I think for many people observing Passover, breakfast is the hardest meal of the day. Oatmeal is out. Cereal seriously not okay. Toast verboten. Granola a no-go.

So, what is left to eat in the morning? On weekdays, when he is in a rush, my husband downs some yogurt and an apple, which is a very healthy, but maybe not the most satisfying, breakfast.

The truth is, for those observing Passover, eggs are a godsend. When pasta is off the table, a frittata is a great quick dinner. When you can’t have a sandwich for lunch, an omelet will give you the protein you need to get through the day.

And then, of course, there is matzo brei, one of the most iconic and beloved American Jewish foods. Matzo brei is essentially small pieces of matzo that have been softened in water and then mixed with beaten eggs and fried. Matzo brei can lean savory or sweet, depending on what you top it with. Some people like sour cream or hot sauce. Others like jam, syrup or just powdered sugar. But for many, matzo brei is the embodiment of comfort food. Ruth Reichl, the former editor of Gourmet, once called it “one of life’s perfect foods.”

To me, the fact that matzo brei exists is the embodiment of the phrase “necessity is the mother of invention.” How desperate were those Jewish mothers of yore to mix matzo meal — which has all of the appeal of sawdust — with fat and eggs to make matzo balls?  To pour boiling water over broken pieces of matzo and mix them with scrambled eggs and call it dinner? Talk about wasting nothing.

For the past few days, as I’ve tried to get creative with kosher-for-Passover meal ideas, I have been thinking about matzo brei and how to put my own spin on it. Personally, I like savory matzo brei and don’t get the sweet kind at all. (Jam on eggs? Seriously?) As I started thinking about all the foods that I like to combine with eggs — things like cheese, tomato and avocado — I wondered just how good a Mexican-inspired version of matzo brei would be. And then it hit me: chilaquiles. Matzo brei is just like chilaquiles.

For those of you who don’t know about chilaquiles, you should really go out to brunch more. But seriously, chilaquiles is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of pieces of tortilla that are fried, covered with a green or red mole, and mixed with eggs. Chilaquiles can be topped with shredded chicken, avocado, cheese, crema or beans.

Mexican mothers and grandmothers wouldn’t think of wasting leftover, stale tortillas any more than Jewish mothers and grandmothers would waste leftover, broken pieces of matzo.  Stale tortillas get mixed with eggs and turned into chilaquiles for breakfast and stale matzo gets plumped up with water and mixed with eggs to make matzo brei. It’s the same, waste-nothing principle.

With this revelation under my belt, I got to work and came up with my version of matza-quiles, or Mexican matzo brei. I was not even a little surprised by how good it turned out. How can one go wrong with eggs, cheese, onions and a spicy sauce? This matza-quiles is velvety and moist and incredibly flavorful. It makes a perfect, ready-in-a-hurry, one-dish meal for any time of day.

I will give you a recipe here because that is my job, but don’t feel bound by it. This is the kind of dish that bends to what is in your fridge at a given moment. Don’t have tomatillo salsa? Use tomato. Don’t like avocado? Bond with my husband about how misunderstood you are and then leave it off. Chilaquiles and matzo brei are both dishes that lend themselves to infinite variations around the theme of “waste nothing.”