There's alot to be said about sardines...

Sunday mornings have become routine for me, Korey (my husband), and my dad.  I'll usually get up around 4:30 and have my usual breakfast of DELICIOUS sauteed veg (in coconut oil, of course) and BIGGER THAN MY HEAD protein shake, followed by my Cococeps (more on that in a later post, I'm sure).  Korey is still in the bed when my dad motors up on the 4-wheeler and I'll start the espresso machine.  What's so funny about this is that my dad wouldn't know the difference between coffee of any kind, much less appreciate a good cup of espresso.  He's a habitual McDonald's "I-better-get-my-senior-citizen-coffee-with-my-biscuit" kinda man; BUT, I've been funneling him americanos now for several months every Sunday morning.  This is my daddy-daughter time!  Korey will eventually crawl out of bed around 6 or so and we'll sit and shoot the shit until daylight. 
Since we've had our chickens, we'd really enjoyed letting them out to roam in there fenced area and watching their always entertaining ways about themselves.  They are just the funniest creatures with so much personality, you'd never believe how funny a group of hens can be!  This lasts until around 7 or after.  Now it's breakfast time for the men folk!
We head to Burlington, where we've recently had a co-op open up downtown that has a breakfast hot bar.  Dad is shocked at the biscuits on the hot bar:  "Them thangs are big by grannies! I bout cain't finish it!"  Korey will either follow suit or get a tub of dried mangoes if he's already eaten once (at least they have no added sugar) and a bottle of water.  Keep in mind that I've already had my breakfast, so by the time we get there (around 8:30), it's time for a snack of sorts.  What do I go for?  You betcha--a good ol' fashioned can of sardines (finally came around to tie all this mess into my title!)!  Something different occurred the other week, though.  We were sitting there enjoying our vittles and an older man, maybe 60 or so, walks by and says, "You're not eating sardines are you?  Why, yes you are!  I was about to poke fun at you for eating sardines.  My wife won't even let me bring those into the house; she'd kill me!"  At the time I'm thinking to myself, 'My what a rude a-hole to say anything about what I'm eating, especially at the very moment that it's passing my lips!'  I remained composed, however, and reply, "Yessir, I LOVE sardines--eat 'em all the time!"  His response:  "I can't believe any woman would ever eat sardines."
I know that these little fish used to be the cheap snack of choice before manufacturing companies started basically intravenously supplying blue-collar workers with packs of Nabs and Pepsi.  I mean, they are still pretty cheap today; but what people don't realize is that these canned swimmers are really very healthy and are nowhere near as scary as people have been led to believe.
I'm not going to lie:  Most of the time I don't go for the cheapest cans.  I'll get the two- to three-bucks-per-can ones, especially on our Sunday outing.  This just reassures me the quality of the product I'm about to eat (wild-caught, no added sodio-benzo-hexa-phosa-fake-shit, etc).  Man my mouth is watering right now just thinking about popping the can back and revealing those little guys.  Here's a laundry list of the health benefits packed underneath that shiny peel-away can top:

• Concentrated source of omega-3's EPA and DHA, one of the highest in our food supply
• High in B-12, calcium, vitamin D, phosphorous (the last 3 important in bone health)
• High in selenium, an antioxidant that touts cancer-preventing ability
• Extremely good source of good quality protein

If this doesn't trip your sardine-eatin' trigger, I don't know what will.  They are extremely portable, making them a great on-the-go snack.  I love them just about any time of the day.  Here are a few ways to enjoy them:

• Sprinkle them with lemon juice and olive oil
• Combine them with chopped onion, olives, or fennel (or all three!)
• Top them tomatoes, basil, and oregano
• Douse with a good balsamic
• Blend olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic, lemon juice, and salt and pepper and toss with sadines for a salad topper

My ULTIMATE favorite way to enjoy them is making a filling for lettuce wraps (my own "recipe"):

• 1 can sardines (Crown Prince, preferred)
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 2-3 Tbsp capers, drained
• Handful of chopped green onion
• 2 Tbsp Dijon mustard (I like Annie's Organic)
• Fresh cracked pepper
• 3-4 large organic romaine heart leaves
• Mash together sardines and avocado in a bowl.  Mix in capers, onion, mustard.  Grind some pepper over the top and spoon desired amount into each lettuce leaf.  ENJOY! 

Hopefully, this way of fixing a can of sardines may make you atleast not turn your nose up at the very idea of considering that a source of your nutrition.  Remember, you can't knock it unless you've tried it; and, odds are, most of you "DON'T LIKE SARDINES" and you've probably never even tasted one!  Maybe it's time to break your sardine-eatin' cherry and enjoy some good solid nutritious eats!