Do you eat vegetables for breakfast? When I once suggested including mushrooms and tomatoes for weekend breakfasts as a way to boost vegetable intake, a nutrition scientist told me that cooking vegetables for breakfast was an unrealistic idea - people just wouldn't do it, she said. But not everyone agrees - trying to fit all your daily five serves of veg in at dinner time doesn't work either, Professor Caryl Anne Nowson. Professor of Nutriton and Ageing at Deakin University told me recently - we need to think about spreading vegetables across the rest of the day too.

No one's suggesting cooking veg in the early morning rush of weekdays, but on weekends when there's more time, tomatoes and/or mushrooms stewed in a little olive oil served on sourdough sounds pretty realistic to me, as does a poached egg on some wilted spinach, or wilted spinach mixed with ricotta and garlic on toast. Last week, when capsicums were cheap, I remembered an egg and vegetable dish I'd once eaten in Spain which I think makes a good breakfast too. It goes something like this.

You saute some tomatoes, capsicum, zuchini and garlic on the stove, and when they're they're soft and mushy, pour them into a shallow ovenproof dish. If you're serving four people, make four wells in the veggie mixture and crack a free range egg into each one. Bake in a moderate oven until the eggs are poached (15-20 mins) and serve with some cracked pepper on top, and good bread on the side.

I'm still trying to figure out why some vegetables seem to make better breakfast food than others - somehow broccoli and carrots at 8am lack the same appeal as mushrooms, tomatoes, leftover potatoes fried in olive oil - or even sweetcorn. Maybe this is a cultural thing and the cuisines of other countries have good ways of including other vegetables - I have a feeling that congee, the rice porridge that's common at breakfast in Asia sometimes comes with vegetables.

If you've got time to stuff a mushroom this weekend, try this easy dish that I've added to my repertoire of veggie breakfasts. It has a lots of flavour, makes a big breakfast if you if you serve the stuffed mushrooms with eggs and whole grain toast - and makes bacon redundant.

Stuffed breakfast mushrooms

You need 2 big (saucer-sized) mushrooms per person. Remove the stems, spray the mushroom cups with oil and bake in a moderate oven for a few minutes while you're mixing the stuffing.For four large mushrooms, you need 8 tblspns cottage cheese (or try ricotta), 2 garlic cloves, crushed, 6 tblspns pine nuts, 4-5 tablspns fresh breadcrumbs, freshly ground black pepper and a little salt if you want. Saute the chopped mushroom stems in olive oil with the garlic and pine nuts until the mushrooms are soft - a couple of minutes. add the mushroom mixture to the cottage cheese, breadcrumbs and basil, add pepper and salt. Pack into the mushroom cups and bake in a moderate oven until hot - 15-20 minutes.

If you use vegetables for weekend breakfasts, tell us what you cook.

你是否会把蔬菜当作早饭呢？ 我过去经常在周末的时候以蘑菇和西红柿作为早餐，以提高蔬菜类食物的吸入量。然而，一个营养师却对我说，以蔬菜作为早餐是不现实的，人们根本不愿意这么做。 但纳森教授却不同意这一看法，她认为，在晚餐的时候吸入必须的5种蔬菜也是不可行的。 迪肯大学的营养学教授最近告诉我说，我们需要在正餐以外的时间吃蔬菜。

如果你也吃蔬菜做早餐，那告诉我们你煮的是什么吧！

在繁忙的工作日里，没有人会在大清早弄蔬菜早餐，但在清闲的周末里，用橄榄油煮西红柿和蘑菇，再配上酵母，这对我来说是完美而现实的，当然，我还可以把鸡蛋混着菠菜煮，又或者在土司上放些伴有干酪和大蒜的菠菜。 上周的辣椒非常便宜，这让我想起曾经在西班牙吃的一道鸡蛋拌蔬菜，我觉得这也可以作为一顿丰盛的早餐。 这道菜是这样做的：

先把西红柿、辣椒、赤泥和大蒜炒成浆糊状，然后就可以将其倒入一个浅碟子里。 如果你要弄4个人的份量，那就准备4份蔬菜，然后给每个人一个炒蛋。 把这些材料放到烤炉里烤，直到鸡蛋被煮熟为止，然后再在上面撒点胡椒，放一个面包在旁边。

我想指出为什么以蔬菜作为早餐比其他的食物要好——不知是什么缘故，野菜、胡萝卜的吸引力总是比不上蘑菇、西红柿、薯条，甚至甜玉米。 也许是文化原因，或者是其他国家对蔬菜有更好的烹调方法，我觉得亚洲人通常会在早餐上以麦片粥配上蔬菜。

如果你这个周末有时间去烹调一顿蘑菇宴，那可以试试这道简单的菜，它凝聚了我做蔬菜早餐的全部心血了！ 它有多种口味，如果你在蘑菇的基础上再加些鸡蛋和土司、咸肉，那它可真是一顿丰盛的早餐了。

全菇早餐

给每个人准备两个大蘑菇。 把蘑菇茎摘掉，在蘑菇表面洒上橄榄油，然后用微热烤几分钟。配料方面，4个蘑菇就需要8小勺奶酪（或者干酪），2份大蒜丁香，6个松果，4—5块新鲜面包，新鲜胡椒，如果你喜欢的话，还可以加点盐。 加点橄榄油，把蘑菇茎、大蒜、松果一起炒，然后把它们放到烤好的蘑菇上，再加点薄荷、胡椒和盐。 把材料都放进蘑菇帽以后，再用微热烤15—20分钟。