Vegetable Hash | FoodsOfOurLives.com
I think we all want to eat better, right? Even those of you who play tough. Saying the only thing you ever want to eat is bacon, donuts and coffee… I know you have a secret desire to be healthy. Not the actual act of eating healthy, I’ll give you that, but you desire health.
Oh yes, I know about you.
Because I am you.
I want to be fit, I want to be lean, I want to be healthy.
But holy smokes I love cake.
And cookies.
And pie.
Oh the list goes on. I love desserts and I love to bake, one of my favorite things in the world to do is bake delectable desserts that only the person with the strongest willpower (which certainly isn’t me!) can resist.
But I do recognize my need for health.
This is why, lately, I have been on the wagon of healthy eating.
{{{{{Except for Cupcake of the Week… but I try to control myself!}}}}}
One thing during this particular course of eating better, I have noticed about myself, is I don’t eat as much in the way of fruits and veggies, as I should. Especially veggies.
Fruits I tend to throw into the blender and make a post-workout smoothie but veggies….I often will go until dinner with no veggies. That’s bad.
One really important thing I have come realize is we need to eat veggies at every meal if we can. I know, veggies at breakfast? What?
Yes. And you know what? There are some really tasty ways to do this without feeling like you are having a salad and I am here to talk about one of them, because while I like salad…it’s not something I want to eat all the time.
Or even very often to be quite honest.
This little trick I have figured out though, can really be used in so many ways. You can put it into so many different dishes, just change out the protein and carb (if you eat them) and you can have a completely different meal but the concept stays the same.
The first thing you need to do, of course, is have lots of different veggies on hand, so make a grocery list of a bunch of different ones that you like and go shopping.
My personal list pretty much always includes:
Red bell peppers, zucchini, asparagus, crimini mushrooms, brussels sprouts, spinach and tomatoes.
There are other vegetables I love but these are the basic ones I always buy and then can switch out different ones like fennel, broccoli, cauliflower or green beans.
So what you’re going to do is, get out your veggies and decide on what you want with them. My three favorite combinations are Vegetable Hash and Eggs-Over-Easy, Veggies and Salmon and Veggies and Quinoa, but there are so many ways you can dress these up.
Basically all you need to do is start dicing up those veggies, I like to dice fairly small so they cook faster. Just dice up a whole bunch. Get a skillet nice and hot and add a fat, I like butter, bacon grease and duck fat personally. Yes I absolutely cook with animal fats. It is a myth that animal fats are bad, if you have good pastured meats to render the fat from, this is a great way to get fat into your diet. I am not going to go into all of the research and info about why animals fats are good and why you should be eating them in this post, but please spend some time and research it on your own if this is a new concept to you.
Ok so you have your fat. Depending on what direction you are going with this, you will probably want to add a diced onion and a few cloves of minced garlic, quantity will depend on your personal preference and how many people you are feeding, I like a lot and if I am feeding my whole family of 6, I will add like 6 cloves of garlic.
Once your fat is nice and hot, sauté those veggies until they are cooked but still have a little texture to them, don’t turn them into mush. This is why I typically cook on a high temperature, I love that browned, roasted flavor but I don’t love mushy vegetables.
I am going to post the exact recipes for each of my above suggestions above over the coming weeks plus a few more breakfast recipes but today I will start with the Vegetable Hash with Eggs Over Easy variation but I would love for you to come up with your own version and let us know what you come up with! Just use those same veggies and add in different stuff to make a meal, it could be chicken or steak or pasta, I don’t know!
So many possibilities…
- 3 tablespoons butter
- ½ large red bell pepper, diced
- ¼ yellow onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup zucchini, diced
- 3-4 pieces asparagus, chopped
- 1 medium yukon gold potato, diced
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 eggs
- Heat a medium skillet over medium high heat with the butter in it.
- Add the potatoes and cook until golden and soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add all the veggies and cook until soft but still have a little crunch to them, about 6-7 minutes.
- Remove the veggies, if needed, add a little fat to the skillet.
- Crack the eggs into the pan, I usually do two at a time to make it easy to flip them, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on them. once the down side is cooked, flip the eggs over and cook the other side.
- Remove to plate and cook the other two eggs.
- Place half the veggies on each plate and top with the eggs.
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