Happy New Year 2015! Enjoy some Spicy Egg and Tomato Skillet Casserole!

HI! It's been so long! A lot of things happened in 2014 and now I'm ready to shrug everything off and eat healthier this year.

A good start is this recipe, which we made today for Sunday brunch. It's another one of my "this is all the stuff I've got in the fridge, what I can make out of it?" recipes. It turned out amazing and I even got to enjoy one of Ja's Old Bay rimmed Bloody Marys while I cooked.

Jasin makes the BEST bloodies!

 This casserole is extremely filling, low carb/keto, and (most important) yummy!

Spicy Egg and Tomato Skillet Casserole

(serves 6-8 normal people or 3-4 VERY hungry people)

• 2 small onions
• 3/4 cup cooked kale
• 1/2 can Goya chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce *
• 1 tablespoon Kerrygold salted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar free tomato sauce
• dried parsley to taste
• dried oregano to taste
• dried basil to taste
• 6 large eggs
• approximately 8-12 small thin slices of fresh mozzarella cheese (I think feta would work very well here too, but didn't have any today)

* NOTE: If you don't like spicy food, you can replace the chipotle peppers with about 1/3 cup of mild salsa or chopped tomatoes.

1.) Roughly chop the onions, kale and chipotle peppers. I used my Ninja appliance because I'm lazy.

                               

2.) Melt the butter on the skillet on medium heat, making sure to coat the entire bottom of the pan.

3.) Being careful not to burn the butter, spread the vegetable mixture evenly on the skillet and cook until the onions became nearly transparent.

4.) Evenly spread the tomato sauce and spices on top of the vegetable mixture and let it saturate. Do NOT let this boil - keep on a level medium heat.

5.) Crack your eggs one at a time into a small measuring cup and pour each one carefully from the cup into the pan (this helps ensure the eggs are evenly distributed).

6.) Once the egg soaks in and the whites begin to lose transparency, arrange your slices of mozzarella around the eggs.

7.) Cover the casserole with a lid or some tinfoil and let cook for 5-10 minutes more - if you want yolky eggs, err on the shorter side. For completely set egg yolks you may need to let cook for a little longer than 10 minutes. We did about 12 minutes, as Ja likes his eggs hard. (...that's what she said?)

While the casserole cooked, I had time to fry up a few small slices of bacon as a side dish. 

AND DONE:

We really enjoyed this and it only took about 25 minutes to make on a leisurely Sunday afternoon. Added bonus - it made a LOT, but it's so good we'll probably end up eating more for dinner (and maybe for my lunch tomorrow) !

SO GOOD! 

Hope you like this! To your health and happiness in 2015!

Φιλάκια,
Alex

Eleni's Stuffed Tomato Recipe

Hi all! I've been super busy trying some new recipes and deciding what to post on here. I've got a particular recipe I'm looking forward to posting, but am working on getting all the ingredients together to cook it again with photos. I'm also working on regular and low carb pita recipes. I'll be sure to share when I get them to my liking!

Today, I want to share what we had for dinner: stuffed tomatoes. These were oh-so good! You should definitely give this recipe a try! We had ours along with Γιαγια's (yiayia's or grandma's) recipe for φασολακια (green beans), which is another recipe near and dear to my heart that I or Alex will have to share. Onto this recipe.

Stuffed Tomatoes:

• 4 large beefsteak tomatoes 
• 1 lb. ground beef 
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 1 1/2 t. salt 
• 1 1/2 t. black pepper 
• 1 t. oregano 
• 1 t. garlic powder 
• desired amount of feta cheese, crumbled (I would have used a larger chunk, but only had a little left)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. 
2. Cut the tops off each tomato. Using a spoon (I used a dessert spoon with a serrated edge), scoop and scrape around the edge of the tomato to remove the insides from the outer meat and skin. Set hollow tomatoes aside. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Into a medium bowl, scoop the tomato seeds and juice. I discarded the majority of the tomato meat. The juice helps keep the meat moist and give it a great flavor. Add the beef, onion, and seasonings to the bowl and mash and mix with a fork until well incorporated.
   
   
   
   
    (This is most of the inner tomato meat. Discard this, or blend it and season it for tomato sauce!)
4. In a large skillet, brown beef completely. Add feta cheese and mix until fully incorporated.  
   
   
   
   
5. Place hollow tomatoes into a baking dish. Spoon and fill the meat mixture into each tomato. 
   
6. Bake tomatoes for 25 minutes. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Viola! Don't those look tasty? As T-Rex says "Mmmm, Momma! Delicious!" 

Keep an eye for more yummy things from us sisters. We have lots more coming your way! Until next time! 

Φιλάκια, 

Eleni

T-Rex's Birthday (and other news)

So many things going on around this Sid girl's household. First, some big news: Hubster got a fabulous job opportunity in Fort Collins, CO, so our little family has relocated! It was quite a whirlwind, as we rushed to find housing, find a temporary home for our sweet fur-baby, get our house on the market, and of course, get packed and move. But we did it! And we are loving it so far! We miss our pup very much and can't wait for our house to sell so we can purchase out here and be reunited with him.

Another big event amongst all this moving madness was our T-Rex's 2nd birthday. I cannot believe that my baby is TWO! It seems like just yesterday I held her in my arms for the first time, demanding Hubster help me unwrap the little burrito so I could hold her skin-to-skin. We threw a huge Sesame Street bash and I am quite proud of my work, so am going to share the details with you.

 T-rex LOVED her slide from Hubster and I! She didn't even want to get off of it for cake!

 I'm pretty handy with some Heat'n'Bond and fabric paint! Behold, a custom Elmo shirt! 

T-rex's νονά (God-mother) gave her her cross. In Greek Tradition, after a child is baptised they receive a cross from their God-parent(s) and are meant to wear it every day for the rest of their lives. I don't have my original baptismal cross, but my θεία gave me one for my 10th birthday and I am wearing it as I type. Thank you, Jojo! T-rex's cross is absolutely beautiful and she will treasure it the way I treasure mine!

First, decorations.

The first thing was the "T-Rex Street" balloon wreath. It took a lot of time and balloons (about 200), but it turned out great! I pinned T-Rex Street to it, but we plan on using it for each of our birthdays and other holidays.

I got the idea and instructions here. I used a Styrofoam wreath instead of straw like she suggests, only because I couldn't find the straw ones at the store I purchased from. 

When you entered the house, all T-Rex's favorite Sesame Street characters were there to greet you! I found a great Youtube video on how to make pom poms. Can you believe these are just some folded and fluffed tissue with card stock faces?

Left to right: Oscar the Grouch, Abby Cadabby, Cookie Moster, Zoey, Elmo, Rosita, and Big Bird 

Next was the fireplace. We had a birthday banner, as well as the favor bags and items to go in them. I got white paper bags from Michael's so the kids could color on the bags.  

The banner I made with the help of Picmonkey.com and the paint program on my computer. After printing the letters and characters onto white card stock and cutting the circles out, I rubber cemented the circles onto coordinating colored card stock and used fun edging scissors to cut the colored paper. I found some great string in the dollar section at Target to string the letters and hang the banner.

The favors were fun and fit the theme perfectly! I handmade Abby's Wands from paper straws and multi-color yarn. I found a great Youtube video that helped guide me through making the poms. Then I punched holes into the top to the straws, tied the poms to the straws, and hot glued them to make them secure.

Now onto the food table!

Gotta love Pinterest! I found the idea for the utensil cans here. They turned great! The character trays were just your typical fruit and veggie trays, with ranch and yogurt-dip eyes. I think they looked darn cute, if I say so myself!

Our main lunch items were sandwiches. We had ham, turkey, and tuna salad sandwiches. The tuna salad was a new recipe I found and it was delicious. I found it here. I already had this Elmo sandwich cutter, but I had wanted to include other characters and could not find other similar cutter.

  Sesame Street Elmo Crust Sandwich Bread Cutter Cutt'R 

I ended up finding this neat sandwich cutter with character stamps and it worked perfectly! The sandwiches cut into perfect child portions and the stamps were just adorable.

Evriholder 90420 Sesame Street Crust Cutter with 4 Stamps

The cookie dough dip was a huge hit, as always (this is probably the 6th time I have made it for a gathering). It may not be the healthiest of treats, but it definitely rose to the occasion for the party. You can find the recipe here. I also used a great recipe I found on Pinterest for the cupcakes and cake. You can find the cake recipe here. The cupcakes are seriously so moist. They are also surprising low in carbs! They are made with coconut flour. The recipe calls for either coconut oil or veggie oil. I have tried a few batches with coconut oil, which are delicious, but are definitely coconutty (is that even a word? I think I just made that up! Tee hee hee). For the party, I used melted salted butter, instead. They were just as great, but with a less overwhelming taste of coconut. Also, the recipe is meant for cupcakes, but I used it for the square cake as well. I used a 6 inch square pan and made two layers. 

Wilton Aluminum Performance Pans 6 by 2-Inch Square Pan

I used my own recipe for the cream cheese frosting. I tripled this recipe to get enough frosting for all the cake(s). 

Eleni's Cream Cheese Frosting 

• 8 oz. of cream cheese, softened 
• 1/2 a stick of salted butter, softened 
• 2 t. vanilla extract 
• about 1 c. powdered sugar, just enough to get your desired texture. 

1. In a large bowl, add cream cheese and butter. Beat with mixer until fluffy. 
2. Add vanilla and mix until combined. 
3. Slowly mix in powdered sugar, until frosting is desired texture. 

I had ordered some natural powdered food dye and was excited to try it out for the party. Unfortunately, it did not ship or arrive in time, so I ran to the store and got some gel dyes for the cupcakes. I used red for Elmo, royal blue for Cookie Monster, rose for Abby's face, and violet with a dab of rose for Abby's pigtails. Their smiles were half an Oreo cookie, their pupils were chocolate chips, and Elmo's nose was an orange peanut MnM. 

Wilton 610-401 Icing Gel, 1-Ounce, Rose

I also love the "2" Elmo candle that I found! T-Rex loved seeing Elmo on her candle as she blew it out. She even had Hubster light it a few more times so she could blow it out again and again! 

Sesame Street Elmo Number 2 Birthday Cake Candle

On to the activities! 

For Ernie's Rubber Ducky Pond, I made a sign for the yard and added some fun duckies to the pool we had set-up. We also had water squirters and water balloons. This was a very easy activity to put together! 

Sesame Street Cake Cupcake Decoration Favors 1 Dozen Rings

Our other activity was Big Bird's Bird Seed Search! T-Rex usually uses this container with oats for sensory play, as she still sometimes puts things in her mouth so we can't use sand. For the party, I filled the container with some Sesame Street character rings, noise makers, and little bottles of bubbles. Then I poured bird seed over all of it, making sure everything was covered. I add some scoops, spoons, and funnels so the kiddos could dig for the prizes and continue to have a fun sensory activity with the bird seed. T-Rex and her friends loved it! I only wished we had done the bird seed before the water games. As you can see in the photos, the kids were covered in bird seed! It was well worth it though, because they had a blast. 

T-Rex had such an awesome party! With all the planning and cooking and decorating, I couldn't be happier that my precious girl had such a blast to celebrate the moment she entered our lives. That girl is my whole world, and I would do a silly party like this every day if she wanted me to, just to see her smile! 

What themes have you used for your little one's party? Share your party ideas and thoughts on this post in the comments. We always love to hear from you!  

Until next time! 

Φιλάκια, 

Eleni