Fix-It-Fridays: Breakfast On-The-Go

My tummy, much like my brain, takes awhile to wake up in the morning. It's next to impossible for me to eat anything before I leave the house in the morning, meaning I have to grab something at the office.

The additional difficulty for me is fitting a grab-and-go breakfast in with my diet plan. The best way for me to lose weight is limit my carbs substantially. This means no bagel, toast, english muffin, granola bar, breakfast sandwich, hashbrowns.

So, fix it! What's your on-the-go breakfast plan? Any suggestions for something easy I can prepare ahead of time or even just bring along to work?

Fix-It-Fridays: How to Boil an Egg

There's more than one way to skin a cat (is that an inappropriate reference for a foodish blog?) and there's more than one way to hard boil an egg.

Some people claim a very specific method to boiling eggs. They even make a very specific little uni-tasker for this purpose - the egg timer! Yet there's no method to my madness. Sometimes I bring the water to a boil first. Sometimes I throw the eggs in before it boils. I don't set any timers so I just boil them until I remember to go back and turn the stove off. Usually this is before all the water has evaporated from the pan. Is it possible to boil eggs for to long?

I've always wondered if there's a correct technique and yet I rarely have problems.

So, fix it! What's your version of the proper way to boil an egg? Do you add anything to the water? Submerge in cold water? Peel while still hot or wait until they cool down?

Fix-It-Fridays: Grilled Cheese

As the weather begins to turn towards Fall, I start to think of comfort foods. On a crisp afternoon, I'm not sure anything is better than a nice bowl of tomato soup with a grilled cheese available for dipping. So today's "Fix-It" is grilled cheese. Because as much as everybody loves it unless they are weirdos, there are a million different ways to make it. From the bread to the cheese to other additives (tomatoes or peppers?) to the cooking method, the variations are endless.

Our favorite cheese is probably Jarlsberg, as inspired by the movie The Devil Wears Prada. It's a very mild cheese with a delightful amount of melt. If that's not available (but we usually have it on hand), we'll use Velveeta. Velveeta may be unnatural but there is something about the melty gooeyness of Velveeta "cheese product" that makes a lovely grilled cheese.

I'll admit to using whatever bread we have around - usually plain old sandwich bread - slathered in a lot of butter. Most often my cooking method is either a frying pan on the stove or our beloved Cuisinart Griddler. It's a much more squishy sandwich but still very yummy.

If we plan ahead, we're much more likely to experiment with other cheeses and breads. I haven't done much as far as adding things to the cheese other than occasionally some ham but I imagine tomatoes would be very yummy.

So, fix it! Tell me about your grilled cheese sandwich. Inspire our comfort food so we can be prepared for the falling leaves and frosty afternoons.

Fix-It-Fridays: Tasty Salad

This week's edition of "Fix-It-Friday" tackles a dinner staple - salad.

What's your favorite salad? What do you like to add on top? What are you favorite dressings?

I like to use spinach for my salad greens. My favorite 'recipe' for salad involves spinach, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, and a homemade dressing based on red wine vinegar. There's also some sort of cheese but I can't remember what kind.

For my "standard" salad during the week, I usually add Craisins, red onion, feta, and a bit of balsamic vinegar/olive oil.

Yes, you'll notice a bit of a trend there. I try to keep my dressing simple - a little oil and vinegar. I have a recipe for balsamic dressing that involves the addition of mustard and garlic. For store-bought dressings, I try to stick to the "lighter" dressings but I try to avoid them.

So, weigh in with your thoughts on greens!

Fix-It-Fridays: Spice Up My Burger!

I'm feeling optimistic today so I'm going to say that grilling season is just around the corner. I'm fortunate enough to live in a location where we can use our grill almost year-round, which is awesome. But there's still something about warmer temperatures that makes the season feel new.

Today's "Fix-It" is burgers. What do you add to burgers to make them more exciting? Is it something you add to the meat before you cook it? Is it how you dress the cooked burger before serving it? Maybe it's even the meat itself.

Last night, I tried a recipe for Tex-Mex Burgers with Cajun Mayo with the following variations:

• We were running low on Cajun seasoning so I added a bit of cayenne pepper to the burger mix and served with plain mayo
• I used some leftover scallions instead of white onion
• I used Jarlsburg cheese due to availability
• No lettuce, tomato, or buns

I assembled the raw burgers and Joe grilled them up. Next time, I'll make sure we have more Cajun seasoning (I used ours up on the sweet potato fries) and the pepperjack cheese would've been awesome.

These were delicious but now I've created a monster. Joe has declared he will never eat "plain" burgers again. Yeah, wishful thinking.

So, fix it! Share your ideas for sprucing up a regular burger in the comments. Burgers are such a summer staple, I bet there are a lot of great ideas out there.

Fix-It-Fridays

Each Friday, I'll post an ingredient, a recipe, a menu, something for you to fix. Maybe it's something that went horribly wrong or maybe it's just totally bland (which is the same as horribly wrong, is it not?). Whatever the case may be, your suggestions for "fixing" it are requested!

Have a topic you'd like to see in this category? Please post it to the comments and I'll schedule it!