The Breakfast Salad

On July 5^th of 2011, I debuted my recipe developing, food blogging, photographing self with a dish that I’m still proud of.

I’m talking about the Breakfast Salad, y’all!

While my ingredient sourcing, photography, kitchen skills, and knowledge of nutrition science have all evolved over time, good food is still good food.

You guys, this …is GOOD food.

While the flavors are still incredible, this little life-changing dish was due for a makeover.

My new and improved Breakfast Salad now includes hand-rolled breakfast sausage meatballs! These are opposed to those microwavable turkey sausage links that, years ago, I mistakenly took for a health food …we can discuss further if you have questions.

So what else is in it?? So glad you asked! I love gushing about food. It’s got crisp, fresh little baby tomatoes, hard-boiled eggs {how easy are those?}, purple onion, fresh avocado, cilantro, kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and lemon juice. That’s it, baby!

Sorry I called you baby.

The avocado, egg yolks, lemon, salt, and pepper all melt together to form a creamy “oh my goodness that’s good” comment-evoking dressing that you’ll just love.

It’s a great dish to make and enjoy fresh for a large family gathering or for quick breakfast leftovers during the week.

Let’s get cooking!

I opted for Jimmy Dean’s All Natural Breakfast Sausage for the meat. While there are healthier choices out there {it’s really simple to make your own breakfast sausage from fresh ground pork!}, I’m still a sucker for this stuff.

If you’re not a sausage lover, this salad also works well with bacon!!

Cut about a pound of the chilled sausage into discs and then into quarters.

Roll each quarter into a meatball.

Austin got me a new pan for Christmas!! It’s taken me a few weeks to get my stainless steal cooking sea legs but I think I’ve got it now.

Pop those little meatball beauties into the HOT pan and toss around.

Keep cooking until they’re nicely brown on all sides and cooked all the way through.

Cut about 3 cups of baby tomatoes in half and place in a large mixing bowl.

How ‘bout eggs?

Austin always gawks at my weekly grocery loot when I unpack the 3 dozen eggs …which is usually, almost enough. I like eggs! I eat ‘em for breakfast, snacks, in baked goods, to crack over burgers, etcetera after delicious etcetera.

This is my weekly hard-boiled egg bowl. It makes me happy.

Start crackin’! Note that older eggs are easier to peel.

Clearly, I did not let my eggs “age” quite long enough before their Fed & Fit blog appearance.

Who cares what they look like! We’re going to cut them up anyways!

Chop about 9 eggs in half {this recipe makes enough to feed ~4 people}.

Cut those halves, in half.

Then cut THOSE halves in half!

Toss all those little hard-boiled egg triangles over the tomatoes in that big mixing bowl.

Grab yo-self a purple onion.

Chop up about half of it …which equals about ¼ cup.

Next, avocados …aka, nature’s mayo.

Dice up two whole avocados and toss them in the bowl.

Your meatballs should be finished by now!

Throw those in the bowl too.

Because I give a lot of thought to color and varying flavors in food, I like to add in something green and leafy. It’s a salad, after all!

This time I went for a big bunch of fresh cilantro. Italian parsley also works really well in this dish! Plus, if you really want to peek inside my recipe developing brain, I want the minerals found in fresh herbs {like cilantro and parsley} to be a part of this dish so that it gets even closer to being a balanced, nutrient-dense dish.

Add ½ tsp of kosher salt – increase according to taste.

Then add ¼ tsp of cracked black pepper.

Lemon time! You’ll need two medium-sized and juicy lemons.

Squeeze their juice over the other ingredients.

Just a few stirs and this random bowl of ingredients will transform into the world-famous breakfast salad!

Isn’t it pretty?

I love this dish.

Spoon it up, make some friends, and eat with a fork.

Enjoy!