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Vegetables for Breakfast


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Disclaimer: I don't eat anything in the morning. I like the concept, but have just never felt like it.

If people are going to eat more vegetables for breakfast, what should they eat less of?

SB (breakfast agnostic :wacko: )

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How about a hollowed out baked potato half, filled with a scrambled egg and vegetable combination?

Don't forget about pumpkin or zucchini muffins.

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If people are going to eat more vegetables for breakfast, what should they eat less of?

Sugar, labelled as breakfast cereal.

Happy Feasting

Janet (a.k.a The Old Foodie)

My Blog "The Old Foodie" gives you a short food history story each weekday day, always with a historic recipe, and sometimes a historic menu.

My email address is: theoldfoodie@fastmail.fm

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it. N. Scott Momaday

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I love onions for breakfast. Sauteed till caramelized like crazy as fillings in omelettes (onion, mushroom, and swiss cheese is my all-time favorite omelette), raw slices with lox and bagels, pickled with herring. Roasted onions are lovely too--I've seen those more as a brunch thing but hey, why not earlier?

Edited by mizducky (log)
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How about a caponata or marinated roasted peppers on grilled toast--along the lines of bruschetta? Either could be made the day before.

We often make a soup such as minestrone and reheat the leftovers for breakfast the next day. We also sometimes have salad as a side dish for breakfast. Preferably spinach or other greens, peppers, tomatoes, cabbage--anything but lettuce.

Edited by sanrensho (log)
Baker of "impaired" cakes...
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Did no-one mention gazpacho yet?

Gazpacho and a nice fresh bread roll. Mmmm...

Pretty much everywhere I've been in Scandinavia - even Youth Hostels and university cafeterias with otherwise horrible food - had slices of tomato, bell peppers and cucumber for people to construct their own open-topped sandwiches for breakfast.

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just back from an ionian island where my breakfast every day was two tomatoes plus a little home-gathered sea salt.

sauteed mushrooms with scrambled eggs. sauteed tomatoes with chunks of feta and eggs cooked, sunnyside-like amongst them;

when the weather is warm i love cucumber with breakfast, like the aforementioned turkish salad, or like the israeli salads--actually finely chopped vegetables, dressed with evoo and vinegar or lemon, makes the most refreshing breakfast!

in milan the other week i had a freshly made vegetable juice: tomatoes cucumbers celery arugula parsley spinach leeks oh it was wonderful!

leftover tzadziki is fabulous too: cucumber and yogurt: what better way to start the day if you are a savoury person rather than a sweet one (i'm a savoury one, you see....).

toasted sourdough topped with any leftover veg esp greens, or topped with feta and a big handful of herbs: cilantro, dill, tarragon, and a green onion and cucumber spear--one of my favourite breakfasts!

and asparagus benedict--i celebrate spring this way every year. possibly the best dish in the world, if the asparagus is fab and the eggs and butter are of highest quality......

happy breakfast to all!

marlena

ps not to mention the fabulous veggies pickles i just ate at the breakfast buffet in beijing, or the breakfast soup of chickpeas topped with onions in the middle east.....i love breakfast!

Marlena the spieler

www.marlenaspieler.com

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Pureed vegetable soups--with cream or not--served hot in a mug

Piperade--a cooked melange of tomatoes, onion and red bell peppers--with omelets or scrambled eggs

Little vegetable quiches cooked in muffin tins with no crust (some may be frozen)

Vegetable frittatas

Pita pockets filled with mostly vegetables with egg, meat or cheese added if desired

Vegetable Souffles, with or without cheese

Cabbage pirogue

Most of these require cooking, but virtually all may be made ahead.

Ruth Dondanville aka "ruthcooks"

“Are you making a statement, or are you making dinner?” Mario Batali

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Good Ideas, Thanks Folks.

A lot of these could include at least one of the half-cups of veges.

I love the idea of soup for breakfast!

Happy Feasting

Janet (a.k.a The Old Foodie)

My Blog "The Old Foodie" gives you a short food history story each weekday day, always with a historic recipe, and sometimes a historic menu.

My email address is: theoldfoodie@fastmail.fm

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it. N. Scott Momaday

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:cool:

A nicely baked potato with a poached egg (or two) popped inside/on top is one of the breakfasts I love best. Better yet: a bit of steamed spinach (gild the lily, and saute with a little olive oil and considerable garlic) between the potato and the egg. Accompany with a tall orange juice, and you can face any physician with equanimity when (s)he starts asking nutritional questions.

A good-size serving of brown rice cooked with butter and sea salt is as good as oatmeal, and tastes wonderful with good yogurt and fruit-of-the-season; blueberries are heavenly, blackberries too. Or bananas, or strawberries, or stewed rhubarb. Add coffee with cream and raw sugar, and I can keep going until well after noon (and I have, many times).

I would never dare put my recipe -- such as it is -- for "poverty casserole" up on RecipeGullet, because it involves *canned* (horrors!) kidney beans and corn. Along with finely chopped fresh garlic, good green salsa, brown rice cooked in good chicken broth and butter with sea salt and sliced shallots, plus a sizable amount of cheddar jack cheese melted in (in the last stage), it's still a nutritional powerhouse if not a gourmet masterpiece, and the leftovers are astonishingly good -- particularly with all that cheese -- over the bread of one's choice with a couple of poached eggs on top. Add juice and/or coffee, and a salad for lunch, and there's no need to be embarrassed when anyone asks whether one is adequately nourished.

Does that help?

:biggrin:

Me, I vote for the joyride every time.

-- 2/19/2004

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Hello Lady T

That 'poverty casserole' sounds great! There's nothing wrong with canned beans and corn - we cant always plan a day in advance to soak and cook the dried ones. I wont complain if you do post the recipe.

Happy Feasting

Janet (a.k.a The Old Foodie)

My Blog "The Old Foodie" gives you a short food history story each weekday day, always with a historic recipe, and sometimes a historic menu.

My email address is: theoldfoodie@fastmail.fm

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it. N. Scott Momaday

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Hello Lady T

That 'poverty casserole' sounds great! There's nothing wrong with canned beans and corn - we cant always plan a day in advance to soak and cook the dried ones. I wont complain if you do post the recipe.

I second that motion.... :raz:

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Breakfast today will be leftover Rancho Gordo Ojo de Cabra beans in scrambled eggs, similar to what I enjoyed for breakfast in Mexico.

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Did no-one mention gazpacho yet?

I love gazpacho for breakfast!

Lately, I've been pouring myself a bowl of gazpacho, then making some soft scrambled eggs with a bit of bacon mixed in. I ladle the steamy eggs right into the center of the gazpacho, garnish with a few of my rice wine vinegar pickled cucumbers, then eat. The contrast between hot and cold works very well, and I get my veggies and protein all in one shot.

My gazpacho generally contains tomatoes (a fruit, I know), cukes, green pepper and onion, plus garlic, vinegar and other seasonings. I generally keep a batch in the fridge all Summer long, so that I can have a serving of vegetables whenever I want it, without having to do any prep.

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I love this thread thanks for starting it!!!

I need to eat really well for breakfast because sometimes I get so swamped at work I dont eat again until I get home after my shift...

just by the fact I am on this board at all means eating is VERY important to me ...besides no one likes a cranky nurse... not even the cranky nurse!:biggrin:

I have worked on getting veggies into my morning for a while so if I am repeating someone else's suggestions I apologize

my breakfast rule of thumb in the order of my priority is

1. it must taste really good and fresh

2. most nutrition I can cram into a quick/easy breakfast ( includes at least two servings of vegetable and 1 of fruit with lots of fat and protein for good measure)

3. contains as little added sugar as possible

Some of my routine breakfasts include (and really are modified almost every time I make them depending on the season and what I have in the fridge)

1.use veggies as the "bread of a breakfast sandwich"

such as

-sliced jicama rounds with Adams chunky peanut butter and bacon or even jelly sandwiched between

- scrambled eggs and cheddar cheese stuffed inside a sliced in half hollowed out red pepper

-blt in a lettuce wrap

-very thin sliced zucchini , daikon, or jicama rolled up with cream cheese and ham or lox or/and minced olives or capers or just cream cheese

2. Vegetable smoothies

-My base for smoothies for two giant ones is usually 2 servings of raw vegetable of choice 1 serving of frozen fruits of choice 1 or 2 raw eggs 1/2 cup half and half or milk, sweetener to taste ...you can use sugar, maple syrup, honey or artificial sweeteners (I think mixing cyclamate with splenda is the best combo if you want to avoid all added sugar and use a chemical!) or no sweetener at all as I do often. Last of all a pinch of salt goes a long way for texture and taste of a smoothie and some spices/extracts to match the flavor of the mix you go with. Some suggestions

-fresh cooked beets with raspberries and vanilla

-zucchini with peaches and ginger

-cauliflower (cooked or raw) with mangos vanilla, cardamom and honey

-carrots (cooked or raw) with pineapple

-cucumber with star fruit (fresh not frozen toss some crushed ice in instead) rosewater and coconut

milk instead of the milk or it will curdle

-pumpkin (cooked) with a banana cinnamon and maple syrup

3. pancakes.. I make pancakes out of whatever last nights vegetables are just add egg and some breadcrumbs to a mashed or grated veggie that will hold together and cook like a pancake

hope this helps and again I am sorry if I repeated what someone else said

Edited by hummingbirdkiss (log)
why am I always at the bottom and why is everything so high? 

why must there be so little me and so much sky?

Piglet 

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Did no-one mention gazpacho yet?

I love gazpacho for breakfast!

Lately, I've been pouring myself a bowl of gazpacho, then making some soft scrambled eggs with a bit of bacon mixed in. I ladle the steamy eggs right into the center of the gazpacho, garnish with a few of my rice wine vinegar pickled cucumbers, then eat. The contrast between hot and cold works very well, and I get my veggies and protein all in one shot.

My gazpacho generally contains tomatoes (a fruit, I know), cukes, green pepper and onion, plus garlic, vinegar and other seasonings. I generally keep a batch in the fridge all Summer long, so that I can have a serving of vegetables whenever I want it, without having to do any prep.

Gazpacho any time of day or night is a great idea. Breakfast, late night snack,

whatever...

I also love to keep a blender full of gazpacho in the freezer and snack

away on it....

Tomatoes are not the only 'fruit' on your list - the cucumbers and

green peppers are also fruits....

I still don't get why some fruits are called vegetables and others are not...

Milagai

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I still don't get why some fruits are called vegetables and others are not...

It's a form of classification based on the study of botany, which was then transcribed in Latin.

Does the variance in classification of these edible plants not occur in Indian culture, Miligai?

P.S. I should add that I don't completely "get it" either. I can catch some of the defined variances but then there are some things that escape the definitions somehow. So I don't worry about it but sort of place my trust in the botanists.

Plus I really don't care how they categorize it as long as it tastes good to me, and for sure one really does not have to place rigid rules on whether a fruit or a vegetable (or even meat or fish for that matter) is suitable for one time or place in a meal based on someone else's definition, does one?

A meal started with dessert sounds good to me. Maybe even a dessert made from carrots, a veg, not a fruit. Followed by something made from fruit for the main course. Finished by a braise of meat or a grill of fish for "dessert" or rather, I should say, to end the assortment of things planned in one time to eat in certain order.

As a matter of fact, why do we need follow three courses? Why not all on the table at the same time? :smile:

The only proscriptions against this that would be worthy of following, in my opinion, would be those of one's chosen religion. Certainly no botanist nor cookbook writer knows more than I do about how I want to eat. :wink:

................................................................

Sorry, Janet. Got a bit carried away there. :biggrin:

Edited by Carrot Top (log)
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I still don't get why some fruits are called vegetables and others are not...

It's a form of classification based on the study of botany, which was then transcribed in Latin.

Does the variance in classification of these edible plants not occur in Indian culture, Miligai?

P.S. I should add that I don't completely "get it" either. I can catch some of the defined variances but then there are some things that escape the definitions somehow. So I don't worry about it but sort of place my trust in the botanists.

Plus I really don't care how they categorize it as long as it tastes good to me, and for sure one really does not have to place rigid rules on whether a fruit or a vegetable (or even meat or fish for that matter) is suitable for one time or place in a meal based on someone else's definition, does one?

A meal started with dessert sounds good to me. Maybe even a dessert made from carrots, a veg, not a fruit. Followed by something made from fruit for the main course. Finished by a braise of meat or a grill of fish for "dessert" or rather, I should say, to end the assortment of things planned in one time to eat in certain order.

As a matter of fact, why do we need follow three courses? Why not all on the table at the same time? :smile:

The only proscriptions against this that would be worthy of following, in my opinion, would be those of one's chosen religion. Certainly no botanist nor cookbook writer knows more than I do about how I want to eat. :wink:

................................................................

Sorry, Janet. Got a bit carried away there. :biggrin:

I guess I don't know why botany treats some fruits and fruits and calls

other fruits vegetables.... baffling... I would have thought it's the opposite.

In Indian kitchen culture, there are words for fruits and vegetables,

and they don't follow botany or any other form of logic either.

It's the same confusion. A tomato or eggplant would be considered vegetables

and a mango or banana a fruit.....

In Indian cooking, there are plenty of "main dishes" made with fruits

(e.g. mango something or other). My hypothesis is that most cultures

end with a sweet dessert because sugar kills the appetite? And many

cultures put a little smidgen of something sweet as one of the dishes

of the main meal, and the whole 'course' thing seems European rather

than other regions?

Milagai

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My hypothesis is that most cultures

end with a sweet dessert because sugar kills the appetite?  And many

cultures put a little smidgen of something sweet as one of the dishes

of the main meal, and the whole 'course' thing seems European rather

than other regions?

I just read something the other day about the "course" thing, as a matter of fact, which noted that the idea of two or three courses, starting with a savory and ending with a sweet but specifically divided into these courses was transcribed in a popular book by a European chef of some court, and that the idea of that custom was then transferred to the "new world" by the few popular cookbook writers of American descent whom had read the European chef's book. I think the thesis was from MFK Fisher, and believe she was speaking of the Victorian period.

Janet (The Old Foodie) probably knows much more about this than I do. Much. :biggrin:

...............................................

Speaking of veggies at breakfast, of course there also could be veggies at dessert-time. Aren't there many veggies that do duty as a dessert, among them chick-peas in Indian cooking among other cultures?

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Janet (The Old Foodie) probably knows much more about this than I do. Much.  :biggrin:

Speaking of veggies at breakfast, of course there also could be veggies at dessert-time. Aren't there many veggies that do duty as a dessert, among them chick-peas in Indian cooking among other cultures?

I guess I have to respond to that apparent challenge Carrot Top!

The 'standard meal' as we think of it today (two or three or more separate dishes served sequentially, progressing from light to heavier and ending with sweet) is called 'service a la russe' and is a nineteenth century phenomenon - lots and lots of reasons for the evolution from 'service a la francaise' which was essentially the medieval method of several courses each with many dishes sweet and savoury all put on the table at once , then removed and replaced with another mutitude of dishes. I can summarise some of the reasons but I dont think it would fit here!

As for the vege-fruit thing - the botanists are quite clear which is which. A fruit is "The seed of a plant or tree, regarded as the means of reproduction, together with its envelope; spec. in Bot. ‘the ripe pistil containing the ovules, arrived at the state of seeds’ [OED]. This means that a strawberry is not a true fruit, it is what the botanists call a 'pseudocarp' - each of the 'seeds' is technically a strawberry fruit, the red fleshy bit is a glorified receptacle. The rest of us who are not botanists have developed the convention of calling it a vegetable if we tend to use it more in a 'savoury' context .

There was an interesting case in the USA in 1893 in which the courts decided that the tomato was a vegetable. This is an extract from a blog post I did on it

After a six-year battle a U.S. court decided on this day [May 10th] in 1893 that the tomato was a vegetable. This was in complete disregard for the science of botany, many experts, and numerous dictionaries, but with complete and touching regard for “the common language of the people”, culinary convention (“any plant or part thereof eaten during the main dish is a vegetable … If it is eaten at any other part of the meal it is a fruit”) and, not surprisingly, the economics of the tomato trade.

The problem had started with the Tariff Act of 1883, which placed 10% duty on imported vegetables but not fruit. In the interest of raising revenue, the NY Customs department declared the tomato a vegetable. The ruling was challenged in 1887 by an importer attempting to recoup duty paid on tomatoes brought in from the West Indies. Six years later the decision was finally made, and he lost.

The definition of vegetable is a broad one - any part of any plant eaten as food could be included [perhaps it is a non-fruit part of a plant] - it is our convention that makes veges savoury things on the whole. Sticking within this convention, with pumpkin a 'vegetable' then pumpkin pie would be dessert vege.

How about the Asian sweet bean things?

Is that another thread? "Veges for Dessert?" Over to you Karen.

Happy Feasting

Janet (a.k.a The Old Foodie)

My Blog "The Old Foodie" gives you a short food history story each weekday day, always with a historic recipe, and sometimes a historic menu.

My email address is: theoldfoodie@fastmail.fm

Anything is bearable if you can make a story out of it. N. Scott Momaday

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