Remember those Total commercials? Where they stacked up the bowls and said this is how many you’d have to eat of such and such a cereal to get as much vitamin A as Total, and you’d have to eat that many bowls of the other cereal to get as much beta hydrodalius or whatever? Well, that may all be true, but they fail to mention that you’d have to eat one of those huge stacks of ANY cereal to stay full for more than 20 minutes.

Even if you’re an avid cereal eater, you’ll eventually have to face this fact: cereal–and most breakfast bars, yogurts, and other breakfasty foods–will not hold you over until lunch. Not only that, but with all the superfoods they’re adding to cereals and dairy products to justify jacking up the price, soon the average breakfast is going to cost more than dinner at The Palm.

Now is a good time to face the breakfast issue, and the sooner you do, the sooner you’ll be ready to make some scones. Homemade scones can have nuts, butter, eggs, and even heavy cream so they’re sure to stick to your ribs. And you can put in good stuff like fresh fruit, whole wheat, oats, and flax seeds. They’re also easy and inexpensive to make.

Here’s the recipe I recommend, the one that my clients order every time and never seem to tire of. (Well, this or some variation thereof). You can play with the additions, replacing the apples and walnuts with dried cranberries and almonds, flax seeds and dried currants, hemp seeds and granola, or whatever else strikes you.

You could even do savory scones by reducing the sugar, adding a little more salt, and using sun-dried tomatoes and basil, minced olives and dill, Parmesan and garlic with pine nuts, etc. (I have to admit I’ve only tried this approach with muffins, so if you give it a go with the scone recipe, tell me how it works!)

Whatever you do with these substantial beauties, it’s gonna be good. Here’s to a fulfilling breakfast!

Apple-Walnut Scones

Makes 8 scones. Recipe can be doubled.

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 c. sugar

1 Tbs. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) butter or margarine

1 large egg

1/2 cup minus 1 Tbs. milk (soy milk, half and half, and heavy cream all work fine, too)

2 tsp. orange zest or marmalade, optional

1 small or med. apple (choose a sweet variety that’s good for baking), cored and diced if you want the apple pieces to be recognizable in the final product, or grated if you want the apple to dissolve into the scone.

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Heat oven to 425 F.

In a large-ish mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, beat the egg and then whisk in the milk and orange stuff.

Into the dry ingredients, cut in the butter or margarine using a pastry blender or two knives. Keep cutting until the flour mixture resembles course cornmeal and the largest butter/margarine pieces are the size of peas (I’ve never been satisfied with this description of cutting in butter, but it’s the best I can do).

Now pour in the wet ingredients along with the walnuts and apple. Using a rubber spatula or spoon, gently combine everything until the dry ingredients aren’t dry anymore. Kneed a few times to form a dough, combining in any extra flour left in the bowl, and form the dough into a ball. Flour a nearby surface, and flatten out your ball of dough on it. Flatten it to about an 8″ diameter. Slice the dough like a pie, creating 8 equal pieces.

Place the scones on an ungreased cookie sheet or baking pan and bake for 12-16 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out of the center clean.

These are very tasty warm, but also good heated up the next day or the day after.

Enjoy!