Green Eggs and No Ham

Sunday morning is the best time for making breakfast. I bought a cookbook based entirely on breakfast, another Taste of Home...I love how they have a color photo of the recipes so you know exactly what to expect. Like IHOP menus where you can just point to the picture instead of having to actually say "I'll have the Rootie Tootie Fresh N' Fruity." Don't worry, I've graduated to some photo free cookbooks. :-) But I digress...

           My sunday morning meals started out as one would expect: bacon, eggs, pancakes, even crepes and a quiche once. Josh, my boyfriend, doesn't share my enthusiasm for eating food as soon as you wake up. He helps though, and I usually ask him to fry the bacon because I know he absolutely adores cured meat. My breakfasts have been bacon free since the vegetarian transition. I think bacon will be one of the foods I miss the most because it is just so damn delicious!

          So Josh and I awoke at the early hour of 1:00 p.m. on Sunday and I immediately got to work prepping our breakfast. I asked him if he wanted me to make him the pesto eggs again; he smiled, nodded and said "Yes, I would love some more green eggs." Take THAT Sam I Am! I keep a jar of premade pesto in my fridge because it's easy to add to leftover pasta, and well I just love pesto. For those of you who are not familiar, pesto is a sauce made from finely chopped fresh basil, minced garlic, parmesan or romano cheese, olive oil and pine-nuts.

          For the eggs I sautee some diced onion, garlic, and sliced white mushrooms in a bit of olive oil. While this is heating through I chop up some tomato and grate some fresh parmesan cheese. Freshly grated cheese, in my opinion, has a much nicer flavor and texture; especially when it comes to parmesan. Once the mushrooms and onions are fully cooked I add in about a tablespoon of the pesto sauce and stir it around until everything is evenly coated. This is your omelette filling-unless you have crappy frying pans like I do and your eggs stick forcing your omlette to be reduced to mere scrambled eggs. Omellete or scrambled eggs, either one will work...just fold in the filling or layer it on top, sprinkle with the tomatoes and parmesan, salt and pepper to taste, and viola!

          I forgot to mention, before any of this began I dumped all of my vegetable leavin's into a pot, filled it with water, brought it to a boil and let it simmer while I worked on breakfast. What's a vegetable leavin' you ask? I'll tell you. Whenever I chop veggies I take the bits I would throw away, like the ends of carrots, tops of bell peppers, or stems of mushrooms and put them all in a plastic bag in the fridge. Once I've accumulated a good amount I have enough to make my own veggie stock! This is one of those things I never imagined myself doing, but I can't believe how easy it is. It's also a great way to get the most out of your produce.

          To the veggie bits I added a clove of minced garlic, parsley stems, and some fresh dill. It just depends on what types of herbs you have available, it gives each pot a different flavor. I've also added things like bay leaves, fresh basil, and fresh thyme. Once I've strained the liquid from the vegetables and let it cool a bit Josh and I taste it by the spoonful each time I add a bit of kosher salt. I add the salt until the flavor is just right and then it gets put into a container, labeled with the date, and either refridgerated or frozen. It's a great money saver for a poor college student such as myself because I don't have to buy the cans of stock. I can put this money towards more important things, such as my internet bill for my laptop on which I write my blogs!

Putting 'Veggie Leavin's' to good use.