Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Most important meal of the day?

I have bipolar breakfast disorder. When I have my younger son, I always make a full breakfast for him and, as a consequence, for myself. Usually, a scaled-down version for me. I think he'd consider my part to be a snack compared to the larger plateful I give him. But I'm not a growing 16 year old boy.
When I saw this heart-shaped potato in the bin at the grocery store, I had to get it. I guess it's really two potatoes that grew together, now that I think about it. I split it in half and broiled it with olive oil and paprika.
I enjoy making a colorful breakfast for my son and am always glad to have it myself. But. I virtually never make breakfast for myself on the weekdays when I don't have my son with me. I don't know why, but I usually make do with a cup of coffee. And then a couple of hours into work, I'm starving.
During my yoga and nutrition class, we did a section on whole grains. I bought a few to try, but never got very organized about it. The beauty of my newly de-cluttered kitchen, though, is that it frees up the mental energy to do things a little differently. I filled a canister with several grains: steel cut oats, barely, farro, chia seed, wheat germ and a little 10 whole grain cereal mix. I keep it on the counter where I can see it.
One cup of the mix with four cups of water makes a five little bowls (almost 2 cups of cereal in each). In each little pyrex bowl, I add chopped walnuts and pecans, raisins, chopped dried apricot, cinnamon, honey, maple syrup and a little milk.
Now I have a week's worth of breakfasts at a time. Which I actually don't eat until mid-morning because I usually hit the ground running when I get to work. Still, when I have them all ready to be heated, I do eat them and it beats snacking on junk food. I'm finding it interesting to watch how clearing out the excess lends itself to making practical changes in my life.