I love food. I have always loved food. I love pretty much all the components of food; menu planning, grocery shopping, cooking it, eating it…photographing it. The only part I don’t like is the dishes, but I don’t consider them to be food related, it's just the inevitable carnage that comes with cooking.
Considering all this, you may be quite surprised to learn that I absolutely detest breakfast. It repulses me in every way: the socially acceptable elements, the timing, the effort.
The elements of breakfast are my first complaint-literally everything involves eggs in some way. As we all know, eggs are direct decedents from the devil. Odorous, slimy, runny, yolky….I shudder just thinking of them. The smell alone makes me want to vomit. I never cook them for myself and can find other options at home, but it makes things mighty tricky when we go out to breakfast. Next time you go out to breakfast, try ordering something off the menu that does NOT include eggs-it's a challenge. (I don’t like pancakes either, but let’s save that for another time). Side note: am I a picky eater?? I say no.
Second is the timing. Who in their right mind wakes up and is hungry first thing in the morning!? This ties in with the effort because I also don’t generally want to wake up and put in all the energy preparing myself something to eat. By prepare, I mean peeling the lid off my Greek yogurt. All I want to do is sip my coffee, read my books and remind myself that mornings are opportunities to accomplish new things, not a means of torture.
Regardless of my excuses, I laced up my grownup shoes and committed to eating breakfast on a regular basis. Intellectually, I know that there are numerous health benefits of starting the day with a healthy meal. Not only does it help boost over-all metabolism, but I notice a huge difference in my workouts when I have been properly fueling my body throughout the day, starting in the morning.
After some research, I found a solution to my problem. I realized I was being high maintenance and decided to just get over myself and eat the stupid breakfast! Just kidding, but that would have been very cool of me. Instead, I found…baked oatmeal!!!! What makes me the most excited about baked oatmeal are the innumerable variations and possibilities that it offers. If you look up “baked oatmeal’ on Pinterest you will find enough recipes to eat a different oatmeal every morning for a year!
Below is a link to my favorite one so far. I will cut down on the sugar in the future because it tastes more like a dessert than breakfast. I have also used this as an opportunity to slip myself the things I generally don’t remember to eat; flaxseeds, chia seeds, collagen powder…
What I do NOT like in baked oatmeal is protein powder. Like most Crossfitters and exercise freaks, I am obsessed with getting my daily protein and will look for any way to add more protein to whatever I am eating. Protein powder has a delightful place in many areas of life, but I cannot handle it in oatmeal because the dish becomes so incredibly dense that I feel like I am eating a glue stick. Which, for those of you who have never actually eaten a glue stick, is quite unpleasant.
Thus, I go forth; adulting so hard with my breakfasts…an aura of maturity surrounding me.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/113997434295907228/