My husband has eaten the exact same breakfast for as long as I can remember, 2 fried eggs sandwiched between two pieces of flax bread, sometimes with some pesto or cheese for some extra flavour and protein. It might change a bit in form, where the eggs might be hard boiled instead of fried and the bread will be eaten as toast instead of being used as a serving platter to hold his eggs. None the less, it always boils down to eggs and bread, its all so he can get enough protein in the mornings.
It has long been a goal of mine to make changes to his daily breakfast, but he refuses. He enjoys the eggs and bread routine, plus it’s simple to make the night before and with his work schedule, he prefers everything fast (even though I often end up preparing his breakfasts, he still doesn’t like it when I spend too much time on them, odd but I’m not going to start complaining about that). So when the weekend rolls around and I’m usually the first one up and about in the kitchen prepping breakfast, I try to change his daily ritual as much as possible while still providing him the much needed protein that he craves.
Since he eats eggs and bread on a daily basis without much excitement, I usually try to throw in a few blueberry yogurt pancakes, savoury whole wheat French toasts or more recently ricotta stuffed crepes which sound more unhealthy and decadent then they really are. Mixing things up while still using the main ingredients of his daily breakfast (in a total different form) has had some delectable results, so when I saw this recipe while flipping through a local magazine, I didn’t have to think twice before I started heating up the skillet on the stove (even though they didn’t have bread in them per se, but you can definitely use whole wheat flour instead). I really enjoyed the ricotta stuffed crepes because the crepes themselves are made with eggs and provide a good amount of protein. The ricotta adds even more of the appetite filling protein whereas the mangoes give it the extra vitamin packed sugar kick, so that when I removed the added sugar from the recipe, my husband didn’t even really notice the difference.
So after some tinkering around in the kitchen whipping up eggs and cheese, another weekend breakfast has gone down in the books and my husband started off another day happy as can be. Especially because he ended up getting a good amount of protein without having to result to his daily eggs and bread, but between you and me, I think it was also because he didn’t have to cook it himself.
Nutritional Tidbit: When buying ricotta make sure to choose the low fat kind, so you can get the same amount of protein and calcium without the fat. You won’t be able to taste the difference between the full fat and low fat versions. Ricotta is actually higher in calcium content then cottage cheese and also provides a good amount of phosphorus and riboflavin which both aids in energy metabolism. Plus who could forget all that important protein, 8 grams of it per 100 gram portion to be exact, which helps rebuild and maintain muscle.
As per usual I made a few adjustments to the original recipe found here, in order to make it a bit healthier. I’ve made notes of what I’ve changed below and why, hopefully you enjoy them and please let me know if you’ve tried it differently!
Ricotta Stuffed Crepes with Mango Compote
Crepe Ingredients:6 Large eggs
2 1/2 cups cold water
1/8 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour (or 1 cup all purpose and 1 cup whole wheat flour)
2 1/2 cups low fat ricotta, drained
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 tbsp sugar (can be omitted, I didn’t notice a big difference)
Crepe Preparation:Separate two eggs, reserving the yolks. Whisk the 2 egg whites with the remaining eggs, 1/2 cup of the cold water and salt in a bowl.
Slowly add the flour while whisking until combined. Add in the remaining water and whisk until smooth.
Place a skillet on medium heat, spray on a bit of cooking oil and pour about 1/4 cup of the batter in to the pan. Tip the pan so that a thin layer of the batter is spread evenly around the bottom of the pan. Cook until the crepe pulls away from the pan (roughly 2-3 mins).
Remove the crepe and repeat for the rest of the batter.
Meanwhile, blend the ricotta, reserved yolks, lemon zest and juice, vanilla together in a small bowl.
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Grease a 9 X 13 inch baking dish. Place a tbsp of the ricotta mixture in a crepe, fold up the sides and roll up the crepe until it forms a log and place in baking dish. Repeat for each crepe.
Once all crepes are rolled, cook in oven for 20-25 mins or until heated through. Remove and serve with mango compote (recipe below).
Mango Compote Ingredients: (different from original recipe)
1 Mango cubed or 1 cup of frozen mango chunks
1 cup water
Compote Preparation:Place a small sauce pan over medium to high heat, add in mango chunks and water and let it come to a boil. Turn the temperature down so that the compote starts to simmer, allow it to do so for roughly 20 mins. Serve with your crepes. If your family likes it a bit sweeter, you can add a bit of maple syrup to your compote or over the crepes before adding the compote on top.
Makes roughly 16 9” crepes.
Comments
Post a Comment