Asparagus and Gruyere Omelette

Yesterday I was at a swim meet ALL day, swam over 3000 meters in races, warm-ups and cool-downs, ate little things all through the day: walnuts, protein bars, 1/2 a cheese sandwich, soy milk, energizer juices, banana, apricots...and then in the evening had the usual after-meet beer, chips and take-out. Today I'm a little sore and my body needed a good proper meal. And what's one of the athlete's favorite breakfast? EGGS. It's hands down the best energizer. Some people will say that the cholesterol content in eggs is rather high and we shouldn't eat too many...blabla. Active people eat eggs. It's high in protein, easy to digest, and fills you up for a while. Honestly I don't really care about the "high-ish" cholesterol, they have so many other good stuff in them this small negative aspect gets lost in all the other nutritonal goodness.
When I make omelettes I use more eggwhites though. One whole egg, two egg whites for one omelette. I find it makes the omelette taste lighter and the other ingredients come out a lot more, since egg whites don't really have flavor. But it's necessary to have that one yolk in it, for fat content and that nice egg taste.
SO here's another variation of this swimmers' favorite breakfast:

1 large egg
2 egg whites
Splash of milk(2% is good.)
5-6 asparagus
2-3 TBSP grated gruyere cheese
1-2 green onions
Salt and pepper (and other herbs if you like...)

Start by grilling the asparagus in a bit of oil, on medium heat, until they're al dente.
(At the same time get your potatoes going, cubed, salted, peppered, and rosemaried.)



Whisk the egg and whites, add the milk, onions and seasonings.
When the asparagus are done(3-5 minutes) get them out of the pan, and pour in the egg mixture.
*On the next picture you can see the floors in my appartment are not quite straight...it helps in keeping the eggs on one side and the potatoes on the other. But if you have nice even floors I guess it'd be better to do the potatoes first and keep them warm somewhere, unless you want potatoes in your omelette, which wouldn't be all that bad anyway...)
When the eggs start to cook lightly on the outside line in the asparagus and the cheese:



Then fold once:



Twice:



And then flip:



After flipping it once, leave it a few minutes, flip it again and turn the heat off.
This should do it. And by then you're potatoes are done too.



Yep. Breakfast of Champions!

Potato, asparagus and chick pea soup.

Soup is one of my favorite things to freestyle with. Anything can go in a soup. I love making it when it's cold outside(God knows it gets freakishly cold here in Quebec!), or raining like today, with a good piece of bread on the side or good crackers...mm-mm-mm. Plus, since it's hot it forces you to eat slower which is what Mom always told me to do...I can say without a shadow of a doubt there will be a lot of soup recipes on this site!
Today I decided to honor my Irish roots and make something green, with potatoes:



Ingredients:

1 TBSP oil
1 TBSP butter(unsalted)
1 big white or yellow onion, diced
1-2 parsnips, diced
1-2 branch celeri, chopped
2-3 medium potatoes, diced
1-2 cloves galic, sliced
1-1 1/2 cup asparagus, cut about 1 inch long.
1 cup canned chick peas(rinsed of course...)
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup milk(i used 2%)
salt and pepper to taste
some kind of herb, i used tarragon fo this one...

-Sweat the onion on med. heat in oil and butter for about 2-3 minutes, until they start to get transluscent. Add celeri, parsnips, potatoes, garlic, season to taste.
-Add asparagus. Sautee for another 2-3 minutes.
-Add stock and milk, bring to boil, reduce to simmer until the veggies are all cooked.
-Add chick peas.
-In a blender(or with a hand blender), puree half of it so it gets a little smooth but it's still chunky.
-Check for seasonning...
-Enjoy.



Happy St-Patrick's Day.