Healthy & Easy Chicken Sausage Frittata

I've been looking to make a frittata for about 2 years now. I know, weird goal. Nothing was really stopping me, I've just never made one. Anyway, I woke up Sunday morning and wanted to make something special and a frittata seemed like the perfect healthy breakfast. I altered a recipe from SkinnyTaste to fit the ingredients I already had in my fridge.

As Claire Robinson from the Food Network says: the great thing about a frittata is it's like an omelette, but you don't have to flip it. Well, I happen to not be able to flip omelettes (also I think they're gross; great in theory but usually gross in taste), so the frittata is a perfect fit for me!

One day I will take an appetizing picture of my food. But not today!

HealthySimpleSmart's Chicken Sausage Frittata (adapted from SkinnyTaste's Recipe)

4 Large Eggs

4 Egg Whites

1/2 white onion, sliced

1 link chicken sausage, diced (I used Trader Joe's Jalapeno Chicken Sausage)

3 cups fresh spinach (or 1 cup thawed frozen spinach)

2 Tbs Olive Oil

1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

First, in an oven safe pan, saute the onions until soft (3-5 min). Add the chicken sausage and cook an additional 2-3 minutes to heat. Finally, add the spinach, saute until wilted.

While onions are cooking crack eggs and egg whites into a bowl and add Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Add a little bit of water if you like your eggs fluffy. Mix well.

Pour egg mixture over onions, sausage, and spinach. Cook until sides start to firm up. Put the pan in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Let sit for 2-5 minutes before serving. Serves 4.

I suggest serving the frittata with some sriracha. Next time I'd love to add some asparagus or something that will give it a little more crunch!

Recipe Pick: Curried Chickpeas with Spinach from Budget Bytes

This weekend, my boyfriend and I are either going to host a few of our friends at our place or we're going to find a good BYOB place near us. Either way we're going to be having Indian food.

Raise your hand if you like Indian food. I know, me too. If for some reason your life is sad and you have never really tried Indian food then I urge you to go to an Indian buffet near you and try everything. I bet you will like the naan, samosas, and chicken tikka masala at the very least.

Anyway, if we're hosting friends at our place this recipe for Curried Chickpeas with Spinach is definitely in the mix as one of the dishes I might make for them. It sounds insanely easy and it's from one of my favorite recipe websites, Budget Bytes. Even if I don't make it this weekend, I will be making this in the very near future.

Click here for the recipe!

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil $0.32
• 1 small onion $0.47
• 2 cloves garlic $0.16
• 1 inch fresh ginger $0.16
• 1½ Tbsp curry powder $0.45
• 8 oz spinach (fresh or frozen) $1.36
• 1 (15 oz.) can tomato sauce $0.59
• 1 (29 oz.) can chickpeas $1.89
• 1/2 cup coconut milk or to taste (HealthySimpleSmart's recommendation)

Update: I finally made this recipe and it turned out so good! I added more curry powder to taste (because I wanted mine extra curry-ish and added about 1/2 c.- 1 c. coconut milk. The coconut milk really set it off! I highly recommend! I've added it on to the recipe.

Five Favorites: Current Health Obsessions

1. Juices/ Smoothies from Sip-N-Glo.

Unfortunately this place is on my way to work in the mornings. I say unfortunately because everyday is an internal struggle for me whether or not I should get their $8 juice. I KNOW $8 is ridiculous.... but it's soooo good :(  My two favorites so far are the "Honey Love" which has bananas, greek yogurt, spinach, almond milk, and raw honey and the Merry Berry which has bananas, oats, cinnamon, cranberries, almond milk, and acai powder. I'm thinking of trying their juice cleanse just because a day of drinking their juices sounds like a win to me.

Nevermind my dude-like hand in this picture. 

2. Pimped-Out Oatmeal

Since I suffer from Tom Haverford syndrome aka "Treat Yo Self"-itis I try to make smart money decisions on at least a few things. I buy my oatmeal in a GIANT container of just plain oats. The night before I have work I'll portion out about 1/4 cup of oatmeal into a Tupperware container. I'll mix in everything together dry so I just have to add water in the morning when I get to work. One of my favorite ways to pimp out my oatmeal of late is to add shredded coconut, walnuts, and powdered PB2 Chocolate to my oatmeal. YUM.

Coconut and Walnut love <3

I'm about to change your life. This peanut butter comes powdered. 2 Tbs is 45 calories. You just add water and POOF peanut butter. Or just put the straight powder on things like oatmeal, smoothies, ice cream, cake, mashed potatoes, chicken (some of those ideas might not be good).

3. Green Tea

It's colder than a witch's tit heart outside lately so tea is necessary! I love the extra health benefits of green tea (amped up metabolism? yes please!) These are the two flavors I've been drinking at least twice a day.

Just a good basic green tea

It's deliciously sweet and pepperminty!

4. Almonds & Sea Salt in Dark Chocolate

I don't think I need to make a case for chocolate ever. I will say, I'm not a huge dark chocolate fan but I'm trying to be. This dark chocolate bar from Whole Foods is everything I want in a chocolate bar: salty, sweet, nutty, and addicting. And BONUS it comes with a love letter in the wrapper. Using my BA in English, I've deduced that this a love poem about chocolate which they have personified.

Definitely about chocolate.

5. Tek Towel

What's on my Christmas list, you ask? Well how sweet of you to wonder. I want a Tek Towel. A Tek Towel is just a super quick drying, light weight, compact towel that will help me amp up my gym game. Right now I rent one of their scratchy white tiny towels because I don't have enough room to haul a regular towel around with me to work. Hopefully my boyfriend gets the hint (read: blatant asking for it multiple times) and buys me one :)

Easy & Delicious: Cheddar & Green Apple Paninis

Do you enjoy cheese plates? I LOVE a good cheese plate. You know some of my other favorite things are grilled cheese, tomato soup, and super easy and delicious dinners (I get hangry and impatient quite quickly). Well, these cheddar and green apple paninis are like all of those things in ONE sandwich!

Balsamic Winter Vegetable Bowls

Sorry about the picture quality, I'm working with an Iphone :)

The other night my boyfriend and I went grocery shopping which resulted in us having lots of yummy vegetables around the house. I was feeling inspired, so I threw a bunch of stuff in a pan and it came out delicious! Here's the recipe:

Recipe Pick: Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumpling Soup from Budget Bytes

It is officially cold today. Ugh, I hate it. And with it officially being cold- it is officially cold season. I saw an adorable toddler on the bus today sneeze snot all over herself. Kids are gross. Anyway, I made this slow cooker chicken and dumpling soup before and it was SO GOOD I knew I would have to make it again, especially around cold season. This recipe is super easy and very delicious. The recipe makes it more into a stew than a soup so if you want a more soup like consistency instead of a hearty chowder-like consistency (my fave) add and extra cup of water.

This recipe is from Budget Bytes (one of my favorite recipe websites!)

Slow Cooker Chicken and Dumpling Soup

Super Power Pancakes

Sunday is my lazy day. All week long I take pride in scheduling out my week with meetings, workouts, hangouts, and chores, but when Sunday comes around I want to do nothing but sleep in, watch tv, and do anything else that makes me happy. One of those things is eating a big breakfast. There's nothing like brunch to make your day feel lazy and decadent (in a good way.) While I love eating a giant breakfast of eggs, sausage, waffles, and hashbrowns, I don't like how greasy and unproductive I feel for the rest of the day. Enter: these pancakes.