A Tasty Breakfast For One -or- How to Make Use of Leftovers

Every Kitchen Ruler should know how to cook for him/herself.

A lot of people use the idea of being alone as an excuse NOT to cook. I think being alone is a fantastic opportunity to play in the kitchen, especially when making breakfast. If you have eggs and a little milk, you’re halfway there to making a delicious frittata for yourself. If you don’t want to spend money that day, you’re in for a treat.

One of the good things about a frittata is that once you master the idea behind it, you can actually serve it for brunch (maybe even dinner) on a larger scale. Play around with the recipe below and let me know what you think.

The basic idea is quite simple: anything goes. This is a great time to open your fridge and see what you have in there. Look for leftover meats, look for leftover half-cut up veggies, look for some greens. That’s it. Use common sense in deciding what goes with eggs, but you will find that mostly anything goes. Except for saucy pasta. I don’t think it could work. Maybe you can prove me wrong.

What did I find? I had some leftover boneless buffalo wings, scallions, eggs and milk. Let’s make some room in the fridge and make you something tasty in the process.

What you’ll need:

• A small personal-sized skillet. If you don’t have one, use a medium one. Make sure it does NOT have a plastic handle.
• A small bowl
• A chopping board and a knife
• 3-4 eggs (depending on size)
• ¼ cup of milk
• Your other ingredients. For the sake of this recipe, we’ll assume you have (1) Meat and (1) Green. (Peppers, onions and other vegetables work really well here as well)
• 1/3 cup of finely grated melt-able cheese (Cheddar is better!)
• Olive Oil or Olive Oil Spray (see below)

Difference between olive oil and olive-oil-flavored spray:

I am not gonna lie to you: Olive oil is much better for you than any flavored spray you can buy. However, practically speaking, olive oil is much more expensive and doesn’t always work the right way. For cooking eggs, I thoroughly recommend the spray. Why? You can cover the entire bottom of the pan. It’s cheaper. It doesn’t distract from the flavor. But the main reason: it won’t pool up under the eggs preventing them from being cooked right on the hot skillet surface.

If you’re unfamiliar with olive-oil flavored sprays, this is the basic one to have in your cupboard. It lasts forever and can be a handy tool for any Kitchen Ruler:




Step 1:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.


Step 2:

Finely chop up your protein or veggie additives (in my case, the leftover boneless buffalo wings). Finely chop up your greens (in my case, scallions).


Step 3:

Generously spray your skillet with olive-oil-flavored spray. Put on low heat to warm.


Step 4:

Crack 3-4 eggs into a vessel. Add the milk. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Add a pinch of cheese. Throw in the protein. Mix thoroughly until the yolks are broken and the mixture is uniform.


Step 5:

Pour the entire mixture into your skillet. Turn the heat to medium-high and leave alone for 3-4 minutes. Watch for the bottom of the mixture to firm up while the top remains somewhat eggy.


Step 6:

Pour the remainder of your cheese on top of the mixture. Now pour the chopped greens on top.


Step 7:

Take your skillet off the stovetop and put it into the oven. Leave in there for about 5-7 minutes (or until the top begins to look crispy).


Step 8:

Take out and serve right off the skillet immediately with a side of a leafy green salad and maybe some hot sauce if you are into that. Here’s what the it looked like before plating:



Since you’ll be eating by yourself, feel free to serve it any way you like. (I prefer to cut slices, like it’s a pizza pie.)

Enjoy!