Wednesday, October 13, 2010

20 Minute Breakfast



We went to see Jack Johnson last night at Verizon in Irvine. Pretty sweet concert, I must say. Obviously, I had about 45 glasses of wine, forgetting I had to wake up early early today, so I definitely needed a pick-me-up breakfast this morning and a hefty shot of coffee with 45 packets of sugar. No, not really.

I forgot how much I love breakfast. I am one of those freaks who eats a giant breakfast a couple of times a week, and, annoyingly, is always telling people "breakfast is the most important meal of the day". But it is! I really believe this. Especially as a person on the road all day long, sometimes I am too busy to eat lunch. Then breakfast is REALLY the most important meal of the day, because it just became the only meal of the day. No, not really. Calm down, it's just until dinner. I'm not starving myself, I promise....So the bigger the breakfast, the better.

I also find when I eat a huge breakfast, accompanied by at least 2 diet cokes I might add, I eat less crap during the day then I would otherwise. No unnecessary snacks or fast food or whatever. And I have lots of energy. Unless I miss lunch, and then I crash about 4pm. Whoops.

Anyway, I have come to master the 20 minute breakfast of champions: breakfast potatoes and eggs. Sounds simple when you think about it. But then again, you probably don't think about making breakfast until the weekend. and this is intended for during the week. Now you think it's too time consuming. But it's not! Ok, so maybe the 1st or 2nd time you make this, it might take 25 minutes. But I have it down to a science now, and it takes me like 15 minutes to make, 5 minutes to eat.


Cheesy Factor (1 no cheese, 10 all cheese): 1 or 5
Dummy Factor (1 easiest, 10 hardest): 2
Time Factor (1 shortest, 10 longest): 2


20 Minute Breakfast
1 red skin potato, cubed or diced
2 eggs (1 egg, 1 egg white)
Shredded cheese (optional)
Olive oil/butter/spices

In a small 7-8" saute pan, heat 1/2 TBL olive oil over low heat. Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. While potatoes are cooking, whisk 1 egg and 1 egg white together (if want scrambled eggs or omelette) in bowl. After potatoes have cooked for about 10 minutes, heat additional small pan on low-medium heat. Scramble eggs in pan, adding some shredded cheese if desired.

Zip. Bang. Boom. Breakfast.

So, this is the super easy version. I have a couple of tricks up my sleeve I add to mine:
- Add some minced jalapenos from the jar in the fridge to eggs
- Eat the eggs with salsa and sour cream
- Season potatoes with Dean Jacob's Parmesan Blend Bread Dipping Seasoning
          * Yes, I realize this seasoning is random. I saw this little can in the store one day and it's a seasoning you add to olive oil to dip bread in. I figured, what the heck?! I like to dip bread in olive oil. I like seasonings. Why not try it out?! I very much enjoyed it, but it's lasted me about 3 years. Randomly, one day, I decided to try seasoning potatoes with it, and I've never looked back. So yummy. You can use it for it's intended purpose also, of course! But I pretty much use it for potatoes now.

You can cook the eggs however you like. But scrambled seems to be the easiest for most people. I think. What the heck do I know. I make an omelette every morning. But my good friend Rob Linn makes the best scrambled cheese eggs EVER, and he taught me one thing I will always remember: scrambled eggs should look wet, not be wet.

(Random thought: did you know that 1 egg yolk is pretty much your recommended cholesterol content for the whole day?? I just figured this out after eating like 2 egg yolks almost every day for about 5 years. Oops. Needless to say, we have moved on to egg whites or a combo of eggs and egg whites.)