Eggs in a nest, a dish of brown rice sautéed with vegetables and eggs baked in, is SO simple, you won't believe how tasty it is! Meet your new favorite weeknight dinner!

Every year for Valentine's Day, I give my husband a very special and thoughtful gift - the gift of not having to bother getting me any gifts.

Yep, I'm one of those people who thinks Valentine's Day is kind of silly. I'm not vehemently anti-Valentine's Day, I just rather not get a box of chalky tasting chocolates or go out to dinner at 8:45 because that's the only time we could get a reservation. I much prefer a cozy meal at home with the hubs, my pups and Netflix.

I used to prepare a special meal for Valentine's day. When we first moved into our house (we closed on it a few weeks earlier) I prepared a beef roast with this Madeira wine and tomato jam with crispy potatoes and this super fancy French bistro salad. The meal was pretty incredible, but I think we ate at 10 pm because it took so long and I had to work late that day. So basically my Valentine's Day was spent running around the kitchen as a harried, frazzled mess. Braving the crowds on Valentine's Day was starting to make a lot more sense.

A couple years ago, I gave Scott an even better present for Valentine's Day - food poisoning. I thought I pulled off this incredible meal of mussels in dijon cream sauce with pommes frites (you know, the really thin, crispy kind) followed by the most incredible chili chocolate brownies studded with caramel. It wasn't until the next day when we both didn't feel so hot that I realized we had food poisoning from the mussels.

No more fancy Valentine's Day meals for us.

I now like to keep things simple, making something with sentimental value rather than flare. Things like this egg in a nest, which I used to make all the time when we were semi-long distance dating. As basic as this recipe is, just pan fried veggies and brown rice with eggs baked in, it's soooo crazy good. In fact, I used to use the fact that I was making it to lure my now hubs into driving almost 2 hours from his work just to see me for the night by telling him I was making this dish!

This works best when you use cold or room temperature cooked rice, which gives it a nice, crispy texture and keeps it from getting sticky or mushy in the pan. It also helps it form a nice crust on the bottom, which is kind of the best part. Or maybe it's the runny yolk? Mmmm.

It probably goes without saying, because everything goes well with sriracha, but this is REALLY good with sriracha.

Eggs in a Nest

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 cup brown rice
1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 carrots, chopped
1/4 cup oil packed sun-dried tomatoes
3 ounces spinach, roughly chopped (half a bag)
6 eggs
Sriracha and chopped fresh parsley, optional for garnish

Instructions

Bring brown rice and 1 1/2 cups water to a boil in a medium pot. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until tender, about 40-50 minutes. Set aside and cool to room temperature, or refrigerate.
Head olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add carrots and sun-dried tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until carrots are crisp-tender, about 5 minutes. Add brown rice and cook until vegetables are tender and rice is starting to get crispy. Stir in spinach and cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper.
Make 6 wells in the rice and crack an egg into each. Cook until whites are starting to set, then transfer to the broiler. Cook until whites are set and eggs are still runny, which should take just a few minutes.

For those of you who actually like to do Valentine's Day like a normal person: