Vary your first meal of the day

It’s easy to fall into a rut with breakfast. Oatmeal. Cereal. Toast. Eggs. In our house there’s a sort of unspoken every-other-day rhythm of a grain-based meal alternating with an egg based meal. On the grain-based days I typically eat yogurt and fruit instead.

When it gets boring, I like to try something a little different. This morning I recalled that French Toast that my mom made when I was a child. It was one of my favorite breakfasts. Store-bought white bread dredged in an egg and milk batter then cooked on a griddle in a little oil to crisp it up, topped with butter and syrup. It was sweetly good.

Today, I add more nutrition to my French Toast, as well as local products. Did you harvest walnuts this year? Toast pumpkin seeds? Freeze some of those fresh berries when they were in season? Maybe you even made a syrup that you preserved. We still have some strawberry syrup. Or perhaps you bought pure maple syrup, which is now available in Kentucky. Gather what you have to top your French Toast and you’ll come up with something that will give your day a good start.

Easy French Toast for Two

2 slices bread (I use homemade, honey wheat bread)

1 small egg

1/3 – ½ cup milk

½ tsp cinnamon

Salt and pepper

Small handful of each topping you want to toast (like pumpkin seeds and walnuts)

½ cup fruit (berries and pomegranate seeds are good choices)

Break egg into round cake pan or bowl with flat bottom that’s big enough for your piece of bread. Whisk in milk, cinnamon and a couple of sprinkles each of salt and pepper.

On a griddle or in a large skillet, melt butter or oil to coat the pan on medium high heat. When melted, turn down heat slightly. Quickly soak bread in egg mixture then place in pan. Cook 2-4 minutes then turn.

In same pan, drop seeds and nuts next to the bread and turn them frequently. Push them to the side when toasted. 

When second side of bread is finished, put one slice on each of two plates. Butter bread if you prefer. Sprinkle on toppings. Drizzle syrup and serve.

Note: One slice of bread is plenty for us because I cut relatively thick pieces of my filling wheat bread. You might vary your amounts depending on your bread choice.

What toppings do you like on French Toast or pancakes?

Fruit for breakfast

I love fruit, especially when I can get it outside of my door. We have a peach tree that we have to duck under when we walk from the carport to our kitchen door. It took root from a pit that Jim through on the ground several years ago. It grew so nicely that we didn’t dare to move it to a more convenient place. This is our third year to have peaches on it and although they’ve battled with the elements, they survived, holding the peaches in their green-leafed palms for us to pick as we go in and out of the house.

In the front of the house we have raspberry bushes, which benefited greatly from the big rains we had several weeks ago. I’ve been picking plump, ripe berries that never all make it into the house. It’s too easy to just pop them right into my mouth. The bushes are so unruly that if someone were to ask me why we let the weeds grow so tall in the front yard, it wouldn’t surprise me!

When time for breakfast arrives, I’m especially happy to have the peaches and raspberries. Besides mixing them with plain yogurt and a few nuts, I also cut them up to put on top of waffles or pancakes. It’s easy to make a simple syrup to serve with the fruit. Simply combine the fruit in a pan with equal parts water and sugar. Cook on medium to medium high until it begins to boil then turn it down to simmer until it thickens a bit. In the meantime, toast some pumpkin seeds or nuts to add crunch to the meal. We poured our syrup with peaches and raspberries over biscuits that Jim made. He declared it to be a delicious “Upside down cobbler.”

Don’t have fruit in your yard? No problem. Find your local orchard. It’s the season when, in many places, their fruit is abundant. Then you, too, can have fruit for breakfast.