Another Word on Breakfast

I admit that I did not eat breakfast in high school or college. Often, I skipped lunch. It was not until medical school as I mentioned in my earlier post that I truly realized how important it was to eat breakfast. In fact, I finally started making an effort to eat all 3 major meals and when able, snacks in between at that time.

I mostly stick with my egg muffins during the week but every once in a while I like to change things around and I enjoy egg, cheese, and spinach roll-ups. I started making these when I was pregnant with my first child since they seemed easy to eat with one hand and have whole grains and protein. Once again, I adapted ideas from Pinterest to suit my specific likes and needs. They are delicious, freeze well, and as I was hoping, easy to eat with one hand, particularly while nursing or holding your baby!

I will go step by step on how to make these and also give some tips for how to make a whole batch and freeze them.

I use one large egg per tortilla. I crack it into a small glass container and add a tablespoon of 2% milk and beat it with a fork. You can use whatever milk you have.

Meanwhile, I heat a 10 inch skillet and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. While the skillet is heating up, I set up my tortilla. I like Mission whole wheat tortillas (10 inch diameter). If I am prepping several for the week, I place the tortilla on top of an aluminum foil square instead of a plate.

I typically put 5-6 leaves of spinach and 1-2 tablespoons of shredded part-skim mozzarella. You can use any tortilla or cheese you like.

By the time the tortilla is ready, the skillet should be hot enough to pour the egg in it. What I love about this set up is that then, the whole egg just slides into the tortilla, and nothing comes out from the bottom as you are eating it.

It only takes a couple of minutes to cook over medium-high heat. Once you see the edges coming up, you can slide it right on to the tortilla. Sometimes, I use a spatula to help.

Now, it is ready to be rolled up! The hot egg will melt the cheese and the leaves are in the middle and big enough to not fall out.

If I am making these for the week, I set up all 5 tortillas, each on top of an aluminum foil square. Then I sprinkle the spinach leaves and cheese. After that, I cook each egg individually as mentioned above and do the rest the same. At the end, I use the foil to roll up the tortilla and once they are cool, I store them in the fridge. I heat the roll up in the toaster oven in the morning, right in the aluminum foil (I open it up on the top to help with heating). I eat them one handed in my car as I drive to work!

If you want to freeze them instead, I just use a tooth pick to keep them rolled and put them in a gallon freezer bag. When I want one, I heat it up in the toaster oven for 5 minutes. You don’t need to remember to defrost them prior to heating. I use the freezer bags below. If you buy them from this link, you’d be helping me out a little bit. I use these also for all my freezer crock pot meals (stay tuned for another post on those!)

I love eating eggs in the morning because they have a lot of protein and I can combine them with different things I like. In residency, I made my own egg and cheese sandwiches by using a whole wheat English muffin, 1 large egg that I cracked into a bowl and cooked in the microwave (time depends on your microwave but I would heat up for 25 seconds first and then in 5-10 second increments until it looked right), and a slice of cheddar cheese. It took me about 5 minutes to make in the morning before work and I wrapped it in aluminum foil to go. These can also be made in advance and kept in the fridge or frozen and then heated in the toaster over.

Don’t forget you can also use plastic containers to take food on the go to eliminate some waste but these cannot be heated in the toaster oven.

If eggs are not your thing, other healthy and quick ideas for breakfast include overnight oats or crock pot oatmeal, particularly recipes using steel cut oats. Greek yogurt with fruits or grains is also quick, healthy, and delicious. I like to eat breakfast in the car, so I don’t do these types of breakfast often but enjoy eating them if I am home. Please comment on this post or contact me if you would like a post on non-egg healthy and easy breakfasts!