A Fresh and Crunchy Egg Bowl Breakfast

I think my body needed protein today.

I woke up thinking EGGS!
Perfect since I have a couple dozen pasture raised; of excellent quality, from the Farmer's Market and an Asian Grocery in the cities; I simmered 9, chopped 3, gave one to my pup Oliver, mixed with some homemade chicken bone broth for a 2nd breakfast 😊

To my two I added; chopped avocado, a small tomato, green onion, a handful of pistachios and 3 Brazil nuts; for selenium that our thyroids need. Some frozen peas would also have been really delicious!

Then a little drizzle of my spicy current mayo-sour cream pepper-garlic-dill dressing and it was ready. Quick, easy and SO good! . 😃. .Lin

Garlic Pesto Ranch Dressing - Tuna and Egg Salad

I love ranch dressing. Actually, my favorite is an off-brand buttermilk-peppercorn version, but recently I went big. Bought this ranch then realized it was a bit boring and needed a little help, so here's what I did.

4-5oz. ranch dressing

4-5oz. basil pesto

1T coriander chutney (a spicy cilantro chutney)

1t granulated garlic

I stirred these together and loved the results. So much that, in addition to a salad dressing, I decided to use it in place of mayonnaise this morning to make tuna-egg salad.

2 hard boiled eggs

2-3 stalks of celery and tops

1/2 med. white onion

2 4.5oz. cans of EVOO packed tuna

Chop the eggs, celery and onion into a medium glass bowl. Add the undrained tuna, chop it up then stir all the ingredients together. Add as much of the basil ranch dressing needed to make everything cohesive. 

Today I had this on half a large pita, split and toasted.

It was excellent. . .Lin

Another Tuna and Egg Salad

I mixed up ingredients, at home, to use as a base for this, and also enough for chicken salad later in the week. In the black container I combined:

1c or so olive oil mayonnaise

6 mini dill pickles - chopped

2T snipped garlic chives

a splash of salad vinegar

a little brown mustard

1c chopped celery

¼-½t black pepper

Add about half of this mixture to 1 5oz. undrained can of tuna packed in EVOO and about ⅓c of chopped purple onion. Add chopped celery tops and 2 hard boiled eggs.

Mix this together then let the flavors blend an hour or so before serving in a tortilla wrap, over crispy Romaine leaves, as a stuffing inside a big Beefsteak tomato, mix with some small pasta shells, or serve just as is with some rice crackers. . .Lin

Crunchy Tuna-Egg Salad

I woke really hungry this morning. 
This is unusual for me because I often don't eat anything at all until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Since I'm still tying to stay strong with a 16-8 or 18-6 intermittent fasting schedule, I know the earlier we eat, the more efficiently our bodies process whatever food we put in them. So. . .today seems like a good day to initiate a time shift! It'll require much discipline though, since once I start eating...my body's like a crazed food disposal system...I'm sure anyone near me can hear it growling: Give Me MORE! But, hey, it's Monday, and I'm up for the challenge!

For me, going way back to my stressful days working as the Department Secretary for a small city Police Department in Wisconsin, I've found tuna salad to be a surprising comfort food. When my energy was low, or I could feel the grey cloud of anxiety or depression approaching; like the leading edge of a low pressure storm front; I'd take a break - walk down to Subway - and buy a tuna sandwich. With lots of added onions, olives, tomatoes, a big drizzle of EVOO, and sometimes cheese. I swear it worked like a charm, every single time, to restore sanity, balance and calm. Their tuna salad was really good and I was told by a couple employees that it was nothing more than tuna and mayonnaise! Since I'm not a minimalist in regard to food prep, that's a hard concept for me.

This time I stopped to taste it after combining tuna, eggs, mustard and mayo. Yes! It was good! But, I kept thinking how much 'better' it would be with sweet pickle, dill pickle, green onion, yellow bell pepper and of course celery - lots of celery. And I was right, it's great. But, as I said, it was also really good at the first taste test! So, feel free to add as much or little, of all these accoutrements, or even others, as you like. Chopped Kalamata olives are good too. Use this as a guide, rather than an exact how-to-type recipe.

In a bowl, chop together, crosscutting with 2 steak knives :

2 hard boiled eggs

2 5oz. UN-drained cans of tuna in EVOO

1T+ spicy brown mustard

1/2 - 2/3c EVOO mayonnaise

Try it now and stop if the flavors are what you like, or you're short on time and want to keep this simple. Proceed if you want something crunchier with other flavors. Chop and add:

1/4c yellow bell pepper

1 celery heart + greens

4-6 green onions

1/3c sweet pickle

1/3c dill pickle

This was great as breakfast at 8:00 this morning with a side of seasoned grape tomatoes, avocado and tiny sweet potato-corn crackers. Mmmm. Happy Monday Everyone! . .Lin

The Chicken-Or-The-Egg Salad. . .

Chop the following into a medium glass bowl:

4oz. roasted chicken dark meat
3 hard boiled eggs
3 big radishes
1/3 lg. red bell pepper
1/2 med. yellow onion
4 giant garlic-stuffed olives
a handful of Kalamata olives
1T± Heinz Salad Vinegar
enough mayonnaise to hold everything together

Mix everything together gently, then check the flavors. I added a little garlic salt and about 1T dried parsley. This has good flavor, especially if you like olives, and a nice crunch. . .Lin

Crunchy Tuna & Egg Salad

I don't always mix tuna and eggs for this type of salad, but when I do, I love it!

This turned out well and was really nice for a late lunch-early dinner. Especially with those gluten-free rice-pea-black bean crisps.

2 4.5oz. cans tuna packed in EVOO

2 lg. hard boiled eggs

1/3 lg. Vidalia onion

2T fresh lemon juice

1/3c chopped mild, sweet dill pickles

1c chopped celery heart and greens

a big splash of EVOO-apple cider vinaigrette 

I also added 1/3c of my mayo-Dijon mustard-dry dill mixture

It needed a little something, to bring out the flavors. The Steak Seasoning is salt, pepper, garlic and paprika and was just right. The name is deceptive, definitely not just for steak!

Even though it's mid February, still cold, and very wintery here, this was so good and tasted like Spring to me!

This would be good in a whole grain pita (pocket bread), on rice cakes, in a spinach or tomato tortilla wrap with a big leaf of crispy Romaine lettuce, or as stuffing for a big, ripe beefsteak tomato. . .Lin

Pesto Egg Salad

Chop the eggs, pickles, onions then combine everything in a medium size bowl.

3 jumbo hard boiled eggs
2-3 German style pickles (sweet dills)
1/2 med.-lg. Vidalia onion
2-3 big spoonfuls of basil pesto
a tablespoon or two of seedy brown mustard
enough mayonnaise to hold everything together
salt and lots of fresh ground black pepper

This can be spread on flatbread crackers - like I did for lunch today, in pita pocket bread, on plain-smushey white, rye, or sprouted grain bread, or used to stuff a hollowed out tomato.  Mmmmm. . .it's really good! . .Lin

Five-Minute Breakfast

If you hard boil a few eggs for the week, it's always easy to build a quick breakfast around them.

Chop up a hardboiled egg.  (Crack them well, then peel under a stream of running water.  When the water gets between the shell and egg, they peel much easier.)  On one piece of Ezekiel Bread, mash avocado slices.  Sprinkle on some chili-lime seasoning and a drizzle of ranch dressing on the egg.
Dill pickles??  Oh, why not! 😉 . . . Lin