MaryLee's Healthy Food and Easy Cooking - Intro - Simple Omelette

Hello everyone, I just wanted to share some of my experiences and food habits with you. Who am I you ask? Well like so many of you I am an everyday person who suffers from the battle of the bulge. I was never obese but I was bigger than I wanted to be and a few years ago decided to do something about my weight. I didn't want to do another diet nor did I ever want to become an exercise freak, going to the gym every day and so on. So I decided to look at what I enjoy most and that is cooking and enjoying food.

You see I did not want to lose out on the enjoyment of eating the foods I like but did want to do something about my weight so I decided to continue to enjoy food but eat differently and be a little more careful about what types of food I eat. For example cuts of meat, started using lean cuts over fattier one and eating more chicken and fish.

I grew up on a beef farm so red meat - beef was a stable diet. This is fine however, red meat is higher in fat than fish and chicken, and as we get older the risk of heart problems, clogged arteries and so on become a bigger issue than when younger. I do not want myself nor my partner/husband to suffer from this so I started looking at how to cut out fats from our meals. Also at our eating habits. When possible I use a lighter cooking oil, low fat cheeses and so on but that does not mean I risked flavour and texture to do this. I altered my cooking but still had enjoyable meals.

I enjoy cooking I have been doing it since I was a little girl. Now those of you who think cooking has to be difficult and a chore then this will be very helpful to you. Creating a meal can be the easiest thing to do and it does not have to take any real effort at all. Here is one of the easiest meals to start with. This will work for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It can be just simple or spiced up depending on your mood.

All you need is a skillet/frying pan and eggs and a little seasoning. Thats right it is the simple omelette. Here goes...

The trick of cooking a good omelette is a hot frying pan and not over mixing the eggs.

Take a deep mixing bowl and crack in 2 eggs, (if you are worried about fat then just use the whites)

Add chopped approximately 1 tbsp (tablespoon) of fresh herbs such as chives, parsley, thyme, mint, coriander, rosemary or what flavour you enjoy. Experiment it can be fun. Some herbs can be very overpowering so be careful.

Add finely chopped onion, any kind will do about 2 tbsp

Finely chopped chilli pepper depending on heat start with ¼ tsp (This of course is optional)

Add 1 tbsp of milk

Season with pepper if you like try to cut out using salt or if you do add very little 1/4 of a tsp (teaspoon)

Lightly mix the mixture using a fork but do not over due this as you want air bubbles in it.

Heat your pan with a tsp of light cooking oil, cover the whole pan alternatively use a non stick pan.

When pan is hot but not smoking add the egg mixture then take a lifter/spatula and hold the pan on a slight angle, the egg mixture will run down the pan but this is good, just be careful and not let it spill over the rim of the pan. Starting from the handle side to fold the omlette over onto itself again and again till it resembles a roll. Once it is rolled it should be nicely cooked. Serve with a small salad.

Here you have a simple meal that literally took 15 minutes to make. Less time than ordering in or stopping for a take away.