Papa Lena's Healthy foods Inc. (312-455-8100) Hand made specialty gourmet food products Sweet Red Pepper Chips® and Bodacious Beet Chips® are unlike anything you've ever tasted. Unique, different, and delicious. A burst of flavor in every bite. At Papa Lena' s Healthy Foods Inc. we have found so many versatile uses for the crispy chips that we have added a line of products including giardinera, salad dressings, pasta sauce, tapenades, caponetta, and dips. Our latest and most exciting addition is our Bodacious Beet Chips®. We welcome you to try our healthy treats!

Pepper & Egg Sandwich Serves 2 5 large eggs (lowfat version: 2 yolks, 5 whites), scrambled and whisked together in a bowl with ½ to ¾ cup crushed Papa Lena’s Sweet Red Pepper Chips ¼ cup freshly grated Romano cheese 1 green and red pepper, sliced thinly Salt and Pepper to taste ½ to ¾ cups of Shredded Mozzarella cheese (optional) 2 Italian buns or Chicago Gonnella bread cut into buns.

Being raised as an Italian-American Catholic, we were absolutely forbidden to eat meat on Friday until the Vatican seemed to arbitrarily decide it was no longer a mortal sin.

Since fish sticks were only for the “Medicans” (Americans) and gourmet fresh fish was not available (pre-Whole Foods and fresh fish in supermarkets era), the tradition of pepper & egg sandwiches on Friday became a staple.

Every Italian had their own recipe; green peppers and/or red peppers thickly or thinly sliced, Romano cheese (we didn’t even consider Parmesan, which was for Northern Italians),

Mozzarella cheese, no cheese, hot pepper, giardinerrra hot peppers, fried in olive oil, fried in butter, made into a frittata (omelet), or scrambled. No matter how it was prepared, it was always served on hot, crispy, crusty Italian bread from Gonnella bakery on Erie street.

We would take the long loaf, cut it into sandwich size, slice it lengthwise, and then bake it for ten or fifteen minutes. I don’t know why, but we always grabbed it with our bare hands out of the oven and inevitably burned our fingertips. Wow, maybe it was self-inflicted penance for our sins we committed at ten years old. Oh boy, I better call my therapist!

This is our version using our pepper chips, developed and tested in our own kitchen on an overcast Friday afternoon during Lent…

Catholic Pepper & Egg Sandwich Serves 2

5 large eggs (lowfat version: 2 yolks, 5 whites), scrambled and whisked together in a bowl with

½ to ¾ cup crushed Papa Lena’s Roasted Red Pepper Chips

More about Papa Lena's Healthy Gourmet Gluten Free Roasted Red Bell Pepper Snack Chips

¼ cup freshly grated Romano cheese

1 green and red pepper, sliced thinly

Salt and Pepper to taste

½ to ¾ cups of Shredded Mozzarella cheese (optional)

2 Italian buns or Gonnella bread cut into buns

Roasted Red Pepper Chips

Bodacious Beet Chips

In a medium frying pan, heat 2-3 tbls of extra-virgin olive oil on medium heat (Lowfat version: heat 1 tsp olive oil with ¼ cup water). Add green peppers and sauté (fry) with lid on for 5-10 minutes until tender. The peppers need to be soft, not crispy, crunchy.

If pan is dry, add more olive oil or olive oil spray. Pour egg mixture over green peppers and continue to scramble around the pan until medium set. Add Romano cheese and Mozzarella over top of cooked egg. Shut off heat and remove pan from burner. Cover with lid and let it set for 5-8 minutes while bread is baking. Cheese should be melted and eggs set. Sprinkle pepper and egg with salt, cracked pepper

and hot pepper flakes if desired. Separate into 2 servings and serve on hot crusty bread or buns baked for 10 minutes at 350 degrees, add Papa Lena’s Hot Pepper Giardinerra mix and you’re good to go.

Oh, a nice red table wine goes perfectly with this meal.

In 1995 and 2000, Cardinal Bernard F. Law, then the head of the Archdiocese, allowed local Catholics to eat meat when St. Patrick's Day fell on a Friday during Lent.

What?!

Papa Lena's Healthy Foods Inc.

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