My Christmas breakfast delight

Every year we have had a wonderful Christmas eve dinner with the same group of family and friends. The whole deal, a feast that anyone would marvel at, midnight mass, and presents under the tree. The kids would go to sleep all over the house as the parents talked well into the night.  As the years went on and the kids have grown, the tradition has mellowed but we still carry on. Part of the tradition is breakfast on Christmas morning, and that's what I'd like to share with you today.

My wife is Filipino, and Christmas dinner is a wonderful array of Filipino and American holiday classics. I struggle trying to stay on the healthy side and do pretty well. I have a lot of sides and a little taste here and there of my favorites.

Breakfast is the same - a feast for all, but with a different twist. In addition to eggs, muffins, lots of coffee, and left over cheeses and pastries from the night before, we have a classic Jewish spread with bagels, lox, and smoked fish.

I love bagels and lox, but no matter how hard I try, I just can't do it. I can't bring myself to eat a bagel with all those carbs. What I do have is lox with the whole enchilada - cream cheese (fat free),  Bermuda onion, capers, and tomato on a single slice of artisan bread that I buy at a health food store that has no sugar. I also pick through the smoked white fish, worrying about the sodium and small bones, but in the end I survive, as happy as ever.

Whenever I have to buy bread in the supermarket, I read the labels and just can't do it. They're all bad; no matter what they claim (no high fructose corn syrup, whole wheat, whole grain etc.), they will never be good for you. Health stores do have, believe it or not, healthy breads.

I can say with some sadness that I no longer make pancakes or waffles for the kids on the weekends.

So to finish up on my breakfast, in addition to my daily oatmeal/bean combo, once a week or so, I'll have an egg white omelet with some left over veggies or cheese. Once or twice a month, I'll savor two eggs over easy and just a few times a year I get to have my favorite, bagels and lox, with friends minus the bagel.

Don T