Happy Sunday morning, friends!
How about waking up to a big bar of something filled with cinnamon flavor?
Warm, perfectly sweet, filling, and with that perfect drizzle of powdered sugar topping. Now that’s how you start a morning off right!
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Kale, Spinach, and Feta Frittata
Hello, everyone! Today I’m excited to share a delicious frittata recipe (<3 feed me all the eggs) from my friend Heather who offered to write up a guest post for me! Enjoy!
When you think of the ideal brunch food, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
As a quick test, we asked our close friends and family just to see what they’d say. And more often than not, the answers were pretty standard. The two most common answers we got were eggs benedict or a continental breakfast. Now these brunch foods are delicious, don’t get me wrong, but they won’t win any prizes for being the most healthy anytime soon.
But what if I told you there’s something even better? A food perfect for a brunch that’s super healthy as well?
Enter the frittata!
Surprisingly, you’d be hard-pressed to find frittatas on the menu in your typical Italian restaurant (let alone your typical brunch place), but the frittata is as quintessentially Italian as it gets. It’s the dish regularly made in every Italian home yet, despite its elegance, doesn’t makes it out of the home cook’s kitchen. What a shame.
To call a frittata an “Italian omelette” would only be doing it half justice. Yes, egg is the main ingredient, but the methodology and cooking techniques for making a frittata make it a much more delicate and exquisite preparation than the regular omelette would.
One key distinction between a frittata and an omelette is the point at which the ingredients are mixed in with the egg. For a regular omelette, you’ll first add the egg into the pan followed by the ingredients as the egg is already cooking. For a frittata, however, you mix the ingredients together before they meet the pan, and only after the flavors of your ingredients have marinated together and flavored your eggs as well.
Another major difference is how to cook the frittata to absolute fluffy perfection. Whereas the omelette may not ever leave the stovetop, a frittata is best either baked or broiled in the oven after a few minutes of simmering on low stovetop heat.
Beautiful in Its Simplicity
What makes the frittata especially beautiful is how truly simple it really is. For the most part, so long as you follow a few simple steps, any types of ingredients or toppings can go into a frittata. It’s a great way to use up all your leftovers too!
And it’s super healthy. Since the dish is egg-based, you’ve by default got a great source of high protein, healthy HDL cholesterol (the “good” kind), and very useful vitamins and minerals. And when you add ingredients like kale and spinach, you’ve just hit your daily quota on key nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin K, magnesium and potassium too!
Generally, it’s a good idea to slightly pre-cook your ingredients first, especially the vegetable ingredients. Briefly cooking your ingredients removes water content that would otherwise leave the frittata soggy. Without this water content to weigh it down, you’ll get that much-desired fluffy and airy texture to the dish.
For this recipe (and for most any other type of frittata we’ll cook), we definitely recommend using a cast iron pan if you have one. Cooking with a cast iron makes it just so simple to transfer the frittata from the stovetop to your oven without any headaches of switching from stovetop skillet to an oven-safe pan. On top of that, cast iron cookware makes for a great and rustic look for when you serve the frittata, too.
For those that can only bake without broiling, the solution is simple. Instead of turning on the step in the recipe where you turn on the broiler, just add another ~3-4 minutes to the oven baking time, and you’ll get the same desired result.
There you have it! It’s so incredibly simple to make a perfect frittata, but it’s something that will have your friends and family talking for a long time afterward.
And soon enough, you’ll be in complete agreement with us that it’s the best brunch option out there. 
What do you like to add to your frittata? Share your favorite ingredients with a comment below
Cyrus and Heather are the food enthusiasts behind Arousing Appetites. Together, they explore diverse cuisines, recipes, ingredients, spices, and techniques from all over the world. Want some worldly flair in your cooking life? Join their newsletter and savor vibrant flavors today! You can also find them on Facebook and Pinterest.
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Baked Honey Berry Oatmeal
The other day, I mentioned that I’ve been having to inhale my breakfasts while I run around the house. And 90% of the time, I’m eating hot hot hot brown sugar banana oats that, while delicious, feel like a volcano is pouring lava down my throat. Pleasant, right?
So what’s a girl to do when she doesn’t want to give up her beloved oats, but isn’t a fan of lava? Enter: Baked Berry Oatmeal.
This recipe is perfectly sweet, chock full of berries and pecans, and delicious served cold. I know that a lot of people are fans of overnight oats, but I’ve just never been able to get into them. I have a confession to make. There’s something about the runny and semi-slimy texture that I just can’t get myself to enjoy. Eeep. Please still be my friend! I wish I could get myself to like them, but alas.
Before trying these after a few hours in the fridge, I would have sworn that they would taste better hot. After trying them the morning after I baked them, though, I quickly changed my mind! They’re sweet and creamy, but without that weird texture that overnight oats bring. And berries! Big ol’ fat ones distributed evenly in each bite. It reached 90 degrees yesterday, so cool and yummy breakfasts are high up on my list of things to stuff in my face.
Along with that, my slice of Baked Berry Oatmeal this morning kept me full for a straight 5 hours, so I’m counting that as a huge breakfast success! If you get to know me, you’ll quickly learn that I get a pretty bad case of hangry-ness (aka I’m just the most unpleasant person ever to be around when my tum is rumbling), so me eating a big piece of baked dessert-like oatmeal is really doing a favor to everyone around me. You guys are welcome 😉 .
Healthy Edamame Sweet Potato Hash
“Pin me, I’m tasty!”- Hash
Most mornings, I’m lazy when it comes to breakfast. My go-to meal to start my day lately has been microwavable brown sugar banana oatmeal, which takes all of 30 seconds to throw together and another two minutes in the microwave. While it’s delicious, easy, and fast, there are days (especially the day after lifting weights) where I find myself hungry an hour later and know that I need more in the protein department of things.
Enter: Healthy Edamame Sweet Potato Hash!
Not only is it absolutely delicious and bursting with all the good things in life (read: bacon), it packs in a ton of different nutrients, flavors, textures, and, of course, protein!
Let’s break down the cast of characters:
Sweet Potato: the sweet potato brings in that mouthwatering sweet and salty combination, as well as the vitamins B6, C, and D, which help in preventing heart attacks, warding off the cold and flu, and maintaining energy levels, moods, and building healthy bones. Not only that, but they also contain fiber, which helps to keep you full and your poop happy! (Did I really just type that…)
Edamame: not only does it have a vibrant coloring (I want my next Kitchenaid Mixer to come in the shade “edamame”), but it’s also rich in protein, vitamin C, manganese, and copper! Manganese helps your metabolism, regulates your blood sugar levels, and helps keep your nervous system alive and kickin’. Hooray, manganese! Copper plays an important role in managing energy, boosting your immune system, and strengthening your bones. You go, Glen Copper!
Bacon: well, it’s delicious and makes everything better.
Make a big batch and have a tasty and filling breakfast for the rest of the week!
I’m linking up to WIAW to help share this tasty dish! Thanks, Jenn for hosting!
Drowning in Sweat
Today started off with an early morning run. I wasn’t too much in the mood to go out and almost justified not working out since I have a big paper due tomorrow, but I haven’t moved in the last couple of days and I knew I would feel better after. And, as always, I didn’t regret lacing up my running shoes :).
Even though I was out decently early, it was HOT HOT HOT and I thought I was going to die for a good portion of my loop. I’m still happy with my times, though, and am looking forward to going on some cooler night runs this weekend. Hopefully I won’t drown in my own sweat like I did today 😉
I’m loving the Run Keeper app. It does such an awesome job with accurately tracking my runs and I’m a sucker for the stats it shows me. Oh, and it sends me the BEST emails after every jog I go on.
Too cute!
After my run I worked on my essay before eating a pretty standard breakfast with Kyle. Nothing like a PB and J banana.
Then it was back to work until I had to leave to go to class. I love the weather now (as long as I’m not running!)
I didn’t shower after running ;). Shhh.
I also had an exciting moment where I checked my Pinterest and saw that someone had repinned one of my workouts! It’s the little things, right?
The plan for the rest of the day is to finish writing a copiously long history paper and then grab some dinner with the boy friend. I can’t wait to get that bugger done!
Have a great day!
xoxo Christine