Dinner does not have to be time consuming to make to be tasty!!

For the most part, I enjoy cooking. I don't enjoy cleaning up afterwards, but that's another story for another day. Over the years I have experimented with different ways to cook things. Some are very good and some are ok and some are not so great. But that is how we learn. If you want to be a better cook, you have to practice. You have to try things. You have to take risks. 

Making a tasty and healthy dinner does not have to take a lot of time or money. Take the meal in the photo for example. This is what I just had for dinner. I had a couple of hamburgers that I had thawed that needed to be cooked but I didn't really want a burger on a bun. I don't eat a lot of bread. I love bread, but I tend to save my bread eating for really good bread. Hubby only likes white bread, so all we have in the house right now is white bread and white buns.

 (Anybody have a favorite Multi-grain Bun?) 

This meal literally took about 15 minutes to make. I washed and cut up 2 small red potatoes and tossed them in a skillet with a little butter. I placed the hamburger in the same skillet but on the other side. I added salt and pepper. Then I was standing there looking at the food cooking, thinking "what can I add to this to make it more interesting?" I remembered that I bought portabella mushrooms at the store today so I grabbed a couple of those, washed them, cut them up and added them to the potatoes. The hamburger and the potatoes and mushrooms finished cooking at basically the same time, which was great. I placed the burger on one side of the plate and the potatoes and mushrooms on the other side as you see in the photo. I added some Mexican Cheese, which is a mixture of 3 different cheeses that melt really awesomely. I placed a lid on top of the plate at this point to capture the heat so the cheese would melt. Took about 1 minute, if that. The final touch was the jalapeño peppers.

1 Hamburger Patty -- This is what I had on hand. You could totally do a chicken or turkey patty or a black bean burger or whatever other substitution you like.

Quick Tip: Pat out burgers ahead of time and freeze them. I freeze them in a freezer bag with parchment paper in between. Then I can pop one off the stack if I just want one or I can thaw the entire stack (I usually make a stack of 6 burgers) in the fridge if we will be using them up quickly.

2 Red Potatoes -- Again, this is what I had on hand. Sweet Potatoes would be amazing with this and when our Zucchini start coming in, I am sure I will be making this with Zucchini. I often use Zucchini in place of potatoes for myself. I just like them a lot. I like potatoes too, but I do try to limit myself.

2 Portabella Mushrooms -- You could leave these out if you don't like mushrooms. Or you could use Peppers, Onions, Celery, Carrots; anything you like. You should always cook to your tastes. I don't think I have ever made a recipe exactly as the author wrote it. I always add my own touches.

Mexican Cheese -- Use whatever cheese you have. Cheddar, Mozzarella, Colby Jack, Pepper Jack; they all would work and taste amazing. 

Jalapeño Peppers -- I used some from a jar, but when the ones in the garden start producing, I will use those instead. I love fresh garden produce!

It literally took longer for me to type out all of the ingredients I used than it took to make this very tasty meal. It certainly took less time than it would have taken to drive to a fast food place or even have food delivered. It was also way, way better than fast food.

I challenge you to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. It doesn't matter if you have never cooked anything before ever. Just give it a try!

One of my favorite things to do is take pictures. I mostly take pictures of landscapes or things in nature such as flowers, plants, animals, etc.

Mushrooms are so fun to photograph! There are so many varieties: all different shapes and sizes. Even the same mushroom will change every day.

One thing to remember when you are taking pictures of mushrooms is that you have to get down on their level. If I had taken this picture from standing, it would have been alright, but by getting down on the ground, the picture is so much better.

You don't need anything fancy to start a hobby of photography. Sure it is fun to use the "fancy" cameras, but in a lot of cases, your smart phone will do just fine. I took this picture with my phone. It shows great details and has good depth of field. This may well be my favorite mushroom pic of 2020!

Growing up, as a kid I had to fend for myself for breakfast. So most days it was cereal. I think cereals were a tad bit healthier back then than they are these days, eh, who am I kidding? We got the cereal for the cool toy inside, right? Anyway, I never was much for the classic bacon and eggs for breakfast. Yes, I like bacon and yes, I like eggs. Just wasn't my thing for breakfast. Sure, I would have the occasional scrambled eggs, but mostly I ate cereal. Even pancakes or waffles seem to be better for dinner than for breakfast. Besides, cereal is quick. Quick to make and quick to eat and leaves very few dishes. So cereal it was.

Fast forward to a few years ago. I wasn't happy with the weight I had put on over the years and had a health scare that thankfully turned out to be a minor thing, but it made me really think about my health. That and the fact that I was inching ever so close to that 50 mark. So I joined a wonderful health and fitness organization and loved it so much I became a Coach. This post isn't about that though. I'll talk about that another day. 

This fitness organization has workout programs that include nutrition guidelines. So, in trying to eat more healthy, I was also trying to follow those guidelines. I started eating eggs for breakfast. I'd have eggs and toast. Then I switched to a multi-grain bread for my toast. So it was 2 eggs, over-easy with a slice of multi-grain toast. But I noticed it didn't make me feel great. Every day, a few hours after eating eggs, I would be in the bathroom wondering why I was feeling so bad if I was eating better.

I had also been trying to buy healthier foods. We grow a garden every year and in the summer, we have a lot of vegetables from that. We also have fruit trees and strawberry plants and blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry bushes. I had been buying organic foods when I could and had even looked into grass fed beef, but there was no place to buy grass fed anything around here at that time.

During my search for the grass fed beef, I found a local farm that raised chickens on pasture. They sold the eggs and they also harvested the chickens and you could buy fresh chicken. I decided to check them out. I stopped buying eggs at the grocery store and was only eating eggs from these pasture raised chickens. The difference was amazing!! Not only did they taste better, but I didn't have to worry about finding a bathroom after I ate them. Total game changer. The fresh chicken and turkey that I buy from them is awesome too, but that's another story.

That was about 5 or 6 years ago, I believe, that I found that farm and I have eaten eggs for breakfast almost every day since. No, it doesn't raise your cholesterol eating eggs if you are eating the right kind. My cholesterol actually dropped as did my triglycerides. 

That brings us to that picture up there. Two eggs, over-easy. Fresh from the farm. From chickens raised on pasture. Some days, I still have multi-grain toast. But most days, I have vegetables with my eggs. Now, I do NOT like omelets. Do not mix anything in with my eggs please. So I was not sure that I could eat vegetables with eggs. I started with spinach and it was awesome! Occasionally I will have potatoes, usually red because we grow those in the garden, but I prefer zucchini.

I started eating zucchini for breakfast by making zucchini patties. I shredded the zucchini and cooked like you would shredded hash browns, sort of. But that takes a lot of time and mornings are crazy busy so I switched to just cutting the zucchini in cubes. Game changer! Some days I have mushrooms with the zucchini, some days I will add onion, some days it's just the zucchini with the eggs. 

What I have found is that by adding a vegetable to my breakfast, I feel better all day long. It takes about 10 minutes to cook the breakfast in that picture. Sure, that's about 8 minutes more than making cereal and it makes more dirty dishes, but it is so worth it!

So, how do I cook that? Super easy. Add butter, real butter from grass-fed cows (I use Kerry Gold) to a pan. Add the cubed zucchini. How much is up to you. I often eat a whole 8-10" zucchini at breakfast. Add sliced mushrooms. I use portabella or white mushrooms. When the mushrooms start to brown and the zucchini starts to break down, move them to one side of the pan and cook your eggs on the other side. I like over-easy, but do them how you like them. Of course if you poach them, you will need to use a different pan. When the eggs are done, put it all on a plate, add salt and pepper to taste, and ENJOY!!

If you've never eaten vegetables at breakfast, I challenge you to give it a try. Also, find a local farm in your area that raises chickens on pasture. The difference is remarkable! Let me know what you think!

Wow! It's been a CRAZY long time since I have posted in this blog. Where the heck did the time go?

Lots of chaos has ensued since my last post, both personally and in the world in general. But today is a new day and I renamed my blog Cyndy Wise: Random Chaos because well, that's what it is. Hubby and I are always saying "It's just random chaos." when something happens, good or bad. So, I thought that would be a great name for this blog. 

I don't even know if anyone ever reads this blog. I started it as kind of a place to keep and share my recipes, but I never really posted too many of them; just a few random ones here and there. Random Chaos! See? 

Ok, enough for now. It is too nice of a day out to be sitting in front of this computer! 

Have an AWESOME day!!