The Art of Omelette Making!

So, lately I have been a little omelette crazy. It's just so easy and fast to make, great source of protein and frankly, anytime I can eat breakfast - I will. I often have them for dinner because I just want to cook something that is REAL food (not out of the freezer), but I am too darn tired after work to think that hard.

Anyway, this got me thinking to all of the people I hear saying, "I can't make an omelette", which is reasonable because you have to follow three simple rules to not ruin an omelette and end up with scrambled eggs (been there, done that, been disappointed every time), and how many people do you know that can be follow rules while they are hungry? Not I. It takes will power for this to work, which takes a little time to develop, unless you want this:

Sadness..

So.. since I THINK you all can handle cracking eggs/pouring Egg Beaters into a bowl and stirring it up with some salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic salt, whatever else you might like in your omelette.. I'll start after that.

Rule #1 - Start with a pan big enough to make a solid omelette. If your egg is not at least 1/8" of an inch thick in the bottom of the pan, the pan is too big. The thicker you can get your egg mixture in the pan, the easier it will be to flip in the end. I think about 1/4" is good. I use a 10" skillet. About 3 eggs for an omelette will work here (I use 2 eggs and one Egg Beater serving to lower the cholesterol a bit). Now you have your base.

Rule #2 - Use PAM like it's going out of style.

Yup, I used the PAM word. I want you to go out and buy some Olive Oil PAM spray. Good fats in that... omegas.. and we're gonna use that spray like it was intended - coat the HECK out of that pan!! To be safe, I get every single edge of that pan, especially the bottom middle and where the edges start turning up. You never know when you're going to have a crazy egg incident that will land it semi on the side of the pan and YOU WANT TO BE COVERED. Omelettes are not a perfect science.. be safe or be sad (see above).

Side Note - Turn the stove on to MEDIUM heat and heat the pan up before pouring in the egg.. This will help to set it faster.

Rule #3 - STOP TOUCHING YOUR OMELETTE! For the love of all things delicious, STOP poking it. STOP checking under it like a grilled cheese to see if it's done. STOP TOUCHING IT COMPLETELY. Okay.. you can swish around the wet stuff around the edges to make a slightly larger but only if you're careful and only if you can control yourself. You leave it be. You clean up your mess, wash your dishes, twiddle your thumbs and you WAIT until there is no more wet, mooky egg on the top of your omelette. This means the heat of your stove should be at medium, no higher, so you don't burn your egg while waiting for the magic of disappearing egg goo to happen.

So, now you know the very basic three rules not to break while making omelettes. Now, all you have to do is take your spatula (wide and thin is best, but really.. any spatula will work) and work it carefully around the edge, and shake the pan bake and forth to work it loose from the center. This is where the good ol' PAM comes in handy because it shouldn't take much if you used it right. Once you can get your spatula completely under the middle of the omelette, it is a quick 180° turn. This is where it's possible to get a little egg incident, but because we coated our pan with enough PAM to make an egg Slip N Slide we DON'T WORRY!! because now we can just gently push our omelette back into place and now it's beautiful and perfect and ready for cheese. The magic of the disappearing goo has helped us here because by the time you've got the cheese (whatever your preference) onto one half of the omelette, the bottom has cooked what little it needed to and you can fold it in half and leave in the pan for a minute or two, HEAT OFF, to help melt the deliciousness.

And now you know how to make an omelette =] I want to hear success stories!! Here are some delicious additions to omelettes. Big things are added at the beginning, while leafy things are added towards the end.

• Bells Peppers of any kind, diced - Add at beginning mixed in with egg mixture
• Mushrooms if you like them - Same
• Bacon, bits or real fried bacon torn up (or really any other meat source you like that you either cooked up previously [leftover chicken anyone?] or comes precooked - Same
• Avocado - Can be diced and added at the beginning or used in place of cheese to make it super healthy =] I slice it thin and add it at the end, personally
• Spinach - the perfect thing to add to increase nutrition value and it doesn't add a ton of taste. I hand shred and add right towards the end before flipping so it can stick to the omelette and cook on the other side shortly.
• Herbs like Chives, Rosemary, Cilantro. I add these at the end like the spinach (leafy, remember?)
• Garlic - minced - Add at very beginning when you're heating up the pan or mix a little in with the egg mixture. If you heat it up with the pan, mix it up real fast with the egg mixture once you pour it in to spread out the garlic. Be very careful.. I suggest not heating it up in the pan until you are pretty good with the omelette first.

Magically, Naturally Delicious =]

Okay so I went away for a while, but I'm back. In short, moved to Atlanta, started my job, been at it for a few months now. Started CrossFit at an amazing box and am working hard to live healthy, happy, and have fun in a new city.

Now that that's out of the way... Part of this living healthy thing is trying to eat as much as possible all natural...

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I've lost you now haven't I? You saw all natural and thought, ugh, health food... that's too hard.. too boring.. too tasteless. Whatever. Here's the awesome thing about eating a lot of all natural food.. I no longer count calories. If you are eating food that is REAL, you don't have to worry about calories. First, there are generally less in natural foods than the processed crap you're eating. Second, your body is built to handle and digest things that are in nature. (Here comes a whole lot of information thrown at you in a probably haphazard manner because my brain can't function in an orderly way on the weekend).

For me, it explained why when I ate a huge meal that had a lot of processed carbs.. high in fat.. etc, I felt sleepy and just awful overall and I was tired of it. I started out small.. cutting out things like boxed crackers, meals consisting of only sugar (pasta, cereal, etc). Yes, carbs = sugar. People often think if they are not eating a candy bar, there isn't that much sugar in a food, but carbs are just different combinations of sugars, and ARE NOT ALL BAD!!  The point is, there was nothing healthy about those meals even if I was careful with portion control and only ate the recommended amount of it (which, for those of you who have tried, the amount of cereal supposedly in a "meal" is paltry and sad and just plain depressing to look at). I thought for the longest time that if I just ate and controlled my calorie intake to slightly under what I burned every day, I would be healthy and fit and happy.

It didn't work.

So now I stock up on a TON of produce. Fresh raspberries, strawberries, red peppers, spinach, squashes and avocado run abundant in my fridge. I have a gigantic tub of whey protein on stock at all times. Old fashioned oats are magic. Cans of tomatoes, black beans, and bags of frozen veggies of all kinds. Ground turkey, chicken breast/tenderloins and salmon or tilapia are always on hand. My refrigerator is not sad and empty, it is filled to the brim with good food. That's a key step. Temptation too close at hand gives you an excuse to cheat yourself.

I have always had athletics to fall back on and excuses to be lazy. I still have tons of excuses, I just don't use them any more... or at least.. I try. I am human after all.. I want to be healthy and I have the knowledge to do what it takes. I've surrounded myself with a team of people at CrossFit Smyrna who believe in me and what I am capable of. Will power is all it takes. Small steps make for big strides. Do I still go out to eat, or have my favorite comfort foods? Absolutely. I'm not Superman, and I believe in being able to have a cheat day. It just can't become a cheat weekend. And even then, it occasionally happens... I'm 23 and in a huge city with 500 million things to do every weekend and friends who want to do them all. (We have enough that we've finally created a calendar in order to keep track of all the stuff we have planned). Life happens. The thing is having the strength to return to the routine after a cheat day/weekend. However be careful. You can undo a lot of progress in a cheat weekend. I don't pay attention to the number on the scale. All I care about is how I feel on the inside and whether or not my clothes fit (because let's be real.. clothes that are too tight are uncomfortable and I don't make enough money to deal with that nonsense).