Mama Kolz's Summer Breakfast Scramble

The zucchini in the garden are loving our weather. And I'm loving the zucchini. Here's what our children had for breakfast this morning. Feel free to substitute things you may have in your pantry, garden or refrigerator for what I listed. This is your scramble! I can make it Trim, Healthy, Mama friendly, and add bread and jam for my children who are not eating on a diet plan. This would be an S meal on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.

My favorite chickens lay colored eggs. If you don't live near farms -- check your farmers market for the healthiest eggs you can find. Our farmer friend has silly, cheerful chickens who are let out of their pen each morning (where they are safe from Mama Foxes feeding their young kits) to peck at grass and weed seeds and bugs and fruit and watermelon rinds and all the trimmings from the farm wife's vegetables. They look a lot like bowl of eggs.

I use a huge skillet, probably 14 inches across. I add some butter or coconut oil, about a tablespoon, and let it melt on low while I'm chopping a large zucchini into very small dices. I pretend I'm a chef on TV, and I use my bright orange handled Rachael Ray knives that Farmboy bought me for my birthday a few years ago. It's great fun to be me sometimes! In fact, I had so much fun with the basic set, that my husband then bought me this for Christmas - Cool but affordable Japanese Santoku chef knife.



But I digress. After I toss the zucchini into the hot oil or butter, I finely dice a red or white super sweet onion. We grow the candy sweet variety, but do the best you can with the local sweet onions -- the sweeter they are -- the better breakfast tastes. Put 1/2 of the onion into a zipper bag or a storage container an keep it in the refrigerator for another day or the freezer if you're not cooking again soon and toss the second half into the zucchini. Soften and allow the veggies to turn a little golden, and then add in 1/2 cup of diced ham, or a chopped tin of SPAM, TREET, or other canned brand of luncheon meat. I've also used leftover meat from dinner, chopped sausage, or even bologna, salami, etc.  You want about 1/2 cup for flavor. If your meat isn't very flavorful, then a teaspoon of mince garlic is very nice to add. Sprinkle the veggies with some garlic salt or sea salt, and toss it about in the pan, then put the lid on for a moment while you crack open 8 large eggs into a bowl, whisk until smooth, and then pour over your cooked meat and veggies. Stir gently, turn the heat to low, and gently fold inward until the scrambled eggs are done to your likeness. I put the lid on before I think they're finished cooking, and turn off the heat, and get the breakfast plates ready. When I return the eggs are perfect. Scoop into 4-6 portions and serve your family with a smile. I love to top our Summer Scramble with a hearty shredding of Romano cheese made from our goat milk, but a bit of a parmesan cheese wedge, cut off with a fruit peeler into a few curls, makes this very special!

1 T butter or coconut oil
1 large zucchini, small dice
1/2 sweet onion, small dice
8 large free range eggs, whisked
1/2 cup cooked meat of your choice:  sausage, salami, Treet, Spam, Ham, or leftover meats
3 good shakes of Real Salt
Garlic salt to taste

Optional: Curls of Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish

Melt oil of your choice in a large skillet 10-14 inches diameter. On medium high add zucchini and onion and soften the veggies, then add cooked meat and heat through. Pour in whisked eggs, turn the heat to low,  stir to the center gently when curds form, and right before they look finished and dry enough, turn off the heat and put the lid on. Serves 4-6 depending on how large your zucchini may be.  Excellent served with toast with Dutch Apple Pie Jam. That recipe will follow.


Today the children ate theirs with 3 cherry tomatoes from the garden on the side, and their scramble made with Spam, zucchini, red candy sweet onion, alongside a slice of bread with butter and homemade Dutch Apple Pie Jam. It's a good meal, any time of the day! Enjoy summer while you can.

MAMA Hacks -- or how I fed my children when I just wanted to get a nap!

This morning I put cherry tomatoes on their breakfast plates, for the 3 year old and the 8 year old. We had Zucchini ham breakfast scramble, and I just tossed 2-3 cherry tomatoes on the plate with it, for them to pop into their mouth at 8 am this morning. Seems extreme to many North Americans but I assure you the rest of the world has more vegetable intake than us and they eat them at breakfast too.

This practice of feeding them the healthiest stuff they might otherwise turn their wee little noses up at began when I had an AHA!! moment one late dinner evening in Griffith, Indiana. I commuted on the train into Chicago's Miracle Mile for my busy jobs with long hours, and I tried religiously to be home by 630pm but that meant they were very hungry when we walked into the kitchen of our ranch style home. In fact after too many nights of take-out, carry-in or take-away dinners, I came up with this Mama Hack.

I knew what I was making for dinner, a two week menu posted on the refrigerator. But the children sat at the kitchen table with big wide blue eyes staring at me as I cut up the ingredients and began cooking. They would ask for bites of the components of dinner as I prepared it. I glanced in  my well-stocked but small pantry, and spied a can of large butter beans. I opened it up, drained the beans, rinsing them off and laid a layer of large beans that look like Lima beans on a small luncheon plate and put it in the middle of the kitchen table for the two kids to snack on while I was chopping veggies for our quesadillas on the menu. When I looked back the plate was empty. My two small children ate a can of beans, one at a time, with their fingers. Well, why not? Beans are protein, carbs, and fiber -- and hold good nutritional value. We'll call that their "appetizer portion".

I made their quesadillas filled with good food, and fried it in a pan while they happily picked up beans and filled their grumbly tummies.  After that I made sure that for each work day we had something ready to go to put on the table the minute they walked in the door from the sitter's home with me. Often times it was a pretty plate of beans, and sometimes it was a bag of raw veggies (like baby carrots, snap peas, or romaine hearts). For the romaine I merely rinsed one, gave it 4-5 quick chops into bite size pieces and then squeezed out some dressing or hummus on a plate and they dipped it with their fingers. Remember, single mama, high food prices in Chicagoland, no access to the farm we're on now, and we'd been out of the house for 12 long hours by the time we walked in.

So if you are in a similar or relevant situation and can use a mama hack, try opening a can of green or butter beans or whatever you think your children may start to nibble on, drain it, and put in on a plate in the center of the table, and pick one up and eat it and say yum, those are good and turn your back. Something good may happen!

Next post:  Kelli's Breakfast Summer Breakfast Scramble

Trim Healthy Mama- Swimming Rama Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Don't be daunted by the seeming length of this recipe it's 20 minutes prep, 20 minutes of cooking the dish, and some of that can be made ahead. If you like, skip down to the peanut sauce portion, make it ahead, and store it for a couple of days in the refrigerator, then heat it back up after you've browned some chicken strips and steamed some vegetables.That's a good piano lessons or soccer practice night speedy dinner, if you ask me. Brown rice or quinoa can always be cooked ahead in chicken broth and reheated in the microwave as a side dish for growing bodies or those who need extra calories.

Peanut sauce is hearty and filling and It's quite versatile. At our house it  works nice as a dipping sauce for chicken strips on a stick, or poured over a bowl of stir fried veggies and scrambled egg strips. 

The ingredient you may not have in your cupboard is available in most Asian sections of your supermarkets, labeled fish sauce. Its salty and pungent, and made of anchovies, but it flavors the peanut sauce deftly, and substitutes fall short. I'll put up a salad dressing for steak salad, that you will use more fish sauce in, so you won't feel like you're doing a one time purchase. I predict your family will ask for this one again and again.

Thai Swimming Rama chicken with cabbage and spinach

Feeds my family of 8 (3 teens, 2 parents, 3 littles)

2 (10 ounce) packages fresh spinach or 1 family size  fresh spinach (this is about 10-12 cups raw leaves but makes only 1.5 cups cooked and packed)

1 medium head (about 2 lbs) of thinly sliced but not shredded cabbage. Think egg noodle width, not coleslaw. You may use green, napa, bok choy, savoy, red cabbage, or whatever you prefer, but you'll need at least 5 cups of sliced cabbage.

During gardening season I will slice up a couple of red sweet bell peppers (capsicum), or shave thinly a few carrots, for extra color and variety

Or you may substitute thinly sliced broccoli or brussel sprouts, or cauliflower for a part of the six cups of sliced veggies to go with the 10 cups of spinach. 

3 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, sliced crosswise into 1/2 inch wide strips 

Peanut Sauce
2 T coconut oil, refined is fine (divided for 3 uses)

1 cup onion, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup peanut butter, unsugared
4 Tablespoons fish sauce (yes, you need this!)
2 teaspoon paprika, I like the smoky style
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 cups coconut milk, unsweetened (or if nut allergic use chicken broth)

4T Truvia sweetner or Xylitol as desired (or micro-sprinkles of stevia to taste to equal this) (You will be adding lime later, so sweeten up!)


1teaspoon or so of gluccomannon or xanthan gum to thicken


2 squeezed limes  or ~1/4 cup lime juice

Directions:
Toss chicken strips with salt and pepper (start with 2 tsp. salt & 1/2 tsp pepper) and with 1 teaspoon smoked paprika. Set aside while you heat the oil over medium high heat in a large dutch oven or very large skillet or wok.

Heat 2 teaspoons of coconut oil until it's glistening and pan is hot, then toss in half the sliced chicken, and cook until browned on edges but not necessarily cooked through. You will cook more in the end. Set aside in a bowl and add 2 tsp. more coconut oil into the hot skillet and toss in the remaining half of the raw chicken. Cook until browned, and nearly done. Add to the bowl of the browned but raw chicken.

To the hot skillet you cooked the chicken in, please add the remaining 2 teaspoons of coconut oil. Drop in the finely diced onions and mince the garlic into it, taking care not to burn the garlic. Cook and stir occasionally, 2 minutes until the onion is tender, reducing heat at the end to medium. 

Now add your 1 cup of peanut butter to the onions and stir in fish sauce, sweetener to the equivalent of 4T of sweetness, and gently stir in the coconut milk, and add one more teaspoon of paprika, and a pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne to taste. My children prefer tiny bits of cayenne, here. Get your whisk ready, and sprinkle one teaspoon of gluc or xanthan gum  over the top of the peanut sauce and whisk whisk whisk until completely smooth.

Now add your mostly, but not completely cooked chicken, to the hot peanut sauce. Let simmer, covered, on low, for the 5-8 minutes as you prepare the vegetables. 

Heat on medium high heat a large wok or frying pan with a lid. Toss in 1/4 cup of hot water, wait for it to boil, then add the sliced head of cabbage and pour on 1/4 cup of water and several good shakes of real salt. Stir a quick bit, then top with the lid. Let steam on med-hi for 5 minutes, adding 1/4 cup hot tap water at the 2 minute mark if needed to keep steam. Check for tenderness at the 5 minute mark, and add the spinach leaves, push down, cover again, and let the spinach wilt for 2 more minutes. 

Swimming Rama Chicken in Peanut Sauce

Give spinach and cabbage strips a quick toss with tongs to mix them up a bit, Taste to see if you need salt and pepper, and distribute the mixture to a large platter, making a nest to put the Chicken and peanut sauce upon.
Taste your long simmered peanut sauce and chicken. Does it need more salt? Pepper? Cayenne? Now pour in the 1/4 cup fresh lime juice, give it a stir, and taste it again. Does it need another tablespoon of sweetener to balance out the sauce? It should have a balance of salt, acid, sweet, and a little hint or more of spice. If it's just right, then ladle your chicken and sauce right onto your nest of cabbage and spinach.



Optional Garnishes: If you like,  this is where you may garnish it with 1 cup of chopped peanuts, 1 finely slivered skinny red hot pepper, or cilantro-coriander leaves, a handful of raw mung bean sprouts, or all four.

Serve with 1/2 cup of broth-cooked quinoa or brown rice as S helpers, because this is definitely an S meal. Or just enjoy it on your veggies and call it delicious, because it is!