A Frittata Dinner, An Unimpressive Dessert, & The ABC Award

I had grandiose plans for tonight’s dinner. And before you ask me if I think cooking a frittata is grandiose plans, let me assure you that is not what I think. I had planned to make individual chicken pot pies for dinner. I even baked a beautiful, organic, chicken yesterday in preparation for today. Then I was going to make pie crust dough to chill overnight.

Have you ever had one of those weeks (or months) where all kinds of little things keep distracting you and you know that you should be focusing on other, more important things, but you’ve just been overtaken by a severe (and hopefully temporary) case of ADD and all I want to do is curl up with a book syndrome?

Yesterday, all I accomplished in the kitchen was a baked chicken. Oh believe me, I had all kinds of plans. Bake the chicken, make the pie dough, whip up some Kringler, clean the house, finish the laundry… Don’t judge, don’t judge. Just know that I did some of it, I wasn’t completely lazy and I did avoid the urge to curl up on the couch with my book! Sheesh. Then my husband returned early from a business trip, I had no dinner planned, we ate gluten free soup out of a can, frozen dinner rolls (thawed of course!), went to bed, and both of us were out within like 7 minutes flat.

Then this morning rolled around. I did my morning routine and in the middle of finishing yesterday’s “to do” list, I thought…”I think I’ll call my sister in law and check in.” Sooooo, about an hour and a half or more later I’m off the phone and not even dressed for the day. Then I’m texting back and forth with our son because I’m having computer issues and he’s the expert, then I realize it’s already lunch time and I’m starving! So off I go (after getting dressed) to fix myself a nice salad and chat with my husband.

Then, I rememberd that I finished my last book before I went to sleep last night. That is not OK. I need a bath and a book every.single. night.  It’s just good for the soul. So in the middle of my salad I look at my husband and say, “I finished my last book last night, I need to go to Barnes & Noble. I can’t live without a book.” He doesn’t like to read, so I’m sure he thinks there’s something seriously wrong with me if I can’t live without a book to read. So I finish my salad and off I go to B & N, but wait, I remembered I needed to return some ridiculously huge flowers to Pier 1 (You can relive a previous nightmare trip I had at Pier 1 here) that I bought for my office wall that don’t quite fit into the vision I had for my comfy office setting…then while I’m out, maybe I better pick up a few things for dinner because now I’m not going to have enough time to make the pie dough and chill it before I assemble the pot pies…

I think you get where my day was going . 

So long and very boring story short (yes, there is actually more, but I’ll spare you), I didn’t make the pie dough, finish cleaning the bathrooms, finish the laundry, or create the beautiful dinner I had planned. I’m going to blame it on the fact that it has been raining for days (like monsoon raining) and I am in serious need of some sun and Hawaiian sand between my toes…and a massage on the beach with the warm tropical breeze blowing through my hair (sigh).  The clouds and rain are sucking all the brains from my head and rendering me helpless and unable to complete even a short “to do” list.

The positive side to all of this? I bought myself seven books. A complete indulgence. And in about half an hour, I will be sitting in a hot bathtub reading whichever one I choose.

Funny how that ADD never kicks in when I’m in the tub with a good book.

Potato & Mushroom Frittata

*This recipe was adapted from Clean Eating magazine.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

6 Baby Yukon Potatoes, cubed

About 8 Cremini Mushrooms, sliced

4 Eggs, plus 4 Egg Whites

2 Tablespoons Almond Milk

1 Cup (handful) Spinach, roughly chopped

2 Green Onions, diced

1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme, chopped

1/2 Tablespoon Dried Oregano

1 teaspoon Ground Pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher Salt

About 1 teaspoon Olive Oil

1 Cup Sweet Onion, diced

2 Cloves Garlic, minced

1/4 Cup Daiya Cheddar Style Cheese

1/4 Cup Daiya Mozzarella Style Cheese

Olive Oil

Drizzle some olive oil in a large, oven safe skillet. Saute potatoes, tossing frequently, for about 10 minutes. Add the chopped onion, garlic, and mushrooms, continue to saute until potatoes are tender. Set aside

In a large bowl, add the eggs,  almond milk, salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, green onion, and 1 teaspoon olive oil and whisk to combine.

Sprinkle the chopped spinach and cheeses over the potato mixture in the pan. (I also added a bit more kosher salt), then whisk the egg mixture again and pour over the potato mixture.

Cover, and bake in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes (I use convection, cooking time may vary). Remove foil and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until the middle is set, but still jiggles a little, and cheese is melted. Do not overcook or the frittata will taste rubbery!

I served mine with all natural, uncured bacon.

The dessert that I made was so unimpressive that I’m not even going to list the recipe. It was also adapted from Clean Living magazine and I barely adapted it, so I’m pretty sure it started off unimpressive. My husband, who has been abstaining from as much sugar as possible thought it was good and had two helpings. I’m convinced it’s because he was just happy to get sugar in any form, even though I used agave nectar. Trust me, even though I added a scoop of coconut milk ice cream to mine, it wasn’t good, it was like baked apples on top of tasteless oatmeal glop. Yuck.

This is before it entered the oven.

This is after. Not much of a difference.

The next picture is proof that if you put ice cream on something, you can make almost anything look appealing.

And now for the ABC award.

It is my understanding that the ABC award was created to help blog readers get to know more about the people behind the blogs they follow.  With the ABC award, you go through the alphabet and choose a word or phrase for each letter and use that to describe yourself. It might be something about you, something you like, or a place or thing you dream about. It can be passed on to as few or as many other bloggers as you like.

This award was passed along to me by Giovanna over at Blue Jelly Beans. You may recognize the name, as Giovanna passed on my last award as well. Again, I am so thankful to have joined such a friendly blogging world! You just never know who you’ll meet and all of the interesting things you’ll learn and experience through other people. Giovanna emailed me the other day with a gluten free bread recipe that she converted from Spanish! Please do visit her lovely blog. She makes amazing food and is a truly interesting and inspiring person worth following.

I know sometimes people cringe when they receive these, because they do come with a bit of work and let’s face it, most of us don’t just hang around blogging all day. I will do the A-Z list (going to be hard considering I had a hard time answering the 7 questions about myself on the last award!), but I won’t pass it along just yet, as I just passed along another award not too long ago and haven’t gathered anymore favorites. I need to get onto Freshly Pressed and see what’s new and exciting and then I’ll add a few of my favorites in a couple of days for you to check out. So here goes…

A – My name is April

B – I have one child and his name is Brandon, he is almost 20 years old.

C – I have a cat named Chloe who pretty much only likes her head scratched for 1.2 seconds a day.

D – Well this isn’t good, I’m already stuck and I’m only on D…

E – Emily was the best cat ever and blessed us with her presence for 15 years.

F – Sometimes I am just compelled to say the F word, even though it’s ugly.

G – I do not like to go to garage sales.

H – I have a weird sense of humor and find odd things hilarious.

I – I don’t know why people from Idaho drive in the fast lane in Washington and hold up traffic, but it’s majorly annoying.

J – Just because some things are OK, doesn’t make them right. Why don’t people know this?

K – I love the sound that wine glasses make when they klink together.

L – I give love freely and love to be loved.

M – My mom is 20 years older than I am. It’s nice having a young mom.

N – I have a aunt named Nanette who suffers from mental illness. It’s a difficult road.

O – O Holy Night is one of my favorite Christmas songs.

P – I find a lot of peace in prayer and often do it many, many, times a day depending on the day.

Q – I am quirky about certain things. A lot of things probably.

R – I love to read and couldn’t imagine my life without books.

S – It’s hard for me to just relax and be silly.

T – Now that I’m an empty nester, time is different.

U – I am typically an upbeat and positive person.

V – I am vocal.

W – I never wanted a big wedding, I dreaded it. We eloped and had a big reception instead. I have been married for 21 years.

X – I am old enough to remember when we called copies Xerox copies.

Y – I love creamy yellow. It instantly makes me feel good when I look at it. I also like yellow scents. Lemon soap, lemon perfume…mmmm.

Z – Time to get in that tub now, read one of my new books, and then get some zzzzzzzzz’s.

Night all.