As a student, I feel obliged to claim breakfast-for-dinner as one of my favourite things. Living with two roommates who make delicious-looking, healthy pancakes for nearly every meal, I’m frequently reminded of how much I’m craving early-morning food. Late last week, this craving was uncontrollable. I had no choice but to search page upon page of Tastespotting until I found some new fangled breakfast recipe.

Success was achieved in the form of this fantastic chickpea, tomato and roasted red pepper breakfast skillet. Utilizing the exact ingredients I had lying around (including a two-month-old [but still good] jar of roasted red peppers), this meal came together in a flash.

A few lessons learned:
– Parchment paper cannot be broiled. I think I almost lit it on fire.
– Like parchment paper, glass corningware is also not content with being broiled. I ended up cooking this in a wannabe skillet (hence the name), aka a metal pie pan with aluminum foil lining the base.

In other news, broiled eggs are the best thing in the universe. Maybe it’s just me, but eggs that are a little solid on the outside and soft and runny on the inside are just perfect. In fact, I wish I had covered this entire skillet with egg. I will know for next time.

This simple dinner dish ended with sliced avocado and twelve grain toast. A culmination of my favourite things.

And now, a sad excuse…
I’m lacking superb pictures for this meal simply because Mother Nature was conspiring against me. I made this meal one night when the clouds were as dark and ominous and the sun was running off for its early, 6:30 p.m. retreat. To counter this, I brought my skillet out onto the sidewalk to take advantage of the fleeting moments of light.

About two seconds and many awkward passers-by stares later and the sky opened up and the downpour began.

I bolted up the stairs and onto the porch, enjoying my breakfast as the day faded into night.

Recipe: The breakfast-for-dinner three egg (wannabe) skillet
Adapted from Spork me
– 3/4 can chickpeas, drained
– 3/4 tsp smoked paprika paprika
– 1/2 tsp dried thymes
– 1/2 a can (28 oz) of diced tomatoes, drained
– 1/3 cup roasted red peppers
– 1/2 onion, diced
– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 3 eggs (or more to up the delicious factor)
– Salt and pepper
– 1/2 avocado

Preheat your oven to broil/grill.
In a medium-sized non-stick pan, saute chickpeas, onion, thyme and paprika in the olive oil. Once the onions are soft (about 5 minutes), add the tomatoes and peppers. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

After about three minutes, use a slotted spoon to scoop the chickpea mixture into a oven-proof dish (like I said earlier, I used a metal pie tin lined with aluminium foil).

Place on the top rack of the oven and grill until the chickpeas start to brown slightly. Remove and crack the eggs of the dish. Grill for another five minutes in the oven, until the egg whites are cooked but the yolks are still soft.

Remove from oven and serve immediately with thinly sliced avocado and toast.

Makes two servings.