Eggs . . . Cheese . . . Chives . . .

I've been eating crap lately. Having a full-time job again (on top of the other commitments I made before I had the job) has meant two things for my cooking habits: (1) I don't have enough time to plan and prepare my meals, and (2) I now have enough money that I can just buy something if I didn't prepare lunch ahead of time.

Now I'm really lucky--my new office is literally across the street from a huge Dominick's grocery store that has an incredible deli section. That means I can and should be making healthier choices. But one thing I've learned abut myself is that once I start down that slippery slope of convenience eating, it gets too easy to choose the faster, less healthy options.

And for me, that's because when I'm trying to eat less processed foods it's harder to just buy something off the shelf and have it taste good. As much as I have grown to love vegetables, I'm not a fan of buying them out of the produce section and eating them as is. I have to cook them and season them and pretty them up. I also don't really have my own space at work yet, which makes it hard for me to settle in with food and utensils that would help me be able to make healthier choices.

But enough with the excuses. I'm determined to get back on track this coming week. I soaked some black beans overnight and I'm going to cook them up for lunches. I bought lots of fruit for snacking, and I went to the Green Market yesterday morning and got some vegetables that I can cook up fast to eat with pasta for dinner.

But Debi, I can hear you ask me, what does any of this have to do with the scrambled eggs and toast sitting up there on top of this post?

Well, I'll tell you . . .

Ok, you've got me. The two things have nothing to do with each other. But while I was at the Green Market yesterday I stopped at the Brunkow Cheese stand yet again to sample their delicious cheeses. I had already bought another one of those round multi-grain breads I've come to love, but couldn't find the goat cheese people to get some cheese to go with it, so I decided this would be a good time to pay the nice Brunkow people back for all the wonderful samples I've had over the past few months.

And they have incredible cheeses, especially a ten-year-aged cheddar that's out of this world. It was expensive, but I can afford it now, so I splurged and bought a hunk.

Isn't it lovely? I bought the chives to go with some blue potatoes I also picked up at the market yesterday.

And just like Melanie Griffith in Working Girl talking about how she came up with the idea to merge Trask Industries with a radio station, all morning just beneath the surface my brain was going "eggs . . . cheese . . . chives . . ." and came up with "omelet!"

I don't eat very much cheese, and I try to stay away from eggs because I only like them with cheese and buttered toast, so it's rare that I have all the ingredients on hand for an omelet. When I do, it's hard to resist. So I decided to go for it.

You may notice that, while it does have the vague shape of an omelet, that's really scrambled eggs and chives topped with cheese up there. There's a very good reason for that--I finally had to get rid of the pan I use for omelets, and I had forgotten I don't have it anymore. The pan I ended up using didn't work out, so I ended up scrambling the eggs instead, then added the cheese after the eggs were cooked.

So it may not have looked perfect, but it tasted delicious. I also had some chopped up pasilla peppers left over from the roasted pepper and walnut spread, so I threw those in with the eggs for a nice spicy bite.

So I've started off my week with a lovely Sunday breakfast. I'll be letting you know how the rest of the week goes.