Day 29 - Breakfast Food

I could probably exist pretty happily on breakfast food three times a day for quite a while before I would get bored. Breakfast is the meal I look forward to the most each day. Breakfast is also the meal that I most love eating out in a restaurant - although I try not to, because I have trouble resisting the "bad" stuff (bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, toast, pancakes, french toast, eggs benedict, etc).

During the week, I try to keep my breakfast fairly simple. One thing remains constant. I start each and every breakfast off with half a grapefruit. I never let myself run out. Grapefruit is mandatory.

Then, I usually switch back and forth between a cold cereal with unsweetened Almond milk (LOVE the Almond Milk) and hot cereal cooked in Almond milk (LOVE the Almond Milk). My favorite cold cereal is Kellogg's Guardian and my back-up is Special K. For hot cereal, I switch between oatmeal, cream of wheat, and oat bran. Always cooked on the stove top (microwaved hot cereal is not the same).

Lately, I have been leaning more often towards cold cereal, and I'll tell you why... While I love the hot cereal, I also love to "pimp it up" with lots of yummy add ins. But the ADD INS can really ADD UP and derail an otherwise very calorie conscious breakfast. Here are some of my favorite add ins for hot cereal:

1. 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1/2 mashed banana and 2 tsp honey.
2. 1/2 mashed banana and 2 tsp molasses.
3. 2 tsp light butter and salt. Then top oats with poached egg and 15g grated cheese.
4. 1 tbsp brownie mix and 1/2 mashed banana (peanut butter too is good here).
5. Cook oatmeal in leftover coffee, then add cocoa and sugar.
6. Grated Apple with cinnamon and raisins.
7. Mashed Pumpkin with pumpkin pie spice and brown sugar.
8. Cook the oatmeal in the juice from canned peaches. Then stir in the peaches with sugar and sprinkle shredded coconut on top.

Over time, I started adding more and more things to my hot cereal until it got a little out of control. So, lately, I will try to limit the add ins to 100 calories. But I can't do some of my favorites (e.g. #1 or #3 above) for 100 calories.

Every Sunday I have a special treat that I look forward to ALL week. Toast! Toast is one of my biggest weaknesses. During times in the past when I have gone on crazy binges, toast has often been the trigger/culprit. I'll just eat slice after slice of toast with butter/honey, butter/jam, butter/molasses... it's dangerous. So every Sunday morning, I let myself have some. Just for two slices of toast, it is a higher calorie breakfast than any of my other days. I make homemade bread, and figure out the nutritional info per gram. Two slices usually comes to around 200 calories, then I'll use 2 tsp of light margarine per slice, and 1 tbsp of some sort of topping (usually a jam or marmalade) per slice. This can add up to 350+ calories, not including my grapefruit. But its worth it, because it keeps me from feeling "toast deprived" which can lead to "toast binges".

Here's what I ate yesterday (see my "cold cereal breakfast"? I had it twice, for breakfast and for a snack after my run!)