Monday, June 14, 2010

Avocado/egg/parmesan cheese scramble (or wrap)


My latest morning creation has been a simple easy to make breakfast wrap (or scramble).

Ingredients:
  1. 1/2 avocado
  2. 3 eggs
  3. fresh grated parmesan
  4. Ezekiel wrap (or your whole wheat wrap of choice) - or Ezekiel bread 
  5. Olive oil
This one couldn't be easier. Fry 3 eggs in olive oil, once the eggs are starting to firm up add the avocado, and then when the eggs are almost done add some fresh grated parmesan, scramble the mixture and that's it. You can put the mixture into a wrap, or serve it over Ezekiel toast. Add a little pepper to taste and a little sea salt or kosher salt and that's it. A friend tells me that if you add a little fresh basil to this it is great, so I'll have to try it next time.

So why is this healthy? Because it's good to have protein first thing in the morning. Also, the avocado and olive oil gives you a healthy dose of unsaturated fat to make you feel full and ready to take on the day. A little parmesan adds great flavor but use it sparingly, parmesan is high in saturated fat and sodium. In general, softer cheeses are healthier (mozzarella, feta, goat), and harder cheeses are higher in fat in sodium.

Unsaturated fat (any fat really) makes you feel full, which is why often when people eat healthy food they don't feel full, and then end up eating more, or worst yet - unhealthier food after eating healthy food.  Sadly, the healthy food and unhealthy food don't balance themselves out - (as many would like to believe), nope - sadly it's just more calories and you would have been better off just eating the unhealthy meal...

A good way to make sure this scenario doesn't happen to you (again) is by eating plenty of unsaturated, healthy fats. Olive oil for cooking oil, almond butter, peanut butter, avocados are all excellent sources of these fats. I recommend more of healthy fats than many professional nutritionists, and although they are probably right when it comes down to a scientific analysis of nutrition - my reasoning is more about human nature. If you can keep yourself feeling full, eating small meals throughout the day so you don't get too hungry, and include enough healthy fat to make you feel satisfied throughout the day, then you're less likely to over eat.

Actually, while I'm on the fat train here... if you ever get a late night craving for something and you know you shouldn't be hungry because you already ate, you're tired and sleepy and normally would head for the pantry for some scrumptious late night carb... try a heaping teaspoon of almond butter or peanut butter instead (the first is preferable), the unsaturated fat will coat your stomach and give you a full feeling, it'll kill your craving. The trick is doing this before you get too hungry... once you get past the point of no return it's hopeless! I'll post about this subject another time.

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