Migas My Way

Onions, peppers & tortilla browning

This morning I had my version of migas for breakfast. Migas is the word for crumbs in Spanish according to Wikipedia and probably refers to the use of crumbled or chopped tortillas. I think I first discovered the recipe in a Mennonite Cookbook called “Extending the Table”. This is a collection of recipes compiled by the Mennonite Central Committee and features very homey typical national dishes from around the world. Many of the recipes were submitted by their Mennonite members serving as missionaries.

My version of migas was pretty humble but tasty. I used corn tortillas, snipped up with my kitchen scissors, crisped in a little butter with onions and peppers. I added my scrambled egg mixture and used up some leftover fresh mozzarella and basil. It was great. The Pioneer Woman has a version of migas that looks delish and beautiful and has a pretty entertaining description too. My only claim to fame is that I knew about the recipe long before she did.

Finished breakfast- Migas

My daughter introduced me to Ree, of The Pioneer Woman fame. Since we haven't had a television in about twelve years there are a lot of things I don't know about. And since I am still not too sure how to use Pinterest there are a whole lot of interesting things that I am way behind the curve on. So I guess Ree gets the splash for migas and I just get a blog entry. Anyway, she is fun and the dishes all look tremendous.

The base of corn tortilla and eggs couldn't be simpler. But it is one of those synergistic things, the combo of those two, outshines the separate ingredients. For a simple breakfast, you can't beat it. When my Mom was ill, I fixed this for her breakfast many, many times. Her staple foods were migas, butterscotch or banana pudding cups, and Ensure. I fixed it so often that, although I really like migas, it was a long time before I could enjoy it.

I like dishes like this where I can use up the odds and ends of vegetables and other foods. In the winter I make a clean out the refrigerator soup that varies with the leftover assortment. I guess we could call it the casserole philosophy. Cook your noodles and add whatever, top and heat. That is where the profit- margin and savings is located, in those plastic containers of leftovers.