A Smoothie Breakfast

I'm not a morning person, so I like to keep my pre-coffee routine as simple as possible. The idea of washing and cutting up vegetables doesn't exactly get me jumping out of bed.

 I do most of my prep work for the week all at once, usually just after I buy the veggies or the first day of the week. I wash and de-stem the kale, putting it all into a freezer bag and into the freezer. It keeps the kale longer plus adds a little bit of ice to the drink. I also wash up and quarter the cucumbers, so I can quickly pull out my portion in the morning. Since the apples and avocado don't keep so well pre-cut, that is really my only prep in the morning making the smoothie.

I take two giant handfuls of kale and put them first in my single portion blender cup, and add a big squirt of lemon juice. Core the apple, but don't worry about removing the all-important skin. Give it a rough chop, and the cucumber too, to fit it all in the cup and make sure it blends up smoothly. 

I only use a quarter of the avocado, so I chop off a wedge. Then I spritz some lemon juice on the rest of the exposed fruit and seal it up in a baggie and container. The lemon juice and keeping the seed intact helps keep the fruit from going bad and looking too unpleasant for the next 4 days as you use up the rest of the avocado.

Spoon off the avocado flesh from the skin, Make sure you get as close the the skin and all that nutritious green colored fruit where all of the vitamins live. 

After you get everything in the cup, add about a 1/2C to a cup of water (or juice, or almond milk, or whatever liquid you prefer). Seal it all in and blend up!

Enjoy your breakfast of champions!!

RECIPE:

1C kale

1/4 cucumber (full cucumber about 8-9" long)

1 medium apple (remove core)

1/4 medium avocado

2Tbsp lemon juice

1C water (or preferred liquid)

Blend until smooth.

Egg Fried Rice

Egg Fried Rice

Basic egg fried rice is very easy to make. The best part is that you can use the leftovers from your refrigerator.

Heat up a little vegetable oil (or your oil of choice) in your wok or skillet and scramble up about 3 or 4 eggs.

I add a little splash of soy sauce to the eggs for flavor.

Remove the eggs and clean up the wok or skillet so you don't have burnt egg taste.

(Alternatively, if you're using a wok, you can cook up the eggs after you warm the rice and veggies. You just press the rice mix up along the sides and cook the eggs in a well in the center of the wok, mixing it all together once they are cooked. Saves you having to clean up the wok in between steps.)

Add a bit more oil and warm up your veggies. 

I had some left over corn and "California blend" veggies in the frig so I used those. You can use anything you want. Why not experiment with your favorites!

Next, add in your leftover rice - leftover rice makes the best fried rice. As you can see mine has kept the lovely shape of its storage container.

Make sure you break up all the clumps as you warm the rice up.

Remember to stir up the rice regularly so it doesn't burn on the bottom and heats evenly.

Remember those eggs you scrambled up earlier? Time to add them into the mix.

Add a 1/4 to a 1/2cup of soy sauce and mix it up until the rice is nice and brown.

Feel free to add any left over chicken or pork you have sitting around. Just chop the meat up into cubes or shred it if you prefer. It makes this recipe a wonderful one-pot meal!

Recipe:

Egg Fried Rice

2 Tbsp oil

4 eggs

1-2C vegetables (chopped small)

4C rice (preferably left over)

1/4C soy sauce

optional: 1-2C chicken or pork cubed

  Heat up the oil, scramble 4 eggs then remove from skillet.

Reheat oil and add vegetables. Heat until softened and warm. Add rice. Mix thoroughly removing any clumps in the rice. Stir regularly until heated evenly through. Add soy sauce and mix until all of the rice is brown. Serves 6-8 people.