Yummy Brekkie!
When I was in high school, I thought it was cool not to have breakfast, unless it was just coffee. Don’t ask me why. Sounds asinine now. But teens – what can you do? *shakes head very sorrowfully*
Anyway, I grew up, and learned the value of a good breakfast. When I started teaching I discovered that, gee whiz, I generally taught better on the days I ate breakfast, and thus vindicating my mother, countless health nurses, and my know-it-all-but-too-nice-to-show-it-best-friend, etc. etc.
My main go-to breakfast, Monday to Saturday, is still coffee, plus porridge with yogurt. This I considered the height of grossness until I got off muesli (unless it’s totally homemade, store-bought brands have too much sugar), and aped the Kiwis, schlopping cold yogurt into hot porridge. I like natural, unsweetened, full-fat yogurt – everything else just tastes wrong now. Then I slice a banana, or chuck in some berries, and it’s a nutritious, tasty way to start the day.
However, Sundays…ah, Sundays. Sundays, if I feel like it, and if I deserve a treat, I break out the saucepan, slice an avo, grill a tomato, toast wholegrain bread with havarti, and have poached eggs on toast. Mmmm.
But I still need the cup of coffee.
What’s your breakfast of choice?
– Jean AAR
I like bagels. And by like, I mean I am nearly obsessed, and have one almost every day. Unless I run out of them, in which case I grab a muffin on the way to work. What I don’t have, ever (at least not in the last ten years) is cold cereal. Oh, and I don’t eat bagels from the grocery store; they have to be from Einstein’s, Panera, or some other bagel place. I also have an expensive and totally necessary latte habit.
I don’t skip breakfast, and never have if I could help it. If I miss it for some reason, I’m not really fit to live with.
I love peanut butter and toast. Currently, my big fave is an organic whole wheat cinnamon and raisin bread with natural crunchy peanut butter. And coffee. Usually a couple of oranges too. I try to have oatmeal twice a week, but usually don’t have the patience to wait the 10 minutes it takes to cook. If I do manage to, I load it with apples and walnuts and stir in some cinnamon.
Peanut butter toast and jellie but only after coffee–at least three cups. The meal I nearly always skip is lunch; all it does is make one sleepy.
I too love porridge, however, I cook my porridge with 1% milk, not water. I add whatever fruit I can get my hands on – could be fresh or frozen blueberries, half a banana, whatever, a few almonds, cinnamon and a bit of brown sugar and voila, a lovely breakfast.
When we first came to Canada I was shocked when I received a bowl of porridge cooked in water and tasting slightly salty…..Yuuuk.
Granola (homemade when I get a chance to make it) and milk or yogurt for me, thanks! And berries in season. We really go into blueberries which were plentiful this year. But I’m partial to strawberries mostly. Living in California (land of the fruits and nuts–literally and figuratively!), we can get most fruits all year round thanks to greenhouses and South American imports. So breakfast is always a joy for me!
I am soooooooo not a banana person! Kudos to those of you who do enjoy them — you’re more than welcome to my share ;-) And I often skipped breakfast when I was a teen, as well. One of the follies of youth. ;-)
I have low blood sugar issues and so have to be careful with concentrated sugars, even those found naturally in fruits. I do best with a protein with breakfast — with the exception of Wheatabix (sp?) and Shredded Wheat, I’ve not found any cereal that will stick with me for any length of time, no matter what I do to it…and Shredded Wheat and Wheatabix only stick with me for about 2 1/2 – 3 hours, whereas a protein breakfast will stick with me for 4 hours.
Hubby and I are self-employed, so we usually don’t have to worry about whether it’s a quick and easy breakfast or not. My absolute all time favorite breakfast would probably be hash browns, an egg or two (usually over medium), and some bacon, sausage, or lean ham.
On those mornings when I feel like Tee and just don’t have an appetite or am in need of something quick, I’ll do a bit of peanut butter on toast, maybe, or some Neufchâtel cheese spread onto a high-fiber bagel…or maybe a slice or two of leftover pizza (I usually make my own, with turkey pepperoni and lots of veg).
A favorite “on-the-go” brekkie for those days when we have lots of thinking or emotional things to do and I’m eating brekkie at my desk or — horrors! — needing to eat it in the car on the way to someplace — is a BLT. I make mine with turkey bacon on wheat bread, a smidge of light Miracle Whip or light mayo, some lettuce and tomato when I have them on hand, and a slice of RF cheese (the cheese rounds the brekkie sandwich to over 300 calories so that it sticks with me for about 4 hours or so). Another fave on-the-go brekkie is my homemade version of an egg McMuffin — English muffin with an egg, lean Canadian bacon, and slice of RF cheese. Hubby and the son, when he was at home, like an egg sandwich for a quick and easy on-the-go breakfast.
I never moved past the habit of having only a couple cups of coffee for breakfast. For quite a few years now, I’ve added half a raisin bagel and fruit. That’s it. I just can’t seem to scoff down much more than that. And mostly I do it in order to take my morning quota of pills.
My husband and son love to go out for breakfast on days off. I go along, but never usually order more than one egg scrambled and maybe a couple pieces of sausage on the side. No toast, potatoes or anything else. I’d never be able to push it down. Now, having an omelet or anything similar for lunch or dinner would work very well for me—just not for breakfast.
Here’s a neat article from MSNBC regarding latest findings on eating breakfast. One of the paragraphs mentions that if you’re not usually big on breakfast, that eating a banana may be all you need. Waiting until you’re hungry a bit later in the day may just be best for some people. It also points out some of the myths of eating too large a meal in the morning, thinking it’ll offset the meals taken later on.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/25/earlyshow/health/main7280784.shtml
Like you, Jean, I took pride on not eating breakfast as a teen (stupid, stupid, stupid). Fortunately, I’m long past that stage. I’m currently doing toasted cheese for breakfast on top of a whole wheat muffin. I like to do mixes of cheese, and right now am putting a bit of cheddar with some feta on top of the muffin and then toasting it in the toaster oven. Because Texas red grapefruits are in season, that’s my fruit of choice at the moment.
Like you, on the weekends, if I’m feeling inspired, I may do something a bit more. This past weekend I did a spinach omelet with a bit of feta one day.