Sauteed bread is key to versatile avo recipe

Now that it’s January, I join all the resolute in making better choices, such as avoiding cookies when I begin my day. Instead, I plan on eating as much real food as possible.

I won’t eat just egg whites, though, and I still plan to buy whole milk. I’ve also made the conscious decision to always get the pork belly when it’s on the menu.

As for breakfast, I know I need fuel to make it through my schedule. I eat plenty of three-egg omelet breakfasts and veggies that spill over my plate.

But in that hour before school, I don’t always have time to chop and heat and stir and eat. I generally need something that can be ready in five or seven minutes and can be eaten one-handed as I go about my day.

I have a serious love for avocados, and for a couple of glorious months last fall, a house along my commute route put out a table with avocados, a can with a plastic lid and a cardboard, hand-scrawled sign: $1.

Sometimes, when driving the route and daydreaming, I would pass the place and have to loop back around the highway to drop in my dollar and gather my favorite fruit. Usually these would take a few days to ripen, an agonizing wait as I anticipated enjoying some avocado toast.

If you missed the avo toast craze, I urge you to join in. It’s not a recipe, it’s assembly — and it tastes better than most dishes, even though it’s little more than avocado mashed on bread.

I could be content with a piece of avo toast every day, for breakfast, lunch or a snack — and yes, I’ve eaten it for dinner.

There are a great number of variations to this assemblage, in case you’re the type to get bored with delicious.

The element that elevates the simple meal is the pan-fried toast, in which the fat gets soaked into all the browned, rough spots of the bread.

Once you’ve had a sauteed slice of bread from the pan, you just might feel compelled to throw away your toaster.

Is it more fattening than toast made in a toaster? Let me ask you this: Is fat tasty? I can live with that answer.

Basic Avo Toast

>> 1 tablespoon butter (or more, to taste)

>> 1 slice of bread

>> 1/2 cup avocado

>> Salt and pepper, to taste

Spread butter over both sides of bread. On medium-high, heat pan and fry bread on both sizes.

Slice avocado and place on bread. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Mash avocado into bread with fork. Serve immediately. Serves 1.

Approximate nutritional information using large white bread, not including salt to taste or more butter, per serving: 300 calories, 23 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 30 mg cholesterol,250 mg sodium, 21 g carbohydrate, 6 g fiber, 2 g sugar, 4 g protein

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Variations

>> Bi bim bap style: 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil mixed with 1 tablespoon olive oil, baguette slice, 1/2 teaspoon kochujang, avocado, salt, 2 tablespoons pickled daikon and carrots, 1 egg fried as desired.

>> Smoked salmon: olive oil, sliced bread, avocado, salt, pepper, smoked salmon, squeeze of lime, sliced red onion.

Fry bread in oil, then assemble items.

>> Italian style: butter, baguette slice, sliced garlic clove, avocado, salt, pepper, sliced tomato.

Rub toasted baguette with a sliced clove of garlic before assembling.

>> With bacon: bacon grease, bread, avocado, salt and pepper, 2 slices bacon, fried egg.

In pan over medium, cook bacon and set aside, then fry bread in bacon grease. Assemble.

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Hawaii News Now video: Kitchen Creations – Avocado Toast

Nutritional analysis by Joannie Dobbs, Ph.D., C.N.S. Mariko Jackson blogs about family and food at thelittlefoodie.com.