Nearly every morning for the past many months, Chris has made himself the most admirable quick breakfast saute of greens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and an egg. I'm quite jealous because I've been trying to increase my veggie consumption and would love to consume a heaping portion of vegetables so regularly. And Chris would be happy to double the portions and make some for me. The only problem is that Chris's breakfast looks entirely disgusting to me. Watery, wilty greens? Nope. Mushy, burst cherry tomatoes? No and no. The mushrooms sound okay but not enough to redeem the dish as a whole.

And so I continued to be jealous of Chris's breakfast, although not jealous enough to actually eat any of it, until I stopped to think of what my own veggie breakfast might look like. I do enjoy eating many vegetables, especially when they are roasted, for lunch and dinner. Why not feature them at breakfast as well?

I thought of two veggies that would be easy to cook quickly in the morning and incorporate into my breakfast: bagged pre-chopped broccoli and roasted sweet potato. Each of these can be sauteed for 10 minutes or less and goes well with an egg. And so my breakfast with veggies was born! I'm not as dedicated to my veggie breakfast as Chris is but I'm aiming to eat veggies for breakfast two or three mornings a week. The key is stocking pre-chopped broccoli, which we were already in the habit of buying, and roasting sweet potatoes ahead of time, which has not become a habit but Chris and I would both love to make it one.

To make my veggie breakfast I add chopped broccoli to a saute pan with a drizzle of olive oil. I saute the broccoli for about seven minutes and sometimes add a splash of water to steam the broccoli a bit and soften it. While the broccoli cooks I whisk an egg and season it with salt and pepper. Sometimes I slice a whole wheat bagel and put half in the toaster. At this point if I'm using roasted sweet potato I add those to the pan to heat them through. When the broccoli is done cooking and the sweet potatoes are hot, I transfer the veggies to a plate and but the saute pan back on the heat. To the pan I add the egg, which cooks quickly, and start cooking my bagel in the toaster. When the egg is done I add it to my plate of veggies and a minute later add a toasted, buttered bagel. Sometimes I add a sprinkle of feta and a dash of hot sauce would be great as well.

I find this breakfast delicious and filling. I'm so pleased that Chris is no longer the only one eating veggies for breakfast! A couple years ago, I was in the habit of prepping the frittata muffins from the cookbook Run Fast. Eat Slow. that were packed with veggies like spinach, sweet potato, and red pepper. I should bring those back!

This veggie breakfast formula would work well with many other veggies. The key for me is having veggies already prepped so I'd like to think about what else I might like to have on hand. What would you use? Or how else do you eat vegetables at breakfast?