6 posts tagged “breakfast”
I've been thinking that I should go on some sort of less-food-eating plan since lately I've noticed my pants have grown a bit tighter. I think it's due to summer malaise. I go to the gym but I lounge and snack the rest of the time, and I either have to go to the gym more or I have to eat less. Or buy bigger pants?
However, I ate the most delicious breakfast this morning and it is hard knowing that I can only have it on a very rare occasion. Breakfast samosas at Whole Foods! Imagine flaky buttery slightly spicy samosa pastry filled with spiced potatoes, eggs, onions and peppers. The pillowy, fried deliciousness cannot be overstated. Mmmm breakfast!
This week I've been particularly lazy about breakfast eating, buying yogurt at the nearby convenience store and paying way more than you should pay for a cup of Yoplait. I've been trying to save money and thus have been cutting back on the amount of fresh fruit eating I normally consume, even though the raspberries have been calling my name when I step into the grocery store (raspberries are very seductive fruits). Today I decided to try something new - Del Monte Fruit Naturals Red Grapefruit cups (see picture). I really like fresh grapefruit. If you do the work and cut the sections out of the halved grapefruits, and chill them in the fridge, it's like the most amazing breakfast you can imagine. Cold, sweet, juicy, tart, mmm. My dad used to do that for me when I was little and whenever I eat it that way, it always reminds me of him.
The Del Monte Fruit Naturals cup is not a long way off that feeling. The grapefruit sections are floating in "extra light syrup" and the ingredients consist of grapefruit, water, high-fructose corn syrup, and preservatives, primarily. The most disappointing part is how sweet these are. They are reminiscent of real fresh grapefruit but have been sanitized for non-grapefruit lovers with all that damn corn syrup. The cup was more filling than I expected, but the fruit pieces alarmingly sweet. I could not even conceive of drinking the leftover juice the way I would have if this had been real, fresh, non-corn-syruped juice. All in all, it wasn't a bad breakfast - just 60 calories for the cup, and the pieces were big and retained the appropriate texture and look. Still, it made me pine for the real thing.
The longer I'm a member of "the workforce," that strange entity that rises for work at 6:30 and heads back home at 5 pm, the more I love breakfast. I need the fuel to make it through the day. I actually wake up later and eat breakfast at my desk, at work, instead of sleeping in. If you have the luxury of doing this, I'd recommend it. I get an extra half-hour of sleep, and I like multi-tasking, so eating + working makes time go faster. It's good to have things prepared in advance, but I tend to feel that a lot of food doesn't sit great overnight and food always tastes better the fresher it is. So, with that in mind, I present a couple quick breakfasts that have become old standbys for me.
First of all, you should invest in the cheap bowl-sized containers with the blue lids. They certainly don't last forever, but if you accidentally leave one in the fridge at work for weeks, and it ends up being tossed on Fridge Cleanout day, it's really no big deal. They usually come in packs of four. I like the Glad brand. The smaller bowl size, around 1.5-1.75 cups, is what you're looking for.
Fruit and Yogurt Breakfast (ingredients for approx. 1 weeks worth of breakfasts)
You're going to need
A container of plain or vanilla yogurt, European style (with no thickeners, i.e. no pectin, seaweed, or particularly - gelatin - blech - but it is going to be a little runny, so be prepared)
Fresh fruit - I like fresh pineapple, fresh strawberries, fresh grapes, fresh blueberries, peeled, sectioned oranges, or mangos - I try to choose fruits that are going to last longer than a couple days
Containers
Honey
Granola (optional)
If you're using a whole, fresh pineapple, begin the night before your breakfast. To do this, get a big knife (I recommend serrated), and a board, and cut the top off your pineapple. Lay it on this flat area you've created. Take your knife and cut off the outer part of your pineapple, going deep enough that you don't get too many of those brown pitted areas. Remove any remaining pieces of peel with your knife and cut into bite size pieces. Distribute this between five containers (fill 1/3-1/2 of the container), or just put 1 serving into one container and the rest into another bowl and cover for the rest of the week.
If you're using strawberries grapes, and/or blueberries these can be rinsed ahead of time, but make sure that you dry them thoroughly, and store in bowls or colanders in your fridge. Don't slice your strawberries ahead of time, because they will start to lose their juices, but you can pull the leaves off the top.They will last you 2-4 days this way, grapes can last even longer.
That morning: grab your bowl of pineapple, add a handful of your other fruits (hull strawberries and slice into bowl with paring knife), pour yogurt over the mixture and drizzle about a teaspoon to a tablespoon of honey on top of that. You can add your granola but it will get soggy! So I recommend using one of those very small containers or a ziploc bag of them and add it when you eat.
Prep time: the night before, 1/2 hour; that morning, 5-10 minutes.
Ham and Swiss Pockets
I love these. They are savory and comforting, but not particularly healthy. They also feel a little bit lazy, because you use those cardboard tubes of pre-made crescent roll dough. But, delicious. Plus, they can be made ahead of time.
You're going to need:
(makes 4-6 servings, depending on how you prepare it)
1/3 lb. Deli ham (I like black forest, personally), cut into 2 in. x 1/2 in. strips
1/4 lb. Swiss cheese
1 tube of crescent dough (in your fridge section, usually near the butter)
For individual pockets:
Open your dough (that popping sound when it opens is so satisfying) and spread out your dough. It should be pre-cut into triangles. Mush the diagonal ends of two triangles together to form one rectangle of dough (they should already be more-or-less sectioned off into these rectangles, you're only making it harder for them to come apart). Use a knife and cut your rectangle into two squares. Fill your square with a little ham and some cheese, cover with the top of your square, and press the dough down on all sides, rolling it up a little as you go. Repeat on your other four pieces of dough. Bake for 12-17 minutes, until golden brown.
Tip: if you want it to look all shiny when it comes out, beat an egg and brush it on top of your pasties before you bake them. Serves 4.
For one large round that you can cut into 6 servings:
Pull apart all the triangles of dough, reserve one triangle, and arrange the remainder into a many-sided pinwheel, making sure that the short end meets the long end all the way around. I made that picture in MS Paint; yes, I am a professional. Make sure to press all the sides of the dough that meet together so there is no danger of it breaking. I also recommend putting this together on the baking sheet you are going to use. You don't have to butter it, but you can give it a spray of oil if you are afraid of stickage (which always happens if you prepare on the pan, since you're pressing down and such). Put your sliced ham and cheese into the middle circle that you've created and pull the "petals" over it, gently tugging and stretching them to come more or less together. Use your extra triangle to fill any huge gaps, and make sure to roll the sides up so that no cheese will escape in baking. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the whole thing is brown; let cool on a wire rack and cut into six slices. If it's winter and the weather is fairly cool, these can remain at room temperature for a day or two but after that, you should probably put them in the fridge. You can also individually wrap them in saran wrap if you feel like being extra-prepared. Heat the next morning in a toaster oven, but I also just like them cold.
Casey loves these pockets, and he's tried them with lots of different fillings. I personally like a more Southwestern version with chicken breast, cooked and cut into small chunks, green chiles (they come in a can), and shredded Mexican cheese blend.
I just ate some veggie lasagna and it's not even 10 in the morning yet. However, I took a small piece because all my coworkers were like, "yuck, lasagna in the morning," and I wanted some, so I just took a little. And now I want more, and feel like it would be weird to go back. But it was delicious, and maybe worth it.
UPDATE: I did it. It was worth it.
UPDATE: I also ate some at 11:49. I am calling it a snack, though it will probably end up being my lunch.
If you note the little time button that says when this was typed, I want to say that I should be sleeping. I did not suffer much from jet lag when I arrived in Japan. I was too tired from my flight and then we got food and I stayed up later and went to bed at midnight and was fine from then on. It was lovely.
Last night I went to bed at 11 pm and woke up at 3:30. I have yet to fall back asleep, and it's too late anyway. Night before (night I arrived) I couldn't get to sleep until 4 am! And I was up for the entire 24 hours before that! And I woke up at 5 pm. FIVE IN THE AFTERNOON ON MONDAY.
So, newsflash, jetlag sucks. Today is going to be endlessly horrendously exhaustingly uncomfortable. I'm going to be so tired and also wish I was not there.
1 hour before I leave for work. At least I'll get partly caught up on my blogging.
At times like these, you've really got to be appreciative of the little things. Breakfast time.
If you, like me, enjoy breakfast but don't have time to cook, yet work near a fairly well-stocked mini-mart, you may or may not be interested in Amy's Breakfast Burrito, which I love, and buy often. It is cheap, easy, and not as unhealthy as other breakfast burritos or products (see Extreme Sausage Sandwich; the McGriddle; anything involving bacon, sausage, eggs, and syrup), and it's delicious.
What is this mysterious breakfast, you ask? Well, it's potatoes, tofu, organic black beans, organic tomatoes, and some other junk in a whole wheat tortilla that equals 7 g. of fat, .5 g. of sat. fat, 250 calories, and 23% (!!) of your daily sodium intake. So um, just eat one. And enjoy.
