On weekends, I do breakfast up right--usually pan-cooked potatoes with onion and garlic, egg over medium, coffee and Postsecret--but that relaxed groove escapes me on weekdays. Monday - Friday, I'm doing well to breeze out the door with a scone or a bagel in hand. Coffee's non-negotiable; everything else is just fat, carbohydrates, and protein.
Unless your name is June Cleaver, you've probably got a similar breakfast routine. You wake up at the last. possible. second. (because you didn't sleep enough the night before.) You haphazardly dress, then run out the door while clutching piece of toast. We're under-paid and poorly rested; we have trouble finding our car keys and shoehorning more vegetables into our diets.
The days of leisurely breakfasts, of reading the paper cover-to-cover while drinking orange juice--they're gone, baby. Welcome to the 21st Century. We're so plugged in now, we never unplug.
If I sit too long thinking about the demise of leisurely breakfasts, I begin to percolate other rage-inducing subjects in my brain, like the decline of the newspaper industry, Twitter, and and the dad-blasted debt crisis. If I continue this vein of thought unabated, I end up hysterical and weepy in the Papasan chair, shouting things like...
"The American Dream is dead!"
"I'm almost 30 and I don't have a house or kids! What is my barometer for success?"
"How am I supposed to eat 5 - 8 fruits and vegetables every day? Buy stock in V8?"
Whew. That's a lot to worry about before breakfast. I don't want to deal with that much before work, do you? I haven't found a way to fix the debt crisis, but I did discover a way to sneak more vegetables into breakfast this week. All it took was five minutes and a pair of kitchen scissors. Fortune and notoriety have passed me by, but I can keep a container herb garden healthy.
That makes me feel better. Though I don't have time for leisurely breakfasts, I do have the time and the resources to grow some of my own vegetables. Debt crisis what? I've got a Victory Patio Garden! I did not buy; I created. Think of that when you're rushing out the door in the morning. I did not buy; I created.
If you're (ahem) still planting your Victory Garden, you can still pull off this fresh herb spread for about a dollar in fresh produce. Parsley packs a fresh punch of springtime into the creamy cheese, and a pinch of salt lifts the chives out of produce obscurity. It's a 20th-Century spread for your 21st-Century Bagel. Proper Breakfast Catastrophe = averted. Now, who will help me solve the debt crisis?
Sun-tried tomato and fresh herb spread
serves 6 generously
- 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1/3 chopped and finely diced fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup finely chopped chives
- 6 - 7 finely diced sun-dried tomato halves
- 1/2 tsp. garlic salt, celery salt, or onion salt
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