Monday, June 28, 2010

Breakfast Burritos with Tomato-Basil Topping Recipe

I hope to post some recipes that I've enjoyed throughout my journey to teach myself how to cook healthy and socially/environmentally sustainable foods. Here's the first one. It's a pretty easy and good breakfast recipe.

2 teaspoons butter or margarine
1 russet potato, peeled and grated
1/4 cup chopped peeled onion
6 large eggs
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 (8-inch) flour tortillas, warmed
1/3 cup shredded cheddar cheese, shredded
1 large tomato, diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed dried basil

1. In large nonstick skillet over medium heat, melt butter and sauté potato and onion until tender.
2. Pour in egg, sprinkle with pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally until mixture is set. Divide egg mixture evenly between tortillas; top with cheese. Fold tortillas over egg mixture. Top with tomato mixed with basil.

Makes 4 servings

I used fresh basil and it was a delicious and easy salsa. I also combined the cheese with the eggs and put the tomato/basil sauce on the burrito toppings before folding the tortilla. Also, if you like heat, add some hot peppers to the onions and potatoes.

From: http://www.cooksrecipes.com/breakfast/breakfast_burritos_with_tomato-basil_topping_recipe.html

You Gotta Start Somewhere

I've become an advocate for healthy, environmentally and socially sustainable food for a diverse range of reasons. However, most of these reasons are connected to one underlying fact. Food connects all people and many important social issues. I firmly believe that we can address some of our most pressing societal injustices by focusing on food. Food is directly related to poverty, health, the environment, equal rights, cultural diversity and a whole host of other important social issues. So, it's a pretty big topic and there are a lot of interesting initiatives that a person can become involved with.

So, where do you start? By joining/starting a community or backyard garden? By joining/organizing a community kitchen? Joining an organization and actively advocating for Canada's first national food policy? Becoming a vegetarian or simply reducing your consumption of meat? It can start to get overwhelming when a person gets too caught up in all the possibilities and feels that there are too many to choose from. And what do you do then? Or, how can you prevent yourself from feeling that way in the first place?

It's simple, really. You just have to get started. Choose an initiative or project that sounds interesting, give it a little bit of thought (but not too much) and dive in wholeheartedly. Once you've become immersed within it for a period of time, then you can evaluate if it's the right initiative for you and whether or not you have the time or energy to devote to multiple food projects.

But before you can do any of that, before you'll figure out the perfect plan of action for food systems reform, you just need to start somewhere. So, keep the analyzing to a minimum (for now), become involved with a food initiative you feel passionate about and just go for it! And that's how I believe we can best capture the excitement of the blossoming sustainable food movement!