Breakfast Food Garden

I have eaten many lunches and dinners where every dish on the table came from my garden or things from neighbors excess trees and bushes, but what about breakfast? Sure I have jelly and jam, and sometimes canned pears we have made for a desert or a sweet, but what about the main part of the meal? What can I grow in my vegetable garden that could be a staple of breakfast? I am not talking about fields of wheat or oats, but some plants I can grow in a reasonable space in a medium size vegetable garden. Could I grow more sweet corn, and grind it into a mush in the blender? Do not think I have seen this addressed. Anyone have ideas?
Tom

Potatoes, onions & peppers; and from them, make your own rosti/"enhanced" hashbrowns!
Or, mash the spuds and make potato patties.

Sliced tomatoes are part of my breakfast every day that they are in season. Grilled on bread with a bit of cheese and some herb seasoning.
Baked potato or sweet potato with various toppings.

I eat fresh vegetable soup many days for breakfast too.

Color outside the lines a bit...you'll find quite a few options.

Sweet potatoes. My family loves them best for breakfast. Bake the day before or save left overs. This makes them easy to peel and they firm up. Slice 5/8 thick lengthwise. Brown one side in butter. Sprinkle with brown sugar. Turn and sprinkle some more sugar if needed. Turn once more. Results in a sweet crunchy crust.

This is a stick to your ribs item. They sell sweet potato patties in the groceries here but they aren't nearly as good as above because they use mashed which has no texture.

I'm w/ Jim: leftover mashed potatoes-make patties and brown up in skillet w/ butter. Don't flip until a nice brown crust has formed on the bottom.

I like to grate a few zucchini, mix in an egg and fry them up like fritters. Top with sliced tomatoes or salsa.

That's a good one, lulu! I like this made with Zephyr or Early Prolific Straightneck, as I think both have better flavour than most zucchini.

if you could grow chickens you can add their eggs to potagere's and have potatoes, onions and peppers. LOL

The other day I went out to breakfast with a friend, and looking at all the greasy fried stuff and white-flour-sugar nutritionless offerings, I asked the server for a big bowl of vegetables. She made an awful face. lol

You can lightly fry, saute, anything for breakfast. I keep figuring that Americans are so into eggs and ham/bacon for breakfast is because (historically) you gather eggs first thing in the morning, and they go into the pan with pigstuff because it's so preservable.

You don't HAVE TO have traditional American breakfast, do you?

Pumpkin or yams can be prepared in all the same ways as white potatoes, and give much better nutrition.

Do you ever see lean, athlectic types coming out of a IHop?

If this all sounds disgusting to you, a veggie omelet can hold all sorts of things!

don't forget fruit--there are a lot of pretty healthy whole wheat/whole grain pancakes you can make with your own blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and some nuts

its actually pretty easy to fool kids with them too--mine never knew until she went to college and asked me how to cook them

Hmmm, I don't understand this part: "Could I grow more sweet corn, and grind it into a mush in the blender?" Would that be like grits?

We seem to have lost t001tom.

And sweet potatoes don't always need any more sugar, give them a slight fry with onions. They don't need to be cooked at all, by the way. I slice them thin, 1/4 inch, and small and add to salads. Once a good old boy Southerner friend, who'd eaten them in salads in several meals at my house, finally asked, "What's this?" holding one up on his fork.

"Sweet potato."

He had a (not bad) fit. "I've been eating RAW sweet potatoes??!!??!! I would have never believed you if you told me." and he popped the bit into his mouth.

They're crunchy and... sweet. Adds some body to a salad.

AND, if you have a food dryer, they make great "chips". Or, fat lovers can slice them thin and deep-fry them. But that's not breakfast food, is it?

Speaking once again about breakfast, if you have a juice extractor, there is nothing so good as fresh carrot juice in the morning; unless it's garden-fresh "V-8".

I'm a little too fond of sweet potato chips...must resist.lol

When the weather permits and I have an abundant amount of veggies I like to grill up a mixture and marinate them with balsamic vinegar and herbs. I end up having left overs and will roll up in a tortilla to eat on my way out into the garden. Lots of different veggie leftovers get rolled up in a tortilla during the busy Summer months, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Ya may have lost too1 for a bit, but what an interesting thread. OI nevr realized myslef all the different things a person could make for breakfast til ya all started posting.

If it ain't in the "norm" I usually eating cold pizza or chinese take out for breakfast.

What else ya folks got. You getting my tastebuds all excited with the thought of new food groups in the morning. : )

What's for breakfast? ...FOOD!

I find protein stays with me longer. Meat-eggs-cheese. Not grains, pancakes, waffles, toast, cerial, etc.

I was a Vegan for two years, and threw three kinds of fruits in the blender for breakfast every morning, sometimes nearly a quart of fruit for brekkie! YUM!!

But in an hour or so, I'd be sound asleep. The massive dose of sugar-carbs must have made my blood sugar levels skyrocket, then plunge to pass-out levels.

This happens now with bready things, too, like pancakes.

If I eat a lot of carbs, I get hot in an hour, not good hot, just sweaty. Or do ladies 'glow'?

Yeterday I felt pretty good after a brekkie of a small bit of red meat and a LOT of collards, just barely wilted in the pan. With some italian dressing.

Mola I'm very much in the same boat. My body acts just as you describe. Our traditional fare is a relic of the days when people had to work like lumber jacks. I know I feel much better with a little protein and complex carbs. I love the toast and jam, sweet rolls, etc but it's the same as eating candy. I hate to cook in the morning so I really treasure leftovers from the night before.

I think it's catching on for folks to prepare a breakfast casserole the night before. I'm thinking of trying it. It would be great to let it cool and cut squares, wrap individually and freeze. Peppers, onion, greens, meat, starch and cheese maybe.

Yup, twiggybuds.

Diabetes is rampant because our abuse of refined sugar, white flour, white rice, CORN SYRUP, and over grown (??) grains. Even whole wheat is a bloated thing from breeding, I believe. And people just don't bother to learn. Pickles aren't a vegetable. Or are they?

I love the one liner--- Eat Leaves, Not Seeds.

I do that some, but to really eat idealistically, I'd have to stay home and eat alone every meal. boooooring!

Lordy, Lordy, I have a problem with corn syrup, can you tell? My friends have a new baby that they're feeding on Similac, the first two ingredients are corn syrup and sugar. I tasted some and it's sweeter than a milkshake. I gotta talk to them....

And it might boil down to the Big farm conglomerates lobbying the dumb Lawyers who we elect to represent us to take care of our country. SIGH!!! It's all too big.

Eat Leaves... (Like a 600 lb Silverback Gorilla!) It ain't rabbit food.

We needed to use up several pounds of summer squash from our farm subscription box last year and found a recipe for fritters with shredded squash and potatoes, egg, thin sliced onion, and seasonings. They turn out better if you salt and drain the shredded squash because they're so watery. The potatoes will also get crisper if they're soaked in warm water for a while after shredding. The best part is that you can make a big batch and partially cook them, then freeze them and heat a few up later. They're also really good as a dinner side dish with a little tomato sauce.

My favorite breakfast is to round up leftover meat, potatoes, veggies, rice, etc, add some refried beans and a scrambled egg and wrap it all up in a whole grain tortilla. No extra dirty dishes that way!

Molamola, the school where my mom works tried several types of "new" veggies for the kids in the cafeteria to see what they would eat. It turns out they really liked raw sweet potatoes so now the school serves them as a snack. The kids are also learning how to grow their own veggies in a plot behind the school.

I think it's ghastly when people put tons of sugar and the creepy marshmallow stuff on sweet potatoes. I never liked them growing up but I've found that they're really good cooked with a little salt and pepper. And I really have to restrain myself when it comes to sweet potato fries.

Pumpkin or winter squash can be fixed in any way you do potatoes, also.

I never understood drowning something already sweet in sugar and marshmallows. owell.

A baked sweet potato topped with sour cream and sprinkled with chives is fabulous!

How about some hot amaranth, quinoa or millet pilaf/pudding for breakfast? These can be made both savoury or sweet.
Those 'grains' are easy to grow.

One of my grandma's made fried mush (w/ yellow corn meal) for breakfast. It was served with molasses and a side of collard greens, maybe some peas alongside (black eyed peas, cow peas or some lentils).

We saute a few spices and veggies, add cream of wheat and water and cook this into a fluffy breakfast dish called uppma.

Sometimes we make scrambled curds - freshly made curds from the milk on hand, sauteed with onions, peppers, cilantro, cumin, mustard seed etc. Works with goat milk as well as cow's milk.

I agree with Jim that rostis are good for breakfast as well.

Considering where you are living Mola, do you have any breadfruit or plantain trees in your yard. Coo coo and conquintay are godo for breakfast too!
http://www.caribbeanavenue.com/kitchen/recipes/coocoo002.shtml

Or a cheesey polenta...

I love plantain. Breadfruit doesn't do much for me, my cooking anyway. I recently heard it's good cooked in coconut milk.

Oh, yes! Polenta!!
So many ideas here!
This is a great exchange!

i seem to remember that gold medal swimmer eating 4000 calories at each meal and everything seemed to come out of Ihop. LOL
since me and my wife are always dieting we only go out to breakfast on one of my days off. i usually have one poached egg, i slice of toast, (no butter) and instead of spuds i ask for a fruit bowl. it's just the idea of getting out with my wife once in a while.

How many hours a day is a gold medal winner in chilly water zooming along as fast as possible? I probably don't use that many calories in a month, haha!

This is a great thread.

And all couples should have a date once a week. Doesn't have to be dinner and dancing on Friday night, but should be a planned outing. Keep the spark.

garden_mermaid, I 've wondered about the grains you've mentioned.Do you grow them? Are they easy to harvest? I've shied away from grain because I thought harvest would be too difficult. Would like to hear your experience.

My ex sister in law made a really spicy ethiopian scrambled buttermilk curd... It was amazing, haven't had it in years.

Mola, you've probably already noticed that breadfruit are like plantain in that the flavour varies depending on stage of ripeness. The less mature fruits are more "potato like" and the riper fruits are sweeter. I like the taste of breadfruit better than jackfruit.
This webpage shows how to make a breadfruit curry. This is one our preferred was to cook it:
http://myinjimanga.blogspot.com/2006/04/breadfruit-curry.html

You might like the Grenadan recipes at this site:
http://www.recipezaar.com/recipes.php?foodid=18192
http://www.proscitech.com.au/trop/j.htm


cocoa, amaranth is so easy to grow that it can become a weed if you don't bag the seed head. The seeds are very tiny and blow in the wind. One member of the community garden planted it because it was pretty and now every adjacent bed has volunteer amaranth sprouting up. I use the woven mesh bags and tie them over the blossom when the seeds develop. You can shake out the ripe seeds, empty the bag and then tie it back up again for the next batch. Amaranth leaves can be cooked like spinach.

Quinoa and millet are also easy to grow. In a small garden you will probably want to bag the millet sprays as they ripen or the birds will beat you to it.

I will be planting a small patch of heirloom spring wheat in one of the raised beds next year to study its feasibility in a small plot.

Thanks garden_mermaid, Is there much prep of the grain from harvest to table, like hulls?

I'm going to second the chicken idea. I've recently been having lots of breakfasts consisting of omlets using fresh layed eggs that I beat with some garden fresh basil. I chop up tomatoes from the garden, put them in the middle when I flip it in half, and it's done. Delicious! I live right outside of San Francisco, so if I can have chickens, almost anyone can.

Sometimes I also have strawberries from the garden in homemade yogurt made from goat milk that I get from someone nearby who has goats. It's like desert for breakfast!

Garden Mermaid. Ya know yoru the first peron I have seen that mentioned fried mush. I miss it. My dad used to come hoem with blocks of the stuff, cut it into slices , fry it and drizzle a bit of maople syrup over it. Loved th estuff and unless I head back to Ohio won't hav eit again cuz nobody down her eknows what I amtalking about.

You don't have a receipe fo rit do ya by chance?

herbie. yep I try and hit a all you can eat breakfats buffet at least oncea month just for somethign different. All the greasy bacon and fresh fruit I cna eat. : )

I'm not sure that chicken and/or goat products qualify as contributing to dishes that come from "my garden or things from neighbors excess trees and bushes". While you may think you are "gardening" those chickens and/or goats, I wonder what they think. I might as well eat my dog.

Isn't fried mush about the same as scrapple?

One of my favorites - breakfast or anytime - oven baked sweet potato, baked apple, and baked tofu cut in slices and then in half slices.
Brush with a baste of oil, soya sauce, and a bit of molasses. You can put some flax seed, or sesame in the basting sauce.

Bake until the tofu is crusted and the potato, and apple are done.

VOTE EVERYBODY!

Chickens and goats will eat leftovers from your garden and convert them to fresh eggs and milk. And they contribute by making fabulous compost for the veggies to grow in. Not sure my dog could do the same :-).

Fried mush is like fried polenta, except mush is made with the more finely ground cornmeal rather than the more coarsely ground polenta. The cornmeal is cooked in water with a little salt, just like polenta. It is often eaten like a porridge when first made, sometimes topped with a stew or come veggies, like cooked okra. The rest is then poured into a loaf pan to cool. Once it has cooled and solidified, you can slice it and fry it up. Grandma used molasses on her fried mush. Maple syrup was considered too expensive.

The scrapple I've seen usually is made with meat scraps, onions and herbs cooked in the cornmeal. Could just be some regional differences.

Shhhh! Potagere! I hope you don't eat your dog!

Dogs are our friends!

But rabbits, chickens and goats do make a contribution to the garden. Poop is good.

Eat my dog??????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not a chance!
Nor would I eat my rabbit, my goat or my donkey.
Chickens are real dumb, but I wouldn't eat my real dumb cat, either (I mean, we adopted her because she was too dumb too live on her own).

All these animals are out friends!

But, as you point out, poop is food. Whoops! "Good" But, also food. And that includes dog poop and ... Although they may have now been eliminated in China's rush to be "civilized" and to prove they are "just like us", there were still "night soil" collectors in Beijing as late as 1993, collecting human fertilizer for the rice crop.

I dont like the idea of dog poop in the compost pile, but there have been discussions in the soil and compost thread that say this is actually o.k.


I wouldn't eat a rabbit or a goat either. My Henry (a huge white New Zealand) is about 12 years old - so he is my friend. Rabbit poop is good for the compost pile.

Hard to get a goat to stand still to make that much of a contribution!
(Troy is a white New Zealand - from All Posters. com

Real dumb cat? Not! She fooled you into caring for her!

Baked apples for breakfast ~ sounds wonderful!

Baked apples.... YES!! I fix them in the microwave by slicing an apple, adding a small bit of water, sprinkling with a little brown sugar & cinnamon & microwaving until softened. yummy......
LarryD