The Breakfast Club

So many people say they can’t eat breakfast, or they’re not really hungry in the morning, or all they need/want is a cup of coffee to get started. These people are not invited to join my breakfast club. I wake up hungry! In fact morning is the time when I am the most hungry. If there were no consequences I would probably either graze all through the morning hours, or go out for a big sloppy breakfast every day. I love things like biscuits and sausage gravy, pastrami and eggs, home fries- especially the ones that are shredded and crispy and don’t contain green peppers. I am not a particular fan of sweet breakfasts and though I would not turn down an almond croissant with a cappuccino, I rarely think of, or crave pancakes, French toast and the like. I wish I could develop a liking for oatmeal. That ubiquitous item that almost everyone I know righteously eats daily with fruit, and flax seed, and nuts- yuck! I do not like oatmeal, I do not like it rolled or steel cut, with cream and sugar, instant or long cooking, in fact the only place I feel oatmeal belongs is in the super delicious white-chocolate oatmeal cookies from Deb Perlman’s Smitten Kitchen, or in any oatmeal cookie recipe that does not include raisins.

Each day I struggle with breakfast. Do I have my healthy smoothie which consists of almond milk, hemp protein powder, cocoa powder and heaps of frozen fruit? Maybe I should juice, but unless I have planned to do this, I don’t have the necessary quantities of fruits and veggies. Eggs? I rarely have bread in my house, if I have eggs they are solo, and that’s not any fun. This is not a good way to start a day of mindful eating and making peace with food. I have been eating breakfast for many, many years, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now…

It may be a cultural thing. I may not be cut out for the American idea of breakfast. Last fall I travelled to Bali, and each day we were served fried rice for breakfast, the rice had many mystery ingredients, and was just a little spicy, but it was great. Many years ago in China I ate steamed dumplings each morning. In Japan they eat rice and miso soup- soup sounds good… Maybe I need to do some more research into Asian breakfasts, maybe later, but as I said I am hungry now.

As I sit here, early in the morning writing about breakfast, thinking about it, wondering what to eat/make, and still not sure. I ask myself “If I could have anything to eat right now, what would it be?” and honestly I don’t know. The danger here is that I will get increasingly hungry as I put off making a decision. I will snack on random things, and eat more than enough for a normal breakfast, and at some point make a decision and then eat what I will call breakfast, but is now my second breakfast… And so my day is off to a not so good start.

Each day I swear I will break this cycle. I will come downstairs to my kitchen, take my many herbs and supplements, make myself a smoothie, and move on to my day. Yes, I think today I will have that smoothie, and if I have it today, then maybe I will have it tomorrow too. I don’t think I will ever stop loving grits, and hash, and smoked salmon on an everything bagel, but today a smoothie sounds just fine.