Rosemary-Crusted Chicken with Tomato and Chickpea Sauce

This recipe was made somewhere around when TRFD started out, but for some reason I never got around to posting it.  In an effort to keep up with my recipe backlog, here it (finally) is!

Rosemary-Crusted Chicken with Tomato and Chickpea Sauce
What You'll Need:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 15-oz. jar tomato sauce (I used Garlic and Herb style)
4 cloves garlic, roughly minced
2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp white sugar
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp olive oil

What To Do:
Heat a skillet on medium heat with the olive oil.  While it's getting hot, trim the fat from the chicken breasts and pound them so that they're approximately the same thickness. Sprinkle half of the rosemary onto the tops of the chicken breasts. Flip and repeat.

Cook the chicken for 4-6 minutes, until it gets lightly golden brown on both sides:

Remove the chicken breasts and keep them nearby on a plate.  Add your garlic to the skillet and saute until it for 1 minute (this is about when it starts to soften and brown on the edges).

Dump the sauce into the skillet, then add the cayenne pepper, sugar, red pepper flakes, bay leaf, giving it a good stir to mix in all the spices.  Return the chicken to the skillet; cook covered on medium-low heat for 10-12 minutes.

Then, add the chickpeas and cook for an additional 2 minutes (or until the chickpeas get hot).

I served this with some whole wheat penne and a side of mixed veggies and potatoes.

This was good, but not fanTAStic.  The chicken seemed a little one-dimensional, even though the sauce was robust and spicy.  If you're not big on spicy foods, you can cut down on the cayenne pepper and red pepper flakes, although to my taste buds this was only moderately zippy. There was a TON of sauce + chickpeas left over, so the next night I cooked 2 more chicken breasts, but in a traditional "chicken parm" style (dipped in egg, covered with seasoned Italian breadcrumbs, cooked in garlic and olive oil).  I enjoyed this so much more the second night that I recommend using the chicken parmesan style from the outset.  Since there's no cheese in this dish (HORRORS), using the egg wash and breadcrumbs adds only a negligible amount of calories and fat.  This is a good twist on the classic dish, and the chickpeas were a pleasant but unexpected surprise.  If you decide to make this, let me know which chicken style you go with and how you like it!

Chicken, Broccoli & Cheddar Casserole with Stuffed Peppers

Thanks to all of the October birthdays among my friends and family (seriously - we've decided to call it Rocktober because there's so many of us, and we're all so awesome), there has been and will continue to be a glut of dessert-themed posts this month.  As such, I decided to post these two dishes before some of the others I have waiting in the wings. It's been a bit of a rough week, and whenever I need to feel better, I know I can turn to the wise, wise words of The Beatles:

"When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary sings to me.
Speaking words of wisdom,
Let it be CHEESE."

LET IT CHEESE, LET IT CHEESE!

Chicken, Broccoli & Cheddar Casserole with Stuffed Peppers
What You'll Need:
-Chicken Casserole:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into 1" cubes
3 small heads of broccoli cut into florets
1 small or 1/2 of a medium white onion, cut into strips
2 cans 98% Fat Free Campbell's Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup
2/3 cup skim milk
Salt and pepper to taste

-Stuffed Peppers:
2 green bell peppers
1/4 cup rice (I used jasmine rice)
3/4 cup water
1/2 medium white onion, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-1 1/2 cups medium chunky salsa
1/2 cup Mexican or Taco shredded cheese
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tbsp olive oil

What To Do:
The peppers have to bake in the oven for awhile, so I started with those.

Preheat the oven to 400F. Cut off the tops of peppers, retaining the usable parts.  De-seed the insides, cut the peppers in half, and remove any of the white veins. Place the peppers in an oven-safe baking dish.

Heat the rice in the 3/4 cup water until it reaches a boil; lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes uncovered.  While the rice is cooking, chop the celery, onion, garlic, and the remains of the pepper tops.

Heat a saute pan with the olive oil on medium heat; cook the veggies for 3-5 minutes or until they are slightly softened.

At this point, the rice should be finished cooking on its own - the water should be fully absorbed.  Transfer the rice to the saute pan, then add the salsa.  Season with the cumin, salt, and pepper.  Cook for 3 minutes.

Spoon the mixture into the peppers - mine had just enough room for all of the filling. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the dish from the oven, then cover the peppers with the cheese.  Return to the oven for 3-5 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Cheeeeeeeeese.

While the peppers were baking, I got to work on the main dish, the chicken casserole.  This was mostly born out of what I had in my cabinets and what veggies were laying around.  I trimmed the fat from my chicken breasts, cut them into approximately 1" cubes, then sauteed them in a hot skillet with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

While the chicken was cooking, I chopped the stalks off the broccoli and roughly chopped the onion.

After I was sure the chicken was fully cooked, I dumped all the veggies into the skillet.  I then had to transfer everything to my giant skillet, because apparently I never learn. Cover the pan and let the veggies steam for about 2 minutes. Mix the condensed soup and the milk in a separate bowl, then add to the skillet, tossing the contents to coat everything.

Since this would be pretty bland on its own, I gave this a liberal dousing with black pepper and a little bit of salt, both of which livened things up considerably.  From start to finish, this part takes about 25 minutes, so if you're making this along with the stuffed peppers, I recommend starting about halfway through the peppers' bake time.

Miraculously, mine finished at almost the exact same time, so I was able to photograph and eat everything while it was still hot!

This was exactly what I was hoping for - melty, cheesy goodness with a little bit of kick, courtesy of the salsa in the peppers.  There was more than enough for 4 servings, so this would be a good dinner for a family, and it also reheats well for those singles or couples out there. You could also make the casserole on its own and serve it with a side of rice or mashed potatoes if you don't want to try both at once!

On a side note, stuffed peppers are usually made with a meat-based filling coated with a tomato sauce.  I had tomato sauce on hand, but I didn't feel like opening a new jar for the little bit I'd need, hence the salsa.  I almost liked this better because it had a bolder flavor, but it does give the dish a decidedly Mexican flavor.  If you prefer a more traditional stuffed pepper, use ground beef, turkey, or veggie protein crumbles to give these some more substance, and use Italian spices (oregano, thyme, parsley, etc.) for flavoring.  Enjoy!

Spice Cake with Maple Frosting

Deceptively innocent, secretly devious.

It was my husband's birthday on Wednesday, and our tradition is that the birthday boy or girl gets to pick whatever kind of cake they'd like.  Since he is well aware that I now plan 97% of our meals around what I want to feature on the blog, he then took the typical Libran (read: indecisive) way out and told me to pick whatever I wanted to make.  Although I had a few ideas in mind, I forced him to choose, and he opted for a spice cake with maple frosting.  This is one of our favorite cake/frosting combos, but usually I make the cake with a boxed mix (don't judge). Since I am such a selfless person, I figured I could take one for the team and attempt a spice cake from scratch so that I could share my experience with my internet audience (hi, Mom and Dad). And, as I've said from day one, this blog is all about experimentation, for better or worse.  This recipe started out sloppy, turned slightly disastrous, then ended fabulously. Here's how it went down:

Spice Cake with Maple Frosting
What You'll Need:
-For the cake:
2 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar (I used 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup Splenda)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 cup buttermilk (*see note)
1 cup applesauce
3 eggs
2/3 cup unsalted butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp salt

-For the frosting:
4-5 cups confectioner's sugar
1 cup butter
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp maple extract or flavoring

*Note: If you don't have buttermilk, you can easily make your own - just add 1 tbsp lemon juice to a cup of milk and mix thoroughly.  Don't worry, it won't curdle.

What To Do:

The first thing I like to do is get all of my ingredients in one place, especially when there are as many as I needed for this cake.  Then, I like to read through my recipe and see what I'll have to do in each step.  This information is then promptly ignored and I screw up, causing me to make things up as I go.

To wit:
Preheat the oven to 350 F; grease and flour one oblong or two 9-inch round cake pans (I used the 2 rounds and managed to not screw this part up). Next, sift together the flour, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt. Notice how this list does NOT include white sugar? I didn't!

You can see the sugar at the top left of the bowl. I tried to scoop most of it out, but that didn't go so well.

I proceeded to cream together the butter, brown sugar, and what was left of my white sugar/Splenda mix:

After that, add the eggs one at a time until the butter/sugar mixture thins out. So far, so good.  Finally, you are supposed to mix the flour in 1/4 increments alternating with the buttermilk in 1/3 increments - flour/milk/flour/milk, etc.  Did I do this? No.  I apparently never learned to follow directions, as I dumped my milk in with the eggs, making the batter very thin.  Then, I dumped almost all of the flour in at one time, until I realized that something was wrong when a good amount of it puffed out and landed all over me and the counter.  I got more than a little concerned (remember, this was supposed to be my husband's b-day cake) when there was some serious lumpage going on in the mixer.  Thankfully, my trusty Kitchenaid kicked those bad boys to the curb:

Smooth battery goodness.

I made my next fatal mistake when I decided to throw in 1 cup of applesauce for "extra moistness". Any time you come across that phrase, you know you're in for trouble.

I popped my two cake pans into the oven for 27 minutes, then did the age-old toothpick test to make sure they were done in the center.  My toothpick came out nice and clean, because my toothpick was a lying bastard.

Beautifully baked cakes.  OR SO YOU THINK.

After these came out of the oven, gloriously fragrant and golden brown, I thought I was out of the woods.  Hahahahahahaha.  Excuse me, had to get that out of my system.

I flipped my cake pans oh-so-carefully over my large wire rack in order to let them cool.  The first cake cooperated nicely and plopped out without a struggle.  Cake #2 and I had some major disagreements.  I finally won, but not before some unavoidable battle wounds:

Notice the San Andreas fault line in Cake #2.

You'd think by this point I would have expected the next disaster, but I am naive and always hope for the best.  After these were cool to the touch, I tried to flip them off of the rack onto two separate plates to store them overnight until I was ready to frost them.

The horror, I cannot even describe.  I didn't even remember to take a picture, I was so verklempt.

Suffice it to say, Cake #1 (my previous buddy) had melded AROUND THE WIRES OF THE RACK.  It was like it was clinging for its dear life (which, let's face it, it was).  At that moment, I realized that my applesauce experiment had now progressed to Applegate, and was ready to bring the whole project to its knees.

After much wrangling, hair pulling, pleading, and incoherent swearing, I was able to get the two cakes onto plates and put this debacle to rest.  The next day, my hubby's actual b-day, I knew I had to face my nemeses again.

I made the frosting by creaming the butter and SLOWLY adding the confectioner's sugar (I learn from my mistakes).

Lumpy mashed cauliflower? Nay.  This is sweet, sweet buttercream.

I will admit that I never actually measure my sugar, I just sort of dump it in and eyeball it until I think I have enough frosting, which is usually enough to frost the cake and leave me plenty more to lick off the beaters. Add the milk to thin the butter/sugar mixture, then add the maple extract:

After you blend this together, add sugar until you reach the desired consistency.  I will also note that I like a fairly strong maple flavoring, so if this is your first time trying a maple-flavored item, you might want to start with half the volume I suggested and add it to your own taste level.

After all of the mishaps and mayhem, this frosting came out perfectly.  It was light and airy, with a whipped fluffiness that you will never get out of a can.  The cake halves, which both magically ended up being perfectly flat, was extremely easy to frost, and for once I didn't end up with heaps of extra frosting.

The cake? Well, it was divine.  It came out fairly dense, probably because of the Ingredient-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named, but was tender and moist without being sticky or cloying.  This was a spice cake on steroids - all those great fresh spice flavors that are lacking from a boxed mix really pop in your mouth, while the maple frosting is a perfect counterpart by providing enough sweetness to remind you that this is a dessert.  I chose not to think about the amount of butter involved, since birthday cakes come from magical unicorns in a land far, far way where things like "calories" and "fat grams" don't exist.  This recipe could easily be modified to make it more health-friendly, but when you're likely only eating something once or twice a year - take the plunge. Trust me, it's worth it.

(This is how happy I was once this bake-tastrophe was over, and how happy Eric was to get his cake!)

Cranberry, Pear, and Apple Crumble

Crumble Topping:

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar (here I use Splenda brown sugar)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats (I used steel cut oats which I like for a harder texture)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Filling:
2-3 tablespoons light brown sugar (here I use Splenda brown sugar)
1/2 tablespoon cornstarch (corn flour)
1 1/2 pounds Granny Smith Apples or other firm, tart-tasting apple - peeled, cored, and sliced into 1’’x3’’
1 1/2 pounds ripe Bartlett or Anjou Pears, peeled, cored and sliced into 1’’x3’’
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Hellllloooo!! I’ve been meaning to make an appl-ie treat for some time since I’ve gone apple picking with my gal-pal, Katia. Because I’m a terribly lazy person/the men in my life have not been around the Princeton area for the last week, I’ve delayed making this because I can’t be eating entire baked treats by myself. Luckily apples and pears do not have a short shelf life (thank you God). Now, just to preface, I am recently moved out of my parent’s house (once again thank you God) and don’t have a ton of the kitchen toys that I really which I had … so I also get to show my college-student derived cooking Macgyver skills.

So first thing's first ... ALWAYS PREHEAT THE OVEN ... it's sorta my OCD thing ... to 375 degrees (F for all you metric people out there) and put a healthy coating of cooking spray on your pan. I used a small shallow alminum pan, probably about 12 inches in diameter because I didn't have anything else and it worked out fine ... deeper pans might be nicer, but this is totally functional. 

 Next I started working on the crumble topping. So the recipe (taken from http://www.joyofbaking.com under the apple section) basically instructs to combine all the crumble ingredients to a food processer until the clumps are the size of peas. now, I do not have these fancy things so I used my day's frustration from my crappy job to help me along the way ... using my might!

So I measured out the walnuts (I snuck in another handful cause I like walnuts or in Lebanese dialect “joz”) and I crushed them using my wooden spoon. (I don’t know if it’s in my old-world Italian DNA to feel I need to have a wooden utensil while cooking, but nonetheless, it worked pretty well.)

SMASH!!!

... and added it to my big metal mixing bowl (which is my only one, you'll see how I Macgyver my way out of that one later...)

The next issue is the butter, food processors will mix that stuff together fairly well, however, I tried to cut the stick of butter as small as I could as to make my life easier when I was mixing with my antiquated wooden spoon.

.... and I added that and attemped mixing ... violently. 

Now I had some difficulty getting everything "pea sized" --- mostly the butter was the thing that gave me the biggest issue so I pulled the butter apart with my fingers until I could judge that it was "good enough" by my novice standards.

 

Set this aside and start working on the filling...

So as I alluded to before, my day was ... let's say rage-filled and I took it out on unsuspecting apples and pears .... 

FEEL MY FURY!

I then sliced 3 apples and 3 pears with a knife miraculously avoiding any spilling of my blood (I'm not terribly competent with knives...) with a bit of help from my roomate, Anthony.

Being that I only have one mixing bowl, which was occupied by the crumbly topping for this deliciousness, I had to use my roomate's old camping cook-out pot which looks rustic at best ... but once again, it worked. I then added the sugar and 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour because I didn't have any cornstarch (Google told me it was a suitable substitution, and I don't argue with master Google) and mixed in the apples, pears, and crasins.
 

Somehow the apple-pear mixture fit into the pan .... WIN!
 

and I was able to pack in all of the topping using my fingers .... DOUBLE WIN!
 

I baked this crumbly beast for about 35 minutes (or until the topping had browned a bit and all the butter was melted)
 

... and served!
 

Now, I would classify this as a win. It tasted great, although it would be even better with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top of its warm gooey goodness. This recipe, in addition to being delicious is also rather guilt-free. There's no real bottom crust, just a lovely pile of seasonal fruits with brown sugar splenda to sweeten. So I encourage you all to make and eat ... GUILT FREE and don't be afraid to play a little jazz in the kitchen when things go a little wonky ;).

Enjoy!

Food Fact of the Day

I have the Easy 2010 Science Answer Calendar on my desk at work, and every day it provides a fun science-related Q&A.  I forgot to check it yesterday, but this is what I found this morning:

Monday, October 18th
Q: Why is yellow curry good for you?
A: Yellow curry contains a spice called turmeric, which has been used for thousands of years in traditional Indian and Chinese medicine to reduce scar formation and heal wounds. Recent medical studies suggest that the active ingredient, curcumin, works directly in the cell nucleus by preventing abnormal unraveling of the chromosome under stress and rpeventing excessive abnormal protein production. This is particuarly evident in the heart, for curcumin impedes cardiac hypertrophy, a common ailment.

Clearly this is the universe's way of telling me that I was meant to make my Curried Lentil Soup last night!

Curried Lentil Soup with Lemon

This weekend, my hubby and I went to visit his grandparents in South Jersey for a joint celebration of both our birthdays.  One of my favorite parts of visiting them is when Grandma inevitably pulls out a stack of food magazines and cookbooks and lets me take whatever ones I want.  On top of a bunch of Family Circles, I was very excited to snag two issues from Vegetarian Times, a great magazine that I have pilfered from her in the past.  On the way home I read both cover to cover, and one particular recipe caught my eye.  Ever since I had a lentil lasagna at my friend Ruth's house, I've been meaning to try and recreate that unique but delicious dish. I bought the lentils, but never put them to good use until tonight, when I made this vegan soup from the October 2009 VT issue.


Curried Red Lentil Soup with Lemon
What You'll Need
2 cups (1 bag) red lentils, sorted and rinsed
1 1/2 qts. vegetable stock
4 cups water
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 1/2 large or 3 medium carrots, peeled and finely chopped
4 stalks of celery, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 heaping tbsp curry powder
1 heaping tsp cumin
2 tbsp lemon juice
Fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)

Simple ingredients make for big flavor!

Start out by preparing your mirepoix - ahem, your carrots, onions, and celery (I have just been itching to use that Top Chef-acquired term!). Get the veggies, including the garlic, cleaned and peeled.

Next, I sorted and rinsed my lentils, a tip that VT helpfully included below the main recipe. Very simply, I dumped the bag of lentils into a mixing bowl and covered them with a couple of inches of cold water. 

They tend to clump, so swirl them around with a fork to separate them, then let them settle.  Empty hulls and other debris may be present, which will float to the top of the water; skim this off with a large spoon or strainer, then completely drain the lentils. Bring the lentils, vegetable broth, and water to a slow boil in a large soup pot.  You may notice some brownish foam forming on the top - this is normal, just skim it away like you did earlier with the lentils (don't worry, they're worth the hassle!). Cover the pot, then lower the heat and slowly simmer for 5 min.

Lentils simmering, aka poopy brown water.

While the lentils were a-cookin', I chopped up my carrots, celery, and onion and minced my garlic. After the 5 minutes are up, add these to the pot and simmer, uncovered, for 20 minutes.  You might need to increase the heat a bit at this point since the pot is so much more full.  Stir the pot every so often to make sure that the lentils are behaving, and bask in the lovely veggie scents that will continually waft out of the pot and make you extremely hungry.

After the first 20 minutes of simmering, the vegetables will have begun to cook down nicely, and the lentils will have plumped up considerably.  At this point, I noticed that there was not enough liquid in my soup - the original recipe called for only 1 quart of vegetable stock, but luckily I had an extra 1/2 quart that I threw in last minute.  If you use the 1 1/2 quarts at the beginning, you shouldn't run into this problem, but you can always add some water if you do.

For the final step, add the curry, cumin,  and cilantro, then cook for another 10-15 minutes or until the lentils are soft.  Mine were ready much faster than the original recipe stated, so I recommend taste-testing them periodically until you find the right texture.  If you're not familiar with lentils, they should have a 'toothsome' or al dente consistency, but not be mushy.  After the soup is done, add the 2 tbsp of lemon juice to the pot and give it a final stir.

Hearty and delicious!

I topped my bowl of soup with a healthy dose of freshly cracked black pepper but no salt, because the vegetable broth provides plenty.  One large bowl of this was more than filling enough for my whole dinner, but it would also be good with some whole grain bread for dipping. This soup smelled amazing, and the scent does not lie - it is a bold mouthful of flavors that combine wonderfully in each mouthful.  I wish I could serve this dish to people who argue that vegan/vegetarian cooking is bland and boring, because in this case it most definitely was neither. The curry flavor is very mild, so this doesn't end up resembling a traditional curry, but it blends well with the cumin to liven up the blandness of the lentils.  My lentils were cooked perfectly (go me!) and were firm enough to make this resemble a stew as opposed to a brothy soup.  I'm definitely looking forward to reheating this during the week for lunch, since it makes a LOT of soup (easily 5-6 large servings).  One of the best parts of all is the total cost for this dish - about $5.50, assuming you have the spices on hand.   I have already asked for a subscription to Vegetarian Times for Christmas, so hopefully I will be trying out many more of their recipes in the New Year!

Southwestern Eggs for Two

Hi intra-web world. This is my first post as both an aspiring chef and blogger. As you'll see with my posts, I'm delightfully self-depricating and usually will call it as I see it. I want to be able to share with you my triumphs and epic defeats so we can all laugh, learn and enjoy. This post is definitely the latter, so enjoy my FAIL and learn!


Southwestern Eggs for Two

What You'll Need:

½ cup of corn
½ cup of black beans
¼ cup cut green bell pepper
Handful of pepper jack cheese (to top eggs)
Salsa (I prefer the spicier the better!)
1 Pocketless pita
4 Eggs


What To Do:

Okay, so I’m sure that most of the people reading this have A) made eggs a ton of times before and B) will probably do a much better job than I did. The purpose of this entry is to learn from my mistakes and sit back, enjoy and laugh with me at my bumbledness…if that even is a word. Probably a more correct title would be “What not to do”, but I digress...so without further ado:

What I like to do first is to grease the pan, put it on low heat and get the ingredients out and prepared.

While the pan gets hot, I open the cans of black beans and corn and drain them. I then combine them into 1 Tupperware (why not, black beans and corn go great together!) and then I chop the pepper, about ½ inches by a ¼ of an inch.

OKAY! Ingredients prepared - now let’s crack the eggs! SPLAT!

Now, you’ll see this later - if you’re making this recipe it’s best to either use 4 eggs with a far bigger pan than I did, or just individually make 2 omelets with 2 eggs each. Learn from my fail!

I added my ½ cup of black beans, my ½ cup of corn, and my ¼ cup of green peppers, combined them into the egg batter and poured that baby into the pan like so:

So my initial thought was "Wow, this looks like it’s going to be really good!" And why shouldn’t it be, when we have all these yummy things together in a pan with more yummy things to come......but suddenly I realized that as I’m scraping the edges down and allowing the batter to run under the cooked part of the omelet, I’d created the omelet version of Frankenstein and alas, I could not control it on the flame.But, I’m no quitter, so I did my best to flip this gargantuan beast of an omelet...and ultimately, I got this...

FAIL

It turned into some scrambled egg mess - and a not very appetizing mess I might add. But try as I might, I was going to ameliorate this situation … and I began thinking what could I do to fix this mess...thinking...thinking...thinking...thinking...thinking...

CHEESE!

Yes, cheese fixes everything...let’s try thatI laid the pepper jack cheese on top of the scrambled egg mess mocking me in the pan …

And already I started to feel a bit better. What else could be done with this?



I dumped some salsa on top of the eggs. Now it looked like I had planned this whole mess out. While the cheese was melting, I turned the oven on (I usually have it going at 350F) and heated up my pita. Nothing says home like a warm pillowy pita.

I thought it might all be okay at this point, but who wouldn’t feel that way in the sight of a heavenly, glowing warm piece of pita bread? Once the pita was warm, I removed it from the oven. I cut the "omelet" in half and placed it on the pita, which looked like so:

Now, after all that, this thing tasted awesome...it was even man-approved by my roommate who graciously ate the other half.

We can all learn from my fail though! In the future I’d say use no more than 2 eggs, ¼ cup total of beans and corn, and 1/8 cup of green pepper, then heat it slowly and pray to God that the omelet doesn’t break when you try to flip it.

If anyone else tries this recipe, which is both fairly quick and cheap to make, please let me know how it comes out!