One splendid idea: whole fat Greek yogurt with toasted nuts and, for sweetness and additional acidity, sour cherries (we fell in love with these in Greece; happily, in Providence, where we reside part time, there is Yoleni’s a store selling great Greek products, yogurt as good as what we had in Athens, and I hear is a swell place for a quick lunch in downtown PVD).
As I’ve long opined, the traditional American breakfast foods, composed primarily of refined wheat and sugar, make for the most dangerous meal of the day, causing blood sugar levels to spike, release insulin, making one sluggish and tired and hungry in 90 minutes. My dear pal, Blake Bailey, a cereal lover (though I applaud is typical poached egg on toast ; the world patiently awaits your Philip Roth bio!), and others asked, then what do you propose, and what’s fast to prepare as I’m rushing to get out the door in the morning.
I’d welcome comments on variations on the yogurt-based breakfast that avoid refined wheat. I too love a poached egg on toast. To avoid the wheat, I sometimes put a poached egg in a half avocado (The Beloved gets the other half).
Or sometimes a boiled egg with soft yolk—6 minute boil for runny. But read this piece by Kenji Lopez-Alt, the NYTimes new food columnists who conducted the most exhaustive double-blind study on hard-cooking eggs our species has known. Fascinating!
My takeaways: MUST try his steaming method (but Kenji, you don’t address that half the time cold eggs going into boiling water crack!); his commentary on creating tender rather than rubbery whites (hear, hear); his command—command!‚never to put eggs in an egg bath (sacré bleu! I don’t know if I’m on board with this yet); and most important of all, that the taste of fresh eggs from neighbors and friends or your local farmer, some only hours old, tasted no better than commercial Costco eggs. Thanks, Kenji, and The Times did right by hiring you.
As far as no-wheat breakfasts go, I’d love to know what other faves are. The lentils of India and kitcheree? Things like that? I’ve become accustomed to avoiding refined wheat as much as possible, and when I do it’s combined with protein and fat to slow the sugar’s absorption (eg a poached egg on toast).
The main reason to eat yogurt with nuts and cherries for breakfast, though, is because it’s delicious, nourishing, and keeps one sated all morning.
Oh, and BTW, this is my new site design (home page here; all critiques suggestions welcome, as next month I launch a new book and podcast on cooking, both called FROM SCRATCH: 10 Meals, 175 Recipes and Techniques You'll Use Over and Over. AND my own podcast about cooking.)
(PS: this site uses WordPress.n Anyone know how I get rid of that double photo?!)
I love our Greek yogurt so much! If anyone knows where to find the quince that serve along with the sour cherries, I’d love to know.
Michael, to your question about the double photo in WordPress, it's possible that whoever built your WordPress theme set p your page template to inset the "featured photo" into your content area. So check to see if you are specifying a featured photo for this page as well as inserting one into your content.
thanks, just got fixed
My go-to (every single day) is Coach's oats made with a mix of chia/hemp/flax seeds, dried cranberries and roasted pistachios.
I never have liked sweet things for breakfast. As a kid, I got leftovers or a peanut butter sandwich (no jelly) Now, if I do eat breakfast, it’s much the same. I like savory things in my Greek yogurt - nuts or vegetables.
I was Keto before it was cool. 😉
My daily work breakfast is homemade plain Greek yogurt (from the InstantPot) with cottage cheese and blueberries.
I loved the traditional Turkish breakfast we had - admittedly there was a piece of bread, but it was primarily an egg (fried or boiled), sliced cucumbers and tomatoes, a piece of cheese and a few olives.
Always on the hunt for energy sustaining breakfasts, thanks! Here is one we've been enjoying:
Overnight Oats! Ingredients: 1/2 cup rolled oats, fresh or frozen fruit, fresh ginger, turmeric (ideally fresh), nuts / seeds (sunflower seeds, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, any will do), cacao powder, whole milk, cinnamon, black peppercorn, maple syrup.
Add 1/2 cup oats to a mason jar. Toss in small handful of fruit (blueberries are my favorite). Add a few pinches of your favorite nuts / seeds. Finely mince ginger and turmeric, add about a tablespoon each (if using powdered turmeric, a few shakes will do). Add a few shakes of cinnamon and about half a tablespoon of cacao. Fill mason jar with milk until all ingredients are just covered. Add small dab of maple for sweetness.
Screw top on mason jar and leave overnight (or at least a few hours) in fridge to soften and meld ingredients. This is a great breakfast to go. A nice balance of fiber and protein.
**You can sub chia seeds for the oats to make this guaranteed gluten free. You can also sub any plant-based milk to make it vegan friendly.
I haven't eaten cereal in years and years, sweetened or otherwise. I rotate between seasonal fruit/yogurt topped with nuts/muesli that doesn't contain wheat; eggs in a myriad of ways from casserole bakes that I can portion and then grab and go to scrambles with lots of veg to poached in shakshuka depending on the season; to a fruit/yogurt/juice smoothie; to steel cut oats (make a bunch and then portion out for grab and go). I probably eat eggs 3 or 4 days a week. More than that and I start to dread them. I used to do my own granola, but am now trying to avoid the added sugar, and generally avoid toast/bread due to the aches and pains of early arthritis that does much better when I'm avoiding gluten.
I said goodbye to my weekly batch of Instant Por yogurt when I came across Trader Joe’s European Style yogurt—just wonderful, made it pointless to make my own. For the past couple of years my breakfast has been yogurt and a handful of fresh raspberries. Sometimes for fun and fiber I add a couple of tablespoons of whole wheat sugarless cereal.
Hello Michael,
Socca would make nice Savoury breakfast, Yougurt with nuts and fresh fruit, Banana slightly slathered with nut butter, Kitchidi, ground lentil or mung bean pancake (no flour or egg needed) on their own or stuffed with whatever veggies we have are some savoury breakfast fare we enjoy in our house.