Grilled Portobello Benedict

The main influence in deciding to go vegetarian for a month was our friends Brett and Kathryn.  Neither one of them is actually vegetarian but they both consume way more veggie based meals than meat based meals and they both truly enjoy them.

Hubby and I get together with them every week for our Shop & Shoot Night.  Shop & Shoot Night consists of dinner all together then the boys go shoot stuff in video games and Kathryn and I go shopping.  Week after week they've shown me that fabulous meals don't have to revolve around meat.  

When they came over for dinner this week I decided to finally try Kathryn's highly recommended recipe for Grilled Portobello Benedict (adapted from Ellie Krieger's version).  Since it was her recipe Kathryn did most of the cooking and I was her helper/photographer.  

You'll want one portobello per person.  Note there are only three.  Hubby ate scrambled eggs with ham and cheese.  There's no way he'd even dream of eating this.

Start by cleaning the portobello mushrooms. Remove the stem and weird gills and wipe with a damp paper towel.  Coat the mushrooms in olive oil, salt and pepper on both sides.  Grill in a grill pan or BBQ if you want to stand outside in the cold.

While the mushrooms are grilling crack two eggs per mushroom into a mixing bowl.  Please note my fabulous action shot here.

Beat the eggs a bit with some milk (and butter if you're Kathryn).

Scramble the eggs but don't let them get brown or Kathryn won't eat them.

When the mushrooms are done take them off the heat but keep them in the pan.  Add some spinach on top.

Top the spinach with the scrambled eggs.  The heat from the mushroom and the eggs will wilt the spinach.

Then top the eggs with feta (or whatever cheese you'd like) and some prepared pesto.

Here you should add some toasted pine nuts.  Unfortunately we forgot but we did add avocados instead which were quite tasty.  If you'd like you can also enjoy your Grilled Portobello Benedict with a little arugula salad like we did.  Just toss some arugula with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and parmesan cheese.

After our shopping trip Kathryn and I tested recipes for the drink contest at our upcoming Super Bowl party.  I really wanted to like this drink.  Mostly because of it's name.  It's funny and naughty.  It's a Dirty Pickle.  

I didn't care for it but Kathryn, who likes dirty martinis, says that if you like dirty martinis and pickles you'd like this.  It tasted way too much like alcohol for me to like it.  I prefer my alcohol to taste like candy which is exactly what my super secret entry for the drink contest tastes like.