What's for Breakfast? Part 1

   Breakfast presented my first barrier to eating Paleo-- my usual cold cereal or bowl of oatmeal obviously wouldn't work anymore. So, my first few blog entries will be devoted to my favorite meal of the day. Granted, these recipes are not as easy as pouring Cheerios into a bowl, but trust me, they are well worth a little effort. And some things can be done in advance, like roasting the zucchini and making the pesto for the first recipe, below. Then all you have to do in the morning is zap the zukes in the microwave, fry the eggs, and spoon on the pesto. Easy, right? And if you are still craving cold cereal, there are a few commercial Paleo cereal products that I will review in a future post, o.k.?

Fried Eggs on Roasted Zucchini with Mint Paleo Pesto

    This recipe is one of my new breakfast favorites! It not only answers the "What's for breakfast?" question, but also the "What the hell am I going to do with that baseball bat size zucchini that has suddenly appeared in my garden overnight?" question. And, of course, pretty much everything is better with pesto, right?

    This particular pesto, is, in my opinion, just the very best (bonus, it will also help you use up a lot of the mint that's threatening to overtake your herb garden, especially if you make large batches and freeze it). It's an adaptation of Brooke Dojny's Mint-Walnut Pesto from her book, Dishing Up Maine.

Ingredients
1 recipe Mint-Walnut Pesto (see below)

For zucchini:
Large zucchini, cut across into 1/2 inch thick slices
Olive oil, 1-2 TBS, depending on size of zucchini
Sea salt to taste

For eggs:
2 eggs, preferably cage-free organic
1 TBS ghee (clarified butter, o.k. on paleo because milk solids have been removed) or olive oil
Paleo-friendly hot sauce (Tabasco, Frank's, etc.), optional

Mint-Walnut Pesto
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup fresh parsley sprigs
1/4 cup walnuts
1 TBS lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
1/2 tsp sea salt, or to taste
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Pesto
1. Combine all pesto ingredients except olive oil in food processor and pulse a few times to make a rough paste
2. With the motor running, pour the oil through the feed tube and process until the sauce is pureed. Pesto can be refrigerated for 3-4 days. It may darken a little, but this will not affect the flavor. To freeze, fill an ice cube tray with pesto and put in freezer. When frozen, put pesto cubes in a freezer bag and store in freezer until needed (round about January here in mid-coast Maine when I really need a taste of summer!).

Roasted Zucchini
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Arrange zucchini slices on baking sheet, sprinkle with salt, and drizzle with olive oil.
3. Roast for 5-7 minutes, or until golden brown. These keep, refrigerated, for several days and can be reheated in the microwave.

Fried Eggs
1. Melt ghee or heat olive oil in non-stick frying pan.
2. Carefully break eggs into frying pan
3. Continuously baste eggs with ghee or olive oil from the pan until done.

Assembly
Arrange four zucchini slices on a plate, top with eggs, then top with pesto. Add hot sauce if you like your eggs spicy.