Jump to Recipe

If you’re in the same spot I am, you’ve survived the holidays but are struggling to get everything put away (my tree isn’t gone yet, though it’s on its way), get yourself back to a routine (including a workout routine, ugh), and get on track mentally and physically. Let me help; I might have you sorted for a healthy breakfast, at least. While I regularly consume eggs and vegetables each morning — and I’m not on cholesterol meds yet at 71 — I’ve just recently upped the ante to more than double my morning protein grams. And, “How?” you ask. By whisking into my eggs a 1/2 cup of non-fat cottage cheese along with a good scoop of last night’s cooked veggies to make a filling, luscious and light Cottage Cheese Frittata. (frih-TAH-tah) Now I’ve added cottage cheese to the middle of an omelet or on top of toast a time or two with tomatoes, but have never mixed and cooked eggs and cottage cheese together. This is a game changer! First: You have cheesy eggs, which you don’t often have while watching your calories. Next: You have a meal full of vegetables and can check morning fiber right off your to-do list. And last and maybe best: This doesn’t take long; isn’t expensive; and keeps you full right up until lunchtime or beyond.

Eggs and vegetables and I go way back. I’ve made them every which way but loose. The Green Bean Egg White Omelet (above) was born one frosty morning when there were green beans left from dinner the night before along with a slew of egg whites pouting in the fridge after making a couple of pints of coffee gelato. While I regularly whisk up eggs for an omelet or a frittata, occasionally I cook one sunny side up smack in the middle of mashed potatoes and tomatoes with zucchini:

Zucchini being a favorite vegetable in my kitchen, here are another couple of versions.

Maybe there was some eggplant left from summer grilling? I fried it up, cut a hole in the middle, and dropped an egg in for fun.

If there are beans or ham and beans, I’ll heat them and cook an egg there, too. (see below) I even poach eggs in leftover soup because I can.

You get the idea. I have no shame when it comes to eggs and there’s a lot more where all that came from because vegetables offer endless possibilities… Today’s breakfast (lunch/dinner?), the Cottage Cheese Frittata, though it makes use of lots of those gorgeous vegetables, is different. This simple morning meal brings the breakfast protein level right up to where my fitness coaches say it should be — 25 grams or above. Which seems like a terrible lot but isn’t too much for an older woman. It’s just hard to manage without protein shakes, which aren’t my thing. So while an egg only boasts 6 grams of protein (even a cup of oatmeal has 5), two eggs are 12, and the 14 grams from cottage cheese boosts the total right to 26, just above where it needs to be without going overboard on calories. Woo-hoo! Done and done!

“Are You Getting Enough Protein?” (Mayo Clinic)

My frittata is usually made making good use of leftover cooked vegetables but when I haven’t any, I cook some fresh. A chopped fresh tomato, a handful of baby spinach, sliced red onions or mushrooms, diced sweet peppers; these and others of your own sweet choice all work easily.

Veggie Frittata or What to Do with that Last Leftover Serving of Vegetables….

There is the current egg shortage, though; I know it. And, of course, the inevitable price raising. It, along with too many other things in the world, was even included big time in the recent election narrative. My sister texted me the other day that her Stuart, Florida Publix grocery had not one egg; what was going on? I had seen the same thing briefly here in Colorado but eggs soon returned to the shelves. COSTCO, where I typically buy two-dozen organic eggs at a time, recently was quite low on stock and I grabbed a couple of boxes at Trader Joe’s. Bird flu was my only thought but when I googled, it turns out there are other factors:

   Have you recently entered your local grocery store on the hunt for eggs, only to find they're noticeably more expensive − if you can find them at all?

It's not just your local shop. In fact, egg prices have increased nationwide by around 38% in the last year, bringing the average cost of one dozen up to $3.65 in November versus $3.37 in October and $2.14 in November 2023, according to the U.S.Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index. ...

The major reasons both experts and consumers are pointing to? The ongoing bird flu outbreak, the rising cost of doing business, and, in some locales, changing laws. 

~USA TODAY (January 9, 2025)

I think we’ll continue to have some ups and downs in egg production, availability, and even prices (ha ha) but there’ll be eggs. Anyway, I hope you’ve got a few in the fridge, along with whatever vegetables you love and of course some cottage cheese, so you can soon try this:

Nutrition note: Cottage cheese is fairly high in sodium, though there are lower and no-sodium varieties sometimes available.

LIFE GOES ON:

As I edit the photos and write this morning, it’s hard to go on without a mention of the horror of the California wildfires around Los Angeles. I, perhaps like you, find myself unable to turn away from the news and photographs on the television. I wake in the middle of the night in prayer for rain, as I have during so many Colorado fires. At the same time, we’ve been watching, hopefully participating in, the funeral and other remembrances of our late president and most-favored human, Jimmy Carter. In so many ways, I’m struck by how our most common experiences in today’s world are via one screen or another. Including this one. Somehow, we’ve come to gather around images and words instead of….maybe instead of the table. Food for thought.

Support World Central Kitchen’s efforts for the CA wildfires

If you didn’t see the funeral, the music was lovely — though I missed congregational singing and I think the long-sitting congregation did, too. This was the first piece the choir sang and while I couldn’t find a link that included that performance, here is one by the fine British group, VOCES8. I include the lyrics.

“The Road Home” (Stephen Paulus/performed here by VOCES8)

[Intro]
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

[Verse 1]
Tell me, where is the road
I can call my own
That I left, that I lost
So long ago
All these years I have wandered
Oh, when will I know
There's a way, there's a road
That will lead me home

[Bridge]
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

[Verse 2]
After wind, after rain
When the dark is done
As I wake from a dream
In the gold of day
Through the air there's a calling
From far away
There's a voice I can hear
That will lead me home

[Bridge]
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

[Verse 3]
Rise up, follow me
Come away, is the call
With the love in your heart
As the only song
There is no such beauty
As where you belong
Rise up, follow me
I will lead you home

[Outro]
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo
Ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo

---

I wish you peace and health in 2025 and look forward to seeing you often right here in my kitchen…

Thanks for stopping by today,

Alyce