Surprise!

This whole week has been kind of haphazard when it comes to dinner. Despite my recent focus on menu planning, would you believe I haven’t been in the mood for it this week! But I have been determined to spend some time going through my freezers and using some things that have been in there a while. That happened yesterday. I was looking through the herbs in my freezer when I spied a small Gladware bowl that was purple on the inside. Despite the layer of frost on it, I determined that this was some frozen mixed berries, and instantly I thought of how much Zander loves berries. So I pulled them out to thaw, thinking that if they tasted okay, they would make a fantastic topping for some pancakes for an easy dinner.

Then I was in the other freezer, and I saw 10 frozen zipper bags of onions from a very long time ago. I guess those need to be used too- so I pulled one package out and tried to think of what I could do with it for dinner to go with pancakes. It wasn’t long before I settled on the idea of making a fritatta to accompany those pancakes. I carmalized the onions low and slow on the stove while beating some eggs, half & half, salt, pepper, and some beautiful Irish Cheddar cheese. By this time, the berries had thawed, and were perfect for topping pancakes. I warmed them up with a little cornstarch to thicken.

The real surprise came at dinner time last night. See, I never make eggs or fritatta for dinner, because for the most part, my kids don’t like eggs. Abigail will eat them hard-boiled or scrambled, some of the time. Zander will eat the egg yolks from hard-boiled, but he says he really doesn’t like eggs. So I put a very tiny wedge of this fritatta on their plates, thinking they would simply ignore the eggs in favor of the fruity pancakes. I certainly didn’t tell them there were onions in the eggs. Abigail went right for them! She took a bite and told me she really likes eggs that taste that good, and then proceeded to eat two pieces of fritatta. Zander followed suit and finished his piece, telling me that he really likes eggs with his favorite white cheese in them. I simply cannot convey here on this blog, with this keyboard, how shocked I was with my children last night! They enjoyed the pancakes and berries as well, but they inhaled those eggs! My egg-haters enjoyed that fritatta and then told me I needed to make that again for dinner sometime.

I guess the lesson learned here is that you just have to keep on trying. Your children may be the pickiest kids on the planet, but you never know when they’re going to deside that strange food on their plate is going to look good to them, and they’re going to take a bite and enjoy it. And I’m thrilled, because now I can add eggs more often to dinner, and I don’t have to worry about my children starving. Here’s the fritatta we had- I was tempted to add some bell pepper, but I gotta tell you, less is more here, especially if you have good cheese. Anything on hand will make a fine substitute.

Quick Fritatta

6 eggs
1/4 cup half & half
pinch of salt and pepper to taste
1 cup diced onions, carmalized slowly in 1 tsp olive oil
1/3 cup shredded Irish cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350º. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Beat the eggs and half and half together with a whisk- beating well until creamy and full of bubbles. Beat in seasoning and stir in the onions. Place the shredded cheese in the bottom of the pie plate, and then pour the egg mixture on top of it.

Bake in a 350º oven for about 20 minutes, or until the eggs are set and the edges begin to brown. Serve immediately.