Day One Results and Recipes

Hi there! How've you been all day? Ready for the results show?

Here goes nuttin'.

First-- Breakfast. The most important meal of the day, they say. I'm not gonna lie, breakfast for me generally consists of a cup of coffee gulped down somewhere between 9 and 10 as I start work for the day. Don't lecture, I KNOW it's bad, ok? I guess if nothing else comes of this little adventure, I'll probably start eating breakfast more often, yeah?

Oh. but don't count on it tomorrow. I have the day off and I'm sleeping in, yo!

Breakfast was an Oven Omelette. I wasn't quite sure it qualified as a fritatta, so I just made up my own name for it.

The Recipe:
1 egg, beaten with 1T of water
2 T of shredded cheese
1 T of diced red bell pepper
3/4 of a medium-ish broccoli florette, chopped into pieces

I beat the egg and water together, and added the cheese, and a little salt and pepper. Then I sprayed the tart pan with some non-stick spray and poured the egg mixture into it, and arranged the veggies on top. I sort of... wiggled them down into the egg mixture just a little bit to make sure they were part of the omelette instead of sitting on top. Vegetables will get high and mighty if you don't squish them a little.

And then, into the EBO. I didn't take a before picture of breakfast, but I will do a before and after of everything from now on. It cooked for about 9 minutes or so. I was only half awake so I forgot to set the timer at first, but I know what time it went in and what time I actually set the timer when I realized I'd forgotten.

(Awkward sentence structure for 500, Alex.)

Here's what it looked like when it came out of the EBO:



And here are a couple more of after I de-panned it. Notice that the bottom didn't burn, but the inside with the cheese is still creamy and melty.




Jordan! Get to the point! How did it taste?

Truth? Really good. I kind of expected the edges to be a little dried out and styrofoamy, but the egg/cheese bit cooked perfectly. The peppers did pretty well, and the broccoli was probably closer to raw than cooked, but altogether I think i'll declare my Day One Breakfast a success.

And now, on to dinner.

Along with a Big Ass Salad, I baked salmon and some roasted cauliflower and grape tomatoes.

The nice thing about the Real Meals oven is that there is room for two pans, so I wasn't going to have to risk one part of the meal getting cold while the other one cooked. The Real Meals oven also has a warming chamber that stays pretty hot, so maybe that wouldn't be a major issue anyway. I'll probably have the opportunity to test that theory eventually.

The Recipe:
The Salmon
1 salmon fillet, trimmed to fit the pan - I seasoned it with a little sea salt and a "California Citrus Spice Blend" from Savory Spice Shop in Boulder

Trimming the salmon to fit into the pan was a little tricky, but I think I ended up with about a 2.5 oz piece. I left the skin on because I like it, but if you don't you can just trim it off. Don't judge. Salmon skin is delicious. *glare*

(Don't alienate the readers Jordan! Ok. Sorry.)

The Veggies
1 medium-ish and 1 smallish cauliflower floret, sliced into relatively flat pieces
3 grape tomatoes, cut in half

Again, I sprayed the pan with non-stick spray, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

I put both pans in the oven together, and set the timer for 10 minutes...



then after 10 minutes pushed them through to the cooling chamber to check the progress. Neither looked done yet, so i pushed them back into the oven section and set the timer for another 10 minutes. At about 8 minutes, I could smell the salmon, and when I checked it was done. The veggies were, well, not QUITE as done. The cauliflower had softened, and the tomatoes were just starting to give off some juice.

However, I was pretty flipping ravenous by that time so I pulled them out anyway.



I did worry that the cooking time on the veggies and the salmon would be too different, and it turns out that was a valid concern. However, I'm not crazy enough about the cauliflower to try it again, so next time I will probably try tomatoes and mushrooms or asparagus.

I'll also note that the salmon was still a little bit frozen in the middle when I put it in the EBO, so fully thawed fish would probably take less time, maybe 12 - 15 minutes. The fish WAS surprisingly moist, given the size of the piece and how long it was in there.

I know it's only been one day, but if I have to judge by today's results I'd guess that my "spidey sense" about food cooking times is going to come into play quite a bit. I could smell both the eggs and the fish just before I pulled them out and saw that they were done.

For the first day, totally flying by the seat of my pants, I'm pretty happy with how things turned out. I have some blueberries in the fridge, and I'm thinking I might try some sort of dessert with them tomorrow. (oooh. teaser!)

If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I'm happy to let you experiment vicariously. :)

G'night, kiddies.