Day 8 ~ 30 Days of Nothing Challenge

Day 8

Breakfast
Since I started this 30 day challenge, I am proud to say that I've eaten breakfast every day for a week! That's something I haven't done since I was young enough for summer camp!  Today's breakfast dish is called Shroom-y Breakfast Casserole.  I learned how to cook buttery breakfast potatoes this way at a restaurant I worked at during High School (I also learned how to make a perfect, folded 3 egg omlet, but thats a story for another morning).  The skillet cooked potatoes make a hearty, satisfying base layer for this savory breakfast dish.  The secret ingredient is cream of mushroom soup, for 2 reasons:
(Image by Andy Warhol wikipedia)

1.) Because we are vegetarians and the standard sausage or bacon aren't included in our breakfasts.  We do eat a lot of Morningstar 'meat' products (made of textured soy protein) for added nutrition, but I only have a few items, so I plan to use them later in the month.  The mushrooms almost add the heartiness of meat (yes, I have no doubt that the carnivores out there will disagree).  And.....

2.) This can has been sitting in my cupboard forever.  I guess, one day, I was at the store and said to myself, "I need this.  Everyone has a few cans of cream of mushroom soup in the cupboard.  Its the American way.  And there they've sat until today.



Ingredients (makes 8 servings):
8-10 small potatoes, baked
1 can cream of mushroom soup
6 eggs
1 small onion
1 tsp. dried basil
2 small tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
olive oil
2 tbs. butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Dice the baked potatoes and onion.  Saute in a pan with olive oil until edges are slightly crispy.  Add butter and stir.
Spread potatoes and onions on the bottom of an 8" x 10" glass baking dish.
In a bowl whisk together mushroom soup, eggs, basil, and diced tomatoes.
Pour mixture over the potatoes.
Sprinkle shredded cheese over pan and a dash of black pepper.
Bake for one hour.

Lunch
A few years ago, I signed my cats up for Geoffrey's Birthday Club at Toys R Us just to see what they'd get.  Every year, Meatball and Dora get a birthday card in the mail with a $3.00 gift card inside.  Lucky cats!
There are a few food items at Toys R US, so I cashed in my cards for two free packages of Mott's applesauce pouches.  Its kind of a weird way to eat applesauce, but its nutritious and free, so I am not complaining. Today's lunch consisted of leftover macaroni & cheese, an applesauce pouch, and some homemade blueberry bread from my mother-in-law.  The Mott's pouch is definitely strange: its like a Capri Sun...filled with applesauce, but I adjusted after a few, um, sips, I guess?

Dinner
One night over dinner, I discovered that my friend Josh is a 'ranch snob'.  He only eats Hidden Valley Ranch  made at home.  At first, I scoffed at this, but then I tried it and its really good - like really, really good.  Before Josh opened my eyes to good ranch dressing, the quality of ranch dressing never crossed my mind.  I just assumed that if you've tried one type, you've had them all.  Not the case.

This dressing consists of only three ingredients: a seasoning packet, mayo and milk (powdered milk for me this month), but it tastes like heaven.  I made some tonight to go with dinner.  See what I did there with the mason jar?  Look how authentic that is, like homemade ranch dressing from a farm!

I feel like Martha Stewart...or maybe Paula Dean.  If anyone makes a big ol' jar of ranch dressin', its her.

Our meal consisted of Chik'n wraps, rice, fiesta corn and watermelon.  The wraps are actually made with Boca Chick'n Nuggets (they're made of soy protein with crispy breading like regular nuggets) sliced into strips and wrapped up in a tortilla with ranch and greens from our garden.  Fiesta corn is what I call regular frozen corn cooked in a skillet with olive oil, a dash of salt, and diced green onions (also from the garden).  The watermelon came from my mother-in-law along with the blueberry bread.  She supposedly bought a watermelon that was too big, so the rest would spoil if not for Patrick & me.  Secretly, I think she's worried about us starving to death and planned the watermelon surplus to bring us a little food.  Every week she bakes us bread or muffins (I know, I know, we're spoiled) and I have a few loaves in the freezer to break out this month.

For a late night Snack, we split three popsicles I found hiding in the freezer. I've seen a good amount of frozen treat recipes on Pinterest, maybe I'll have to try one out this month...