Plants are my best friends and have completely transformed my life. Incorporating vegetables first thing in the morning is incredibly important to my health. Here are 2 ways to incorporate a ton of vegetables at breakfast…
Quinoa Veggie Scramble
Quinoa Veggie Scramble
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 1
Ingredients
- ½ cup Quinoa, cooked
- ½ cup Broccoli, chopped
- ½ cup Mushrooms, chopped
- ½ cup Tomatoes, chopped
- 1 cup Spinach, stems removed and chopped
- 1 tablespoon Coconut Oil or Olive Oil
- ⅛ tsp salt
- fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat coconut oil in a stovetop pan on medium heat
- Add broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes, and spinach and allow to heat for about 10 minutes or until tender
- Add quinoa, salt, and pepper to stovetop pan and mix
- Allow to cook for another 2- 3 minutes or until quinoa is warm and enjoy
Mini Vegetable Frittatas
Mini Fritatta
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Serves: 2-4
Ingredients
- 4 whole eggs
- 1 large red pepper diced
- ½ small red onion diced
- 1 to 2 ounces of goat cheese (optional)
- 3 sun dried tomatoes diced
- 3 tbsp minced fresh basil
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- ¼ tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- fresh cracked black pepper to taste
- ½ tsp coconut oil (to coat muffin tin or use baking cups)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375
- Combine all ingredients in large bowl
- Pour mixture into coconut oil greased muffin pan
- Bake for 10 to 14 mins or until golden on top
- Let rest for at least 5 mins and serve
What’s your favorite way to enjoy veggies at your breakfast? Please share in the comments below, I’d love to know and get more ideas!
Bon Appétit,
Food Babe
I love the information you share, but the caption options aren’t working on the video. Can you provide a summary of the info, or enable captions? Thanks – I would like to get all the info, I don’t know what you said about the eggs vs. the yolks.
I’m going to try these recipes. Vegetables are better for you in the morning than most American breakfast favorites like cereal and waffles or donuts.
This link may work better for you – check it out – http://www.wcnc.com/charlotte-today/inside/The-Food-Babe-puts-veggies-in-breakfast-232994191.html
Thanks, the Captions worked great. Personally, I like the whole egg, and now I will enjoy them.
I like to beat the egg and make a big flat pancake looking egg – almost like an omelet sans filling (seasoned with peppers and onions and goodies like that) and roll up things inside like meat or a vegetable filling. Then I roll the whole thing up and slice off bite size pieces. Kind of like a sushi roll.
I have this with cabbage soup and rice.
I don’t know if my reply came through. I’ll try again.
The link you shared was great – captions work.
I like the whole egg.
My favorite breakfast egg dish is to scramble an egg with cooked peppers and onions and make a flat omelet type pancake and roll up a vegetable filling, sometimes meat mixed in. I roll the whole thing and slice pieces.
I eat this with cabbage soup and a small bowl of plain rice.
Can’t wait to try this! How long would you say the cooked fritattas last in the fridge?
At least 2 days, and you can freeze them too! Good luck.
YUM!!! That’s all I can say!
Wow, that looks really good. Amazing how u incorporated all the veggies. Will have to try this out this week.
Love the recipes thank you!
Favorite way to enjoy veggies at your breakfast?
If I’m really good I’ll start my day with hot water + lemon and then follow with a green juice.
However, I much prefer a delicious coffee with cream 🙂
What a cleaver idea for my muffin pan in the morning. I can’t wait to try these simple and healthy recipes, and not just for breakfast. Tomorrow I’m starting my day with your veggie dish and a fruit smoothy from my nutribullet. No that’s health eating!
Not sure why but the recipe listed on the WCNC site is wrong and not formatting correctly. Thanks for posting it here! I’ll be making these for breakfast this weekend!!!
Thank you so much for sharing all of your valuable research and experience with us. You literally walk what you talk. To your health, Food Babe 😉
Thanks for the recipes. I start off with a green smoothie every morning. It gives me so much energy to start my day.
I hope you were able to join in on the gluten webinar last week. Dr. David Perlmutter was amazing!!! I learned so much from him. I’ve read his book and think everyone should. It’s an eye opener.
I am a quinoa ADDICT! Thanks for the new recipe to try.
P.S. Vani, the video isn’t showing up for me 🙁 I’ve tried 2 different browsers. Maybe it’s on my end?
I can see it now…thanks!
Thank you for the recipes. Those fritattas look especially good. Any advice on how to reheat them both from refrigerated and from frozen for a quick breakfast another day? We don’t use a microwave.
Take yourself down to Tuesday Morning and get one of those heavy stainless steel Cuisinart or Calaphon chef’s pans (about 12″ diameter and 4″ deep.) You can do anything with this pan. To reheat anything, put a little water or fat in the pan, set burner on med or low and go do something for 5 to 15 min depending on setting and what you have to do (pull weeds, talk to the neighbor, read mail). Same thing for takeaway lunch: heat it up and put into thermos that had boiling water in it while the food was heating.)
Its a great recipe but I still will not use the yolks. We were told by a heart healthy nutritionist for my husbands heart. That one yolk is too much cholesterol for the day. He can’t have any more. So we don’t eat the yolks. Not for 10 years now. There are other things that can supply the same thing the yolk has other than the cholesterol. But I do like this one.
Hearth healthy nutritionist gets info from the govt. Bodies need cholesterol to make hormones. Your body makes cholesterol also. People who eat no animal products have high cholesterol. Also, something bad happens when you eat only the white. (Sorry this escapes me, but it is in Dr Mercola’s news I think.)
Dear Karen,
Ones liver produces all the cholesterol the body needs, in fact, three fourths of the cholesterol is made by your body . Its the excessive amounts of cholesterol and saturated fat in the diet that lead to coronary heart disease.
You write, healthy nutritionist gets info from the govt. -and the Egg Board- (sic) clinical researchers, be it scientists, professors, hospital research laboratories ect. get there info from research, not press releases.
If you would like to do your own research on this subject, there are many white papers available, Harvard, Stanford, UCSF if I had the time I could list 100s of research centers, its common knowledge that egg yoke has a very high cholesterol content, in fact it has the highest of all foods 21 2 mg.
In 1995 the American Egg Board launched a massive PR campaign to deride the findings that the egg yoke was unhealthy due to the high cholesterol content. Millions of dollars was spent, the tide was turned people started eating more eggs.
Eggs ARE good for you……for anyone!!!
http://www.cholesterol-and-health.com/Egg_Yolk.html
Dear Linda,
People give advice because they believe its true, not necessarily out of malice.
Unfortunately because they read some thing or was told something does not make it true, in the case of egg yokes, if your husband has a heart condition or high cholesterol egg yokes are bad for him. Speak with a cardiologist, or do your own research,
Thanks David, that is what we were told by the Dr and the nutritionist. So he does not eat egg yolks and I gave them up too, just to keep my heart healthy. Heart disease is in my genes. So far I am doing great.
The idea that eggs, as a source of saturated fats, are unhealthy and promote heart disease is a complete myth. While it’s true that fats from animal sources contain cholesterol, this is not necessarily something that will harm you. On the contrary, the evidence clearly shows that eggs are one of the most healthful foods you can eat, and can actually help prevent disease, including heart disease.
For example, one 2009 study discovered that the proteins in cooked eggs are converted by gastrointestinal enzymes, producing peptides that act as ACE inhibitors (common prescription medications for lowering blood pressure). This certainly flies in the face of ‘conventional wisdom,’ and the latest findings support the stance that eggs are in fact part of a heart-healthy diet. – Dr. Mercola
There is new information on cholesterol and it is that sugar and inflammation are the real problems. The book entitled The Cholesterol Myth by J. Bowden addresses this and also states why eggs are good for us. I highly recommend the book.
I made a very similar quinoa dish for dinner yesterday, except I used some coconut aminos for seasoning, cubed butternut squash instead of tomaoes and kale instead of spinach. Very good! May try your version!
For breakfast I find it more challenging to incorporate veggies. I often eat raw fermented veggies, such as cabbage/sauerkraut alongside eggs in the morning. Will love to try your frittatas! Thanks for all you do!!!
Read your recipe for mini fritattas with interest. My question is about cooking eggs in the oven (or anyway else) at a relatively high temperature. My doctor told me (plus I have read this in several different places) that one should ONLY poach an egg because the protein in the egg is very delicate & high heat will degrade or destroy it. Have you ever heard or read this information? Does your research back up this “fact”? Thank you for whatever information you can provide.
I do a whole egg super salad for breakfast it is… 1/2 head of romaine chopped, 1 stalk celery chopped, 1 inch cucumber diced, 1 radish diced, 1/4 red pepper diced, 1 carrot diced, small handful watercress, small handful parsley, small handful cilantro, 1/2 avocado, 1tbs fresh ground flax seed, 1 tsp chia seed, handful black raisins, 1/8 pomegranate, 2 tsp nutritional yeast, 5 eggs. Combine all ingredients in bowl except eggs. cook eggs in 1tbs coconut oil over easy (keep eggs yolky) then add to salad and chop and mix all together. Not going to win any awards for presentation but it tastes fantastic with little bursts of sweetness from the pomegranate and raisins. The yolk and whites mixed with the avocado turn into a fantastic dressing. It is huge for sure. I eat it in shifts 😉 great post workout meal!
thank you for these ideas, they all sound delicious!
Food Babe, the controversy over eating eggs its not so much the nutritional value between egg white and yoke, its the cholesterol content in egg yokes The yolks of eggs have the most cholesterol of any food with 1234mg per 100 gram serving or 411% of the DV. A single egg yolk will provide 210mg (70% DV) of cholesterol.
Limit cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg per day, for most people. If you have coronary heart disease or your LDL cholesterol level is 100 mg/dL or greater, limit your cholesterol intake to less than 200 milligrams a day.
Source. The American Heart Association.
The problem with what you are saying is that the vast majority of cholesterol we consume is NOT stored by the body at all. You, yourself, even said above that 3/4 of the cholesterol in our body, is produced by the liver. You want to know what stimulates the liver to produce cholesterol? It isnt cholesterol itself, but long chain fatty acid (such as vegetables oils) and excessive sugar (the pancreas stimulated the liver). It is not cholesterol you directly consume.
Perhaps, you should do more research before you go around acting as if you know what you’re talking about. We’ve been eating eggs for thousands of years, long before the heart disease epidemic, and it is not eggs, or butters fault for the rise of heart disease and obesity, it is excessive empty carbs. The end.
Dear Amanda,
If you had duplicated what I had wrote, its the excess cholesterol. The excess cholesterol builds up in the Coronary Arteries, that saturated fats and other factors lead to heart disease.
By the way heart disease has been around for 1000s of years.
We are supposed to blindly trust the American Heart Association? The same people that put their stamp of approval on GMO-laiden subway sandwiches? I don’t think so.
Dear Doug,
I used the American Heart Association as an example, it is not the only source, far from it. World wide there are 100s of research papers with their findings that egg yokes have the highest amount of cholesterol an any food.
I have been eating eggs with vegies every morning for breakfast my entire life. I am a very healthy 46-year old and whenever I go to see my doctor for annual checkups he would be amazed how low triglycerides and cholesterol I have. My good cholesterol is higher than my bad cholesterol. Common people, eggs are whole food, we need to give up junk and processed foods. Start living simple and healthy without manufactured products. I grew up on the organic farm eating fresh vegetables, eggs, meats, fruits……yummy!!!
Unfortunately there are tons of food bloggers online that earn a living by generating mass hysteria and FUD. It’s like the TV stations that hype up every little snow storm because it keeps people plastered to the TV. Also a lot of bloggers make wild claims but offer no links to back anything up.
Your body produces cholesterol at basically a fixed rate and does not reduce production when blood serum levels are high. Some people just naturally produce more, some less. Everybody has different DNA/genes.
A lot of the hype surrounding eggs still lingers from the time before anybody even knew there was such things as HDL and LDL.
I eat a few eggs a week…sometimes I slice a hard boiled egg and add it to a salad.
I had a 98 gram egg the other day. That musta hurt when that came out! Young hens do not lay big eggs. The hen that laid that 98 gram egg must have been an AARP member!
Hi,
One of my favorites is to make extra roasted veggies for dinner, and the next morning I toss them in the pan and just add some eggs. We also like to put Srachi sauce on them.
Great job Food Babe 🙂 Thanks for clearing up the egg yolk controversy.
These recipes look delish!
Hi Vani, just curious about what your thoughts are on grains since you are reading Grain Brain now. I know you’re a big fan of Dr. Mercola and others who recommend no or low grains but you’ve held out with sprouted grains, are things changing for you on that front? Just curious as I teeter back and forth on it but am currently abstaining.
Nope – I reduce grains in my diet, but don’t eliminate them. I feel great eating sprouted bread once and a while and I encourage people to listen to their own bodies when it comes to eliminating entire food groups. Most of the gluten free products are FULL OF ADDITIVES that make me cringe and to live without pizza, brown rice sushi, etc. sounds dreadful! 🙂
Vani,
This recipe looks delicious! I don’t have a lot of history with quinoa so I’m curious, do I need to cook it before and then add it to the dish and heat through more or do I add it dry and cook with the dish. I’ll have to try this recipe this weekend!
Yes, you definitely want to cook it first! Just use the package instructions, usually 1/2 cup of quinoa to 1 cup water, boil and simmer until down (approximately 12 mins). Good luck.
Hey Vani,
I love your recipes and think they are really healthy! I hear Short Grain Brown rice is very healthy for you and I would love to see more recipes that incorporate that ingredient.
Have you tried this one yet? https://foodbabe.com/2012/06/11/my-favorite-sandwich-onigiri/
Hi Vani!
I love how simple and quick your recipes are! Thank you for covering the good/bad egg controversy. Eggs are one of the best protein sources. I raise chickens for their eggs, so my family is always well stocked with organic, gmo-free, bug lovin’ fresh chicken eggs. I had to stop eating commercially available eggs due to the chlorine smell that cooked eggs reek of. It turns out that factory farmed eggs endure a chlorine spray as per USDA regulation. Eggs are porous, so yes you are eating a toxic chemical with your eggs. Also, isn’t odd how Americans freak out over eggs not refrigerated when most people around the world do not?
http://www.thekitchn.com/is-refrigerating-eggs-necessary-176617
In America, most egg manufactures chemically bathe harvested eggs to make them look pretty prior to purchase. We have unfortunately been brainwashed to look for “PRETTY” this or that over the past few generations. The chemical bath that eggs receive removes a protective film called the BLOOM. From that point on the egg begins to decay at a rapid pace unless refrigerated. The dirty poopy ones will last unrefrigerated for a couple of months.
Interesting. chemical baths? ugh. unrefrigerated a couple months? Thanks! I learn so much from reading these comments.
I LOVE eggs…any way, any day, scrambled, over well, hard boiled,, in omelets, fritattas, etc., etc….Will try these recipes….
Great comment Christina about eggs!!!
I can’t wait to try all these veggies with my usual morning eggs! I think my over egg fed kids are going to skip when they see something as exciting as those muffins!!!
Thank you for exposing the egg dilemma… I still don’t think America will Ever “get it”. Somehow animal fat of any kind is ok but the egg is down right unthinkable….
Amazing
Hi Vani.
I love your ambitions and I have followed you almost from the start. Thank you. As far as eggs, most of my research has led me to believe that egg whites should be cooked, and yolks should be fairly raw. Raw egg whites strip the body of biotin. Cooked egg yolks in the form of scrambled or omelet style become oxidized and cause oxidive stress on the body. In later research, I found that there was one exception to cooked yolks that was music to my ears. The yolk in a boiled egg is not tainted due to the lack of exposure to oxygen during the cooking process. We went to town, so to speak, on the egg salads after seeing that study. Prior to that, we ate only fried overeasy or lightly poached. Can you let me know your stance on cooked yolks? Thanks again Babe.
Hi Vani!
First off love what you do! Every morning I do….
1 3/4 cup homemade almond milk.
1 scoop of chocolate raw meal (garden of life).
2 cups kale or spinach.
1 ice cube
1 frozen cube of coconut milk (which I make and freeze).
1 TBSP of ground chia/flax seed.
Blend all together in a single serve blend cup. I crave this every morning!
Also wondering how you feel about garden of life raw meal? Lots of ingredients to look at and I would love to hear your thoughts on it? Thanks!
I like the protein version better than the raw meal. But I’d use the raw meal if I was in a situation where I couldn’t get access to a blender or high quality ingredients.
Thanks for your reply..but why do you like or think the protein version is better? Is there something in the raw meal you don’t agree with? Thanks again!
Hi Vani,
I’ve been researching brown rice versus white rice because I heard white is better over brown for digestive reasons. Have you done any research on this? I always thought brown or wild rice was healthier but am learning not so much.
I love browned brown rice. I will brown 3 cups of brown rice in about a tablespoon of EVOO and a little bit (maybe a tsp) of sesame oil. Then cook for 35-40 min in 6 cups of water. We keep it in a large upright plastic container with a serving spoon in it in the fridge to use for any meal. For breakfast I like 2 eggs poached in water and EVOO and what ever left over veggies in the fridge. Sometimes I have Spicy kimchi. For other meals we have a meat or fish plus veggies or add it to soup to make it thicker. YUM!
RE: video… What’s shard – or did you say chard?
Great to see you on TV food Babe.
It would be great to do your own talk show.
Kale is also my favorite.
QUE RICO!!!
Que rico!!
I agree with David. The liver does make all the cholesterol it needs without any animal products and that includes eggs. Our cholesterol came down quite a bit after we eliminated eggs. Harvard has done extensive research which you can find on nutritionfacts.org which is Dr. Michael Gregor’s site and it can give you the research data on eggs. Not a pretty picture.
love the mini frittata, I think I may add spinach.
Thank you for your desire to inform the public concerning their health. We need more people like you! I would like to suggest that you inform your readers about the saponin content in quinoa (among other foods) and its potential effect on the intestinal lining. In the Journal of Nutrition there is research on the influence of saponins on gut permeability. Saponins are said to “punch holes in the membranes of microvilli cells”. Some people can be very sensitive to these substances. I avoid foods such as legumes, peanuts, soy, potatoes, and even quinoa to help reduce the amount of saponins in my diet. Thanks for your work! Keep it up.
I would soak quinoa overnight in filtered water and something acidic like raw apple cider vinegar, homemade kefir, lemon juice, etc. to reduce the anti-nutrients such as phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors found in seeds, nuts and grains. Would soaking like this also reduce or neutralize saponins?
Also, I’d use dinosaur kale instead of spinach or curly kale due to their high oxalate content (dino kale is much lower in oxalates than curly kale or spinach).
I love the idea of using muffin cups for single serving frittatas!
I love making mini-frittatas for my kids. I can add all sorts of vegetables in there and they don’t even complain about eating them. I am excited to incorporate more quinoa into my breakfasts aw well!
Hi, I love the idea of the little egg cups or mini frittatas! Great idea to make ahead and have available for breakfast or snacks. It’s sad that quite a few people still think eggs are unhealthy and we should all have very low cholesterol. Glad the Dr. Perlmutter is helping to change some of that. Pastured-raised eggs have so much more nutrition, and it’s also too bad that the marketing with eggs can be deceptive where people think cage-free means these are pasture-raised from nice little farms. We need many voices to help provide information like this – thanks Voni for your part and your voice. Happy Thanksgiving!
I like to have spinach and watercress in a smoothie in the mornings, thats how I get my veggies in! But I do have a question for you, I usually blend it with pineapple juice or tinned pineapple as I don’t like the fuss of dealing with chopping up a fresh pineapple and also the added cost. Would you say that this is healthy? Or should I be using fresh pineapple?
Laura
I absolutely love eggs, but unfortunately I am allergic. I like the above recipe for quinoa and veggies- any other healthy breakfasts you would recommend?
I really appreciate your leadership with Chick-Fil-A. I would like to see you go a step further with them as I am concerned that their dressings, etc. have soybean oil and soy lecithin. Since we know now that 99% of soybeans are GMO it would be good to get rid of those ingredients also. Keep u p the good work.
great point ron! so many brands use soybean oil and…canola in salad dressings. what are your thoughts on canola? i avoid it and opt for coconut, evoo, hemp, and grapeseed oils…
so… i am vegan and don’t plan on changing that…yet recently i’ve been thinking about boiled eggs. what is a plant w/ similar yolk nutrients (aside from nutritional yeast…i eat tons of it) i can eat? i think you are so awesome! thanks for doing what you do! happy holidays!
I eat an average 4 to 5 egg yolks today . I cam from and mediterranean which we never eat breakfast and growing up I never ate breakfast we do perfectly fine without breakfast . I personally do well and high saturated and monosaturated fat diet . And plenty of fish and vegetables and also including meats like a lamb goat . And dary like full fat raw cheese and raw milk products from pasture raised animals .
Love your blog. Would love to see a cookbook.
how many calories does the frittata have?
It calorie count doesn’t really matter. This is a very healthy meal full of nutrition that will benefit your body with the vitamins and minerals you need to survive and strive.
I love toast smeared with avocado, topped with a tomato slice, poached egg and lots of fresh greens: kale, spinach, lettuce mix, sprouts, whatever! The combinations of the soft egg yolk and fresh greens is irresistible to me. I usually smother it in CHOLULA too… Oops!
Thanks for sharing all the wonderful information on your blog 🙂
Love veggies at breakfast – had kale salad similar to one from 101 cookbooks website and small amount of salmon (try to eat little fish/poultry). It was yummy! Do enjoy eggs on occasion and think you can be healthy with vegan/vegetarian diet or plant based omnivore. Every one is different with different genetics and tolerances and may react differently to foods. Whole and less processed is best. Will try these recipes.
I can’t buy the stuff found in the Brain Brain.
An excellent counter to it, in my opinion, can be found here.
http://www.drmcdougall.com/2014/01/31/the-smoke-and-mirrors-behind-wheat-belly-and-grain-brain/
That should read: the book Grain Brain.
That should read: “the book Grain Brain”.
I don’t think I could live without eggs. I eat them every morning with at least two veggies. My favorite breakfast are these egg-topped zucchini noodles:
http://www.everydayungrained.com/blog-1/egg-topped-zoodles
(BTW, I grew up in Charlotte, now in Raleigh. I love that a hometown girl from Charlotte is changing the world!)
I have a hard time eating veggies first thing, so I always try to have some kind of Vitamix juice/fruit combo. I love kale, ginger, pineapple, cilantro, cucumber and carrot.