Irish-ish Breakfast Bake

It's cool and rainy today, weather that always reminds me of my trip to Ireland last summer and inspires me to make Irish food.  This recipe is a result of a lot of ideas coming together to create probably my best ever breakfast dish.  I first made this almost a year ago and have been working on perfecting it ever since.  The most interesting feature of this dish is the sauce it utilizes a delicious "Magic Sauce" from 101cookbooks.com, authored by the esteemed Heidi Swanson.  The sauce contains a heavy dose of rosemary, which is the primary (and sometimes only) spice in Irish stew and is what takes this dish from common American comfort food to an Irish-inspired treat.  I ate mine with Irish bacon (also called back bacon) and Irish coffee- it is Sunday, after all.

As an aside, you could cook some Irish bacon and add it to the casserole, but that seemed like a waste of the glory that is Irish bacon, so I had mine separately.

Irish-ish Breakfast Bake
3 cups potatoes, cut into bite-sized cubes
2 cups kale leaves, cleaned and torn into bite-sized pieces
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded Irish cheddar cheese
1 recipe Magic Sauce

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Place potato cubes in an oiled 9x9 inch casserole dish.  Bake for 30 minutes.  In a medium bowl, beat eggs and milk until well combined.  Add cheddar cheese to egg mixture and stir to combine.  Remove casserole dish from oven.  Put kale leaves on top of potatoes and pour egg mixture over the kale leaves.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until eggs are cooked.  Remove from oven and pour Magic Sauce evenly over the casserole.  Allow sauce to be absorbed into the eggs for 5 minutes, then serve.  Serves 4-6.








 

Curried Chicken Salad

I went out for lunch recently to catch up with Stacey, a student I trained last year.  We decided to go to Leaf Kitchen , which is one of my favorite restaurants in Iowa City.  Simple, local gourmet food and a very fun, kitschy decor consisting of mostly reclaimed items.  It's always hard to choose just one thing from their menu.  Stacey ordered the curry chicken salad.  It looked amazing and I wanted to order it too but I ordered something else and vowed for my sake and Stacey's that I would try my best to replicate their salad.  This is my interpretation with some substitutions to make it lower in calories.  I'm guessing the restaurant uses full-fat mayo, no yogurt and possibly adds a little heavy cream.  I put mine on top of a bed of kale and took it to work for lunch.  With a side of fruit it was fantastic.  I've also seen this served as a sandwich on a toasted croissant, which I'm sure would be divine!

Curried Chicken Salad

2 T mayonnaise made with olive oil
2 T fat free plain Greek yogurt
1 t  dijon mustard
1 T curry powder
1 chicken breast half, cooked (I baked mine whole at 350 for 30 minutes) and cut into bite-sized pieces
1 stalk celery, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 T dried cranberries
1/2 apple, chopped into bite-sized pieces

In a small bowl, mix mayo, Greek yogurt, mustard, and curry powder.  Place chicken, celery, cranberries and apple in a medium bowl.  Add mayo mixture and mix until all ingredients are well combined. Serves 2-3.