One More Thing we do with Homegrown Tomatoes

Usually on weekdays, the morning starts at 5:30 with milking the cows & goats along with other chores, then I shower, shave and I'm out the door at 6:30.  Since it is a whirlwind of activity, I really don't have the time to sit down and enjoy the most important meal of the day.  I end up drinking it in my car on my commute and it consists of a Goat Kefir Smoothie with figs, blueberries, peaches, strawberries or whatever fresh fruit we've harvested and frozen and have on hand.  Tricia will add some local honey and some cinnamon. Delicious!

On the weekends, though, we like to eat a good breakfast with some homemade biscuits and scrambled eggs.  Tricia is of Hispanic descent and she introduced me to something that I'll just call "Mexican scrambled eggs."  They're sort of like Huevos Rancheros, but not quite.  They are basically scrambled eggs with a bunch of other items cooked with the scrambled eggs - the main ingredient being homegrown tomatoes.

Since we don't always have homegrown tomatoes, we thought we would make and freeze some Mexican Scrambled Eggs "Flavor Packets" that we could simply thaw out and squeeze into the scrambled eggs in the skillet.  The term flavor packets might evoke thoughts of artificial ingredients, flavors or colors.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Lets make some with a batch of tomatoes.

First I add some butter to a pot and I throw a tiny bit of cut up celery and green onion and let that saute for a while.

Butter, celery, green onion

While the pot is warming I cut up all of our fresh ingredients including (from left to right): some red and yellow tomatoes that were getting on the over-ripe side, some cilantro, some onion, and some jalapeno peppers.

A colorful palette of flavor

Then I simply scrape this colorful medley into the pot and saute it.

Into the pot...

I stir occasionally and let everything 'get happy.'  It will make a good amount of liquid and I allow that to cook off until it has a somewhat thick consistency.

Stirrin' the pot

Once it gets to the right point, I turn off the heat and remove it from the stove and allow it to fully cool.  Then I use the snack size zip loc bags and spoon in enough to fill them.  The snack size bags are the perfect size "flavor packet" to liven up 8 - 12 scrambled eggs in a cast iron skillet yielding Tricia's family famous Mexican Scramble Eggs.   

Behold the Flavor Packets

We lay these flat in the freezer alongside the ones that we made up previously. On Friday nights we can simply let one thaw overnight and on Saturday morning when Tricia makes Mexican Scrambled eggs, all of the "heavy lifting" will already be done and she can simply add the contents of the bag to the scrambled eggs in the skillet and cook them together.