Hash Brown & Veggie Breakfast Bowl

May 19, 2026

Hash Brown & Veggie Breakfast Bowl

This breakfast bowl looks amazing, doesn't it? I got the recipe from the Blue Zones newsletter, and I choose it because it has beans and spinach all sauteed with corn and spices, but then cleverly topped with crispy hash browns and avocado! I like to make Keshav beans because they are so good for you, but sometimes I have to disguise the fact that I am serving him beans. 

He said he liked this, but he only had the appetite to eat about half of it, and I noticed he didn't touch any of the avocado--I think it was too ripe for him. Guess who finished the rest. No complaints there. 

I find it fun and easy to make great crispy hash browns, and it puzzles me why you can almost never get them crispy in a restaurant. When I make them, I use both olive oil and butter in the pan, and then I heat the pan on high so the potatoes sear before they become soggy. I have often imagined how great I would be as a fry cook slinging hash browns in a breakfast diner. 

Probably better left as a fantasy then a reality. 

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Last night, Keshav had a hard conversation with his two best friends. Initially he wanted me to be in the conversation in the role of "mediator", but he changed his mind because he felt that I was angrier than he was. This is probably true. My anger comes from how many times he has cried in my arms with sadness and disappointment at feeling unimportant to these friends due to their lack of responsiveness. 

What I don't get is why it is so difficult for anyone to send a quick text response to someone, especially since most people are using their phones all day long. If your best friend asks you when you are free to get together, at the very least one should respond, "I'll let you know soon!" But it appears that young people find socializing stressful these days, with many expressing relief when plans get cancelled. 

Is this where we are today?

*

I am not immune to stress--nobody is. I am also aware that many of us choose to relieve stress by doing things that only increase it over time. When stressed, we will always pick the short-term solution over the long-term change. Unless we don't.

I find that the best place to relieve my stress is in the kitchen of our apartment. I spent nearly the whole day there yesterday, beginning in the morning, preparing not only my food for the week, but also lunch food for Keshav and, ultimately, our dinner. 

It was an exhausting day of chopping, dicing, cooking, mashing, and boiling, but I loved every second of it. I think it relieves my stress because food prep is so visceral--you can see real-time results of your labors right away in an environment that I have a lot of control over. I can relax.

I told Keshav that when we move, what I will miss most is our kitchen, simply because of the size of it. It is likely that any apartment we choose in Oakland will have a smaller kitchen by at least a third, and that is a lot of counter and cabinet space lost. I think this is why I am hoping we find a small house to rent, because houses, especially older ones, usually have larger kitchens. 

Last night for dinner we enjoyed the fruit of my labor by eating a comfort dish of Spicy Baked Pasta With Cheddar and Broccoli Rabe. I had never made it before, but the promise it showed on the page translated to the plate. It was delicious: crispy cheesy topping and a slightly spicy sauteed vegetable and pasta base. I love being surprised with my own success in the kitchen. Keshav said he was proud of me for working so hard to feed us.

*

I was very proud of my husband for having a hard conversation with his friends, as it took guts and compassion to do so. The easy way would have been to just ghost them or to "fire" them, as they call it today. But he was torn because they have years of history, so he asked to meet with them. For my part, I simply encouraged him to take whatever action would allow him to live with himself,  to come from love, and to allow himself to utilize both compassion and boundaries. 

He told me it was a difficult talk, with the wife having to excuse herself to cry in the restroom a couple of times. Had I been there, I might have told her to grow up, if I am being honest, because even with compassion, I see her crying as a way out of difficult conversations that she is partially responsible for causing. 

I could understand if there were something out of their control that was getting in the way of them being available, but that is not the case. They are "stressed" for reasons of their own choosing, and while that is still stress, it is like complaining that you are wet when you have chosen to jump in the pool. What did you expect? She could have just said, "We have clearly fucked this up and hurt you. We will do better."

At the very least these friends should have communicated that they were feeling overwhelmed and it was negatively affecting their ability to mindfully respond, but instead they just didn't respond to his texts. 

Keshav told me, after he came home, that the talk went well, but he has concerns for the stress they are experiencing. I truly hope they attend to it for their own benefit, and for the benefit of their friendships. In the meantime, I was grateful that my husband left me out of it and managed a challenging situation so well on his own. He continues to inspire me in large and small ways, so much so that I don't even mind that he didn't eat all his beans today.