Category: Recipes - Life at Bella Terra

You know you have a winner when everyone asks for your recipe~~and that is exactly what happened at a recent brunch. I’ve used this egg dish many times and have adjusted it according to what ingredients I had in the refrigerator or the garden. It’s easy to assemble and serves well either hot or cold. I’ve added corn, chopped tomatoes, cooked bacon, fresh herbs and the dish is always a crowd favorite. Start with the following ingredients: eggs, Monterey Jack cheese, cottage cheese, flour, baking powder, diced green chiles, butter and seasoning (salt, pepper, garlic powder). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

ingredients

Melt the butter and add all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix until well blended and eggs are beaten.

adding cheese

Pour blended ingredients into a buttered 9×14 inch baking dish.

uncooked

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 375 degrees for 30 minutes. Egg casserole will be nicely browned on top –insert a toothpick and will be done if it comes out clean.

cooked

Let the casserole cool for 5 minutes before serving. Depending on the size of the piece, will easily serve 10-12.

serving

eating

Mary’s Green Chile Casserole

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

10-12 eggs

1/2 Cup Flour

1 T. baking powder

1 pint/2 cups cottage cheese

1 large can (or 2 small cans) green chiles diced

1/2 cup melted butter

1 lb. Monterey Jack cheese (grated)

Salt, garlic powder, pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl until well blended. Pour into a buttered 9×14 pan. Bake for 15 minutes on 400 degrees and then 30 minutes on 375 degrees. Great for any meal of the day! Serve warm or cold.

Enjoy!

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Making nut milk is SO EASY!!!! After realizing some mass-produced nut milk includes additives, I decided to make my own. It literally takes a few minutes to make fresh nut milk and you get to control the quality of the ingredients.

Certain nuts require soaking overnight to break down their digestive enzymes (almonds). Some suggest soaking all nuts in water to help aid in digestion. Since I never seem to plan ahead with soaking the almonds, I’ve grown fond of using hazelnuts, cashews and pistachios, which I do not soak. However, if you tend to have problems with digestion, then you may want to research the benefits of soaking nuts before making milk (link) .

I use three simple ingredients-water, nuts, and dates (or sweetener of your choice) . You can also add spices if you’d like-cinnamon, cardamon or even vanilla extract. Be creative!

Place 4 cups of water (filtered) in a blender (I love my Vitamix), add 1 cup of nuts of your choice (for this recipe: I used 1/2 cup of raw pistachios and 1/2 cup of raw unsalted cashews), add one date (or more if you want the milk sweeter-make sure you remove the pit- I use Trader Joe’s Fancy Medjool Dates). Gradually increase the blender speed until the nuts and dates are ground finely-60 seconds or so. mixer

Pour the milk into a nut bag -LOVE this nut bag: Pure Joy Planet Nut Milk Bag and squeeze away! I tried using cheesecloth but this nut bag is a worthy $6.95 investment.

milkbag1

I love the pale green color of this milk. It’s perfect for lattes, iced coffee and it’s dairy-free! Each morning I make a latte – my Nespresso machine makes the best espresso and their milk frother creates hot or cold foamed milk. I pour it all in my “happy” cup (from Anthropologie) and the day begins. The topping of ground sugar, chocolate and coffee was originally purchased at Trader Joe’s. However, they don’t stock this anymore, so my sweet husband fills the grinder with German rock sugar, dark chocolate and coffee beans.

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Nut Milk Recipe:

4 cups of water (filtered)

1 cup nuts (pistachios, cashews, almonds*)

Date (to sweeten)

Pinch of salt (if desired)

Put all ingredients in a blender. Blend until smooth. Strain the milk through a nut bag or fine-meshed sieve. Squeeze to remove all of the liquid. Store and refrigerate and enjoy!

*Some nuts need to be soaked to break down the enzyme inhibitors. Soak in water 10 hours or overnight. Rinse well before using.

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Tried and True Recipe- Egg Casserole

Making Nut Milk