With weekday mornings usually passing in a hazy blur of caffeine and exhaustion, Monday through Friday breakfast usually falls to the quick standby – oatmeal, some chopped fruit, nuts, and a coffee. Filling and delicious? Yes. Rather boring and semi-monotonous? Also true.
Weekend mornings that aren’t spent brunching provide the ideal opportunity to create slightly more elaborate breakfasts. That being said, when cooking for just myself I usually employ two rules: the meal should be at least somewhat healthy, and it must be ready in 30 minutes or less (I’m a sucker for instant gratification). With all this in mind, yesterday provided the perfect opportunity to experiment with eggs, which in case it hasn’t become completely obvious from my poaching post, I’m a huge fan of. This time, it was an omelet. But not just any omelet. A very large magical omelet that turned out to perfectly cure my headache and aid in my recovery from a Saturday night on the town. It also settled my stomach and provided sufficient energy for a sunday morning workout, something that very rarely happens around apartment 4R, which makes me know this omelet has superpowers. To experience this magic all for yourself, here’s what you do:
You’ll need:
Start with the veggies. Break out your cutting board and a sharp knife, and get dicing. You want the mushrooms, peppers, and tomatoes to all be in small, fairly even-sized pieces. How big you make them depends on how chunky you like the texture of your omelet to be, but I went pretty fine on my chop.
Once you’re all chopped up, put a medium-sized saute pan (non-stick works best) over medium heat, add some cooking spray and the garlic. Let the garlic sweat a little bit (about a minute) until fragrant, and then add your mushrooms and peppers (don’t add the tomatoes just yet). The mushrooms and peppers will take care of themselves, but give them the occasional stir to prevent burning. These will cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, or until as tender as you like.
Meanwhile, mix 1 egg, 3 egg whites, milk, salt, pepper, oregano, and pecorino romano cheese in a bowl. Beat this for at least 30 seconds with a wire whisk – you want the mixture to get some air incorporated and be fairly bubbly, which will make for a more fluffy omelet. Additional whisking = additional fluffyness, so use your own judgement here.
By now, your mushrooms and peppers should be fairly softened, giving off a heavenly aroma, and on their way to deliciousness, so add your tomatoes. You only need to saute these for 30 seconds or so, as tomatoes are already soft, so just cook long enough for those yummy flavors to start to develop. Then add some more cooking spray to make sure your eggs don’t stick, and pour your egg mixture over the veggies in the pan.
Let this cook up for a few minutes until it starts to get firm on the edges and puff up. Once the omelet has cooked almost through, and is only liquidy in the center, add your shredded mozzarella cheese, and then use a large spatula to fold the omelet in half.
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The omelet only needs to cook for another minute or so now, so toast up your pita, toast, or other required carb, and slather it with some cream cheese. I prefer Neufchâtel cheese because it is lower in fat and slightly tangier than regular cream cheese – of course, this is all about your preference, so use whatever you like.
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Give the omelet one more flip, if you so desire, and then remove from heat. Place on top of the shmeared pita, and top with 2 tablespoons of salsa. I’m not a huge spicy salsa girl, but you can definitely go with a “medium” or even “hot” salsa here – the mildness of the eggs and cool cream cheese balances it nicely. I love LOVE love salsas made with fruit, and Cara picked up a jar of a medium-spicy mango-peach salsa when we had our Whole Foods adventure last week, so I snuck some of that out of the jar to put on top of the omelet.
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The best part here is that this meal gives you a serving of whole grains from the whole wheat toast or pita, more than a serving of veggies, more than a serving of dairy, and more protein then you’ll know what to do with. Pretty great way to get your weekend morning started!
Here’s where you net out: 320 calories, 10.5 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of fiber, and 27 delicious grams of protein.
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Hmmm ill have to try out this new recipe! sounds delicioso