Easy Veggie Breakfasts

Almost all the time breakfast is a meal of sweetness, from oatmeal with cinnamon and raisins to pancakes with syrup and yogurt parfaits with fruit. None of those are bad breakfasts, but breakfast is also a really great (and over-looked) time to start getting those veggies into your day!

You don't have to just toss some veggies into an omelet - although that is Amazing!!

• The Best Breakfast Sandwich  was posted over at Eat Well Utah. You can add lots of delicious veggies to an egg breakfast sandwich

• Mashed Avocado Toast with Veggies -  This new food craze isn't going anywhere anytime soon. With a healthy whole grain bread and some imagination, the sky is the limit (or perhaps the garden is the limit - Hahaha!). Huffington Post wrote a whole article on 16 ways to get all crazy with this basic idea. Get breakfast crazy, People!

• Veggie Breakfast Tacos - There isn't anything that you can't put in a tortilla and not find delicious. Be sure you are adding a whole bunch of veggies with those eggs and lean meats. Yummly has a whole slew of vegetarian breakfast tacos if you are wanting to be inspired.

• Healthy Breakfast Burritos - Anything  you can put in a taco, you can put in a burrito - to make it wildly healthy, instead of a tortilla use a leaf or lettuce or kale. 

• Breakfast Pita Pizza - A whole wheat pizza is a great start to assembling any meal. Add a little cheese and all the veggies of your choice - melt away (in a pan or the microwave) and you're done! For my pita pizzas I prefer to dip in the sauce than to put in inside the pita. You could have BBQ Chicken, Egg with Siracha, Veggies and yogurt sauce. You are only limited by your imagination - and the time you have left in the morning. Here is a recipe for an amazing one from Veggie Girl.

• Sauteed Vegetables Bagel Breakfast Sandwich - The recipe can be found over at Mountain Mama Cooks . Sure, this recipe may call for butter and oil, but research shows that adding fat in moderation to your veggies can help absorb their nutrients better. Plus, it makes them taste even more amazing! Reap all the vitamin C and lycopene of the summer squash and tomatoes with this bagel breakfast—and if bagels are just too heavy for your taste, we’re guessing these veggies would taste good on just about anything else.

• Mexican Breakfast Pasta - This recipe is from Living Well Kitchen, If pizza for breakfast is a thing, why can’t pasta be too? Switch up your morning carbs with a serving of spaghetti (make it whole-wheat for extra fiber) and black beans sautéed in a skillet with a generous few servings of diced veggies. The eggs cracked over the top give the whole thing a protein upgrade along with that breakfast-y vibe.

• Put Those Veggies in a Hash -  When you are mixing up your breakfast hash toss a few veggies in and then toss in a few more. 
• Here is an amazing recipe for a Sweet Potato Hash from Blissful Basil. 
• And one from Inspired Recipes for Hash with Spinach and Carrots. 
• A Roasted Vegetable Skillet that is so good, you'll want to make it for dinner too. 
• Ham & Veggie Breakfast Hash 

Breakfast doesn't always have to be sweet and it doesn't always have to be expected. If you love it, you can eat it for breakfast - what a great way to start the morning... with a whole lot of Good for You and a little rebellion. 

Classic Collard Greens

You don't have to get too fancy with fresh ingredients to make them taste amazing. I love this recipe for greens because it is so simple. 

You can substitute any greens that you have and it will taste amazing.  I like that they stay nice and bright green and don't remind me of the scary spinach on tv and cartoons that I saw as a kid. 

After you have made them a few times, feel free to start experimenting with red pepper flakes, vinegar, and lots of yummy spices like cumin or paprika.  

You'll be eating and cooking greens like a truth southerner in no time at all. 

Roasted Tomato and Lentil Salad

I may have to change the name of this blog soon to The Girl Who Always Ate Lentils. I think it would get a lot of traffic. At least from me.  (oh wait... ) 

They are just so delicious, and so easy to prepare and so cheap and so darn good for you. That's it! They are Everything!!

Just because it is summer doesn't mean that I have stopped roasting all kinds of delicious veggies. These are some roasted tomatoes, which don't take long to roast at all - and they are so yummy. 

You can eat this, hot, cold or room temp.  I make it on the weekends and then eat it all week for lunch because you guys... I need adult food in the summer time. It is what keeps me mostly sane. 

Beet and Bean Dip - Ginger Beet Hummus

Isn't that just gorgeous? Don't you want to just dive in? 

Beets are one of my most favorite foods in whole wide world. I love them anyway that I can get them. so making them into a delicious dip was a given for me. 

When I made this dip and set out the rainbow of veggies my kids came flocking to it. They all ate it and loved it. The flavors of the hummus (tahini, cumin and ginger) really balance out the earthy flavors of the beets. Its so yummy on everything!

I have a really detailed tutorial for you on roasting beets at home - without making a huge beet juice mess all over your kitchen.  Its Here!  

You can also buy beets pre-roasted, but with farmer's markets in full swing - there are LOTS of beets available and you can eat the greens - and you can roast a bunch, freeze some for later, keep some in your fridge for salads and make this yummy dip!

If you love this dip, don't be limited by just dipping veggies, chips and pita, you can spread it on sandwiches, you can use it in wraps and you can add it to Buddha bowls, rice bowls and veggie bowls. YUM! 

Create a Salad - the Basics

 

The beginning of summer and the opening of the farmer's markets is a great time to celebrate Greens!

Not just Lettuce - but some Greens you might not be familiar with.  Getting to know different leafy greens has been an adventure for me. I have not eaten a lot of greens in my life and I have never even been adventurous when it comes to lettuce before I began my Food Sense journey.  Perhaps I can inspire you to venture out of your comfort zone and start seeing Green!

They are one of the first crops that come up in the spring time and there are lots of different types readily available at the local markets and one of the first things that you will find welcoming you at your local farmer's market.

Creating a salad can be one of the easiest and best for you meals to prepare (just be sure you are too heavy handed with the dressing).

Start with your greens. There are so many to choose from ranging from mild to bitter with quite a bite depending on your mood.

Here are some ideas to get your started: 

Romaine -
Red leaf
Green leaf
Spinach
Spring mix
Iceberg
Mache
Cabbage
Arugula
Dandelion greens
Baby beet greens
Mesclun

Next add your veggies - anything goes here! The more the merrier. 

Broccoli 

Carrots 

Beets 

Olives 

Corn 

Celery 

Avocado 

Tomatoes 

Cucumber 

Onion 

Sprouts 

Peas 

Bell pepper 

Cauliflower 

Radishes 

Then brighten it up and add some zest with fruit.

Pineapple
Apples
Pears
Mangoes
Strawberries
Dried cranberries
Oranges
Grapes
Raisins

If you are feeling it, add a little bit of cheese. 

Mozzarella 

Feta 

Parmesan 

Blue Cheese 

Cheddar 

Cottage cheese 

Keep it healthy and help yourself stay fuller longer with some protein. 

Kidney beans 

Black beans 

Pinto beans 

Garbanzo beans 

Almonds 

Pecans 

Walnuts 

Cashews 

Pine nuts 

Chicken or turkey 

Beef or pork 

Tuna or salmon 

Sunflower seeds 

Pumpkin seeds 

Hard-boiled eggs

And top it all off with some Crunch!

Croutons 

Seeds 

Nuts 

Tortilla chips 

(crumbled) 

Pepperoncinis 

Small crackers

Happy Salad Adventuring!

Miso Peanut Pasta Salad

Aah Pasta Salad - the official food of summer and my favorite way to pack a huge amount of veggies into a meal.  I have made this a few times and my favorite way to eat it is cold, but Joseph preferred it warm (right after I am done making it), but it delicious at room temperature as well. 

That makes it perfect to take to any summer gathering. 

With all the yummy goodness of my favorite peanut noodles, the addition of the Miso makes it extra special. If you aren't familiar with Miso, I suggest you try it immediately. I can find it at my local grocery store in the Asian section. It comes in a paste. The white is much milder than the red. It is a fermented soybean paste and is most often used in cooking to add that sweet / salty / spicy Umami goodness. (it is the salty)

You could pack this pasta salad with even more veggies as it would be delicious with bell peppers, snow peas or green peas, bean sprouts, broccoli florets, cabbage or spinach. Add whatever veggies you have on hand. 

Creamy Avocado Cucumber Salad

Crunchy, creamy, tart with the juice of lime and crisp with cucumbers this salad has me loving summer. 

It marries perfectly with the feta cheese and the cilantro. 

Although there is quite a bit of lime juice in this recipe, Your avocados won't stay green forever, so it isn't really something that you can make ahead of time to enjoy later. 

But it would make an AMAZING topping for some spicy tacos or on top of a rice bowl.

I'm just eating it by the fork-full and living my dream to just eat guacamole plain. 

Caprese Pasta Salad

I remember the first time I discovered Caprese Salad. I felt so sophisticated and glamorous. It seemed like a fancy thing to be eating, glorious in its simplicity. I still can't get enough of the stuff, I just love it. 

And so when it gets to be tomato season and the fresh basil is plentiful, I could eat it everyday. 

But eating it everyday, means that I'm still hungry. Let's be honest, when I make it, I use a pretty heavy hand with the tomatoes and skimp on the cheese. That means, I'm just mostly eating tomatoes. And after an hour or two... I'm hungry again. 

This summer, I am solving that problem with pasta and making my beloved Caprese Salad a meal. 

It's genius! The balsamic vinegar and olive oil are the perfect simple dressing for a pasta salad. And the flavors of the fresh tomatoes along with pungent basil make the perfect compliment to plain old pasta. 

This keeps amazing in the fridge. I have been eating it all week at lunch and for snacks. (Yes! I really do eat that much of it!) The last day, I added a bit more balsamic and oil because the pasta had absorbed so much, but it was still just as tasty. 

Cantaloupe Cucumber Salad

I made this salad for a quick lunch that I shared with my mom. When I served it she very intrigued by the cantaloupe cucumber combination, but after one bite she said, "You have got to open a funky salad restaurant and charge people 15.00$ for a bowl of this"  That's quite impressive.

The simple ingredients in this recipe just speak to each other. It is an example of not having to make really complicated recipes for food to be exceptionally delicious. 

If you are willing to trust me on this recipe, you will not be sorry.  -- and I won't take any of the credit of you having the most popular salad at all your summer parties. 

If you like this salad and want to make it more of a meal, I think that adding some cooked orzo pasta or perhaps some quinoa or brown rice, would make it really hearty.  But you'll need to add a bit more dressing to account for the dryness of the grains.