Hubby’s Valentine’s Breakfast in Bed

I woke up extra early this morning to put together a special surprise for hubby for Valentine’s Day, since he already took me out to celebrate.

I snuck out of bed, moved a couple key items (tray, clothes to go out in, and magazine with recipe) to the living room area, and took the dog out. I was as quiet as possible, hoping hubby would continue to sleep in (like he usually does on the weekends).

After taking the dog out, I changed clothes quickly and ran to the grocery store, a local hardware store (they have cute kitchen stuff), and a local bakery. I got the groceries I needed for breakfast, 2 new seersucker placemats (on sale for $3 each, plus I had a $5 off coupon!) from the hardware store, and 2 sweet treats from the bakery. By the time I got back, I was thankful to see hubby was still asleep, and I got started on breakfast.

I took a cue from my February Martha Stewart Living magazine and decided to make the same egg, toast, and bacon breakfast I saw pictured in the mag for hubby.

I used Texas Toast as the base bread for the meal.

I went through a couple pieces trying to get the perfect heart shape for hubby’s plate. I figured I could take one of the “messed up” ones.

The cutting was the tricky part – the rest was a cinch.

While the food cooked, I prepped his tray and made a breakfast drink based on this recipe from Ina using some of my weekly food challenge ingredient – pomegranate juice.

The first one I made using just pom juice and pelligrino, based on a review on the recipe online saying it didn’t need sugar. Before serving, I gave the drink a quick taste test. I knew hubby wouldn’t drink it the way it tasted, so I tried adding a splash of OJ. No dice…in fact, it kinda tasted worse with the OJ. I quickly made a simple syrup (just 1 part sugar, 1 part water melted/heated together in a small pot over medium low heat). I mixed together another drink with about half pom juice and half pelligrino along with about 1 tbsp of the simple syrup and this was much more up my hubby’s alley. I added a little more simple syrup (hubby likes his sweets and it was Valentine’s afterall) and garnished the drink with a piece of lime. 🙂

I set the plate the same way Martha did, but I added one of those sweet treats I got from the bakery – a cinnamon pretzel twist donut. It’s one of hubby’s faves. I also added a Valentine’s-themed paper napkin, a small pink flower, and his breakfast mocktail.

Hubby looked so happy to see me waking him up with a tray full of goodies and his big goofy grin made my day.

Happy Valentine’s everyone!

Egg in Toast Breakfast

Adapted from a recipe in Martha Stewart Living

1 slice Texas Toast

1 large egg

3 tsp butter

non-stick cooking spray

salt & pepper

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Use a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut out a heart in the center of a piece of Texas Toast. In pan, melt 1 1/2 tsp butter. Add the outer piece of Texas Toast to the pan and cook till light brown on one side. Melt another 1 1/2 tsp of butter in pan and flip bread. Spray the cookie cutter with non-stick spray and fit into the heart-shaped hole of the bread in the pan. Pour 1 egg into the cookie cutter, cover pan, and cook for 2-3 minutes. Meanwhile, toast the heart-shaped center piece of the Texas Toast. When the egg is done cooking, remove cookie cutter with some tongs (don’t touch, it’s hot!) and serve bread/egg on a large plate. Sprinkle egg part with salt & pepper to taste. Add toasted heart-shaped bread to the plate to dip into the yolk.