Garlicky collard greens and fried eggs

Open box of vegetables; find Gigantic Green Leaves, and go "what are these things?" Read tag on bottom that says "collard greens." Go "What are those things?" Decide to exercise your primary cooking principles of Everything Tastes Good When You Put It In A Wok.

So. Cover the bottom of a wok with olive oil (maybe 1/4 cup) and put it on medium high with a good amount of minced garlic (half a head) and some sea salt. Wash and roughly chop a bunch of collard greens, then cover and let it steam up for 5 minutes or so. Uncover, mix everything up again, and let the liquid evaporate.

Dump the collard greens out of the wok onto a plate and quickly fry an egg or two in the wok, then deposit eggs atop the collard greens. Eat. This serves two (one Mel, one Ian Daniher). Cooking the greens this way brings out the citrus notes in the collard greens somehow, even if there's no citrus, so I think sprinkling lemon or lime juice over would make it even better.

Milkless But Definitely Not Vegan Cream Of Broccoli Soup

Another morning, another kitchen episode. Think: "Man, I want soup. I have broccoli. I like broccoli and cheese soup. However, we have no dairy products other than part of a can of pre-shaved parmesan." Shrug and decide to try it anyway.

Saute a clove or two of chopped garlic and olive oil in a wok while you chop a head of broccoli into stir-fry-size pieces. Dump broccoli into wok and continue to saute on medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes until the vegetables are heated through. Pour a cup of white wine into the wok, let it start to bubble, then turn the heat to high, cover the wok, and go off and make yourself a peach smoothie, washing out the blender afterwards (about 5 minutes).

Uncover the wok, stir things around a little, and let the wine evaporate (turn the heat to medium if you're getting panicky about the time) while you peel a small onion and chuck it, raw, into the blender - it'll give the soup some kick without the trouble of having to find a nice spice blend to go with it. Going further along the "don't bother with a spice mix" decision, toss a bouillon cube in (honestly, after tasting the soup, I'd say the last bit was optional and salt and pepper would have been just fine.) Note that I have an uberblender. If you do not have an uberblender, you may want to chop the onion and saute it a little in olive oil first. In fact, I probably should have; the resulting soup was just a little too sharp.

Dump the wine-steamed broccoli and garlic into the blender atop the onion. Empty whatever shaved parmesan you have in your fridge (maybe 1/2 cup for me) into the blender. Pour a glass of water over all of it and blend for a couple minutes while you clean up everything else and eat some applesauce and/or drink your peach smoothie. The soup will be green, creamy, cheesy, and a little spicy due to the raw onion.

As a side benefit, you have consumed your Vegetable Quota for the day and can now go off and eat half a leftover chocolate cake without too much guilt. (Not that I, er, did this. There wasn't half a cake left. I mean, woo nutrition!)

Peach smoothie

Look in the fridge. Realize that you have an incredibly overripe peach. Say "Oh man, peach smoothie!" Cut out the parts that are a little too ripe. Put it in a blender with soy milk, blend, and drink.

Cleanup for the latter two recipes

Wash a wok and a blender. (What? Look, I eat out of plates and bowls and things when I'm not the only one in the house, okay? I'm saving water here.)