It’s Sunday morning, and if you’re like me, you wake up thinking of a great breakfast.   Something with extra strong coffee with half and half and honey, hot green chile, runny eggs, maybe some beans and potatoes.

This is how we eat here, and not surprisingly, the simplicity of a Santa Fe breakfast, the recipe for which has been around hundreds of years, falls in line with Michael Pollan’s Food Rules. I’ve been rereading Pollan, thinking about how I’ve spent practically every day of my life thinking about what I put into my mouth (ask any woman – I’ll bet you 8 out of 10 have the same answer.  We’re taught from early adolescence to agonize over calories and fat content and whether the burger is a worse choice than the steak. . .) and it s a welcome relief to finally have someone say, “Eat!”

Pollan’s rules are simple. First of all, eat. Really eat. Just try to eat whole foods, fresh foods, avoid ingredients that the normal person wouldn’t keep in their pantry, and optimally choose foods grown close to home.  Don’t eat foods with ingredients a third grader couldn’t pronounce.  Food doesn’t have to be complicated.

He says, “It’s not food if it’s delivered through the window of your car.”  (I sorta beg to differ on this one – has he never been to El Parasol out on Cerrillos or had a fish taco from Bumble Bee?)   My favorite rule is “Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”  So my breakfast falls right in with his guidelines.

Yes, the Santa Fe breakfast is a perfect example of Pollan’s rules followed. I want eggs (picked up at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market), corn tortillas (made in Albuquerque, full of fiber), green chile sauce (love my Hatch green chiles, although I’m also a huge fan of the Wagner Farms green chile in Corrales) and pinto beans. Whole pinto beans made in the crock pot overnight on Thursday so that I’ll have a full pot for the weekend. Another easy dish. Maybe another post.

And in honor of the traditional breakfast, I’m going to give you the recipe for the simplest green chile sauce I know. You’ll need a couple of garlic cloves, just a few chopped onions, olive oil, flour or corn starch for thickening, and at least 1/2 cup of green chile.

I always recommend fresh green chile – if you’re lucky enough to live where you can get it. The Logan, New Mexico FFA chapter sells and roasts bags of chile each Labor Day weekend, and I had the foresight to buy three towsacks full last September. Or you can pick it up at the Farmer’s Market.

If you can’t get fresh, you can always order Bueno from www.weshipchile.com.  And please take time to go to their website and see their great recipes at www.bueno.com.

My Very Simple but Delicious Green Chile Sauce (serves two):

Chop two cloves garlic and 1/4 onion and then saute both in a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  After they’re thoroughly sauteed, throw in at least 1/2 cup chopped green chile (I always add more because I want leftover sauce).  Mix a tablespoon of flour or cornstarch with a cup of water  or chicken stock (thoroughly dissolving the dry into the liquid) and then pour this liquid into your green chile to thicken the sauce.  Mix thoroughly and let simmer for five to ten minutes.  I always add some black pepper and garlic salt (can you ever have too much garlic flavor?) to my mix, but you may want to wait until you get to the table for that.  Add water to your mixture if it’s too thick.

While your eggs are frying (in olive oil spray if you want to go totally healthy), dip a corn tortilla in your green chile sauce  and lay it on a plate.   Eggs go on the tortilla (scrambled is fine if you’re not a fan of the runny yolk), and then smother your eggs with the green chile sauce. Add pinto beans as a side dish. Head out to your table on the patio to welcome the day.

I’m all for eating healthy. I’m all for not thinking so hard about the food I eat. And I’m mostly for enjoying every bite. Luckily the food in Santa Fe and my native state of New Mexico allows me all those privileges!