Egg white frittata with broccoli

Due to my recent batch of mint-chocolate chip ice cream, I had a lot of egg whites left over. (Ice cream calls for egg yolks.) There were six or seven egg whites, too many to just discard, so I decided to make an egg white frittata with a head of broccoli I had floating around.

I added a couple of whole eggs to beef up the egg supply. I got out my cast-iron skillet, cut up the broccoli into big rough florets, and sauteed them for a minute in olive oil. I then added the eggs, let that cook for a couple of minutes, added a layer of grated parmesan, and popped the skillet into the oven at 425 for five minutes or so, until the eggs were puffy and a little browned on top.

I served the whole thing with some roasted potato wedges. Such a virtuous meal--veggies and protein, and I used up three separate things (egg whites, broccoli, and the last of the potatoes). The broccoli was still crunchy, the potato wedges were roasty and crunchy around the edges, and the egg white had enough cheese to keep it from being totally bland.

To compensate for all the healthiness, I had two glasses of white wine with it.

Mushroom and broccoli pizza

Someone asked me recently if there's anything I won't consider as a pizza topping.

So far, no.

But it's helpful to think of "pizza toppings" not so much as "toppings," but more "things that go well with bread and cheese."

And as we all know, there is very little in this world that doesn't go with cheese.

Sushi, maybe.

Anyway, when thinking about pizza, don't get hung up on pepperoni, etc. Use a pizza crust as a repository for leftovers/whatever you have on hand, cover it with cheese, and see what happens.

Which is what I did with this pizza: I had two big portobello mushroom caps and one big head of broccoli. Add cheese and voila.

In order:

pizza crust
drizzle of olive oil
ricotta cheese
two sliced portobello mushrooms, or the equivalent amount of some other kind of mushroom
one big head of broccoli, florets sliced lengthwise (no need to cook the broccoli; just add it raw and it will roast)
shredded parmesan
Italian seasoning

Bake at 475 for 15-20 minutes.

Roasted broccoli with parmesan

Most people object to broccoli for two reasons:

1. They've only had it cooked one way: boiled into limp, soggy oblivion.
2. The smell of cooking it that way.

Remember how I said you could roast any vegetable, and it would taste good, and you shouldn't ever boil anything? That included broccoli. Best of all, roasting it doesn't produce that broccoli smell.

All you have to do is chop a head or two of broccoli into large florets (save the stems for veggie broth), toss those with a little olive oil and salt, and roast on a cookie sheet at 400 for about 20 minutes, or until browned and crispy on the ends. Toss that with grated parmesan cheese and a squeeze of lemon juice.