Portabella Mushroom, String Cheese & Herb Omelet - Video Recipe

This breakfast is extravagant. It's not often I will make a Portabella Mushroom Omelet, but when I can get this high-end fungi for 99.99 cents, why not go for it? Thick, meaty slices of mushroom cradled by melted cheese, and wrapped in fluffy cooked egg, is a great way to start the day.

I make this omelet old school, diner-style. The egg is whipped with a little milk and cooked all the way through -- with a nice browned exterior. As a contrast, I made a soggy, French-style Cheese Omelette video a couple of months ago (check it out here.) It's good, but sometimes I like my food well done.

I gotta give it up the my local 99c only Stores for the main ingredient. A 5 ounce package often holds 2 to 3 nice-sized ones. And, you'll only need one mushroom per omelet, so, go ahead and invite a friend and make a few of these tasty suckers for breakfast.

I get string cheese there, too. You can use any favorite cheese you have on hand, or find on sale. And, I get my herbs for free, from my patio garden. You can sprinkle in a little dried herbs if you don't have fresh - or just leave them out, this omelet is luscious enough.

I get may eggs cheaply here is Los Angeles, anywhere from a dozen to a half dozen for a dolllar. 

Mushrooms are easy to work with, just brush off the dirt and slice them.

You can use any mushrooms you find on sale, it's all good. I like a tasty omelet sometimes, and when mushrooms are on sale, that's excuse enough to make my Portabella Mushroom, String Cheese & Herb Omelet.

Portabella Mushroom, String Cheese & Herb Omelet - VIDEO

Play it here, video runs 1 minute, 40 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.
Ingredients

• 3 eggs - okay to make it a 2 egg omelet.
• 1 portabella - per omelet. Okay to use small button mushrooms or any you can get cheaply. Add as many sauteed mushrooms to omelet as you like.
• 1 stick of string cheese - okay to use any favorite cheese, like: mozzarella, Swiss, cheddar or plain American.
• 1 teaspoon herbs - any favorite, I used parsley and basil. Okay to use dried herbs - but just a 1/4 teaspoon or a small sprinkle.
• 1 tablespoons milk - to mix into eggs.
• 2 tablespoons oil - one for mushrooms and one tablespoon for frying omelet.
• Salt and pepper - to taste.

Directions
Chop herbs, I used parsley and basil.  Shred or slice cheese.

Prepare portabella mushroom for sauteing. Brush off any dirt. Thick-slice mushroom.  Okay to use any mushrooms on sale, including button mushrooms.

Add 1 tablespoon oil to a medium/hot pan. Saute mushroom slices until soft, about 2-4 minutes. Set aside when done.

Add 2 to 3 eggs to a bowl. Pour in 1 tablespoon of milk (optional.) Whisk the eggs and milk to blend well.

Heat frying pan to medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of oil (less oil for a non-stick omelet pan.) Pour in beaten eggs into medium/hot pan. Let it cook for a minute then add extra ingredients. I add the cheese and mushrooms on one half, and the herbs on the other half.

 Click on any photo to see larger.

Let the omelet cook until eggs are starting to firm up, but still slightly wet. Depending on heat of pan and how many eggs you used, it takes another minute or two.

Gently fold the omelet in half. Cook omelet to desired doneness, about another 30 seconds or a minute.

Just cut into the thickest part of omelet to check for slight dampness. Of course, you can cook the omelet until dry. A hot omelet will continue to cook and dry until eaten.

Brussels Sprouts & Chicken Stir Fry

Blame it on my local 99c only Store that I keep coming up with Brussels sprouts recipes. They're too easy to get cheaply these days. So here comes another recipe with them called Brussels Sprouts & Chicken Stir Fry

I've cooked Brussels spouts every which way, from an appetizer of Baked Bacon Wrapped (click on any name to see the recipe) to sauteed in a Buttery Pasta, and just plain Roasted. About the only way I've yet to do it is deep fried - hmmm...that's gotta be next.

If you are not so lucky in finding these flavorful mini-cabbages, then just substitute with half a head of cheaper cabbage -- it's all good.

Brussels sprouts need minimal preparation: slice off woody stem ends and discard yellow leaves, that's it. If they are extra large, you may want to slice them in half. 

Chicken is the cheapest of protein that I always find on sale, especially in local Latin markets. I used skinless and boneless dark meat for less than a dollar per pound, now that's the right price.

It's cheapest to work with leg quarters or dark meat, while white meat is easiest for removing skin and bone. But once you've deboned legs and thighs a few times, it's gets easy enough.

When I'm in a hurry, or just too lazy to think too much by dinnertime, I go to a quick Chinese stir fry. All you need is some soy sauce and a sweetener. And if you have a bottle of stir fry sauce or oyster sauce for extra flavor, then you are ready to go.

By the time a pot of rice is cooked my average stir fry recipe is ready, like this Brussels Sprouts & Chicken Stir Fry.

Ingredients (2-4 servings)

• 10 ounce package Brussels sprouts - okay to substitute with half a head of cabbage, roughly chopped.
• 2-3 pieces of chicken - boneless and skinless. I used dark meat. Okay to use leaner white meat chicken. Okay to add as much chicken as you like.
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce - I used low sodium.
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce - okay to substitute any favorite stir fry sauce.
• 1 teaspoon honey - or favorite sweetener.
• 1 tablespoons corn starch - okay to substitute with flour. Mixing in corn starch or flour will make the sauce thicken.
• Pepper to taste - optional. I left out salt as soy sauce has plenty for me.
• Oil for stir frying - about 3 tablespoons total.
• 2 cups of cooked rice - white or brown rice. Okay to make more rice.

Directions
Cook rice according to package directions. One cup of uncooked rice makes about 2 cups when steamed.

Remove skin from chicken pieces and slice out the bone. White meat is easiest to remove bone from. I bought skinless and boneless dark meat chicken for this recipe.

Slice chicken into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle on corn starch to coat the chicken pieces.

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a medium/hot pan. Add chicken and stir fry it until cooked all the way through, about 3-5 minutes. Slice into thickest chicken piece to make sure there is no pink juices when done. Chicken doesn't need to brown, just cook through. Remove chicken when done.

While chicken cooks, rinse off Brussels sprouts, if necessary. Next, slice off the tough stem ends of each Brussels sprout. Make a very thin slice, no need to take off too much.

Remove any yellow leaves. If some green leaves detach, just add them to the pan for stir frying.

Slice Brussels sprouts in half, lengthwise. If the sprouts are small then you can leave them whole. In the package I bought Brussels sprouts were about 1 to 2 inches tall.

Add another tablespoon of oil to pan if necessary. Cooked chicken may have left some liquid in the pan - that's extra flavor so don't pour it out. And the veggies will help steam loose any charred tasty chicken bits.

Stir in cleaned and sliced Brussels sprouts. Saute until tender. Should not take more than 2-4 minutes. It's up to you how well done the cooked veggies become.

*Regular chopped cabbage is a cheaper substitution (almost the same flavor too, and takes a similar amount of cooking time as Brussels sprouts.

Spoon on 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and oyster sauce. Add a teaspoon of honey or any favorite sweetener.

Click on any image to see larger.

Finally add the cooked chicken pieces and mix all ingredients. Heat through until hot, about another minute or two.

Serve Brussels Sprouts & Chicken Stir Fry over rice. It's delish without rice for the carb-averse.

Chicken Mole Bowl by Herdez - Deal of the Day

Deeply flavorful mole sauce is what it's about for my latest Deal of the Day find. The sauce is studded with chunks of tender real chicken, and a side of tender Cilantro Rice fills out the meal. It is an impressive steal at 99.99 cents for this frozen entree from Herdez called Chicken Mole Bowl.

While not as refined as what a Oaxacan restaurant would serve, this mole a rich version. It tastes a little bit bitter and a little bit sweet; it's mild, but seasoned with chiles, spices, and nuts.

A typical mole is made of more than 20 ingredients, including: ancho and pasilla peppers, cocoa, peanuts, cinnamon, sesame seeds, cumin, cloves, garlic and more -- all ground into a pungent paste. The paste is added to liquid to form a gravy, that's then added to chicken or any favorite meat, to make a stew.

I could not detect any spicy heat, so this Deal of the Day is for everyone.

Click on any photo to see larger.

The chicken in this Deal of the Day is white and dark meat. Cheap frozen dinners usually just spare few meager tiny pieces of chicken that are most often than not cubed from a processed meat loaf. That is not the problem here; there are plenty of nice sized pieces from tender fillets. It's real chicken with real flaky texture. 

You get a lot of mole sauce to sop up the Cilantro Rice. The rice is not mushy like most frozen fare and while there are specks of the green herb cilantro, it is subtle - I would have made the cilantro flavor more pronounced. It's a minor quibble though. There is also a small amount of tomato sauce flavor. Overall, I liked the way the rice was prepared and flavored.

So on the 99 Cent Chef's Cheap$kate Dining Scale of 1 to 9, 9 being best, I give Chicken Mole Bowl by Herdez a perfect 9! I don't know if this Deal of the Day will be back at my local 99c only Store, but in the meantime, I would actually pay full price for this frozen entree from any regular grocery store I find it in.

Top 9 Recipes of 2015

As far as year end lists go, this is one you can really sink your teeth into. And all of my top picks are deliciously cheap to make. Just click on any recipe name to see the original 2015 blogpost, or play any embedded video below. The ranking order is random and not by delectability, so go ahead and dig in!

First up is an oldie but goody, creamy Fettuccine Alfredo. While I first published this recipe in 2010, it has proved to be one of my most popular. So in 2015 I brought it back as a stop motion animated video. Enjoy.



I changed how I make omelets this year. 99 thank to local French born celebrity chef Ludo Lefebvre. You may now him from the NBC cooking show The Taste. My second Top 9 Recipe is for a Cheese Omelette made in the French manner.

 American-style is to brown the outside and cook the eggs until solid all the way through, while Ludo's way is more slow and gentle, finishing with a moist interior. Basically a slow scramble until you gently roll the eggs into an omelet shape like this:

Here's my arty animated version of Chef Ludo's French-style Cheese Omelette.



I've never got why recipes call for pounding meat into a thin wafer that's fried, baked or sauteed into dry shoe leather. I guess it's tradition at work. Well, for my third Top 9 Recipe I turn the tables and toss out that tainted technique. Here's how I do Chicken Parmesan in Marinara Sauce.

Just put on some Dean Martin tunes, grab a bottle of Chiante, and give this Italian crunchy-coated classic a spin:



We are in the shivering days of winter and for my forth Top 9 Recipe you will want to rustle up a bowl of bubbling Green Split Pea Soup with Ham. My version is comfort food for the soul. So put on a slow-cooking pot of it to get your kitchen toasty and aromatic.

I don't know about you, but I'm starting some today.

For years end it's a party! My fifth Top 9 Recipe will get the ball rolling for any gathering: Bacon Wrapped Brussels Sprouts.

It really is my cutest video recipe for the year. To make this appealing appetizer a little more light, I show you a turkey bacon version, too. Roasted porcine wrapped mini-cabbages are a flavor-bomb powerful enough to wage war on the most embedded taste buds.



I seldom cook with beef because it's just too darn expensive. But I made an exception with my sixth Top 9 Recipe of Pasta alla Genovese. This cut of cow is the right price for about $2 per pound, called beef shank - not too bad. It's one tough cut of beef that I wrestle into tenderness by slow braising it for hours in white wine with a pot full of sliced onion.

While you need patience waiting for this Italian classic, your reward is a deeply beef flavored pasta sauce any Italian grandmother would approve of.



I make the seventh Top 9 Recipe more often than any other: Mexican Chicken Tinga.

This recipe is a 2fer. You can scoop it onto a plate of rice or just stuff it into a taco or burrito. Plus it's so cheap and easy to make, with very few ingredients to deal with, just a couple of canned items, onion, garlic and chicken. It's crock pot cuisine that freezes well -- I pack it into a container for office lunches. When you try it, I think it will be a favorite for you too.



Loco Moco, a Hawaiian bred entree, is my eighth Top 9 Recipe. If you are a calorie counter then scroll on, but if you break your fast from time to time then cheat with this decedent breakfast of sticky rice, a fat ground beef patty, gravy, and it's all topped with fried eggs - now that's a mouthful.

This recipe came about after a vacation trip last summer to the tropical island of Ohau, Hawaii. I spied locals, shirtless and in swimming trunks (possibly surfers on a late breakfast carb-loading break,) carrying piled plates to their tables. It looked like too much, but I eventually gave it a go and boy was it good. Substitute a low-fat ground chicken or turkey patty if it makes you feel better.



Finally my ninth Top 9 Recipe is my cheapest yet, a Black Pepper Stir Fry with chicken and celery. One of the least expensive veggies is a head of celery. I always end up throwing away a few stalks, so I decided to make a recipe before that happens next time, and this is the result of my fugalness.

Although I never eat at Panda Express, that doesn't mean I can't ripoff a recipe from there. I usually get mine from cheaper restaurant takeout stations in Chinatown for a lot less than what Panda Express charges. Just click here to see how fast and easy you can make it.

It has been a fruitfully abundant year of recipes here at the Cheap$kate Chateau. I did the heavy lifting for you, so now all you have to do is pick a recipe link and save yourself some hard earned cash by trying out any of the above.

And make sure to keep checking in here from time to time, while my tastes are cheap, my recipe flavors are top shelf!