Good afternoon!

Today started out with this delightful green protein smoothie:

Perhaps not the most beautiful shake ever, but it was tasty none the less. I threw frozen pineapple, frozen strawberries, oats, flax seeds, vanilla protein powder, spinach and a little water in the blender and done! My first breakfast of the day!

My 2nd breakfast of the day came in the form of Hippie Hash from Fleetwood Diner here in Lansing.  The Hippie Hash is just amazing – potatoes, tomatoes, green pepper, mushrooms, onions, gyro meat (you can get it without), broccoli, and the star of the show – feta cheese!

After breakfast at Fleetwood’s, Noah and I went to the grocery store, then headed back to the apartment for some pool time.  We were going to go the beach and take Noah’s nephew, but he decided he didn’t want to go so we just hung out at the pool for a couple hours instead.  It is hot and sunny here in Lansing today so it was perfect!

Once we returned home from the pool, I decided that some reading on the balcony and a snack of sweet potato tortilla chips, a cheese stick (neither pictured 🙂 ) and an apple with natural PB and honey was a good idea.  It’s quite pleasant in the shade so the balcony is actually perfect.  Still sitting out here while I type up this post 🙂

Noah’s in the process of cleaning the grill in preparation for a beer can chicken he’s going to cook for dinner tonight.  I think we’re planning to use hard cider though so we’ll let you know how it turns out…

Now onto the recipe. Last night Noah and I went for an 8 mile bike ride after work and didn’t get home for dinner until around 6:30 so this Veggie and Cheese Frittata was perfect since it was cooked and dinner was eaten all within an hour.

And it was so good – packed with veggies and cheddar cheese, it’s so easy and customizable.  You could throw in whatever veggies you have on hand.  I was originally going to make it with sweet potatoes and broccoli, but didn’t feel like pre-cooking the sweet potatoes so stuck to a combo of broccoli, spinach, onions, peppers, carrots, and cheddar cheese.  This could easily be made the night before for a breakfast gathering and cooked in the morning or have it for dinner like we did!

Veggie and Cheese Frittata

Ingredients

1 Tbs butter

1/2 large onion, diced

1 bell pepper, diced

1 carrot, grated

1 C fresh spinach, torn into small-ish pieces

1 head broccoli, stems removed and top cut into florets

1 C shredded cheddar cheese, divided

8 eggs

3/4 C milk

salt

pepper

paprika

parsley (dried or fresh works)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a 9x 13 baking dish with cooking spray.

Melt the butter in a saute pan. Add the onion and peppers, cook for 2 minutes until just starting to soften. Add the carrot, cook for 3-5 more minutes until veggies are soft (but not mushy).

While the veggies are cooking, place the broccoli in a microwave safe bowl with about 1/2 C water and cook for about 5 minutes, until broccoli is bright green and starting to soften.

Mix the broccoli and spinach in with the sauteed peppers, onion, and carrots. Pour all veggies into the prepared baking dish.

In a large bowl, whisk the milk and salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley. Add the eggs and whisk together. Stir in 1/2 C of the cheese.

Gently pour in the egg mixture over top of the veggies. Add the remaining grated cheese to the top of the eggs and veggies.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until edges are just getting golden brown, eggs are set (not jiggly), and cheese is all melted. Enjoy!