Breakfast for Two

My grandson, James, an innovative epicure, often cooks our breakfast. This morning he made us a spicy spinach and cheese omelet that fueled us well and quite deliciously with plenty of protein. One of the ways he put himself through college was by cooking for twelve young men, including him, who all spoke French. In the year between high school and Washington State he worked in France, part of the time cooking in a hostel for climbers in the Pyrenees.
Here is James’s Cordon Bleu type spinach omelet:

Spinach & Cheese Omelette
       Serves 2 generously
4 or 5 eggs, depending on how big they are
¼ cup or so water
Salt and coarse ground black pepper to taste
2 handfuls fresh, well-washed spinach
1x1x2-inch block Tillamook pepper jack cheese, grated
1 Tablespoon olive oil

Beat the eggs with the water, salt, and pepper. On medium, heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet. When it shimmers, pour in the egg mixture. Top with cheese. Cook until the eggs are half set. Strew spinach over the left half if right handed; over the right half if left-handed like James. Flip the bare half of the omelet over the half with the spinach. Continue cooking for a minute or two.

Slide the omelet onto a serving plate, or better yet, halve it with your spatula’s edge and slide one half onto each of two warm plates. Serve with raisin toast well buttered. (Yes, we believe in butter. It has Omega 3 fat and Vitamin A in it as well as saturated fat, which your brain cells need for making their skin.)

This omelet supplies approximately 19 grams of protein per serving. Two slices of toast provide another 4 to 6 protein grams. Our toast was gluten free seedy raisin bread, yielding 3 protein grams per slice.  According to my nutrition almanac, a woman five feet tall and over 50 (that’s me) who weighs 113 pounds needs 50 grams of protein daily. I weigh a bit more than that. Another source advises one protein gram daily for each kilo of weight. I figure my protein need at 58 grams, or about 20 grams per meal, less if I eat high-protein snacks.

High protein snacks might be a choice from this list:
One boiled egg, halved and topped with a dab of mustard, 6 grams protein
Cheese slices totaling ½ x 1 x 2 inches, 7 grams
Bread, 1 slice, 3 grams if Bavarian rye or the gluten free bread mentioned above.
Adams Peanut butter, 2 tablespoons, 7 grams
Almonds or Pistachios, 1/4 cup, 6.6 grams
Pumpkin seeds, 2 tablespoons, 5 grams
Banana, 1 medium size, 1.8 grams (but also 451 mg. potassium and 1.5 mg—half your RDA—of   selenium)