Carrie is the author of the successful gluten free food & recipe blog: Gingerlemongirl.com (http://www.gingerlemongirl.com). In late 2007 after years of debilitating migraine headaches & GI distress, Carrie decided to follow a gluten free diet to see if it would alleviate her symptoms. 6 months later nearly all of her symptoms were relieved. By 2009 Carrie also removed casein and soy from her diet. She realized the proteins from these 3 foods (gluten, soy, & casein) made her sick and kept her from
living life to it’s fullest. Carrie is now a dedicated advocate of eating whole, natural & organic foods, living sustainably, and living a life that’s full of healthy balance. She blogs regularly sharing original gluten free recipes with an emphasis on eating natural, whole, mostly vegetarian foods. Carrie is also a freelance gluten free food writer with articles and gluten free recipes that have recently appeared in Taste of Home’s Healthy Cooking, Delight Gluten Free ,TheExaminer.com, and $5DollarDinners.com .
Easy Cooking Techniques for Weeknight Meals:
Quick Omelettes
I wish I had the time to make fancy dinners at our house… but I can honestly tell you unless it’s a weekend night, we eat very simple meals.
One of my favorite, quick last minute meals is omelettes. Several great things about omelettes:
- · Easy to prep & prepare.
- · Can use lots of leftovers to make a brand new meal.
- · A great way to serve a frugal protein.
Here’s how I generally make omelettes in our house.
The first step is to prepare your omelette fillings. The night we made these omelettes I had spinach from our local CSA, a green pepper, a roma tomato, turkey bacon, and some a piece of sandwich ham.
- 1. Simply chop your omelette fillings into small pieces so that they can be sprinkled in the middle of your omelette when it’s ready.
- 2. Get your skillet or pan hot & ready to cook the omelette. I use a non-stick pan like this, but any type of non-stick or heavy bottomed skillet will do. Add about a tablespoon of oil (or butter) or spritz your pan with non-stick cooking spray at now.
- 3. While your pan is heating, prepare your eggs. For each omelette I simply use 2 eggs. Whisk the eggs together in a small bowl.
- 4. When your pan is hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Add your eggs. I like to gently roll the whisked egg around the pan to form a quick circle. Allow the mixture to cook for about 30 seconds.
- 5. When the eggs have set and have a slight custardy appearance in the middle add 3-4 tablespoons of your prepared fillings on one side of your omelette. If you add too many fillings you’ll have a messy (but still delicious omelette!)
- 6. Using a spatula, flip the side of the omelette without fillings onto the other side to “enclose” your omelette. If you’re feeling your inner Julia Child you can certainly flip your omelette using the pan instead of your spatula… but I promise it will taste delicious no matter how you do it!
- 7. Serve the omelette immediately.
If you’re nervous about omelettes and unsure as to how to “flip” them, this is a great tutorial.
Don’t worry if you omelette isn’t perfect, as you can see from my picture… I used too many fillings in this one. And it’s okay! It wasn’t picture perfect, but it was still a delicious, filling, and healthy meal.
Eggs are such quick, frugal protein option for week night meals. Next time you need a super fast meal on the dinner table try omelettes for dinner!
For more fun read on at Ginger Lemon Girl today!
Thanks so much for the honor of sharing my recipe on your site Diane! I just realized that I didn't have you on my blog roll after all this time! I have no idea how that happened! I alleviated that problem immediately! 🙂 Can't wait to see you at IFBC!
Carrie- Thank you for adding me to your blog roll. I'm honored. See you in a few weeks!
I think eggs are finally growing on me Carrie! Hubby makes my favorite omelet with smoked ham, cheddar cheese and tomatoes! It's delicious! I've never thought of having it for dinner !
Thanks for featuring an egg dish! As a gluten intolerant, I eat boat loads of eggs and get tired of seeing so much negative press on them as it relates to cholesterol. I seriously eat several a week, and my cholesterol has never been high. Everyone's body works differently, but I am pleased to see you use them as a quick dinner here! Way to go Ginger.
We LOVE breakfast for dinner around here! Whenever my husband will not be home in time for dinner, the kids always ask, "Can we have Brinner tonight?" Brinner is what we call it when breakfast foods like pancakes or omelettes land on the table after 5! It was always my favorite thing growing up too! Whenever my Dad was not going to be home in time for dinner, my Mom would often whip up some French Toast!
We love adding carmelized onions, spinach, sun-dried tomatoes, and mushrooms to our omelette. Yummo!
Jenn- Thanks so much for commenting chica!! YES, I heart eggs! I probably eat too many of them! lol… but they are so delicious & easy to fix! I'm so glad you are starting to like them!!
Sarah- I agree, I eat a lot of eggs too. They are probably my primary source of protein (along with nut butters) and I always turns to eggs for a quick dinner. Last night we had a ton of veggies from our CSA that we needed to do something with, so hubs sauteed them all stir fry style and then he was like what else should we eat? Me? Eggs honey just "fry" a few (we never actually fry) and put them on top! Yum!
Kim — I love this! I will have to start calling it brinner! That is too fun! I love the idea of adding carmelized onions, spinach and sundried tomatoes… I see more omelettes heading my way in the future!
I love Ginger Lemon Girl!
Katrina – chica, you have no idea how much I needed to hear that today! Thank you so very much!
Great post, Carrie! Hubby is not a big fan of breakfast food for dinner, so whenever he would go away on trips, that's what Son and I would eat all week. Fried egg sandwiches usually won out over omelettes, but after going gluten free, omelettes definitely were back in the picture. Interestingly enough, the one breakfast meal that hubby does like for dinner is an omelette. He even cooks it! Truthfully, it's more like a frittata, but he does flip it using the pan and a spatula. The main thing is that it's good and all I have to do is eat, so I'm happy. 🙂
Shirley
I love omelettes! Nice that you had such a good variety of fillings. Hubby would only be okay with the bacon and ham, unfortunately! More spinach for me – yippee!
Great advice! I love eggs, they always fill me up and they're so easy to add flavors too 🙂
~Aubree Cherie