Onions on everything. Greens for days. Mushrooms over meat.
For the past few years my cooking (and eating) has been the bomb. Not DA-BOMB, although I would like to think it’s that good, but the G-B-O-M-B. Greens, beans, onions, mushrooms, berries, nuts & seeds. A food philosophy acronym that has become my mantra after reading Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s book, Super Immunity. I just happened to catch this nutritarian whistleblower on PBS one afternoon and I have never looked back.
Now just so we’re clear, I am not a vegan. I love olive oil and salt and meat and cake and all the things that are supposedly bad for you but make life complete. That said, Dr. Fuhrman has single handedly changed the way I think about food.
Flash back to a business trip I took to New York City a while back, when the only breakfast I had time for was a to-go item from a local and very well-known coffee shop that just so happens to have the cutest green straws in all their drinks. I ordered what I thought was the healthiest breakfast menu item, a spinach & egg white wrap. It was delicious until the following week when I looked up the ingredients online and had to use my scroll bar to view all of them. 70+ ingredients including things like “butter flavor,” “corn syrup solids,” and “medium chain triglycerides.”
I knew that I could do better.
With a few micronutrient gems of information, like learning that eating one mushroom a day could reduce cancer risk, and that I could prevent and possibly reverse autoimmune disease with my menu selection, I created my own breakfast wrap that I now make at home every week. It’s packed with disease fighting vegetables, and tastes better than that science experiment disguised as food.
Super Veggie Breakfast Wrap
- 1 8 oz. pack sliced mushrooms (white or cremini)
- 1 bunch of chopped green onion, approximately 1 -1 1/2 cups
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 1/2 cups roughly chopped greens like spinach, kale, or arugula
- 8 eggs
- 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese, divided in half
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp butter
- 8-inch multi-grain flax seed tortillas, or your favorite soft tortillas
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Coat a 9 inch pie plate with 1 tsp butter. (You can skip this step if you are watching fat/calories, but you will have to work a little harder to scrape the eggs out of the pan.)
In a non-stick pan over medium-high heat, sauté the sliced mushroom with the extra virgin olive oil, salt, and crushed red pepper flakes. It will appear that the pan is crowded and the mushrooms will never brown, but with a little patience and heat, they will brown.
Evenly distribute the mushrooms onto the bottom of the pie plate. In the same non-stick pan, cook the chopped green onion and chopped red bell pepper over medium-high heat.
Once the onions and peppers are slightly browned, layer them over the mushrooms in the pie plate. Sprinkle half of the parmesan cheese over the vegetables.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs together until light and fluffy.
Mix the chopped greens into the egg mixture. Pour the egg mixture slowly over the vegetables and cheese in the pie plate. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
Bake the fritatta or pie in the center of the preheated oven for about 25 minutes. The top will be brown and puffy, and the center should be slightly firm. Let it cool completely before slicing into 8 even pie slices. I usually make this on a Sunday night, so I will wrap it up with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until Monday morning. I find that the sliced portions are the perfect amount for one wrap, and great for the week if you are sharing the pie with someone else.
Then I take one slice of the pie and chop it up in the center of the multi-grain wrap.
Wrap it up burrito style, and take it to your office toaster oven or home oven to warm the inside, and slightly brown the outside.
With some raspberries or strawberries on the side, that’s what you call a super breakfast. It’s DA-bomb. Take a big bite. That’s a wrap.
Please Note: This is not a diet recipe, nor is it endorsed in any way by Dr. Fuhrman or his book. It is simply my way of finding a healthy balance using fresh ingredients for breakfast. Enjoy at your own risk.
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