Dry, White Toast

When I order breakfast in a restaurant, I'm often given odd looks by my dining companions. Why?  Because I always order dry, white toast with my eggs.

"Ugh!  How can you eat that?"

Usually that is said by someone eating wholewheat bread, which is GOOD for them.  (And what about the greasy eggs, sausage and home fries on their plate?)

The truth is, I got used to eating toast with nothing on it back in my yo-yo diet days.  And I actually got to like the taste.  Same as I got to like skim milk.  In fact, I like skim milk so much, I drink at least a half gallon, if not a gallon of the stuff every week.  I was on vacation a few years back and ate cereal for breakfast.  (No hot breakfast in that motel chain.)  They only had whole milk.  Yikes!  It tasted like I'd poured melted ice cream on my corn flakes.  (And even 2% milk tastes pretty decadent to me.)

You'd think with no butter on my toast and fat-free milk I'd be a Kate Moss look-alike.  No such luck.  (It's portion control that's the key, and sometimes--okay, OFTEN--I need someone to slap my hand when I reach for that second helping.

Of course, I have a conference coming up at the end of April and I'd like to lose some weight--but I refuse to diet, since that only means I'd gain it all back and then some.  So portion control is the name of the game.

For toast, you can't do better than Wegmans Country White (it's especially good on BLTs), but it is a bit too much for regular sandwiches. (Those slices are FAT.)  So I've switched from the Wegmans ( bread (100 calories per slice) to Monks white bread (80 calories per slice) for toast, and have gone back to eating pumpernickel bread (more fiber) for most sandwiches.

I remember having one of my characters eating toast as comfort food and a critique partner chiding me that comfort food HAD to be something decadent, like a hot fudge sundae.   That made me feel odd, because there's nothing like bread for comfort when you're feeling down, be it toast or a nice, thick slab of Italian bread slathered with a thick layer of butter.

But I'm trying to cut down, remember.  So...hand me another slice of that dry white toast.  Mmm, Mmm, good.

What's your idea of comfort food?