A significant change recently occurred in the SBH residents’ pay and benefit structures as a result of negotiations between the resident union representatives and the hospital administration. Ratification of the new contract has resulted in three salary raises of approximately 2% per year over the next three years and a conversion of the current SBH meal card into a salary stipend.

Now that the residents have received a roughly equivalent cash allowance instead of a meal card, they have the option to pay cash for cafeteria food or start bringing their own meals.

Wanting healthier breakfast options, the residents from the OMM Department decided to initiate a breakfast club. Residents take turns bringing in a home-cooked breakfast for the team. The first breakfast club took place on Friday, September 1, 2017, and consisted of an Instagram-inspired fruit platter, a frittata of tomato, kale and seasonal kabocha (Japanese pumpkin), and abundant greens!

To help others with the meal-card-to-cash transition, we will be posting pictures and recipes from our departmental breakfast club. Here’s the first, from our own Holly Laird, DO.

 

Holly’s Frittata

Inspiration: Abandoning the hospital meal-card option has inspired me to rethink the way I approach food, by focusing my diet more on seasonal vegetables, quality proteins, and eliminating processed foods and added sugar almost entirely. I scored a number of these ingredients from my local farmer’s market recently, and made a frittata high in nutrients for about the same cost as a store-bought breakfast sandwich! I adapted a frittata recipe found in the book “The Whole 30: The 30-Day Guide to Total Health and Food Freedom” by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig. Substitutions for the various ingredients can be made with whatever you find in season.

Ingredients:

Two tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
Two tomatoes, one diced, and one sliced on a transverse axis (using anatomical orientation)
Chopped kale leaves, enough to make ~2 cups after steaming 1-2 minutes
1 cup kabocha, roasted and diced
8 eggs
1/4 of a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. The kabocha should be roasted ahead of time, by removing the seeds and cutting it into slices about 4″x6″ in size and placing them skin-side-down on a baking sheet. Drizzle each piece generously with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper, then baking at 425 deg F for about an hour or until soft when pierced with a fork. For the frittata, remove the skin and dice enough to make 1 cup. The rest can be enjoyed as a delicious side dish to any meal, or in other seasonal recipes.

2. Kale can be steamed ahead of time, by bringing a medium pot of water to a boil, adding the chopped leaves (about 4-6 cups when dry), and simmering for 2 minutes before straining. This should make approximately 2 cups of cooked kale.

3. Preheat the oven to 500 deg F when you’re ready to make the frittata.

4. Whisk the eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper and set aside.

5. Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-safe pan over medium heat. The one pictured here is 12″ in diameter. Add the diced onion first and stir, then add the diced tomato after about a minute. Save the sliced tomato aside for later.

6. Add the kale and the kabocha to the pan and stir, spreading the ingredients around the pan evenly.

7. With the pan still over the burner, carefully pour the whisked eggs between and around the vegetables. You don’t want to stir at all or disturb the ingredients too much because this allows the egg to sink below and fill in the spaces. Cook over the burner for about 5 minutes, when you can see the egg at the edges of pan starting to firm and the middle portion still liquid.

8. Add the tomato slices to the top decoratively, and squeeze the lemon to drizzle the juice over the top as well.

9. Place in the oven on the top rack, and cook for about 6-7 minutes or until the tomato slices are starting to crisp and brown.

10. Serve with your favorite condiments. I personally love habanero hot sauce!