What to do with all those greens?

Yummy greens wilting over a bed a of diced onions and potatoes.

About this time of year in my garden (or at the local farmers' market) there seems to be an influx of greens.  No matter how fast I harvest them they keep on coming.  Not to mention, if you don't harvest them quick these tender little plants will interpret the slightest neglect, coupled with a minor increase in temperature, as abandonment.  I'm certain they fear you, the gardener or cook or buyer, have moved on to bigger and better things like tomatoes and basil.  I like to remind my greens that they are still much loved and appreciated, particularly as the weather the increasing temperatures, by picking their young leaves often.  But alas, a girl can only eat so many salads (do you remember me posting how much I missed salad just two months ago in this post?)  So, what does one do with all those greens???  Well, my solution is to put them in everything I can.  Macaroni, stir fry, rice; anything really.  When sauteed they add such great flavor and color to an otherwise bland dish.  My favorite way to use up a surplus of greens, however, is by mixing them with eggs and potatoes and bacon in a break fast burrito!

Bacon, wilted greens, breakfast potatoes and scrambled eggs ready to be wrapped up!

Breakfast is my favorite  meal of the day, but generally speaking I eat it on the go Monday through Friday.  Eggs are a great way to get in a good amount of protein and other food energies for the day and the best part is I can wrap it up in a tortilla with whatever yummy things I have on hand and away I go! 

Cooking tip: Bacon can be a bit labor intensive to cook.  It requires that you stand over the stove watching a sizzling pan of grease and fatty pork ready to pop at any moment.  While pan fried bacon tastes super yummy, you can get the same effect by cooking it in the oven.  In fact, I find it easier to achieve various degrees of doneness using the oven (soft and flimsy or crsipy and hard and everything in between).  Here's how its done:

1. Take the bacon out of the fridge and turn the oven to 450*.
2. Cover a baking sheet with parchement paper (make sure the paper is bigger than the sheet on all four sides- it makes for easy peeasy clean up later!)
3. Place your bacon slices on the parchment paper.  If the sheet is too narrow for them to lay flat, pinch the pieces slightly in the middle to create a small hill or two.
4. Place in the oven, which should still be preheating.  Don't wait for it to warm up all the way.
5. Keep an casual eye on your bacon the first few times and record the time it takes for the bacon to reach the desired doneness. In my oven 18-20 minutes is good for thin sliced and about 25 minutes for thick sliced, but every oven is different so watch yours.  That's it.  Very little hands on effort, amazingly delicious reward!

Six pieces of yummy bacon straight out of the oven, with little effort on my behalf.