Deconstructed Denver Omelet

A friend of mine half-joked the other day that I've just been phoning it in on my blog, and you know, he's right. I haven't been terribly active lately, and when I do cook something new, it's usually a very quick meal. I start each week with great intentions and a meal plan, but it sort of flies out the window within a few days.

There's a part of me that feels like I should apologize. And yet, I'm not really sorry. My time at home with the little man is rapidly dwindling. When I go back to work after the holidays, I want to look back on these past few months with longing, not regret.

That is why, even though I have a meal planned for each evening, I usually end up just phoning it in. The little man wakes up from his afternoon nap around 4 or so, and eats a leisurely supper. And then, well rested, well fed, and with clean pants, he is ready to par-tay, Jack-baby style. I then have to decide between A.) Putting him in his swing for an hour or so while I prepare supper, or B.) Scrapping my original meal plan and throwing something together at the last minute so Jack and I can play with the puppies. Or dance to Christmas tunes. Or see who can smile at the ceiling fan the longest. (I always lose.)

I always choose B. Which makes the little man pretty happy.

Can you blame me? This is the smile that will get him out of many hours of detention someday.

This meal was my standby supper last week, because we had oodles of ham. And eggs are my friend.

I've always been the type to eat breakfast for any meal of the day, but I've probably single-handedly upped the average number of eggs consumed per person this year. First off, my doctor suggested I eat a lot of eggs a few months before the hubby and I attempted our in-vitro. And I take doctors' orders very seriously. Also, while I didn't get terribly sick during my pregnancy, I also couldn't bear the thought of most foods. Eggs were the only food I could regularly eat, so I typically had them for two meals a day. Sometimes with bacon. And my cholesterol is stellar.

This skillet contains the typical components of a Denver omelet. However, I was hungry for eggs over-easy, which I like to mix all up with hash browns, so I just threw everything in together. That's how it all ends up eventually anyway, right? Right.

All quantities are to your liking.

1. Heat a skillet to medium-high and add a tablespoon or two of butter. Add the hash browns immediately (I used about a cup or so). Sprinkle the hash browns with pepper and Lawry's season salt.

Butter and season salt are a hash brown's best friends.

2. Cook the hash browns to desired doneness. I like mine with some crust, but still soft enough to mash together with my eggs. It took about 5 minutes.

3. In the same skillet, throw in some diced ham, onion, and green bell pepper. I used about a half-cup of ham, 1/4 a large onion, and half a large green pepper.

4. Cook until ham starts to brown, and veggies are crisp-tender -- about 2 or 3 minutes. Then mix everything together.

5. In a separate skillet, fry eggs (I made two) until cooked to desired doneness.

6. Top hash brown mixture with some cheese, and then eggs.

7. Wash your six dishes and go spend time with your family.