Dukan Cruise-Phase Omelette

A quick, easy, tasty and healthy Dukan-friendly, gluten-free breakfast (or anytime!) omelette recipe. If you are on the Dukan diet - you can have this meal on your pure protein + vegetable Cruise phase days, Consolidation or Stabilization days.

What You'll Need (serves 2-3):

• Large, non-stick frying pan
• Large mixing bowl
• 1 small yellow onion
• 1/2 large red pepper 
• 1/4 head broccoli
• 3 reduced fat ham, pre-cooked ham (or chicken) slices
• 4 medium-sized eggs

What You'll Do:

• Dice your small onion (here is a link to how I do it)
• Water sautee your onion (Cover your diced onions in water, not all the way, but just enough so they have enough to gently boil in. Let them boil until almost transparent and soft. This technique is a very helpful trick on the Dukan diet. We are used to sauteing onions in butter or oils, but with water you get none of the fat and all of the taste! To be honest, heck yeah I miss the taste of butter sauteed onions...but my butt doesn't)
• Finely chop your red pepper, broccoli and ham slices
• In a large bowl toss in your chopped vegetables and ham
• Crack your eggs into the same bowl
• Mix thoroughly until frothy
• Turn your stove top onto its lowest setting and place your non-stick pan on top
• Gently pour your egg mixture into the pan
• Let cook until the edges of the egg start to look cooked
• Using your large spatula, gently lift half of your omelette, placing it downwards and onto the top half of the other side. Your omelette now looks like a half circle
• Cook until the centre is no longer runny
• Remove from your pan and enjoy!

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 1.5 (this 'flipping' of the omelette can be tricky if you try to flip too soon. If your omelette breaks, don't worry - it will still taste the same!)

The Art of Creaming Butter

I love to bake and when I first started was often frustrated by flat cakes and sunken cookies.
The trick to achieving Martha-worthy results lies in how successfully you cream your butter and sugar.

This post I hope will help you all become Masters in the Art of Creaming Butter.

Often recipes start with the infamous words "cream your butter and sugar".
Well...what does that even mean and how do I do it while still behaving like the lady Martha expects me to be?

Firstly - the success of your creaming ventures does rely on the temperature of your butter.
You can not cream frozen, hard or recently refrigerated butter. If it too cold, it will not whip up.
If it is too warm, it does not retain air. Air creates bubbles. Bubbles are very important for expansion in your baking. Expansion creates fluffy, airy, lovely textured baked goods.
Your butter must be the temperature of the room you are baking in (let's hope this room is not a deep freeze or a sauna).

Secondly - I don't know how you will successfully participate in the act of creaming without a mix master or a hand held mixer of some sort. (This often leaves me wondering how our great grandmothers mother's made cakes successfully, pre-electricity!).

Thirdly - how long is long enough?
You want to beat your butter and sugar together until the mixture is lighter in colour (almost pale looking) and texture. It visually looks softer, fluffier.
The beating aerates the butter, adding in those valuable bubbles that expand when baked - making cookies lighter, cakes fluffier and more tender.

When you master this you will notice your cakes seem more delicate, your cookies and muffins brag-worthy.

Good luck with your Mastery and in the words of Devo - "Whip it real good"!

Why Egg Temperature Matters

I mention 'room temperature' eggs and butter when I create my baking recipes for you not because I prefer to be wordy, but because temperature of ingredients matters!

Always bring your baking ingredients to the temperature called for in the recipe you are following. If you follow that golden rule of baking, trust Martha, your results will be the better because of it.
If it reads 'melted butter' - melt that butter good!

Why Eggs Need to Be Room Temperature:
Eggs that are too cold, when added to your creamed butter base will make that creamy butter seize up. This then deflates any air bubbles that you created, inhibiting them from expanding when baked. Air bubbles are a great thing as they are what makes cakes fluffy.

We are busy people.
In North America, we keep our eggs in the fridge so waiting for your little eggs to become one with your room's temperature can seem like an eternity you don't have.
Here is a trick - fill a small bowl with hot water (not boiling as you don't want to cook your eggs). One by one, add your eggs and turn them in the water for around one minute. Careful not to crack their shells! They will warm up nicely.

Ham Breakfast Muffin Cups

How to make breakfast the way Martha would?
Try easy, fancy ham muffin cups.
Perfect for any sort of eggy delight to bake within.

I used these cute little guys to fancy up my Gluten-Free Quinoa Breakfast Muffins. 

What You'll Need:

• Ham slices (I use a lower fat, thicker cut slice)
• Muffin tins
• Oil

What You'll Do:

• If your ham slices are round, cut in half. You cut them so they are able to be manipulated inside the tin, making a nicer cup shape. It is hard to make a round piece of ham fit nicely into a round tin shape, but, when you cut them - you can position them easily.
• Lightly oil your muffin tins
• Place the cut ham slices into your tins, making sure there are no gaps where your filling of choice could ooze out of. I usually end up using three to four half slices of ham per tin
• Depending on what you decide to fill these with, you can pre-cook or not

Easy and fancy. Kinda like Martha and I.

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1 (its ham...not Picasso)
Taste: 2
Ease: 2

Gluten-Free Quinoa Breakfast Muffins

We had friends over for brunch today and instead of the standard waffles/bacon/eggs/ I wanted to try something healthier and gluten-free.

I had some left over, frozen quinoa from my Gluten-Free Curried Quinoa Salad and that was my base. Adding some eggs, fresh diced veggies and spices turned into delicious, filling and healthy Gluten-Free Quinoa Breakfast Muffins.

Easy. Tasty. Healthy and hearty.

What You'll Need (makes one dozen muffins):

• Muffin tins
• Large bowl
• 2.5 cups cooked quinoa
• 1/2 cup cooked bacon cubes or diced, pre-cooked low fat ham (pre-cooked, low fat ham would be preferred, but you can't find that in this country - so, I pre-cooked bacon cubes instead. I pre-cooked them so I could drain the bacon fat out first)
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 cup shredded cheese (I used gouda...as I live in Holland)
• 1/2 cup diced red pepper (can be your favourite colour pepper, I find red and orange the nicest)
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup diced green onion
• 1 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 tsp your favourite chicken or bbq rub - I used The Silk Road Spice Merchant's Saltwater Chili-Lime Seasoning as it has just the right amount of zing

What You'll Do:

• Cook your quinoa - let cool
• Cook your bacon cubes - drain all fat and let cool
• Dice your red pepper, green onions and cilantro
• Pre-heat your oven to 350C (175F)
• In your large bowl - add in your eggs and egg whites, cooked bacon or ham cubes, shredded cheese of choice, diced cilantro, pepper of choice and green onion
• Twist in your pepper

• With a fork, whisk until fully combined
• Add in your pre-cooked, cooled quinoa (you don't want this to be hot because when you add it to the egg mixture, it will start to cook the raw egg)
• Mix thoroughly until all quinoa is covered 
• Lightly oil your muffin tins
• Spoon in the quinoa mixture into the muffin tins - pressing down on the mixture to ensure the mixture is firmly packed in

• Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the edges start to look brown
• Remove and let cool for 5 minutes or until firm enough to remove from the tins
• Enjoy!

This recipe is a good quinoa breakfast muffin 'base' recipe.
Not a fan of pepper - try diced, pre-cooked broccoli, grated zucchini or tomatoes instead.
You really can add whatever vegetable into these as you wish or have in the fridge.
To make these fancier - you can cook them inside 'ham breakfast muffin cups'.
Want to make them spicy - toss in some hot sauce and spicy BBQ rub seasoning.
They are also excellent to freeze and will keep in the fridge two-three days.

Practical little buggers! Martha would like that.

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2
Ease: 1 (this would be a 2 if you have pre-cooked quinoa and pre-cooked ham at hand)

Lower Fat Chewy Chocolate Crackle Cookies

This recipe comes from one of my favourite chef's blog - Dinner with Julie, by Julie Van Rosendaal. I love her sensible take of food, her creativity and that she is from my hometown.

These chewy chocolate crackle cookies are delicious and fairly simple to make - they have the consistency of a fluffy brownie and satisfy those chocolate cravings.

What You'll Need:

• Parchment paper
• Baking trays
• 1 1/3 cup white flour
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/3 packed brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup of your favourite cocoa - I use super dark cocoa as it has less sugar
• 1/4 cup room temperature, unsalted butter
• 1 room temperature egg white
• 2 room temperature whole eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup icing sugar - for rolling your dough balls in

What You'll Do:

• Pre-heat your oven to 175F or 350C
• In a mix master, or a large bowl thouroughly combine all your dry ingredients
• Cut in your room temperature butter - you can do this with a pastry cutter, but I used my mix master to do this
• Once the dry mixture is crumbly looking add in your lightly beaten eggs and vanilla. What I like to do is crack my eggs into a separate container - ensuring you don't have a bad egg that could potentially ruin your whole lot! I then add the vanilla into the eggs and lightly combine
• Pour your eggs and vanilla into your dry, butter mixture and combine
• Using two spoons, portion off a section of dough and plop it into a bowl full of your powdered sugar
• Using another spoon, move the dough around until it is fully covered and formed into a ball shape
• Place the dough ball on your parchment paper-lined baking tray
• Spacing the balls at least 2 inches apart, I can usually fit 9 balls per medium-sized baking tray - these cookies expand
• Bake for 11-14 minutes, depending on your oven. You can tell they are done as the outside are no longer mushy but the centre still looks shiny and a little under cooked. This will ensure your cookies are not dry and taste like fluffy brownies rather than chocolate sand paper
• Grab a glass of milk. Enjoy the fruits of your labour.

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 1.5 (I always think crackle cookies look a little scabby)
Taste: 2
Ease: 1 (a little fiddly but not rocket science)

I specifically called these cookies 'lower fat' as they are not low fat. Just because they are low in butter and have no oil they have three types of sugar.
Three.
There are lots of crackle cookie recipes out there and lots of people on Pinterest pin these recipes as 'low fat' or even 'healthy' cookies.
Ladies, Martha wouldn't lie to you (unless you were the tax man) so don't lie to yourselves.
Embrace the sugar, the chocolate - eat in moderation and enjoy them as a treat.

Perfect Party Roasted Garlic and Hot Cheese Appetizer

I was watching BBC and the fabulous Lorraine Pascale's segment was on - she was making a hot Camembert and roasted garlic dish that looked phenomenal.

So I gave it a try and switched up the recipe just a little by removing the bay leaves, salt & pepper and butter and cutting down the amount of oil.

This roasted garlic, rosemary, honey and hot cheese combo will have your guests at hello.
Martha would be proud of this little recipe.

What You'll Need:

• Small corningware container - about the size of your wheel of cheese
• Two whole cloves of fresh garlic
• 2 Tbsp your favourite liquid honey
• 2 long sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1/4 cup of your favourite olive oil (don't cheap out here, use your good stuff)
• 1 fresh French baguette to serve (or crackers...though a fresh loaf of bread is so much more satisfying)
• 1 small wheel of your favourite Camembert (Brie works well, too. Any cheese that has a rind and is gooey will work wonders). If you use a large wheel of cheese, just double the above ingredients and use larger corningware!

What You' ll Do: The Roasted Garlic, Rosemary and Honey topping

• Pre-heat your oven to 350 (175F)
• Peel your fresh garlic and slice off both ends
• Place the cloves, 'face' down into one of your small corningware dishes
• Pour your olive oil over the top
• Drizzle your honey all over
• Cut your rosemary sprigs in half and stuff in-between your garlic cloves
• Bake for 45 minutes

What You'll Do: The Cheese of Choice

• Take your wheel of cheese (Camembert is what I used, but Brie is also nice)
• Peel off the paper and remove any packaging - not the rind though - that stays on!
• Plop into your other corningware container
• With a sharp knife, cut an 'X' shape into the cheese. This is so the ooey-gooey cheese can mush out and get all deliciously messy. Plus this allots you a 'cheese portal' wherein you can insert some of the roasted garlic mixture, once baked. Mmmmm...cheese portal...

• Bake for 30 minutes (so, once the roasted garlic topping has been in the oven for 15 minutes, pop this in with it so both will finish at the same time)
• While baking - take your fresh loaf of French bread and break or cut into slices
• Remove both the roasted garlic topper and the cheese from the oven
• Without letting either cool, spoon the roasted garlic topper into the melted cheese
•  Spoon the cheese and topping onto your bread and enjoy

The STEWART SCORE:
Appearance: 2
Taste: 2+ (this is my new favourite dinner party/appetizer recipe)
Ease: 2