HappyTummy              

On weekdays, I’m usually up before the sun. It’s my time to catch up on the news, journal, read my favorite blogs, spend time with the kitties and just sit and be at peace by myself before the craziness of the day begins. Early weekday mornings are my favorite time of day because it’s “me” time, and because of that, I’m probably one of the few people in the world who can honestly say that I cannot wait to get up every day.

On the weekends, however, I do let myself sleep in. B typically gets up before me and starts a pot of coffee, reads the news and maybe plays a computer game or two. By the time I get up and about, he’s one hungry man.

For the past five years, his weekend breakfast of choice has been a two-Egg Beaters omelette. This suits me just fine because 1, it’s easy to prepare and 2, it’s healthy and 3, I can throw a lot of leftovers into an omelette. Whether it’s a meat, poultry or veggie, an omelette is conducive to pretty much any diced edible–I’ve made variations with any one of these: sausage, turkey, chicken, green/red bell pepper, celery, tomatoes, spinach…the list goes on and on. The other good thing about omelettes is that they are great places to sneak in healthy things–on more than one occasion I’ve crumbled tofu in B’s omelette, and he was none the wiser, hee hee.

For this omelette in particular, I chopped up onion, zucchini and some leftover chicken breast. I sauteed everything in a pan for a few minutes, just to soften everything up and heat it through.

People will disagree on how to make a perfect omelette. Some people like runny omelettes, others like omelettes folded into thirds (with the seam at the bottom of the plate), some like theirs almost crepe-like. When I make B’s omelette, I get the eggs all puffy, and then I’ll fold it in half. I find it’s the easiest way not to break the egg.

The egg substitute goes into the pan first, where I season it with salt and pepper, then cover it and let it puff up under low heat. After it fluffs up a bit, I throw in the sauteed diced chicken and veggies. I let all of this sit for a little longer before I usually sprinkle cheese (which I didn’t this time around), and then fold one side over. I have to say, the perfect omelette pan will make it easy to flip–I’ve had my cheapo omelette pan for years and refuse to get a new one because it’s the perfect size and because it’s basically been perfectly conditioned over hundreds of Saturdays and Sundays.

I’ll admit, it looks plain, especially without the oozing cheese that I usually put into it. But B will typically break out the salsa or Sriracha to flavor it up even more. Regardless, it’s a hearty and healthy breakfast option…which satisfies the both of us!

Recipe: (Anything and Everything) Puffy Omelette

• Olive oil spray, to coat omelette pan
• 1/8 cup each of any three diced vegetables; I use anything from onions to celery to zucchini to bell peppers to tomatoes to spinach
• 1/2 cup egg substitute
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1/8 to 1/4 cup cooked meat or poultry; I mostly use ground turkey sausage, but ground beef or shredded/diced chicken could be good too
• Handful mozzerella cheese

Spray olive oil in small pan and saute veggies over medium/high heat until crisp-tender. Set aside.

Generously spray more olive oil in same pan. Pour egg substitute in and lower heat to medium. Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over eggs. As they set, gently lift one side of the the set part of the egg and allow runny part to fill the empty space. Cover pan and allow the eggs to puff up; approximately 1 minute.

Remove cover. The top of the egg should still be a little runny. Dump sauteed veggies and meat onto one half of the egg. Sprinkle on cheese. Using a spatula, flip empty half of the egg on top of the part with the mixture. Recover the pan.

After another 30 to 45 seconds, the omelette should be extremely puffy and the cheese will have “sealed” the omelette in a nice half moon shape. Slide the omelette onto a plate.