A good Sunday brunch is an absolute necessity, especially after a long Saturday night filled with too much drinking and dancing. With last night being once such Saturday night, I was in dire need of some quick, delicious nourishment this morning – and the spread you see above really hit the spot: Hearty Wheatgerm Waffles, Scrambled Eggs with Pastrami, Onions and Green Peppers, and slices of fresh, sweet, summer Strawberries. This combination really fit what I look for in a brunch on days like this.

So what do I like for brunches on Sunday mornings when I’m lethargic and need a good meal to get myself going? A few things:

Ease of preparation: The lazy way out would be to get something together with NO preparation involved – but that w0uld be counter-productive. Most things that you get to eat with no preparation, apart from just raw fruits and vegetables, are processed foods – which are filled with sodium, chemicals, corn syrup and a lot of stuff that is not real food. So while they fill you up, they give you no nutrition and will make you just more tired and lethargic. At the same time, you don’t want to be whipping up a breakfast buffet here – what you are looking for it food items that are wholesome but can be put together in a quick amount of time. A bonus of such items is that since it forces you to get up and be active for atleast a bit, those cobwebs in your head start clearing away bit by bit – so that once you get through the short cooking time and get settled in to eat, you’ll feel energetic already.

Nutrition: A good Sunday brunch for ‘recovery’ days after all that drinking and partying really needs to be nutritious to help your body recover quickly. Everyone has their own needs for such occasions, ofcourse – you get to learn what your body responds to the best as you go along in life. For me, apart from lots of water to gulp all morning, I usually need some combination of the following – protein and carbs to help get some energy in quickly, some fat to settle the stomach down and help with the toxins from the alcohol (look it up, your queasy stomach is caused by the byproducts of your body continuing to break down that vodka tonic from last night), and some fruit for fiber and more hydration.

Tasty: This one goes without saying – you need a tasty meal to look forward to, to get you motivated to put in the time to prepare the brunch in the first place instead of laying curled up on the couch munching on junk. This is a good time to cook up old favorites – this way you have a sure-fire tasty meal awaiting you without any experimentation, and you’ll save some time too.

Short cooking time: As mentioned above, you want to make food that involves a LITTLE preparation, but your body will not wait for you to get into Top Chef mode here – the food needs to be quick, fast and easy.

With all that said, the plate of brunch I ended up with this morning met all these criteria.

• Waffles are one of my favorite brunch items on any Sunday – they are easy to whip up (just mix in your favorite combo and turn on the waffle iron), and have enough protein and carbs in them from just the regular flour / egg combination. If you add in wheatgerm and use wholewheat flour, and throw in some pecans for crunch like I did today, you up the nutritional factor up quite a bit. Plus, while you wait for each waffle to get cooked, you can continue with your second brunch item
• Scrambled eggs are the perfect complement. Eggs are one of the best sources of protein you can have, and scrambled eggs are endlessly customizable – you can us whatever odds and ends you have in the fridge to throw in to make them healthier and tastier. I had pastrami on hand to add in some nice flavor, and onions and green peppers to get some veggies in.
• I love strawberries in the summer – they are bright, juicy and sinfully sweet. Slices of the fruit stand up nicely to the earthy taste of the waffles, and also the salty, buttery eggs.

A nice tall glass of whatever fresh or bottled juice you have on hand, or just some ice cold water  will round out this brunch perfectly. And I promise you it worked for me – else I wouldn’t have had the energy for such a long post today!

This will be a quick post, in honor of the food item the post describes – scrambled eggs. They are one of the best breakfast items – short, quick and easy to make. They are much more forgiving than an omelet (a broken omelet being very easy  to transform to scrambled eggs, ofcourse!), and equally customization. All you need is a saute pan, some butter or olive oil, eggs, and whatever other meats or vegetables you want to add in to the eggs.

Scrambled eggs with onions, peppers and bacon is a classic breakfast item in countless diners across the country; I decided to switch it up a bit by using Pastrami for bacon – it retained the salty punch of the bacon in the dish, but also added a nice dollop of the cured-meat flavor to the eggs.

THE RECIPE: Scrambled Eggs with Green Peppers and Bacon

You’ll Need:

• 4-5 slices of good deli pastrami, chopped into pieces
• 1 big onion, sliced
• 1 big Green pepper, diced
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbslp milk or cream
• 1 tbslp olive oil or butter
• Salt and pepper to taste

The Method:

• Heat the oil or butter in a saute pan on medium heat.
• Add in the pastrami and cook till slightly browned (about 3-4 mins) – you can leave for a few more mins if you want it cripsy, just make sure you keep moving it around or lower the heat so it doesnt burn.
• Add in the vegetables and cook an additional 5 mins till the peppers are tender. Add a little more oil as needed to ensure the meat doesnt stick to the bottom of the pan.
• Separately, break the eggs into a bowl, add in the milk and whisk till frothy
• Once vegetables are cooked, add in the egg mixture and gently move around to distribute the meat and vegetables
• Allow the eggs to set for a couple of minutes. Then, gently break them up and stir around the pan till they reach the level of doneness you desire. I usually let them go for 2-3 mins more as I don’t like my eggs too soft.

As anyone who has grown up in India over the past few decades will tell you, Maggi noodles are one of the most craved breakfast items on weekends. The promise of ’2-minute’ cooking was a boon to the Indian mom’s who had to feed hungry tots in a hurry; I truly believe these instant-cook noodles were the initiator of the fast food industry to desi households. And the genius behind the noodles was the flavor packets included with each – with flavors well suited to the Indian palate. Plus, the marketing campaign to include stamps in the packets for an year was brilliant – like with me, I’m sure philately was introduced as a hobby to many Indian kids as a result of this promotion.

Masala was the ubiquitous flavor as I was growing up, but there were various other flavors introduced along the way. The green capsicum was my personal favorite (didn’t hurt that I found some ‘rare’ bird stamps in those packets!), but chicken was always around, and I think Shrimp was introduced at some point also (and pulled back in a couple of years, apparently the instant craze didnt extend to seafood). I remember getting up on Sundays excited to get started watching the Jungle Book and other Sunday cartoons, while my mom got a steaming hot bowl of Maggi ready for me – what a treat!

My first few years in the US, back in the early 2000s, we had a few of the regular Maggi flavors available – and my early cooking experiments began with adding vegetables, spices and soy sauce to regular Maggi. Lately, there have been so many new flavors of Maggi available that the wifey and I have been finding  a new monthly favorite! Our fave for the past month? Machurian Maggi – a perfect combination of the desi-Chinese flavor and the quick cooking Maggi magic.

I just add a few freshly chopped scallions (green onions) and we are set to enjoy a delicious weekend breakfast!

I am a big fan of having eggs for breakfast – they are easy to eat, fill you up with a nice dose of protein, and are damn tasty in whatever form you choose to have them – half-boiled with a pinch of salt, omelets, or heuvos rancheros if u’re feeling frisky. An egg salad, however, often gets treated as a lunch – but lately I’ve been making a simple version of it that really hits the spot for breakfast and almost makes me wake up a few mins early just to enjoy it in peace.

Using celery adds a nice crunch to the salad, and I add a nice dollop of dijon mustard to punch up the flavor. Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper round out the flavorings -  eggs and mayo being the building blocks that make up this really easy to put-together recipe. Eat it by itself for breakfast (great cold out of the fridge), or if you really want you can make a lunch of it by bringing it to room temp and sticking it between some deli flats.

THE RECIPE:

YOU’LL NEED:

• 4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 rib of celery, chopped
• 1 tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 2 tbsp low-fat mayonnaise
• fresh cracked sea salt and black pepper, to taste

THE METHOD:

• Mix all ingredients together and store in a container in the fridge. That’s it, that simple!

No recipe for tonight – just a simple ode to one of my favorite home cooked meals of all time – fried chicken and waffles. I have never been ‘down south’, but given my love for most southern dishes, I feel like I’d fit right in down in Savannah! Shrimp and grits, buttermilk biscuits, peach cobblers, and ofcourse fried chicken with waffles  – as the song goes, these are a few of my faaavotire things!

Fried chicken with waffles is just one of those perfectly balanced food pairings that offer such a delightful contrasts of tastes and textures- sweet and savory, crispy and soft, tender and with a bite. The dark golden skin of the chicken pairs with the light brown waffle to present some form of a foodie yin and yang – yes, my friends, the first time I savored these two items together in one place, at a now defunct hole-in-the-wall in St.Mark’s Place, the experience was nothing short of religious.

This is also the perfect home-cooked meal to provide some much needed comfort during the long cold winter days; I usually make this for Sunday brunch before I curl up on the couch for an 8 hour football marathon. I’ll post the recipes individually for these somewhere along the line, but just know that nothing is easier that throwing in some chicken pieces to fry while you whip up a batch of whichever waffles you want – I like something hearty with this like my Wheatgerm Waffles.

Making this at home lets you control the greasiness of the chicken, and ensure your waffles are healthy enough to make this sinful Southern Treat almost good for you! You can make the chicken however you want – the traditional buttermilk-fried variety, or my favorite – spicy cajun style. Drizzle on some warm maple syrup onto the waffles, allow some of the syrup to coat the chicken, grab a bottle (or three) of your favorite brew and settle down for some crispy, crunchy, sweet and delicious taste nirvana….you might love the dish so much you may just start talking with a twang!

Since I have designated the first month of this new decade to discovering healthy sources of energy, it is only natural I start with the first and most important (atleast it should be) meal of the day – breakfast. Very often in this hectic world, we reduce breakfast to a rushed, on-the-go chore that we try to finish as efficiently / quickly / cheaply as possible. We don’t realize that this is the first chance we get to refuel our bodies after what in essence is a 6-8 hr fast (you ARE getting atleast that much sleep most nights, aren’t you?).  Following some simple make-ahead steps can help you ensure you get a healthy, quick breakfast during the weekdays without resorting to packaged foods or drive-through junk – more about those in a future post.

For now, lets think about the weekend breakfast. The one time you get some time to put together a tasty, wholesome breakfast and actually enjoy eating it. It is the meal to put back some much needed nutrition in your body after a tough week – but you also want it to be tasty enough to look forward to. Make it hearty and healthy enough, and you will be rewarded with enough energy to whatever your weekend has in store for you – a great workout, grocery shopping, household chores, shopping trips – or just channel surfing from your couch.

I found a great recipe to make waffles, my favorite weekend breakfast item, much healthier and tastier than those frozen Eggo’s. Using wheatgerm, a top 10 health food, really ups the nutritional factor – and you can still use butter in the recipe to ensure they stay delicious. Though light and fluffy, they are hearty enough by themselves, but can form a perfect foundation for a lazy weekend brunch – because lets admit it, most weekend breakfast’s really turn into brunches, dont they?

All you need is a few basic ingredients, along with the wheatgerm itself. Homemade waffles are deceptively easy to make – and waffle batter is one of the most forgiving, you just mix for a bit and let it rest – no need to beat it to death or get all the lumps out, it’ll work itself out in the waffle maker. I promise you that you will feel much healthier once you bite into these delicious waffles – go ahead and use some whipped cream or maple syrup and indulge yourself, because you just started out your day with a smart nutritional decision. The waffles are not cloyingly sweet, so you can sweeten up after as desired with syrup or leave as a nice savory bite – the wifey is very particular about her waffles not being too sweet, so this works our well for us.

Simple ingredients for a healthy waffle

I use a combination of wheat and allpurpose flours to make the waffles healthier; I also enjoy the more earthy taste. You can stick to using all-purpose flour ofcourse, just ensure the batter doesn’t become too thin. I use a round Cuisinart Waffle maker, so a 1/2 cup of the batter on the 4 setting ensures full, round, golden brown waffles – the wheatgerm and whole wheat flour really lend themselves to a higher heat setting.

THE RECIPE: HEARTY HEALTHY WHEATGERM WAFFLES

YOU’LL NEED:

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 stick butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Nonstick cooking spray or butter

THE METHOD:

• Whisk eggs, buttermilk and melted butter in a large bowl.
• In another bowl, stir dry ingredients (including brown sugar) together, then add to egg mixture and whisk just until smooth. Let rest for 5 mins – do NOT whisk too much, it is ok to leave small lumps.
• Heat waffle iron to desired setting.
• Spray with nonstick spray to ensure waffles don’t stick – do this even for the non-stick ones.
• Ladle desired amount of batter per your machine instructions(I use 1/2 cup for a round Cuisinart machine) onto the iron and cook till done.
• Serve with some warmed maple syrup, honey and/or whipped cream

The all forgiving waffle batter!

Waffles were made for cold, wintry Sunday morning breakfasts. Nothing beats the crispy, golden brown warmth of a home-made waffle on such mornings; yes, I said homemade – not those ice-puck eggo’s from the freezer. Who wants to open up the freezer when it’s chilly enough anyways?! Plus, making waffles at home is such a snap that all you need is 4-5 pantry essentials, a simple waffle maker and some maple syrup to top them off.

The recipe below is the waffle batter in its simplest form - it will produce some very nice, light buttery waffles with just a hint of sweetness. You can use this as the base to flavor them up as you like – some chopped nuts, a little vanilla, some berries to top it perhaps? We use buttermilk in our waffle batter at times, and there are some very fancy things you can do like folding in whipped egg whites separately -  I will experiment with these over the next few months and see how they turn out. For now, a simple recipe to start off with will show you that making waffles at home is not much more difficult than popping a frozen one into the toaster oven. (Heck, you can just make a bunch and create your own frozen waffles for the week if you prefer)!

THE RECIPE: LIGHT AND BUTTERY WAFFLES

YOU’LL NEED (makes 5 waffles):

• While the recipe above yeilds enough waffles for two for breakfast, you can easily double all the ingredients if you need more waffles.
• Extra waffles are easy to store; just let them cool before sticking them, using sheets of wax paper between each, into a ziploc bag and throw them in the freezer. Voila – you’re own brand of frozen waffles are ready – just throw them in the toaster oven (toast on both sides to your desired brownness) and you’re all set.
• Combining equal parts of whole wheat flour with all purpose flour helps enhance the flavor and adds a nice nuttiness to the waffles. You can certainly use just one type of flour if you prefer.
• Replace brown sugar with plain old sugar if you must; brown sugar just goes better with this I feel. I might add a little more sugar the next time to up the sweetness a bit more.

I’m notorious for being a late sleeper – I sleep late at night and wake up even later in the morning. Every weekday morning becomes a bitter fight involving multiple alarm clocks, hitting the snooze button a million times, and a pillow being thrown at me by the wife tired of hearing the constantly ringing alarms. Then it is a mad dash to get ready to head to work – and since I’d rather spend a few extra minutes in the morning picking out the perfect tie for my shirt than making breakfast, I used to grab a couple of bananas on the way out.

Then I discovered the perfect, quick way to get a variety of fruits into my system first thing in the morning: smoothies! I pick up whatever fresh berries / fruits look good at the local fruit stand over the weekend and throw them in to the blender with some skim milk and voila – my nutrient-packed, delicious, low-fat breakfast for the work week is ready. I also have bit more of an incentive to wake up now, given the tasty treat that awaits me.

I store the smoothie in a pitcher in the fridge, stir it up every morning and pour out a glass. When I get into a steady gym-routine, I even mix in some protein powder to up the muscle-building quotient of my morning treat – coz, you know, I still dream of being totally ripped.

Most weeks, the weekly smoothie starts with a base of berries with some banana, peach or orange juice added in for extra flavor. This week, I found good blackberries and raspberries, so it’s going to be a double blast of berry for me. The berries are still surprisingly sweet for this time of the year, so I won’t need to add any additional sweetening.

THE RECIPE

YOU’LL NEED:

• 1 pint fresh raspberries
• 1 pint fresh blackberries
• 2-3 Ice cubes
• 3 cups skim milk

THE METHOD:

• Throw the ice cubes into the blender and crush.
• Add the berries and milk, and process till smooth.
• That’s it! Taste it to check for consistency (remember it will thicken up a bit in the fridge) and sweetness, pour into a pitcher and store in the fridge.