Vegetables for Breakfast

[Pandora Black]

I am having a hard time with this. The ONLY thing I can stand in the morning is root vegetables, really.

Hit me with your ideas for incorporating vegetables in a breakfast meal. I usually have scrambled eggs with pico de gallo and an avocado or bacon. What vegetables would work with that? Keep in mind I hate kale, chard, and collard greens.

[ShannonM816]

I do green eggs a lot -- put your raw eggs in a blender or food processor, add a big handful or two of spinach (I use fresh baby spinach, like the bagged kind for salads) and whatever seasonings you normally put in your eggs, and blend, then cook the eggs the way you normally would. It doesn't change the flavor of the eggs very much at all, and doesn't feel like you're eating spinach. 

Sometimes I have zucchini or yellow/summer squash or broccoli instead. For any of those, I cook them most of the way in my skillet, and then add my eggs to the pan with them and scramble it all together, partly out of laziness, but also because I seem to be more likely to eat the vegetables if they're combined with the eggs. You could do this with any vegetables, those are just the ones I tend to like best first thing in the morning. 

There's nothing that says you can't have root vegetables at breakfast either, or that you can't have more than one serving of them in a day. Some people prefer not to have then at breakfast because they feel they have better energy when they have them later instead, but it's something you can try for yourself and see how you feel. Mixing some root vegetables in with other vegetables might help make it all more palatable in the morning, especially as you get used to incorporating more vegetables into your breakfast. 

[Pandora Black]

Thank you that’s so helpful. It never occurred to me to try green eggs.

Also ok, now I feel less bad about my hash browns/potato wedges in the morning. 

[Jihanna]

Potatoes are my go-to in the mornings if I'm having eggs, usually as part of a frittata (along with a handful or two of baby spinach or spring mix, onion, mushroom, grape tomatoes, and sometimes my avocado diced up in there also)... but it's not unknown for me to bake a potato and chop it up, then lay fried eggs on top of it  

That said, I've found that starchy vegetables work great for me in the morning (they actually help me make it to lunch) and not so great in the afternoon (I start wanting naptime about an hour afterward)... and since I always have starchy vegetables with dinner (I need them so I can sleep well at night), I started using my dinner leftovers as my first meal of the day instead of getting super creative with eggs in the morning. It works doubly well for me, because I can't always stomach eggs first thing in the morning, but I've got no problem eating "regular" food so early.

As an example, my breakfast today was leftovers from last night's dinner... a sausage foil packet (with Aidell's chicken & apple sausage, sliced potato, zucchini, onion, and a handful of mixed bell pepper slices), roasted carrots, and braised cabbage with bacon. Absolutely delicious, and not something I could eat as lunch because of the potatoes (carrots don't seem to bug me so much but potatoes definitely put me in mind for a pillow).

[JenX]

I frequently make a breakfast "salad" using baby arugula. big handful of that, some dice fresh tomato and avocado, lightly dressed with sherry vinegar. I then crisp up some bacon (1-2 slices per salad) and pour most of the bacon grease on the salad (sort of a wilted-spinach salad knock off). Then top the whole thing with 2-3 runny-yolked eggs (sunny side up, poached, over easy, soft-boiled). I suppose you could do this with spinach too, but I don't like spinach so avoid it like the plague!

[kirbz]

I'm with you. Veggies in the morning is tough. But here's where I landed. Soup! For some reason, a delicious, creamy soup doesn't seem so hard in the morning. So, I basically rotate these three with my scrambled eggs on the regular (listed in order of my favorites): 

1. Golden Cauliflower Soup: http://meljoulwan.com/2012/10/24/golden-cauliflower-soup/
2. Silky Gingered Zucchini Soup: https://meljoulwan.com/2012/11/05/silky-gingered-zucchini-soup/
3. Roasted Carrot Caraway Soup: https://meljoulwan.com/2017/10/07/roasted-carrot-caraway-soup/

Voila! Veggies for breakfast, in a format that hardly seems like veggies! :-) 

[Erinj]

LOVE the green eggs idea! And for me, leftovers for the win! Leftovers with an egg on it (or not!) always works for me since most of my leftover meals have veggies in them. And then of course, #throwaneggonit

[ChristiHudler]

On 6/7/2019 at 6:07 AM, ShannonM816 said:

I do green eggs a lot -- put your raw eggs in a blender or food processor, add a big handful or two of spinach (I use fresh baby spinach, like the bagged kind for salads) and whatever seasonings you normally put in your eggs, and blend, then cook the eggs the way you normally would. It doesn't change the flavor of the eggs very much at all, and doesn't feel like you're eating spinach. 

Whoa, I never would have thought of doing this!  Thank you so much for that piece of advice!

[Keen On Clean Fuel]

Great ideas here! I'm such a soup lover for breakfast since whole30 -- I'm a big "redefine" breakfast person!  I encourage my clients to eat anything they want for breakfast -- not just eggs or the standard "breakfast foods."  I will eat steak/chicken/whatever I have on hand for breakfast -- it's very freeing

[EmerOD]

My current favourite veggie for breakfast is Brussel Sprouts, something I used to hate as a kid!! I roast up a large tray of sprouts, butternut squash and red onion, and eat with whatever protein I have available. It's so good, so easy and handy to prep ahead for a few days' breakfasts. I've used frozen sprouts & squash too so I've often got the ingredients in the freezer. 

Just don't bring it in to the office and microwave them or you'll stink the office out ;) 

Other than that I find a veggie packed omelette/fritatta great for getting in the veg, dice up everything small add in potato, bacon etc and you won't really feel like you're eating a plate of veggies for breakfast!

[coachmandiep]

I love a good breakfast salad!  I'll throw some cut up veggies on greens and add some cooked protein, 2 poached eggs, and avocado.  I feel so accomplished starting my day off with a plate full of goodness!