eggs and veggies

I have a love-hate relationship with eggs.

I would love to be able to love eggs. but in reality, they give me the heebie jeebies. there’s something about the texture of them, the way they change texture, the way they smell, where they came from, why we think they are supposed to be food…

pair that with many years of waitressing and serving trays full of eggs, cooked in various methods and smelling various ways, and I’m just really not a fan.

but, eggs are good for you. a good dose of protein is a great way to start your day. but the ways I will eat eggs are pretty limited. pretty much, scrambled is it. nothing can be runny. NOTHING. nor can it be spongy. nor can it be rubbery. nor can it be stinky. so hard boiled, soft boiled, over easy, over medium, sunny side up, poached, baked in a quiche… all of that’s out. and over hard is out as well, because I can’t stand hard yolk by itself.

so yeah. scrambled.

even scrambled, I don’t really like them. I have to cook them VERY well, and smother them with something like salt and pepper or cheese, or some sort of breakfast meats in order to NOT TASTE the eggs.

well, all that kind of defeats the purpose of eating the eggs in the first place!

so, in my effort to consciously only put into me that which is good, solid, healthful fuel for my body, I have taken to staring into the fridge for long periods of time, looking for something to make my eggs yummy without destroying the nutrition factor.

I have come up with 2 very key things. the first is fresh veggies. I especially love raw or barely hot sautéed veggies. and the more the better. the second is salsa. not runny, everything squished up in a blender salsa. salsa fresca! or pico de gallo! something with a lot of chunks of a lot of all the stuff that makes good fresh salsa one of my favorite foods on this earth!

so here is what I do. I dice some celery and onions and throw them in the pan to sauté. not a ton. I’m just making this for myself. so like one slice across the bunch of celery, and one slice across the middle of an onion (maybe two if I’m feeling adventurous and don’t have to talk to a lot of people that day!) while those are getting a little softer, I cut up a little bit of carrots, broccoli, whatever else I have that sounds good, then I throw them in the pan, tossing everything around every now and again. then I chop up some black olives and throw them in the pan along with a big spoonful of fresh salsa. this is key! I never used to understand why people put salsa on their eggs. in my experience, it just makes them cold and soggy! but by tossing it in the pan for just a teensy bit, a lot of the liquid cooks off and it gets heated through! then I dump everything into a bowl and cook my eggs. yeah, they look a little brown from all the stuff that was just in the pan, but I don’t care. I’m too lazy to wipe out the pan or get a different one. that’s just more work. when the eggs are mostly cooked on one side, I make sure they are good and loose, and then flip them, omelet style (I’m amazingly good at this! and it’s so fun. plus you feel a major sense of accomplishment. trust me.), and dump the bowl of veggies on top. then I use my spatula to start breaking up the eggs and mix everything together. there are two reasons I do it this way. first is that I don’t want my veggies to cook any longer than they already have. the second, is that I don’t want them encased in eggs. when you do that, all the flavors kind of start to run together.

notice that the amount of veggies is almost equal to the amount of eggs!

dump onto a plate, a little grind of pepper, a fork, and breakfast is served! your taste buds will not know what to do with themselves!