Minimal effort with high reward. Image: Our Stable Table.
My newest daily brunch hack.
Can we talk about breakfast?
I get really busy in the mornings and often make coffee my breakfast. Which is silly. Coffee is not real food, although it is real fuel that makes me a human.
But by the time my kiddo and I are both awake, dressed, and ready to face the day, we are already pressed for time and I find it more rewarding to drink a second cup of coffee than to put actual food in my belly.
I also kind of feel like whatever I do eventually put in my body needs to be quality and filling and full of nutritious goodness. This is hard on mornings when it literally feels like all I can do to make toast. Sometimes I look at it, contemplate it fresh out of the toaster and briefly wonder if I really need to spread the almond butter on it. Because effort.
So, breakfast typically turns to brunch on most days and I am able to find the will to make it delicious and interesting. It feels less hard at 10:30 in the morning than it does at 9:00. I don't know why, but it does. And I go with it because trying to figure it out is also hard.
We've been finding great deals on avocados and cucumber lately (thank you, summer!) and they are my favorite go-tos for fresh food. We also eat a ton of rice and always have leftovers that we don't quite know what to do with.
Making a rice bowl with fresh veggies, a variety of textures, complimentary flavors, and a hit of high quality protein is my newest daily brunch hack.
It changes my life for the better when I eat it, and I don't even mind making it because there is minimal effort with high reward. This is inspired by the Japanese dish hokkai-don.
Ingredients:
1 scoop leftover sushi rice
1 avocado
1 cucumber, peeled
3 oz smoked salmon
Ponzu sauce
Nori Komi Furikake Rice Seasoning (this is basically seaweed, salt, and sesame seeds)
Directions:
Drink a cup of coffee, or, if you prefer, green tea (that would be even better). Gather your courage and energy.
Put your scoop of rice in a bowl. Artfully arrange your cucumber and avocado around it.
Slice thin, bite-sized strips of smoked salmon and gracefully lay it on top of your rice.
Sprinkle with rice seasoning, and drizzle with ponzu sauce.
Stock your fridge with all of the things you need to make this every day for the next four days, because you won't get tired of it, and it's good for your body.
