Fast & Fresh: Tomato and Chive Breakfast Melts

I love breakfast.

During the week I don't get time to cook a good breakfast as I'm always running out the door and grabbing a piece of toast and some yogurt to take along to work. 

So the other day I stumbled upon a recipe for a breakfast melt using tomatoes, cheese, and English muffins.  Ingredients I usually have on hand.  I knew I had to try this because it was something hearty that I could whip up fast during the week and really call a healthy, fast & fresh dish!

What makes this recipe outstanding is the sauce...oh my!  It's tangy flavor is just the right compliment to the tomatoes.

So let's make Tomato and Chive Breakfast Melts.

Turn on your broiler to preheat.  Let's mix up the sauce first.  In a small bowl add the yogurt, mustard, olive oil, and oregano.  Mix well, then set aside.

Slice your cherry tomatoes in half.  I used yellow ones cause that's what I had...red would be very pretty and delishhh!

Split your English muffins in half and toast under the broiler for 1 minute, or until lightly toasted.

Top each muffin half with about 1-2 teaspoons of sauce.

Top with cheese.  Save some for on top of the tomatoes.

Top with tomatoes, dividing among the muffins.  Top with some more cheese.

Add snipped chives.

Return to the oven and broil for another minute or two until hot and cheese has melted.

Voila!  Simple, tasty, fresh, and wholesome!

What a great breakfast or snack!

Tomato and Chive Breakfast Melts

serves 4

Ingredients

4 whole grain English muffins, split

1/4 cup nonfat plain Greek style yogurt

1 1/2 T Dijon mustard

1 T extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 cup cheddar cheese, grated 

1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, quartered

1 t snipped chives

Directions

Preheat broiler. Place muffins cut side up, on a baking sheet and broil for about 1 minute  until edges are beginning to lightly brown.

In a small bowl, whisk together yogurt, Dijon, oil, and oregano. Spoon about 1 ½ teaspoons onto each muffin half, spreading evenly to coat. Sprinkle with cheese, tomatoes and chives, dividing each evenly. Broil for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes or until cheese has melted.

Adapted from Clean Eating magazine

Fast & Fresh: Blueberry Butter

Take advantage of summer's tastiest berry, and start your day off right!

Make some Blueberry Butter.  This is a fast & fresh way to use the end of summer berries and would be perfect on breakfast breads, muffins, crackers, or bagels.

This is really easy to make, and would lend itself to other berries as well.

Hope you enjoy this great little treat!  Let me know what you think.

Blueberry Butter

Ingredients:

½ c butter, softened
3 ½ T blueberries, chopped

Directions:

Mix softened butter with chopped blueberries until well incorporated.  Don’t mix to roughly or you will break down the blueberries and end up with purple butter.

Take a piece of waxed paper and place the butter mixture on it.  Shape butter in to a log.  Wrap up tightly in the waxed paper.  Twist each end like a candy wrapper and push both ends toward the middle to get a good condensed roll.  Chill until firm.

Slice into round discs and serve.

Orange Iced Tea

Happy Labor Day weekend!

One of my most favorite drinks is Iced Tea.  Being as my parents are from Oklahoma iced tea was a staple in my house growing up.  There was never a time where we didn't have iced tea made.  I remember mom used to save the glass jars that our orange juice came in and we would line them up 4 at a time to pour our brewed ice tea in.

There are several methods to making brewed iced tea.  My mom came from the school that took a small amount of water and boiled it, adding loose leaf black tea to it and let it steep to make a concentrate.  Then it was divided among the jars and more water was added to finish the process.  You can tell the strength of the tea that way by the color of the tea.

I still make tea that way but I use tea bags instead of loose tea.  It's just easier, and you don't have to strain the tea.

What tea to use?  There are many types of tea out there.  We use a black tea.  I grew up on Lipton tea, so that's what I like, and still use.  It makes a nice strong black tea.  A lot of southerners swear by Lusianne Tea, but I never cared for it being a Lipton girl!  Use what you prefer, that's what counts!  I even experiment with peach teas or other fruit infused teas, and they work well, but black tea is the standard.

Sweetened or un-sweetened?  I make mine un-sweetened.  That way I can add Splenda to it if I like or leave it plain.  You can add a simple syrup to your finished tea all at once or by the glass as you please.  There are no strict rules! This is YOUR tea, do as you please.

Storing iced tea:  This is important.  If you don't want cloudy tea you must allow your finished tea to cool to room temperature before putting it in the refrigerator.  Otherwise your tea will turn cloudy.  I usually leave mine out for an hour or so before storing it.

This tea is a variation of the traditional iced tea. A very refreshing Orange Iced Tea.
Great for these hot days, but great anytime.

The only thing that you do to make orange iced tea is to place some orange slices in your pitcher of tea and muddle a couple of slices in the bottom with the handle end of a wooden spoon. 

Then place more orange slices in the pitcher and each glass to add subtle flavor and garnish.  Beautiful and tasty!

Hope you will try my Orange Iced Tea.  It's truly refreshing and tastes great!



Orange Iced Tea

Makes 1/2 gallon

1 cup boiling water
3 regular sized tea bags
7 cups of water
ice
1 orange, cut in to slices

Boil one cup of water on the stove or microwave.  Add tea bags and let them steep for about 15 min.  You want to get a dark concentrate.  The darker the concentrate the more tea you will end up with.  Pour your concentrate in to a 1/2 gallon jug or pitcher and add approx 7 cups of water.  You can tell the strength of the tea by the color.  Very light colored tea is a more weak tea.  Dark will be strong.  Adjust your tea strength to your liking by adding more water, or more concentrate.

Add ice to your glasses and pour tea over.  If you add ice to your container with the tea, it will dilute it. 

Add 2 orange slices to the container.  Take the handle end of a wooden spoon and muddle the orange slices on the bottom of the container to release the orange juices.  Add more slices to the tea for flavor.  Add an orange slice to the individual glasses as well for garnish.

Enjoy!