tuna for breakfast

Some people think that there are rules about which foods are suitable for breakfast. I disagree. I have eaten everything for breakfast: pizza, birthday cake, spaghetti with meat sauce and a glass of red wine (that only once, well - maybe twice). My point is, if you are a breakfast-eater, anything is okay for breakfast. If you are not a breakfast-eater, I understand that any food first thing in the morning is noxious, and that lunch and supper foods first thing in the morning are unthinkable. For everyone except the non-breakfast-eaters, please consider the delights of something non-traditional.

I give you the breakfast tuna melt, surely one of the most lovely breakfast concoctions around:

On Wednesday, I made tuna salad to take to work for my lunch break. I made a medium-sized batch, so that I could leave some in the fridge for Andy and Alex. They had some, but not all. On Thursday morning I decided to make the leftover tuna salad into my breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

Tuna Salad
1 or 2 cans of tuna, drained - One can makes 1.5 to 2 sandwiches, depending on how big. Two cans makes 3 or 4 sandwiches - or 5 if they are small sandwiches, but who wants a small sandwich?
chopped onion - You can use red onion or green onion or sweet onion.
chopped celery
mayonnaise - Use the real thing, not low-fat or "salad type dressing" if you want me to eat any of that tuna salad.
chopped pickles - Use sweet or dill pickles, or some green relish if you are in a hurry.
salt and pepper to taste

You can decide the proportions of the vegetables and mayonnaise depending on your preference. If you like, you may add other veggies, for a fresher, crunchier tuna mixture.

So that's the tuna for your sandwich or for on top of a green salad. You can put it in a wrap if you like, with some lettuce and cucumbers. I like to take it to work in a small container. When it's lunchtime I spread it on Ryvita crackers. It's crispy and creamy and good.

If you want to make a tuna melt, here's how:

Tuna Melt
1 slice of bread, or half a bun or bagel, or half of an English muffin
enough tuna salad to cover the bread all the way to the edges and heap up about 1/4 inch high (at least!)
grated cheese - Cheddar is classic, but mozzarella will work, or you could get creative with parmesan or goat cheese or whatever you like best.

Spread the tuna on the bread. Top it with the grated cheese. Put it into a 375 degree oven until the tuna is warm, the bread starts to crisp on the bottom and the cheese melts. Eat it carefully. It has an even higher mouth-burn potential than pizza because of the warm, creamy tuna mixture.

When I ran a home daycare, I served tuna melts every Thursday. That was the day I took all of the kids to music lessons in the morning. I would prepare all of the tuna melts and put them on a cookie sheet, ready to pop into the oven as soon as we got home. I remember the kids would ask me, "Is it tuna today?" as soon as their lessons were finished. I would always answer, "Of course." Then, they would ask if I had made sure to prepare each of their tuna melts according to their preferences. One child wanted no onions, no pickles, no celery, just tuna and mayo and bread and cheese. Another wanted no cheese. Another wanted no tuna! Yikes! That was a tuna-free tuna melt, with just melted cheese on a bun. Of course I always remembered what they wanted! They were my little fishies, and if I fed them well after they finished singing, they would have happy tummies and enjoy a restful afternoon.

I hope that you will try tuna for breakfast soon. If you like it, let me know, and tell me what kind of cheese you put on your tuna melt! Enjoy something out-of-the-ordinary, even if it's a familiar food, at an unfamiliar time of day. Everything is an adventure in the big bowl!