For Breakfast: Oatmeal Season is Over, Time for Sardines

Last week, when I was talking about , what I meant was a long-burning combustible comestible. A good and interesting bowl of cereal or whole grains is perfect, but that is not the only game in town. There is another way to answer  the question of how to fuel up first thing to power your whole morning.

First and foremost, remember your goal is two-fold:

1. To keep your tummy busy grinding through nutrition and sending energy to your brain all morning long
2. To prevent the 10 am crash and keep your tummy from texting evil messages to your mind: take-me-to-your-vending-machine 

I admit, I did stumble into one of the pitfalls that I warned about last week: burnout. At this point, I am steel-cut-it-oat-already. It has taken me a long while to get here but it will possibly be next winter before I stare another bowl of oatmeal in its gaping-wide, taupe-colored eye.

My replacement is just as nutritious and equally quick to assemble, but it ain’t cereal and it ain’t sweet. It is, of course, built on whole grains. And it has a little treat from the tropics, an underdog from under the sea, and a touch of French je ne sais quoi to keep everything tangy and sophisticated.

This savory breakfast is an open-faced sandwich made with whole grain rye pumpernickel bread (with flax seed) toasted up super-crunchy, half a ripe avocado crushed onto that, half a can of boneless, skinless sardines on the avo, and then a healthy decoration of Dijon mustard.

The nutrition we are talking about here is:

• Omega 3 (from the fish, the flax seed in the bread)
• Great mono-unsaturated fats from the avocado
• Fiber from bread and avocado
• Calcium in the fish
• Protein
• A few complex carbs (which are the slow-burning type) from the bread

The flavor is delectable and the varying textures are lively and balanced. But I understand that you might not get this far because your mind slammed on the brakes and rolled up the windows when I said, "sardines."

I won’t try to change your mind by touting all the many reasons sardines are great. I mean, I know personally that nobody could ever get me to eat sardines with the bones and skins, and so, I do not judge if you don't want anything to do with any of the fish.

What I will do is offer up to you on a silver platter an alternative: smoked salmon—just omit the mustard. The salmon isn’t particularly French but it has all the flavor and class you need to keep your breakfast rich in nutrition and you sitting up and paying attention all morning long.