My nearly daily breakfast is an egg white omelet or frittata, which is just the Italian word for an open-faced omelet. It’s fast, luscious, nutritious, and maybe best of all uses up my odds and ends of raw or cooked vegetables, restaurant leftovers (pizza toppings, too), bits of meat, and even a grate or two of cheese.  I try and blog one of these a couple of times a year just to give a high five to

• eating healthy foods continually
• using up leftovers
• not throwing food out
• eating vegetables for breakfast
• getting a good start on the day.

There are times when I’m on a fresh fruit and Greek yogurt jag and even eat that with some of my homemade low-sugar granola, but this summer finds me working hard to lose weight and I’ve cut back both my fruit and my dairy in hopes of finding success. It seems to be working! I’m down a size or more and perhaps have taken off 20 pounds. No scale in the house; the clothes are the indicator.

Last Saturday, I made a brown and jasmine rice salad to take to my granddaughter’s birthday party (see below for opening presents through playing peek-a-boo, to eating cake and the very-necessary after cake sink bath–sorry for phone pics) mostly like any luscious summer pasta salad but with a combination of brown and jasmine rice added to a huge bowl of vegetables and a spicy mustard vinaigrette.

After the salad was made, the half-used zucchini, yellow pepper, shallot, fennel, and so on all went into one bag in the fridge.  I had also made a caprese on arugula, so had greens that needed using.  I’ve now pulled out the bag of veggies as well as the arugula for a couple of days in a row to make my breakfast. I think there’s one more day of morning joy left in that leftover treasure trove!

   Here’s a blogged version of one of my rice salads–click for recipe.

If you’d like to start making your own great, healthy, filling breakfast, try this:

LATE SUMMER EGG WHITE FRITTATA

I cook and feed the egg yolks to the dogs. You can also buy cartons of egg whites where the eggs are sold in the grocery store. Add tomatoes, salsa, or herbs to plate as desired.

Serves 1.  If making two, warm the oven to 200 F ahead of time and put the first frittata in on its plate while you make the second. Alternately, you could use a 12-inch pan and make just one frittata.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• Fresh ground black pepper and a pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup each sliced shallots, chopped fennel, and chopped red or yellow sweet pepper
• 1/2 small zucchini, sliced
• 2 baby carrots, very thinly sliced
• Kosher salt
• 1/3 cup fresh arugula
• 3 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese, optional

In an 8 or 9-inch non-stick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat with 2-3 grinds of pepper along with the crushed red pepper.  Add the shallots, fennel, sweet peppers, zucchini, and carrots. Sprinkle with just a little kosher salt. Cook and stir 3-4 minutes until beginning to soften and quite brown at bottom.  Add arugula and cook until wilted.  Crack egg whites evenly on top of the vegetables, saving yolks for another use, and let cook 10 seconds or so to set.  Stir just a bit and turn down flame to low.  Cover and cook another 2 – 3 minutes or until egg whites are cooked through. Loosen frittata around the edges with a rubber spatula and tip out onto plate. Add cheese, if using. Eat hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Sing a new song; cook breakfast,

Alyce