Thursday, February 11, 2010

Breakfast

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I can see that... you've just gotten out of bed after fasting for 8 hours or so and it's important to get a good load of fuel in there. For years, my breakfast of champions has been either: peanut butter & jam with toast (2 slices) & a glass of milk or... a bowl of cereal. I can go for months with the same breakfast day after day after day. When I was studying in Edmonton, my landlady was always asking me if there wasn't something else I would like for breakfast other than toast and PB&J... I'd always say I was just fine! And it's true!! This past year though, I've experimented a little bit. For a while I was having a bowl of cottage cheese with walnuts and craisins. I had always avoided cottage cheese because (a) it wobbles, (b) it's white and lumpy, (c) it's sour. Yes, I know... cottage cheese is not sour. But in my mind, it was in the same shaped containers as sour cream, was next to them on the dairy shelf... ergo, it was sour. Anyhow, that little story of mine got blown out of the water. And it's an OK breakfast, if a little expensive and garbage-producing. Those cottage cheese containers, even the 750 ml varieities don't go very far. So, I was going through an awful lot of containers... Which creates waste... sigh! In the last couple of weeks, I've decided to embrace... gulp... oatmeal (ick!). I have never liked oatmeal. Have never tried oatmeal! But never liked it. It's a sight/texture thing for me. It looks like grey-gruel... But it is supposed to be very healthy (whole grains and all that)... so I bit the bullet and bought a 2 kg bag of rolled oats. Once I decide to do something, I do it! So, I figured a 2 kg bag would do me for a while... only $6 too! I have made oatmeal in the past for friends, but this was a new experience... making it for me... After much research on the internet, where I learned that you can put basically anything you want on top of oatmeal, I made my first bowl and used brown sugar and cinnamon. It's actually not half-bad. It was a bit runny but that can be fixed. So, I've experimented over the last few weeks, and am quite taken with it. It takes a bit longer to cook mind you... but in the end it is dirt cheap, sticks to my ribs a bit longer than the other stuff... and it's good for me!

Which just goes to show me that my I need to examine my preconceived notions about all sorts of things... not just breakfast meals... like cottage cheese and oatmeal. I still draw the line at mushrooms though... I've tried them and they texture is absolutely disgusting... But who knows... maybe they just haven't been cooked the right way???? We'll see...

2 comments:

Dolores said...

First of all, Google keeps kicking me off and won't accept my Password and I have to keep re-registering my membership...do you know anything about this stuff?
Does Calgary not have a recycling program for the plastic containers? We have a good one here in our small Valley. Some of us consider recycling to be a small bit of a spiritual practice.
"The Earth does not belong to us. We belong to the Earth." (Chief Seattle)

Lori said...

There, you see? Oatmeal is not that bad once you add a bit of flavour to it in the form of brown sugar or fruit. I must agree with you on the mushroom issue, though...mushrooms can be eaten both raw and cooked, and either way, they are disgusting, both in flavour and texture. I think if there is something you have tried and you really don't like it, then there's not much you can do to improve it. You don't have to like everything, but you can't say you don't like something if you've never tried it!