St. Valentine’s Healthy Heart Breakfast

“God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him” –1Jn 4:16

SAINT VALENTINE

Priest and Martyr

February 14 -  feast of St. Valentine in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite

SIMPLE / RED

During the persecution under Emperor Claudius II, Valentine, a zealous priest in Rome, ministered boldly to the martyr. He was arrested and taken before the prefect, who made tempting offers to induce him to apostatize. Finding that he was wasting his breath, the prefect condemned Valentine to death. The beheading took place on February 14, about the year 270. The true follower of Christ ignores worldly caution when he is called upon to bear witness to Jesus. "The inclination of the flesh is death, but the inclination of the spirit, life and peace" (Rom. 8:6)

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St. Valentine is my family’s patron saint for 2012.  We are trying to find simple ways to celebrate.  This is the first, complete year for my family’s radical diet change.  That mean’s no more traditional sweet treats for us.  (Don’t worry, we are not deprived and we do eat!)

We start the day with a healthy serving of protein, usually eggs and bacon.  Here is our take for St. Valentine’s Breakfast – Egg cupcake, heart bacon, and love berries.

I’ve listed more St. Valentine’s resources here.

St. Valentine ~ ora pro nobis

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Recipe: St. Valentine’s Health Heart Breakfast

Egg Cupcakes

Prep Time: 10 min. | Cook Time: 18 min.| Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 18-20 Egg Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

• 10-12 eggs 
• cooked meat (optional)
• 1 green onion
• 1-2 zucchini
• 2-3 cups spinach
• red & yellow bell peppers
• olive oil
• sea salt and black pepper

PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• Grease muffin pan with olive oil
• Scramble eggs in bowl
• Use the food processor to finely chop spinach, zucchini, bell peppers and green onion. (Do not purify mixture.)
• Add the mixture to the scrambled eggs.   Mix well and season to taste.
• Fill the muffin pan with 1/4 cup of the egg mixture. 
• Bake for 18-25 minutes or until the eggs are set in the middle. – DO NOT OVERCOOK.

NOTES:

The kids love this version of eggs.  It’s perfect for breakfast on-the-go.  We use it for our Sunday breakfast since we have an hour drive to Mass.  You could also make these the night before and re-heat.

Dad likes to garnish his egg cupcakes with salsa.  I prefer guacamole.

I pictured another version of eggs - soft boiled egg and plain egg cupcakes.  Soft boiled egg – break the egg into a greased cupcake pan, season, and bake for 8-10 min. Plain Egg Cupcake – follow the directions above sans veggies.

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Heart Bacon

INGREDIENTS

• bacon

PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• fold two pieces of bacon into a heart shape
• cook in a George Forman Grill or oven.

NOTES:

This shaped bacon works better in a George Forman Grill.

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Love Berries

INGREDIENTS

• strawberries

PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• remove the stem by cutting a small triangle into the top of the strawberry
• slice strawberry in half – horizontally

NOTES:

I often use frozen berries.  Defrost the berries.