Breakfast: I used to hate Brussels Sprouts

For breakfast this morning I figured we needed some more veggies. I cooked up a recent favorite: Brussels Sprouts and Soppressata.

It's even colorful!

And, since we had it, I cut up a luscious mango too.

This took me about 45 minutes without the little one bothering me (she woke up at the end!). Read further for details:



 The Brussels sprouts recipe is adapted from Brussels Sprouts for People Who Think They Hate Brussels Sprouts. Because frankly, I always did hate them, despite their many nutritional benefits. One day I modified this with what I had available and Sarah told me that's the only way she ever wants to have it from now on.

They say to use small, fresh sprouts, which is a good idea, and not to use frozen ones. In general, probably good advice, but when I tried the small frozen ones from Trader Joe's (all they had), they worked just as well. I figure they were small and fresh when frozen.

First step is to steam them up. Outright boiling them works OK too.

I pulled them out when I could stick a fork in easily. Pretty!

Next I cut up 3 slices of soppressata and fried it up in bacon grease.

While that was cooking, I cut all the sprouts in half and lightly seasoned them with salt, pepper, garlic, and a little paprika. Before the soppressata could get too done, I added these to the pan. I turned them and seasoned for a few more minutes until the sprouts had some nice sear marks on them and were pretty soft.

Now, let me be honest - I still don't love these. Others who have tasted them do. For me, this is just a way to make Brussels sprouts tolerable and get some good variety/nutrition. But I'm one of the pickiest people I know. At least I don't still hate them.

I also had a really pretty and huge mango that I got from Trader Joe's. Normally I don't buy fresh mangoes because they're so expensive and so unreliable. But this one looked and felt good, so I took a chance, and it turned out to be the best mango I can remember having.

There's a little YouTube video somewhere that describes a clever way to get the goods out in a pretty way without slipping and cutting yourself. Basically you cut the sides off, just outside the stone, and cut a grid in the flesh of the sides:

Then you can turn the skin outside out and scalp the goods out easily.

Of course, that does miss out on a lot of the mango. But you can just get at the rest with your teeth :)