I'm a big believer in the power of breakfast tacos - nothing starts my morning off quite as well and breakfast tacos do. Apparently though, lots of people don't know about breakfast tacos (which I was reminded of by the New York Times coverage of breakfast taacos several months ago). Breakfast tacos are a staple in our family because not only are they quick and easy to make, but you can make them in advance and store them in the fridge for quick hot meals.

Breakfast tacos can be as easy as serving scrambled eggs and potatoes on a tortilla (flour or corn per your preference, though flour tortillas tend to break less easily than corn tortillas do) or as complicated (if you can call them complicated) as migas. Migas are basically eggs scrambled with sauteed onions and hot peppers and mixed with crumbled up tortilla chips or slices of corn tortillas and cheddar cheese. (Incidentally, this is an excellent way to use those last little chip crumbles in the bag that are too small for dipping.) I don't care for eggs, so in our house, we substitute tofu for the eggs, and season with brewer's yeast for an eggy color and umami protein flavor. In fact, the only rule of breakfast tacos is that they are served on tortilla! If your menu plan for the week includes making black or pinto beans or potatoes, throw in some extra while you're cooking them and save them for the next morning's breakfast - you can add those to the eggs or migas too.

Basic Ingredients

Here's a list of basic ingredients, you can mix and match to make your own breakfast tacos:

• scrambled eggs
  
• refried or whole black or pinto beans


• migas (scrambled egg and onions or firm tofu crumbled and scrambled with onions and brewer's yeast)


• hashbrowns


• salsa or pico de gallo


• guacamole


• fried potatoes


• cheddar cheese

Tofu Migas

Sautee a medium onion and 2-4 jalapeno peppers (to decrease the heat, take the seeds out but make sure you wear gloves when you cut them up) in your preference of oil (we always use extra virgin olive oil, because that's what we keep around the house).

Add two 16-oz. containers of extra firm tofu and smash them with a potato masher.

When the tofu has started to heat up, add 1/2 to 1 cup of cheddar cheese and a handful of tortilla chips or sliced up corn tortilla strips (I always use the end of the bag of tortilla chips since I rarely have corn tortillas on hand).

Stir and cook until tofu is hot.

Season with 1/2 T turmeric, 1 T cumin, 1/2 t red pepper, 1/4 t chili pepper, 1 T nutritional yeast and salt to taste.

Serve on flour tortillas topped with your choice of sour cream, guacamole, beans, salsa, or pico de gallo.

If you really get into the breakfast taco thing, you can branch out into chorizo, sauteed nopalitos (the de-spined pad of the prickly pear cactus, it's got a slightly sweet flavor and the consistency of bell peppers without that pepper flavor), or one of my favorites, chilaquiles (basically migas without the eggs with a green or red mole sauce).

The best thing about serving breakfast tacos is that you can have a variety of ingredients and each person (or, ehem, picky kid) can choose their own ingredients. Next week when you make them again, serve different ingredients and voila, a new meal!

The key to good breakfast tacos is getting good tortillas - see if you can find a Mexican grocery store or a taqueria that makes fresh tortillas and buy them by the dozen. Our local grocery store has a "tortilla factory" in the store so we keep tortillas on hand all the time.

Oh, and if your little one (or you) has a hard time keeping the stuffing in the taco, try this trick we used when Z was first learning to eat tacos.

Do you serve breakfast tacos in your house? If so, what's your favorite ingredient for breakfast tacos? If not, what are you waiting for? Give them a try and let us know what you think!

One of our favorite, quickest, and easiest meals is the Vegetarian Sloppy Joe. We cheat and use Simply Organic sloppy joe mix instead of making the sloppy joe flavor from scratch, but remember, this is so we can have a quick, easy meal on a night we might otherwise just give in and go out to eat!

Here's the process:

1. Sort and rinse a pound bag of brown lentils. Put them in a pot with water, heat to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes or until mostly soft. (Make sure you check after 10 minutes or so to make sure that you don't run out of water in your pot.) Once the lentils are basically finished, strain the water from the lentils and return the lentils to the pot.


2. Pour the sloppy joe mix into 1/4 cup water and stir until well blended.


3. Add your seasoning liquid plus several tablespoonfuls of tomato paste to your lentils and let simmer for another 10 or 15 minutes or until most of the water is boiled out, stirring occasionally.


4. Serve on hamburger buns or regular bread. Add sliced cheddar cheese, slices of white onion or pickles as a condiment to the sandwiches. Serve with a few chips or a pickle on the side for a nice crunchy contrast.

This makes enough for 6 servings with plenty left over for freezing for even quicker (how is that possible!) meals.

Every so often we'll bring you a review of some of our favorite vegetarian cookbooks to help you with your meatless options. First up, we wanted to highlight Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison, a book that is like the Joy of Cooking for vegetarians. If you're struggling to find a simple vegetarian recipe for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, this cookbook is a standard for your shelf. We have a decent collection of cookbooks - some of them focus on specific cuisines, some of them are vegan, some for desserts (okay, okay, a bunch for desserts), and some are from specific vegetarian or vegan restaurants we've loved. This cookbook is probably one of the most used of them all. The recipes are simple to cook but tasty and the ingredients can be easily found even in our small town with its standard, non-foodie grocery stores. Since it's a basics cookbook, she covers sauces and condiments, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, soups and stews, casseroles, beans, veggies, pastas, pies, grains, eggs, soy, breakfast, breads, and desserts. Whew!

Here's a very simple recipe that is a hit with everyone in our family:

Lentils and Rice with Fried Onions (Mujadarrah)

Ingredients
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 very large onion, sliced into rounds 1/4 inch thick (we like the onions so much that we usually do 2 onions)
1 1/4 cups green or brown lentils, sorted and rinsed
salt and pepper
3/4 cup white or brown long-grain rice

Directions: Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until it's a rich, dark brown, about 12 minutes. Meanwhile, put the lentils in a saucepan with 1 quart water and 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Add the rice, plenty of pepper, and, if needed, additional water to cover. Cover and cook over low heat until the rice is done, about 15 minutes. Stir in half the onions, then cover and let stand off the heat for 5 minutes. Spoon the lentil-rice mixture onto plates or a platter and cover with the remaining onions.

Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone is a great kitchen resource featuring a wide variety of dishes and food categories. We highly recommend it!