Breakfast Recipe: Rise and Shine Burritos

We recently spent an absolutely wonderful weekend in Victoria, BC with my parents, and were spoiled silly with lots of walking, eating, laughing, and great conversation. And on our last day there my dad made delicious burritos for breakfast.

I make breakfast burritos quite often (pictured above, recipe to follow) but these were quite different than mine. My dad doesn't eat gluten so we had them with these amazing corn tortillas from a local company called Que Pasa Mexican Foods. Inside the tortillas was a delightful mix of scrambled eggs, cheese, chopped green onions, and my new favourite salsa, President's Choice Tomatillo Salsa.  Delicious!

You can be so creative with breakfast burritos and stick in anything you fancy or ingredients that need to be used up. My recipe is a great way to get some greens down the hatch first thing in the morning (go here for another breakfast recipe with greens) and in the past I've liked to use the ulta-thin, low-calorie Mountain Bread – usually use the whole wheat variety but they also come in rice, barley, corn, oat and rye.

The funny thing about Mountain Bread is that I'd been eating it for a while before we moved to Sydney, Austalia for almost nine months last year and didn't realize that it's made just around the corner (well, 849 km around the corner to be exact) from where we were living, in Reservoir, Victoria. Although I still love Mountain Bread, I think it's time to break up because they are lots of great breads in my neck of the woods.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp peppercorn ranch dressing
• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp butter
• 2 cheese slices (I like aged white cheddar)
• 4 tbsp salsa
• 1/4 avocado chopped (just enough for my burrito, my husband is not a fan)
• 2 cups mixed greens
• 2 wraps

Instructions

1. Heat oil in medium frying pan over medium heat.
2. In small bowl, beat eggs with dressing.
3. Add butter to pan, swirling to coat, and immediately add eggs, stirring constantly until done to your liking.
4. Section eggs off into desired serving sizes in pan and top each portion with a slice of cheese (I eat one egg and my husband eats two).
5. Place eggs in centre of tortilla and top with avocado (if having it), half the salsa and half the greens (I super-squish the greens in my hand so that I can fit a cup into each burrito. Appetizing, maybe not. Clever way to get more greens down the hatch, yes!).
6. Roll up burritos and serve right away.

Breakfast Recipe: Asparagus and Mushroom Frittata with Salad and Berries

I have a confession to make. I don’t love vegetables as much as I should. There have been a few shameful occasions where I’ve bought a tub of spring mix salad and it’s begun to wilt before ending up on my plate (or, on the most shameful of occasions, ending up in the garbage).

So I developed a system that not only respects the salad but has a rather lovely side effect. I eat salad for breakfast. And I actually really like it.

I feel very content and sustained after this breakfast and it starts the day off on such a positive and healthy note. It says, “I am a vibrant person who eats a reasonable amount of vegetables and thereby respects my temple of a body!”

And the lovely side effect? Feeling skinny! It abates the bloatedness that can come with toast and jam (a former favourite as side kick to my eggs) and when sustained over the course of a week or two produces markedly looser fitting pants. Super!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp peppercorn ranch dressing (or milk with whatever seasoning you fancy)
• 3 stalks asparagus, chopped
• 4 mushrooms, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ tsp vegetable oil
• ½ tsp butter
• 1 cup mixed berries (I buy frozen bags of mixed berries and put the amount we’re going to eat in a covered bowl in the fridge the night before so that they are thawed by morning and avoid the microwave)
• 2 big handfuls of salad (I usually get spring mix)
• 2 tsp maple balsamic dressing (to make dressing, mix 1 part maple syrup, 2 parts balsamic vinegar, and 2 parts olive oil)

Instructions

1. Heat oil in medium frying pan over medium heat. A cast iron pan is best because it’s going to go in the oven, but I’ve wrapped the plastic handle of a Teflon pan with aluminum foil and that works just fine, too.
2. Once oil is hot, add butter, swirl around pan, add garlic and cook for 1 minute.
3. Add mushrooms, arranging them so that each slice is separate from the next (one great thing I learned from the fabulous movie Julie and Julia was “don’t crowd the mushrooms.” See trailer below).
4. Cook mushrooms for about 2 minutes, gently shaking pan, and turning each slice over half way through.
5. Meanwhile, in small bowl, beat eggs and dressing.
6. Add asparagus to pan, making make sure that all of the vegetables are evenly distributed, and then add egg mixture. (Turn oven to broil to heat up while eggs cook on stove)
7. Cook for about 2 minutes or until bottom begins to set but top is still runny.
8. Place under broiler for about 2 minutes or just until frittata begins to puff.
9. Serve frittata (I have a third and my husband has two thirds) with berries and salad drizzled with dressing.