Golden Yukon potatoes fried with sweet onion, shiitake, cabbage, garlic, celery and bacon.

Enhanced Hash Browns

Trying to make a transition to a healthier, more nutritious lifestyle can bring more creative and interesting menu items to your palate.  Europeans and Asian countries have long since been combining bacon (pork products) with onions, mushrooms, and cabbage together to create healthy hearty meals.   To create Enhanced Hash browns you will need:

1/4 of a Cabbage Chopped
1 Stalk of celery Chopped
1/4 Sweet Onion Chopped
1 piece of bacon Chopped
4 Shiitake Mushrooms Chopped
2 Golden Yukon Golden Potatoes
Garlic, fresh or powder -  to taste

Optional EGG (one for each person)


Starting with the bacon, cook halfway (oneside crispy) then add chopped onions and cook till golden brown.  Remove them from pan, in the grease add the mushrooms, cook thoroughly, set aside with the other goodies add potatoes, cook to a golden brown, create an empty enter in the pan then add celery, cabbage, and garlic.  As soon as the celery is to its desire doneness, (al dente for me) add the remaining cooked items back in, so you can mix them all together, then add seasonings, sea salt and crushed black pepper, Johnny's seasonings for me.

This can be made more excellent by adding an egg to the top, over easy for me!

Serves at least two hearty servings, enjoy!!!

Little Liliputian Carrots...

With the recent drop in temperature I started becoming concerned about my carrots in the ground in January.  Why were they still in the ground?  Because I wanted carrots longer than an inch long.  It was shortly after our fourth frost, so worried that they would rot, I dug them up.  They were still an inch long, but round like radishes. 

Strange, they were a standard variety - supposed to be five to eight inches long, 60 days till maturation.  They were in the ground for 7 months and still were Liliputian. I had even made sure to work the soil before planting and removed most of the stones.

So I cleaned, trimmed and scrubbed the little guys, cut in small rounds, and boiled until "al dente" and served with butter, sea salt and fresh ground peppercorns.  They were a hit!  Little Liliputian carrots are sweet and were hardly a side dish, trying to steal center stage that night at dinner!

Garden Chicken Fajitas

Fresh garden veggies from my garden pictured with Garden Chicken Fajitas.

Who says cooking healthy has to be boring and flavorless?  This quick little dish with delicious garden veggies helps keep you trim while satiates your appetite!

Serves: Two normal humans with large appetites and a desire to lose weight & feel full.  Prep time:15 min.

10 oz. Chicken tenderloin (4-6 pieces) fajita sliver cut
1 1/2 cup Garden Zucchini cut in 1/4" thick half moons
1/2 onion - slivers
1/2 Yellow Pepper - slivers
1 cup Tomatoes - slivers
1 clove garlic- smashed, then chopped
2 tortillas - warmed
1/4 Cheddar - grated*
1 tbsp of butter*
2 tbsp Sour Cream*
Red Pepper to taste (dash)
Sea Salt
Fresh cracked black pepper

Spicy Option -  1 Chopped jalapeno or 3 tbsp of your favorite spicy salsa.

Vegan or Veg. Option - Omit chicken, increase yellow peppers and onions to 1 cup, and 2 cups of zucchini.

*On the lighter side - Use 1 tbsp low fat cheddar and fat free sour cream, use a non stick pan with low fat butter spray.

All ways use fresh - substitute any of these soft veggies from the garden with fresh veggies from your garden.  I often add 1/2 cup of cabbage in addition to the onions, they caramelize well together.

In a hot pan, on medium low, add butter, slivered zucchini, onion, peppers and garlic, stir frequently, for five minutes.  Then add chicken. Cook an additional five minutes.  Add tomatoes, red pepper, sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper to taste. Stir another five minutes then serve in warmed tortillas with cheese and sour cream.

Customize your dish with lots of veggies from your garden!

Garden Zucchini and Tomato Breakfast Burritos

What do you do with all those extra zucchini and veggies that have grown in abundance from your garden? Make breakfast of course!  This serves two large burrito portions in about ten minutes!

2 slices of bacon

1/2 cup or 1/4 of yellow onion, chopped

1 small zucchini or 1 1/2 cup of chopped zucchini

1 tomato, medium + chopped

1 smashed garlic clove; also minced

1 yukon gold potato; par-boiled or nuked for three min.

2 eggs - best with free range organic

4 sprigs of fresh garden herbs (parsley and/or cilantro)

1/4 to 1/2 cup of grated cheddar (optional- lower calorie omit)

2 tbsp of sour cream (optional- lower calorie omit)

1/4 cup of your favorite homegrown or store bought salsa

Sea salt (to taste)

Fresh cracked black pepper (to taste)

Vegan/vegetarian option: omit bacon, add tsp of veg oil 

Hot and spicy option:  Add 1 chopped jalapeno/ or tsp of hot sauce.

Saute chopped bacon with onion, on medium heat until bacon is as you like it. While the bacon is cooking, stab potato and cook for 3 min in microwave, then halve and chop to 1/2" squares, chop herbs, tomato, garlic zucchini.  When the bacon is ready add veggies.  Cook together, stirring lightly, till veggies are limp, but still crunchy, 3-5 minutes.  In smaller egg pan fry scrambled eggs to just under done, while cooking veggies. Then combine, in larger pan.

Serving piping hot, this heats the tortilla, add cheddar and sour cream to inside, or outside or both, and don't forget the salsa!

If zucchini is not your favorite veggie from the garden, CUSTOMIZE -substitute and make your Garden favorite breakfast burrito!