skinless chicken breasts that have been cut open to create thinner, flatter piece of chicken.
I dipped the chicken in egg whites and then in spelt flour (a gluten-free flour alternative).
Then I pan-fried the chicken in a few tablespoons of coconut oil, to make it brown and little crispy.
With the oven preheated to 375, I topped my pretty li'l breasts in thinly sliced roma tomatoes, chopped fresh basil and bocconcini mozzarella.
I baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes, until the cheese was sizzlin'.
Serves with mixed greens and balsamic vinaigrette.


Super YUM!

Easter Dinner

I will post details of the recipes in the Easter feast in the coming days, but wanted to post up a little tantalizer in the meantime.

On the menu last night:

Beef Wellington

Scalloped Potatoes with Leeks

Japanese-inspired Asparagus with Wasabi Mayo and Panko

Caesar Salad

Picture Perfect Portobellos!
Used to create a layer of duxelles deliciousness atop the beef ...

Sliced portobellos looked like moustaches!

3 lbs of potatoes on the nose!

Ta-da!