Monday, March 1, 2010

Recipe: Scrambled eggs with kale and provolone

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I am one of those unfortunate people who has struggled with her weight since the dawn of time.

I am not a woman of excess. I have friends (you know who you are) who make resolutions to eat 28 desserts in 28 hours. I have non-blood relatives (you know who you are, too) who believe that pate is a food group and no meal, including breakfast, is truly over without something sweet, and I don't mean fruit.

Of these extremes I fall far short. I like vegetables. I'm not much for dessert. Balance in all things, that's my mantra.

Unfortunately, some idiot invented french fries. And bread. And polenta, and pasta, and pretty much any other starchy, salty, fiberless fare you can imagine. These are my binge foods, my comfort foods, my one-bite-and-I-gain-10-pounds foods. I'll never give them up. But I'm constantly looking for ways to trick myself into forgetting, however temporarily, that they exist.

Thus was born my current experiment, which I'm calling 5 by 5. Simply put, I am trying to get five servings of fruit and vegetables in before 5pm. I see lots of potential benefits:
  1. It's simple.
  2. It keeps me focused on eating the "right" things instead of denying myself the "wrong" things.
  3. It's good for me.
  4. It distracts me through the witching hours, which for me are 2pm to 5pm, the long afternoons at my desk at work, a little sleepy, a little cranky, and jonesing for a carb fix.
  5. My cravings may not be gone, but my stomach is just too full for anything else.
  6. If I feel like having cereal or pasta for dinner, when I'm even more tired and cranky and craving, at least I feel less guilty about it. And I eat less, because I'm still full of vegetables.
Am I doing this to lose weight? Maybe. But if I don't lose weight and still end up eating more fruits and vegetables and fewer starches, I'll end up healthier, and I'll consider that a positive outcome.

One key to success in getting in five servings: Breakfast. Which is how I ended up with this delicious, healthy scramble. One serving of veg down, four more to go  by 5pm.

Scrambled eggs with kale and provolone
  • 1 tsp olive oil 
  • 8 leaves kale, washed, de-stemmed, and chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, chopped
  • 3 eggs, beaten
  • 1 slice provolone cheese, torn into small pieces (or cheese of your choice)
  • salt and pepper to taste
Heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the kale and garlic and saute about 2 minutes, until the kale is wilted but not limp. Pour the eggs over the kale and sprinkle the cheese over the top. Scramble with a spatula until the eggs are cooked through and the cheese is melted. Turn the eggs onto a plate, season to taste with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

12 comments:

Sarah P said...

I like the way you think! And I'm excited to see a new idea for scrambled eggs. Yum! Now if I can get up early enough to make them...guessing not. T minus 5.

Laura said...

I think I like this 5 by 5 idea I could use A LOT more veggies in my life. Can I just say I am ready for summer? This winter stuff sucks.

You should, if it's not too late link this up with my new "just another meatless Monday" roundup if it's too late this week do it next week! I am trying to be completely vegetarian 2-4 days a week and so I kind need inspiration and created the link up to help me and others looking to eat more meatless meals.

Anyhoodle think about it :) (((hugs)))

Jenny said...

I love the 5x5 idea, but I'd definitely have trouble getting this done by 5pm, only because I've usually baked for breakfast and eat out at lunch. I could probably do 5x12 (meaning between 5pm and midnight, get in 5 servings!). But weekends, that I could do. How inspirational, Erika!

Erika Kerekes said...

Jenny - it's definitely taking some advance planning. Before I go to work I spend a few minutes collecting the fruit/veg I'm going to eat during the day. For example, today I had a banana with breakfast, a large serving of roasted beets for snack, chili with veggies for lunch, and I have an orange in my bag for later. That's probably really only 4 servings total, but I didn't have anything else at home today to grab, and I was too lazy to walk to the place with the salad bar at lunchtime.

Also, I go to bed early, and I never eat after 7pm, so for me, front-loading the day is important. YMMV.

Laura, I would love to join the Meatless Mondays, but as I'm never sure exactly when I'm going to have time to cook and/or post, I'll have to play it by ear. Next time, if Monday turns out meatless, I'm there.

Kate @ Savour Fare said...

I've been trying something similar (though I often fall short.) We had beet greens with fried eggs for breakfast a couple of weeks ago -- I bet kale would be great, too!

Erika Kerekes said...

Kate, I've used beet greens in eggs many times, too. I don't think there's a huge difference in this preparation between beet greens and kale. Chard would work too.

Anonymous said...

Spinach, celery, green peppers, and the cactus leaf nopal ) found in most groceries )also work well with scrambled eggs.. Most of us forget that celery, green peppers and radish are also veggies.. radish can be sauteed and fried as well.

Tiffany said...

I was looking for an idea to use kale with eggs. I had Swiss instead of provolone, which worked well. I had the eggs on top of a piece of rosemary toast. Thanks for this idea!

Jennie said...

EGG-celent idea! We ate this for dinner tonight. Delicious! Thank you!

Anonymous said...

Delicious! I added avocado and it was even better :) Thanks for the idea! Kale is my new favorite veggie, especially in soup... I've been making this soup recently and LOVE it: Saute an onion and garlic for a few minutes, add 1 package of ground chicken sausage, cook until brown, add 1 can of white beans, a bunch of kale, and 4 c. chicken broth. Cook ~20 min. Yum!

Erika Kerekes said...

Oh, that soup sounds DIVINE.

Sapna said...

OMG looks SO good!

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