I promised to share more of our easy veggie bowls... so here's another!

Oh how I love cooked onions.  I like them fried.  I like them caramelized.  I like them sauteed.  Oh, the sweet sweet yum!

Ahem... so I put them into a veggie bowl...

Am I the only one who gets all misty-eyed over veggies?  And not just because I was cutting onions?
Anyway.  Back to the bowl.  We had to blanch a few bags of green beans so as the onions cooked, Jemma and I snipped the ends (her term for cutting off the stems).

I really think she helps me cook just so she can sneak in extra tastes.

Once the were clean and snipped, I plunged them into boiling water until they were bright green, then put them in cold water.
I wanted to include a protein, so I grabbed a bag of beans I had pre-cooked and frozen from the freezer.  To defrost them, I just poured the boiling green bean water over the beans in the strainer.  Just as easy as canned, but cooked in bone broth!

I don't even know what greens we used.  Sorry.  But, I mixed them with the beans.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite breakfasts was something my dad made called "Australian Eggs."  I finally asked him where the name came from.  He said they ate them like that when he was a kid, and one day his sister-in-law (who is Australian) said she was going to make a fancy breakfast for them, called Australian Eggs.  The name stuck!

As much as I loved them, I never made them.  Ever.  Why?  Because I couldn't boil an egg.

There.  I said it.

Yes, I can bake bread.  I'm no stranger to fermenting and I'm not scared of  screwing up a time or two.  Somehow, boiling eggs terrified me and was beyond my skill set.

Until now.  Enter THIS:

http://greatist.com/eat/perfect-boiled-eggs-tips

I finally had the nerve to try it, so I decided to take Jemma along for the ride.  You know, to save her from my issues.

To make Australian Eggs, You boil some eggs, butter (or coconut oil for those of us who are dairy free) some toast, and mix them all together with a little salt and pepper.  The trick is you MUST mix it all together by hand.  I don't know what it is about it, but you can't just toss it.  You have to tear the bread up with your hands and mix it all together.

Jemma helped by:

• Putting the eggs in the cold pot of water
• Peeling the eggs once they were boiled and cool
• Tearing up the bread
• Mixing it all together

GENTLY placing the eggs in the water

Cracking...

Peeling...

Pre-Smush

Smushed!

Scrambed Eggs.  Another of our favorite, easy breakfasts.  Right now the baby and I can't eat dairy, so this is another recipe that we simplified to just the basics.

I try to incorporate fresh produce into every meal.  Today, we sauteed garlic scapes from our CSA in olive oil first.  Jemma wasn't in the mood to put anything else in the eggs, so we had a tomato salad on the side.  The eggs themselves were just scrambled with a little salt and pepper.

Jemma helps by:

• Cutting the garlic scapes
• Cracking the eggs
• Scrambling the eggs
• Seasoning the eggs
• Pouring the egg mixture into the pan
• Keeping the eggs moving in the pan

Cutting garlic scapes with scissors

Cracking the eggs

Seasoned to perfection!

Mixing the eggs up

Pouring... carefully!

Keeping them moving

 Yes, she is wearing her baby doll while she cooks.  I wind up wearing Juliet while I'm cooking about 80% of the time.  I guess she picked up on it!



What delicious foods do you add into your scrambled eggs?

Here at Crest Cottage we loooooove smoothies.  98% of the time they have a leafy green base, so they don't always LOOK as appetizing as they taste.  This particular smoothie concoction was developed after I was reminiscing on the black forest milkshakes I used to drink in high school.  There was a Carvel next door to my school (the my best friend worked at for a while, bonus!).  Some days we would walk over and pick out something sweet to enjoy.  I ALWAYS got a black forest milkshake without whipped cream.  This smoothie has similar flavors, and is delish!

All of our smoothies start with leafy greens.  Lately I've been favoring spinach, especially if the finished product has no banana.  I mix the leafy greens with the liquid first.  I've found that helps them break into the smallest pieces.  Maybe someday we'll have a Vitamix, but until then, doing it this way works.  Once the spinach is broken up, we added in frozen cherries and cocoa powder.  The cherries were sweet enough, so we didn't need to add any maple syrup or honey.  Then, we blended it up and enjoyed!

Jemma helps by:

• Filling the  blender with spinach
• Turning all the buttons on and off (she's three, buttons are super fun!)
• Adding the cherries and cocoa powder (she needs extra supervision here... unless we want it to be alllllll cocoa powder)
• Pouring into the cups

Adding Spinach

Blending spinach and water

The spinach/water base is ready!

Adding frozen cherries...

... and cocoa powder!

Cracking the eggs

Beating the eggs

Dipping the bread

Sneaking a bite!!

Flipping the bread