What's For Breakfast

[jenglish]

Okay, Breakfast has never been my favorite meal. It is easy to skip and besides from the few choices I know I should eat, what do I eat? I know No-S does not restrict my diet, but I need to eat to keep my heart healthy and my cholesterol low.

Lately, I have been baking muffins to go along with my yogurt and walnuts for breakfast. Sometimes I add a banana, sometimes not. I enjoy the muffins, they are VERY good, but at 130 calories each, they may not be the healthiest choice I make.

As a child, cheese grits, eggs, bacon, sausage, ham or liver pudding, pancakes or waffles, hot buttered biscuits, creamed chipped beef on toast, corned Beef Hash were FAVORITES. Mama was not above substituting leftover fried fish, Chicken wings or Pork Chops for other breakfast meats.

As an Adult I have grappled with breakfast, generally choosing to skip it, if it was not tasty. My Southern roots grow long and deep and often, if I could not have cheese grits and fried fish or creamed chipped beef or some other childhood favorite, it was easy for me to justify skipping it.

Now I often enjoy an egg white omelet with spinach, tomato and feta cheese with a slice of Ezekiel Bread. I also enjoy leftover grilled veggies from dinner with Ezekiel bread.

Having a definite aversion to the liquid that is meant to nourish baby cows, but I have been known to pour a bowl of Uncle Sam’s cereal, dump my yogurt and walnuts over it and eat away.

My current muffins, yogurt and walnuts is about to wear thin. A variety of healthy breakfasts would be a big help for me. What are some of your favorite healthy breakfasts?

[StrawberryRoan]

Nothing wrong with putting cereal in your yogurt. I often crumble a cereal bar of some kind into my yogurt and add flax seed, yummy.

They sell yogurt with grapenut like cereal nuggets in it so I don't see why one coudn't put whatever cereal they wanted in to give it some crunch.

I'm not a big breakfast eater in general, more like ten oclock brunch. I might eat a boiled egg and a cheese stick or something - I don't really eat meat but one could certainly wrap a slice of lean turkey or something around the cheese stick, maybe half a blueberry bagel or some toasted raisin bread. Glad the fresh fruit is coming into season in the Midwest, that's always a good choice. I enjoy grapefruit (red) yearround.

If I eat too early, I just eat and eat and eat.

[kccc]

My favorites are:

1) Oatmeal/muesli. NOT instant - old fashioned, which I mix with milk and put in the fridge the night before. I add a dash of salt, a LOT of cinnamon, and maybe raisins/nuts. Delish, and filling.

2) Bagel with PB and banana

3) Scrambled egg sandwich (this is one of my childhood comfort foods)

4) Yogurt with fruit

I'm sure you'll get a lot of other ideas. Good luck!

[la_loser]

The idea about mixing your yogurt with your cereal is exactly what I do often, particularly during the school year. It's my 'DEFAULT" breakfast. I have to get up at 5:20 am to give me time to get ready and drive the commute to my school--no way do I have time to add a meal that early as well. So I keep yogurt/fruit cups in my fridge at work and mix them with either Fiber One or Kashi Go Lean. I've never ever liked milk with cereal but this is very different. Sometimes I'll add some seeds or nuts too. Really tasty.

Growing up I was pretty convinced that eggs were gross and made me sick (just a child's view of it-finally learned to eat eggs with catsup-my mother's idea- then finally as an adult learned how good all kinds of eggs are!). Anyway, back in those days my mother would make me all kinds of stuff for breakfast that were definitely non-traditional. But at least I wasn't starving all morning! I've never been much of a fresh veggie or fruit eater-but these allow me to include some fresh stuff to make it more balanced. To this day, I still have some of those items as breakfast foods:
-ham and cheese sandwich
-grilled cheese sandwich with fruit on the side
-egg salad or egg salad sandwich with some celery added
-chicken salad or chicken salad sandwich (with apple and grapes added)
-whatever is left over from the night before--mix up some mashed potatoes with a left over green beans and melt some cheese on top. . .
-corn or flour tortilla with ANY thing in it--cheese, left over chicken or ground sausage, scrambled eggs with salsa--actually that's what we call taquitos--a breakfast burrito in other words.
-a couple of squares of leftover cornbread with a slice of ham or cheese.

It's often my chance to get rid of stuff in the fridge so my husband doesn't decide to toss it out later!

Plenty of people will suggest all sorts of things that they eat for breakfast that would be tasty and interesting. . . but to me, this is the meal that should fast, easy and perhaps portable depending on your situation so don't over complicate it. I'm also one of those whose stomach doesn't "wake up" really early so as long as I've had some liquids in me, I can wait till mid-morning to actually eat something which helps if lunch will be late.

[ams09]

I like fast and convenient, too, during the work week. I'll generally have cereal with milk and add some sort of fruit like a banana or blueberries. Or alongside the cereal if I don't have the first two fruits I may eat half a red grapefruit, strawberries or peaches. All these fruits (except the banana) are Texas grown which I eat in season. In addition I'll have a slice of buttered toast. I find that cereal and fruit plus toast holds me until lunch.

On weekends we have eggs, bacon, toast, sometimes grits or pancakes with it. Breakfast and lunch are my biggest meals, I don't eat alot at supper.

[winnie96]

Although I'm devoted to my oatmeal with blueberries and walnuts and a sprinkle of Fiber One, every once in awhile, I treat myself to breakfast at a local diner and go for the Big Breakfast (3 eggs, bacon or sausage, toast with butter, hash browns with ketchup, orange juice, coffee with cream). It's wonderful, but it's so much food that I usually end up re-devoting myself to the oatmeal. And the other day, I woke up late and had to dash, so I made a sandwich with leftover meatloaf to eat on the go -- nice change of pace! I'm going to be thinking about having something different maybe once a week. I've have been having, and really enjoying, the oatmeal for years, but you're right: the usual can get old, especially for those of us with fond childhood breakfast memories: (your mention of cheese grits sure did bring back some of them for me!) And after the meatloaf incident, I'll be looking at non-traditional breakfast foods.

[MysteryLover]

Since I try to wait and have my breakfast until 9am, I need something that I can just take to work with me. Today I brought 2 toasted Kashi waffles with peanut butter and some fresh fruit. Oh, and I have my coffee when I first get up in the morning.

[mimi]

Peanut butter and banana sandwich with coffee is my usual! Sometimes I alternate with cereal (cold Fiber One or oatmeal) or eggs. We make homemade *egg McMuffins* sometimes on the weekends.

Mimi

[ajbrownies]

I usually eat oatmeal. I think I am learning instant is not so very filling though, with toast and fruit. I also enjoy smoothies (fresh fruit, yogurt and some milk and blend) or egg white omlet always a good choice. I once heard not having a huge variety is actually a good thing. If you find something you like and it's healthy stick with it. You can change it up a bit if you get bored, but if you aren't bored with it don't worry about it.

[MB]

I am a southern girl from Georgia myself and I love grits,sausage,fried food,and sweet tea. What are some Southern meals that you still eat on this diet? I have an addiction to Sausage biscuits for breakfast. LOL

[jenglish]

Southern girls love Southern food and I don't deny myself. If I choose, I have any southern meal I want. I do not look at this as a DIET; I see it as a way to let my body change my eating habits. There are no food restrictions, only NO SECONDS, NO SWEETS, and NO SNACKS on days that DO NOT begin with an S.

In letting my body change my eating habits, I find that I am changing my lifestyle. I find I am getting more in touch with my body regarding food. I am learning more about how I relate to food and how my body needs to relate to food.

This No S diet is giving me the opportunity to let my body tell me when to eat and what to eat. If my body wants grits, sausage, bacon pancakes, it has them, if it wants fried chicken or fish, potato salad macaroni and cheese, it has them, but I am finding that my body does not want that type of food as much as my mind does.

I find that my body wants FUEL and my mind wants FOOD. I really do well on my yogurt, nuts, fruit and whole grain breakfasts. Sometimes, I will have a spinach and feta cheese omelet; I will bake whole grain muffins. I am finding that those types of FOOD are FUEL and if I FUEL my body properly, I am NOT hungry and I DO NOT SNACK.

Sounds funny but the more I get into this, the more this old shell actually tells me, not only when it NEEDS to eat, but what it NEEDS to eat. I look to FUEL, not particularly to FEED. I make healthier food choices. My body lets me know what it needs and I am finding I enjoy the healthier choices I am starting to make.

[oliviamanda]

I am not a fan of anything sweet for breakfast because I feel like I am having an "S"... so I often have eggs. I do not like eggs all the time but I have recently been hard boiling them and eating them warm (2) along with an English muffin.

Sometimes I will make an egg in the hole instead, but taking a piece of bread and cutting out a shape (square, circle, heart... whatever to make it fun)... and butter/spray the pan, place bread and crack one egg in the middle, flip when firm enough to do so and sprinkle some shredded cheese on top and let that melt... voila! It takes only a few minutes and it's great... and for all you out there that still try to cut carbs... you are not eating the whole piece of bread!

[la_loser]

Jenglish,
You seem to really have the concept down well.

MB,
I hear you about those favorites too. J's right, you CAN still have them. But if you're like me, my history has not been to only have "one plate" of those items. . . i.e. I could live on biscuits and gravy. . . but until No S, I thought that really meant 3 or 4 biscuits with lots of sausage gravy. Now I limit myself to 1 or no more than 2 biscuits with only enough gravy for each biscuit--I don't let myself have an additional "side" bowl of gravy too. . . at least this is how I handle it on N days. . . since beginning No S, I've tended to usually leave those kinds of delicacies (yeah, you people who didn't grow up on this just have no idea what a comfort food it is!) to weekends. That solves it all. I CAN HAVE MY BISCUITS (plural) AND GRAVY AND EAT THEM TOO!

Would I be losing weight FASTER if I dumped all those things from my menus? Probably.
Would I (or have I EVER) stayed on any kind of eating program that denied me those things long term? Most likely not (never have before!)
Have I figured out after a while that I feel better when I'm making "healthier" choices and can be happy saving most of those faves for S days? Absolutely! -- What a teachable moment for me!
Am I satisfied with No S because it's helping me create healthy habits, lose weight slowly and see that this is a sustainable life style? Absolutely!

[BigE]

I don't know if my advice will be helpful because I've been a breakfast eater for years. Hard to remember though after my current obsession that in high school my mother used to literally throw a bagel at me as I walked out the door -- in an attempt to get me to eat something in the morning. In college I never ate breakfast because it meant getting up early and rolling into the dining hall.

For years I ate cereal but then switched to whole grain toast for better portion control (I can fit a LOT of cereal in one bowl). My absolute FAVORITE, can't-live-without bread for breakfast toast is Arowheat Winter Wheat with REAL whipped butter. I'm on day ONE of No S so I had to add more calories to my breakfast -- I added two fried eggs and blueberries (I was worried that otherwise I wouldn't make it to lunch without my mid-morning snack). I absolutely love all those rich "brunch-like" foods, but I've found it truly is a matter of habit -- it just wouldn't ever occur to me to eat pancakes or quiche if it wasn't on a weekend.

[wosnes]

For years I ate cereal but then switched to whole grain toast for better portion control (I can fit a LOT of cereal in one bowl).

Portion control is important! I used to have a very obese patient who said she only had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Finally someone asked her how big the bowl was. She was filling a rather large mixing bowl with cereal every morning.

I used to have some cereal bowls that actually held about a cup of cereal. My current bowls hold well over 3 cups -- way too much. But the bowls do look empty when I put a standard serving of cereal in them.

jenglish...I'm not much of a breakfast eater; it's easier for me to omit it than eat it. When I do eat breakfast, I usually have only toast and fruit. Every now and then I'll add a couple of eggs to that.

[Over43]

I usually have 2-3 eggs scrambled, two sausage links (or bacon), a slice of sourdough or whole wheat toast and about 6 ounces of orange juice. I find if I don't a substantial breakfast then the rest of the day is often shot to heck. Sometimes I'll grab a quick breakfast at a drive thru. I have found the Sonic egg/sausage burrito to be the most filling. I usually eat half the tots, and get a diet drink. I should pay attention to their menu, maybe they have orange juice?

J.

[FarmerHal]

I hate breakfast. I have hated it for years, but still you really need breakfast.
I think it was all those years of cereal and toast and then a subsequent stomach ache... i am lactose intolerant and didn't figure it out until well into my 20's!

Anyway, since the traditional b'fast foods seem to only make me hungry all day, I have found a default that I like pretty well.

Chicken breast butterflied and sauteed in white whine served with a bag of those steamer mixed veggies. There are many different varieties and some have the sauce on them already.

Keeps me full and steady energy all morning and sometimes I'm not even hungry for lunch.