nutritious junk

I’ve realized that mornings are a sacred time. I used to wake up at twelve when I did night classes in culinary school because I’d only get home around 1 am.  Now that I do to bed and rise in decent times, I’ve really come to appreciate and relish breakfast.  Lunches are cool, dinners are a great time to schedule celebrations and date opportunities, but breakfast is that time where you can be with others, or have to your self.  I think they are under-rated, there should be more celebratory events around breakfast, and I think it’s a wonderful date idea! If your blind date sucks, you have a good excuse to leave (I have to go to work, yoga class, etc). If your date turns out to be awesome, the breakfast becomes brunch.  So here are some ideas for breakfasts I’ve been totally digging lately when I’m home and can’t make it to the local breakfast joint.

-Greek Yogurt or Cottage Cheese Bowl: I love these two dairy products! Besides being rich in protein and calcium, they really energize you and are a great canvas for breakfast or even snack times! Before I get into my mix-in options, let’s talk about the dairy product itself. I know we all want to be healthy but I hate sacrificing taste. I don’t think its completely necessary to buy the full-fat versions, but at least the 2%.  It’s a little fat that will make a big difference flavor-wise.  You really don’t want this watery white gunk for breakfast do you? Trust me, fat is flavor and in moderation, perfectly healthy.

Now for the mix-ins: I like berries of all sorts. When they aren’t in season, I use frozen and sometime freeze dried ones that also add a cool crunch factor. Speaking of crunch, I always think to have a tasty balanced bowl you need: A) a sweetener (this could be the berry juice, but honey or agave syrup work too), B) a crunch factor like toasted almonds, walnuts, sunflower seeds, soy nuts, grape nuts, or really any cereal or granola, and C) a fruit of some sort, because fruit is delicious, healthy and why not!

-Eggs Benedict, revamped: I love eggs Benedict and there are cool ways you can change this infamous breakfast staple. You can change up your bread component and use a bottom of a bagel, bialy, or cut out from your favorite artisan loaf.  As far as the Canadian bacon part, I like substituting smoked salmon, honey roasted turkey, or black forest ham. For the vegetarians out there, Morningstar makes excellent breakfast “sausages” that is good under your poached egg. And here’ a tip if you’re ordering this at a breakfast joint: ask for the English muffin on the side because when they plop on the egg and bacon on it, the muffin gets soggy. And as traditional as hollandaise is, I personally can’t stand it, and its ok to forgo this (most places don’t make it right anyhow).