Culinary Experiment #2: Quick Migas

I am always looking for a quick yet super satisfying breakfast. I always end up with just the “quick” part.

Enter the Hobbies Cookbook project. I’ve only recently started cooking the recipes on my list and I already feel healthier. Not because the food I’m preparing is necessarily lower in fat or calories (as you’ll notice in this recipe), but because I’m now less reliant on processed food and let’s be real, the frozen food section at Kroger.

This week I finally found the recipe. It’s perfect. It’s got scrambled eggs, cheesy goodness, salsa, tortilla chips and creamy avocados.

The dish is called “Quick Migas”  and it’s from a blog titled “Budget Bytes.” You can access the original form of the recipe here.  

This recipe is definitely customizable. And I took full advantage of that feature. I’ve made some changes to the recipe based on taste and what I had on hand. Feel free to try out my version:

1. I decided to make a single-serving version. So instead of 6 eggs, I only used 2.
2. I didn’t have milk, but I did have half-and-half. So I used 2 teaspoons of that instead. (The measurement here was adjusted from 1/4 of a cup to 2 tsp because of the reduction in the number of eggs used in my version.) The change in the use of the milk, didn’t seem to affect the taste of the eggs. They still tasted like scrambled eggs.
3. I omitted the cilantro. It was already in the jarred salsa I was using.
4. I made the following substitutions: Instead of butter, I used canola oil. It’s just a personal flavor preference. Also, instead of green onions, I cubed a whole avocado and added it to the egg/cheese/tortilla/salsa mixture at the very end.
5. I don’t think the original recipe mentions when to use the salt and pepper. So I just mixed them in with the eggs before I cooked them in the pan.
6. I added Cholula’s Original flavor Hot Sauce at the end for more zing and heat.

I made some important observations while cooking and eating this dish:

1. If you’re using fewer eggs like I did,  keep an eye on those eggs, and begin stirring right when the eggs start to set around the edges. Because those eggs cook fast! Really fast. You don’t want them to dry out because you waited too long.
2. If you’re a slow eater like I am and you decide to add avocados to this dish, give them a spritz of lemon juice before consuming them. When the insides of avocados are exposed to air for longer than a few minutes they begin to show signs of the oxidation process and turn brown, much like apples do. You can still eat them, you just have to scrape off the brown layer first. But to save yourself from having to do that at all, just squeeze lemon or lime juice on them before you eat them. The acidity from the lemon/lime will slow the oxidation process and prevent the browning that can occur while you’re eating the migas. Plus, it’ll make the overall dish even more flavorful!

This dish was a wonderfully fast and scrumptious way to have Mexican food for breakfast. And with the avocados, it was like a magical, deconstructed guacamole.

If you decide to try out this recipe, feel free to comment on this post to let me know how it went! I’d love to hear about your experiences!

I’d also like to thank Beth M. of  Budget Bytes  for posting this recipe.