Simple is good

Eating cereal every morning is such a BORE. I mean, sure, you can have a variety of cereal stacked up, but in the end, it is what it is and that is, cereal! Same old sweet (yes, there is that unsweetened stuff available too that tastes like nothing) stuff that you add milk to and either eat it cold or warm. Not my cuppa tea, or in this case, bowl of cereal!

So this morning I chopped up a couple roma tomatoes, added salt, pepper, a teaspoon of rice vinegar and a teaspoon of lemon juice. Sprinkled some Italian seasoning (the dried kind you get at any grocery store) and then drizzled some extra virgin olive oil (or EVOO as my Guru calls it) and let it all hang out in a bowl to marry each other.

Tomatoes hanging out in the bowl marrying the other goodies

Meanwhile I took a couple slices of bread (white whole grain, to be precise--- this note is for the Californian who is impressed with all the healthy eating going on in this household...........;) ) and toasted them in a toaster. The real way to do this would be to pan fry the bread. But that would mean get the butter out, heat up a pan and then fry the bread in the butter until golden brown. It not only takes longer, but I mean, you don't need all that overdose of butter early in the day!

I also had a pot of water boiling on the stove. Once it came to a boil, gently put in a couple eggs. I do this with a pair of tongs now a days. Works out better. Turned the stove setting down to prevent the eggs from breaking up and then creating a whole lot of mess in the pot. Had them boil for exactly 10 minutes and then immersed the eggs in cold water. Now I don't know why the boiled eggs need to be immersed in cold water before you shell them. Just something that my dad taught me when I was a kid and I have just been following....... one of those things. Hmm, but now that I think about it, guess that just stops the egg from cooking any further and maybe makes peeling the egg a bit easier? As for peeling boiled eggs, I must confess--- I am not very adept. I often times peel not just the hard shell but also the white of the egg and then the end result is a weird looking "pixie" egg (remember the pixie orange?). I learned from a friend that a perfect boiled egg has its yolk perfectly yellow. Today, I am happy to say, that I boiled those eggs pretty darn perfect! (OK, the peeling was again a little off, but not that bad, really!)

Note to self: Must buy that Egg Genie one of these days.....

So finally I spooned in some of that beautiful tomato on top of toast. I like to do this when the toast is still warm because then it soaks in that lovely juice (tomato+vinegar+lemon+salt+pepper+seasoning) and it is a crispy yet soggy goodness. Delicious!

Now doesn't that look yummy? (Err, try to disregard the badly peeled egg on the side).

Aha! the perfect golden yellow yolk.

You don't have to eat boring cereal every day. Get some variety in your life, get some color in your life. You don't need fancy ingredients to create a delectable meal. Sometimes simple is good. Really good!