Bagels For Breakfast

Every Friday, I try to sweeten up my clinic staff with a dozen Panera bagels. Of course, the Cinnamon Crunch Bagel is our favorite. Sandy, our nurse practitioner, has a bad habit of reminding us just how many calories we ingest. Just as that scrumptious bagel lathered in honey nut creme cheese is about to meet complete satisfaction with my already salivating taste buds, Sandy bluntly reminds me that there are 410 calories in my dreamy bagel, and that's not even counting the creme cheese, she adds for punch. Of course the caloric comment didn't keep me from thrusting a big bite right into my anticipating mouth. With my mouth stuffed with warm bagel and melted creamy honey nut flavor, my eyes roll back and I respond dreamily, "but they are sooooo good."

Being the good public health nurse that I am, I knew that eating an entire Panera bagel smothered in my favorite creme cheese, is not the best choice that I can make for breakfast or lunch for that matter. But I love them!! Moderation is my best excuse.

A few months back, my friend Reba introduced me to a simple way to moderate your serving size of bagels. At Panera, instead of having the traditional slicing, ask for bread sliced. Instead of slicing the bagel in half they slice in vertically into five-six strips. This is the best thing since sliced bread (bad pun for the bun, ugh, they just keep coming ).

The serving size is perfect and Karen, our health clerk, pointed out that the size is much easier to hold on to and eat. We all love this new way to eat our bagels. Now we can eat 3 slices for half the calories of an entire bagel and the portion is much more appropriate.

The above picture is of approximately three bagels and it made more than enough bite sized servings for all of us! So next time you are at Panera, try this new way of chopping your bagel. Smart ideas like this, make eating right so much easier! Thanks Reba for this great idea!!