Ah, Christmas morning…filled with the sounds of ripping paper, “Dad, where’re the batteries?” and “I’m hungry…”
We’re back in the kitchen (you guys think I really live here, right…kicking the sleeping bag back under the table) with the thought of Christmas Day, which is usually filled with eating things that you would frankly shudder to think about on any other day, capped with a dinner (either at your house or someone else’s) that will send you waddling for the bathroom (and the antacids) later on.
Any way to stop that? Well, I’m not sure, but I’m a big proponent of getting a good slug of protein in the morning and also of the “anything you can shovel into a tortilla” form of breakfast. This can be eaten formal style at the table, or handed to a child running through the kitchen with the admonishment, “Stop for a minute and eat this.” This just might slow down the “hands in the cookie jar and fudge plate” until later in the day.
Think of these tacos as the “nutritional pre-emptive strike.” For that, nothing beats eggs. Eggs are one of your best and cheapest forms of protein. Figure two per person, unless you are trying to cut down on cholesterol, in which case, count on one whole one and two egg whites per person.
What’s in the picture:
Scrambled eggs and cooked bulk breakfast sausage (ours is lamb that we can get from a local farmer – YMMV – drain it well – omit for a vegetarian meal) garnished with sautéed colorful sweet peppers.
Tortillas, wrapped in foil and warmed in a 350 degree oven
Sautéed onions and mushrooms
Simple fruit salad of sliced kiwi and oranges
Shredded sharp cheddar cheese
Home made salsa from the garden
A lot of this can be prepared the night before (while the Spousal Unit is trying to figure out how to put something together); the tortillas, eggs and sausage can be cooked up in the morning during the first “time out” after the initial paper ripping and present admiration activities.
This literally is the sort of thing that people can wander through the kitchen and grab on their own; if you have a “hot plate” that you can keep the dish or sausage/eggs on and covered, you can keep this sort of thing going for an hour or so. It’s also the sort of thing that if you are hosting people for a morning open house, it’s cheap, good, filling and won’t make anyone feel too tight or guilty.
Merry Christmas.
(originally published at Oxdown Gazette)
