Make Energizing Breakfasts with Herbs

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Herbed Yogurt Cheese Spread, rich with chervil and chives, can replace cream cheese at the breakfast table.

In today's hurry-up-and-go world, breakfast often gets short shrift. Because I know that our minds and bodies perform better when energized by a healthful breakfast, I’ve looked for ways to make breakfast irresistible, and I’ve found the answer in my herb garden.

These recipes ­incorporate ­energizing herbs with their natural partners, omelets, home fries, and yogurt cheese. ­Because many fresh herbs are added after cooking, it is easy to enhance ­individual portions with—different herbs and herb ­combinations.

5 Easy Recipes for a Delicious Breakfast: 

• Chive-Sorrel Omelet
• Herbed Yogurt Cheese Spread
• Baked Grapefruit with Raspberry Jam and Lemon Balm
• Oatmeal Pudding Cake
• Herb Garden Home Fries  

Smoothies are perfect when you’re on the run: they’re fast, easy, and portable. If you make them with nuts, silken tofu, yogurt, or soy beverages, they can provide a protein boost to help you get through to lunchtime.

3 Tasty Herbal Breakfast Smoothies:

• Mango Mint Smoothie
• Rosemary-Carob Smoothie
• Chai Smoothie  

A healthy energizing breakfast includes high-energy complex carbohydrates in the form of whole grains and fruits. Rye toast, multigrain bagels, and nourishing oatmeal provide significantly more fiber than the popular white sandwich bread, hamburger buns, and French loaves. Juices made from citrus fruits, tomatoes, grapes, and carrots are rich in vitamins and minerals as well as natural sugars for energy. Low-fat home fries contribute to a nutritious, delicious meal.

Herbs eaten with a good breakfast make these foods taste all the better. Tarragon, sage, savory, thyme, mint, lovage, fennel, anise, lemon balm, mint, and rosemary are a few of the herbs that give an extra boost to the morning meal. Sprigs of fresh cilantro, tarragon, and chervil add zing to eggs Benedict, huevos rancheros, and home fries, especially after a long, sedentary winter. Sorrel and chives are high in vitamin C. Snip these and other early-growing herbs over cooked foods or tuck them in at the last minute to make the most of their delicate flavors and textures.