Food fads crack me up. How does a particular food suddenly rocket to stardom and command outrageous prices at restaurants? Take avocado toast for example. As far as simple meals go, I enjoy it as much as the next person, but it didn’t have to become an expensive brunch offering at a chic bistro to get me to pay attention. My mother-in-law has been making it at home for 60 years. Well, we’re Californians, so what can I say? Avocadoes have always been pretty mainstream here, haven’t they?
Okay everyone, I understand that going out for breakfast can be a fun treat, especially if you haven’t been out for a while. Why not order something requiring a little more labor like eggs benedict or Belgian waffles? Cuz for my money, I would prefer to make my own avocado toast and eggs for $1.50 and spend the rest on a nice bottle of champagne. Who’s with me?
Zero waste cooking means ice cream isn’t just for dessert.
I don’t often make a decadent breakfast. Hungry upon rising, I usually prepare a quick vegetable/fruit smoothie or some oatmeal or eggs. Once in a great while I will treat myself to pancakes or french toast, always practicing zero waste cooking.
After filling up my freezer yesterday, I decided I no longer had space for a tiny bit of vanilla ice cream that had been sitting in there. So I put it into a plastic container in the refrigerator. Why? For a special morning treat. Did you ever put ice cream in your coffee? Yum.
But in this case, I had been inspired by a Jacques Pepin video where he soaked some bread in melted ice cream and made french toast. Any bread would do. I usually make it with something whole grain, but something more special like panettone works too. I had some cinnamon raisin bread and decided to use that.
Cinnamon raisin french toast topped with chopped pear
I had just enough ice cream to soak four slices of bread. (Hooray for zero waste cooking!) After that I put them into a medium-hot skillet with some olive oil for a couple minutes on each side. Topped with pears and a little maple syrup, it was an extra special tasty treat. I would probably top with nuts next time for a more balanced meal with some protein as I typically feel the best that way. Let me know what you top your french toast with!
How do you like your pancakes? Please read that post for more breakfast ideas.
Simple meals like this one are for any time of day.
Eggs are so versatile and can be eaten any time of day. In the U.S., we typically think of them as breakfast food, but not so in other places. I could eat a frittata for lunch or dinner with a salad. It’s easier and more figure friendly than quiche because you don’t have to worry about crust and cream. You can add any vegetables that you like and you don’t have to fuss with flipping an omelette. You gotta love simple meals like that.
Frittata with onions, swiss chard and cheese
How To
First, preheat the oven to 325. Then decide which vegetables you want to put in there and start sautéing them in a nonstick ovenproof skillet. I usually start with some diced onion and then some greens of some sort. Mushrooms or peppers are great too. Pictured above I used swiss chard. Kale in the picture below. Any dark leafy green pairs well with eggs, I think. You can use up all kinds of leftover bits and bobs in here too. Herbs and spices are welcome.
Whisk some eggs together in a mixing bowl and once the vegetables are tender, pour the eggs into the skillet. Stir so that everything gets incorporated and lower the heat. You don’t have to cook it for long on the stovetop because it’s going to finish in the oven. Top with cheese or tomatoes anything else you think would be good. Simple meals like this are so versatile.
Frittata with onions, kale, and tomatoes
Then pop into the oven and cook just until the eggs are set, meaning they don’t jiggle when you shake the pan. How long this takes depends on how many eggs you’re cooking. You can make a huge batch for a crowd or to keep for later. Leftovers are great at room temperature.
My frittata is a bit thin here because of how few eggs I used compared to the size of my skillet, but more eggs make a thicker one that’s even better. Simple and elegant, healthy and economical. Let me know what you put in yours as you start cooking without a recipe!
What do you do with left over prosciutto? I decided to make the breakfast bites described below because I believe in zero waste cooking. Who says it can’t also become part of a celebratory meal? I think simple meals are the best. Here’s a brief video on that topic:
I have probably seen something like this somewhere before, so I am not claiming to reinvent the wheel. I just want to encourage you to use what you have and experiment with using it in a new way to create simple meals for your family and friends.
Scrambled or poached? You decide.
Michael prefers his eggs scrambled, while I like variety. So I lined the cups of a muffin tin with prosciutto and poured raw, scrambled eggs into some and raw whole eggs into the others. Baked them in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20-25 minutes just until set, meaning the scrambled eggs shouldn’t move much when you jiggle the pan.
Certainly I could have cooked the whole eggs less and left yolks more creamy. But no one wants runny scrambled eggs, so I let them all cook for the same amount of time. If you were making a whole bunch of these, you could put the scrambled ones in one tin and whole eggs in another. Take the whole eggs out of the oven sooner. That would be just about the easiest way I could think of to make eggs benedict for a crowd. A lot simpler than poaching two dozen eggs in a pot!
The prosciutto is rather salty, so I didn’t add anything else to the eggs, although you absolutely could top them with cheese or herbs or any number of additions. I decided to serve toast with strawberry jam on the side because I thought the sweetness would offset the saltiness…kind of like a Monte Cristo sandwich.
Who says this must be served for breakfast? The saltiness of the prosciutto and the silkiness of the eggs would pair well with bitter greens too. How about a dandelion green salad with figs? Or sauteed kale or rapini?
Mmm…is it lunch time yet?
But first, cappuccino!
For another breakfast idea, please read Pancakes next.
Use what you have to make a healthy breakfast. Steel cut oatmeal is awesome!
I have lived through lean times as well as plenty. The key is to make the best of your current situation and be content. Steel cut oatmeal, anyone?
When I was first living on my own, I would sometimes scrounge around in the morning for enough change to equal $ 1.72. If I could find that much, I would do a happy dance because it meant I could afford to go out for breakfast. $ 1.72 would buy me a toasted poppy seed bagel with butter and a cup of coffee. Yes, I was really living!
On the days when I couldn’t find that much change, I would pick some loquats from the tree that hung over my back fence. No one else was eating them, so I did. I didn’t even know what they were called in those days. I only knew they were edible. Eventually my Israeli friends taught me to call them by their Hebrew name, “shesek”, so I sometimes still need a reminder in English.
Steel Cut Oatmeal
And then there was always oatmeal. It’s healthy and inexpensive and I still eat it often. Now, if your only experience with oatmeal is the instant flavored kind, please don’t say you don’t like oatmeal. If you have only eaten rolled oats, try steel cut for a change. I personally prefer their flavor and texture. Yes, it takes 25 minutes to cook them. But all you have to do is boil water, so I don’t consider that to be a problem at all.
Cooking Oatmeal
Here’s what you do: Get up out of bed. Measure a 1 to 4 ratio of oats to water. Boil the water. Put the oats in. Stir. Reduce heat to lowest simmer and go back to bed. Come back in 25 minutes or so to eat. I have a tendency to want to stir everything while it’s cooking, but I don’t even find that to be much necessary with oatmeal. Stir near the end of cooking and add whatever additional ingredients you like. Lately I like walnuts and maple syrup. I might add cinnamon, nutmeg or allspice. Fresh fruit like apples or bananas are nice. What about dried fruit? Any other kinds of nuts? Toasted or raw? Honey? Fruit jam? There are endless possibilities. You will never bother with prepared boxed cereal again.
For more on simple breakfasts from pantry staples, please read Pancakes next.
I am one of those people who wakes up hungry and one of my first concerns in the morning is what I will eat. As a child, pancakes were my favorite. I would cry if we went out to a restaurant and they didn’t serve pancakes…for dinner. My perplexed young mind wondered, “What kind of a dump doesn’t serve pancakes? What’s the point of going out to dinner?”
One of my favorite simple meals, I could still eat pancakes any time of day. Once when Michael and I were dating, he called at 10 PM and asked what I was doing. “Making pancakes,” I answered nonchalantly. “Making pancakes?!” he exclaimed incredulously. “Do you know how fattening those are?” I thought to myself, “What’s so fattening about one egg and 2 tablespoons of olive oil?” (And that’s for a batch that would feed at least 2 people.) It took me years to realize his understanding was that pancakes were made with bacon fat. If that’s the way you make them, that’s fine. But that’s not the way I grew up eating them.
Measuring
For pancakes and baked goods, I make an exception to not following a formula. If you don’t measure properly, you won’t get the desired results and you can’t taste along the way to see if it’s right. I made the mistake of not explaining this to my young friend once who so kindly volunteered to make us some pancakes when I wasn’t feeling well. From bed, I called out the instructions, eagerly anticipating her creation.
Bless her heart. I didn’t even recognize what she brought me. After inquiring about the process, I realized that she didn’t know how to properly measure dry ingredients. Flour must be leveled off with a knife. Baking powder must be leveled off with its lid. Salt and sugar should not be heaping spoonfuls–just level with the top of the measuring spoon. Sift through a mesh strainer to break up any lumps of baking powder or baking soda.
The Foundation
Mix together dry ingredients:
1 1/4 cups flour
3 teaspooons baking powder
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt.
Mix together wet ingredients:
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
2 Tablespoons oil
Combine everything and mix just until the batter is wet. Lumpy is fine. Don’t overmix it.
If you have buttermilk, that’s even better! I use it so infrequently that I don’t buy it often. If I’m not too impatient to get cooking, I might add a bit of lemon juice to some milk and let it sit for 20 minutes instead. To the batter described above, you can add any number of fruits, spices and/or nuts. Be sure to mix fruit with dry ingredients before combining with the wet ingredients. You could experiment with different kinds of flour. My favorite spice is cardamom. It works so well in both sweet and savory dishes, so I love to add it to my pancakes.
Michael made these blueberry pancakes for me after learning how simple it is
If you don’t have milk, try oat milk. It’s not exactly the same, but it works. Try with a little yogurt too. I have experimented with all kinds of concoctions when I have been out of an ingredient for pancakes. You don’t have to be intimidated!
Michael likes his pancakes topped with coconut syrup, which we discovered on our honeymoon in Hawaii, but I prefer real maple syrup. Growing up, we often didn’t use syrup at all. My mother thought molasses or honey was healthier, so that’s what we used. You could skip syrup altogether and make a fruit compote instead. Or you could….here I go…on and on once again…
How do you like your pancakes?
If you enjoy simple meals for breakfast, please read Ode to Oatmeal next.
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