The First Supper

Breakfast is by far my favourite meal of the day. Brekky, for me, sets the tone and the standard for the rest of the day. If I have a fatty, sugary breakfast, then I only crave fatty and sugar foods for the following 24 hours. When I have a healthy, well balanced breakfast, I crave fresh, whole food for the rest of the day. It really does dictate what my day of food will involve.

In addition to this, breakfast is what it is, a 'break' of the 'fast'. Your tummy and insides have been cleaning themselves all night preparing for the next day and you have this grand opportunity to make it incredibly happy, so it makes no sense to me why people put too much butter on white bread with some jam and give that to their hard working insides. Yes it's easy, fast and cheap before work, but so's an apple, (or wholegrain bread with no butter but some peanut butter instead. Or both!). Imagine you spent all day cleaning your car only to have an overtaker splash mud all over you? I bet you'd much rather someone come along and polish it. Although, unlike the occasional white bread with butter, I don't think mud on your clean car is ever good. Even in moderation.

Right now, my usual 'every day' breakfast is home made un-toasted muesli, with fresh or stewed, (without sugar), fruit, and most of the time, some yoghurt. I always wake up to a glass of water with a squeeze of lemon juice and not for the detox benefits some people claim it has, but because I love the freshness in the morning! I follow with a green or peppermint tea. On weekends this usually changes and is accompanied by an long decaf macchiato.

It took me a while to get into making muesli, but now I've started, I'm addicted. The following is what I have in my current one, but it changes every brew. If you want to make your own muesli but are lacking in inspiration, have a look at http://www.mueslimixer.com.au .

Natalie's Current MuesliI;(Please don't ask for quanitites)A lot of rolled oatsFlaked almondsRaisinsSesame seedsSunflower seedsBran flakes & strawsDried apricot
M;Dice fruit & mix it all together! I store it in the fridge to keep the nuts, seeds & fruit fresh.

So why do I eat this? The filling factor of muesli is amazing, plus the oils, vitamins and proteins from the nuts and seeds, and the fibre from the dried fruit a long with the little sugar hit it provides. The fruit always feels amazing on my stomach first thing, (I often have an apple before I leave for work, and eat the muesli when I am hungry again at work), as well as all the obvious vitamins from fresh fruit. The yoghurt is a calcium as well as a protein thing - I don't eat a lot of dairy otherwise (I buy Jalna Low Fat Vanilla or Strawberry, but the Vanilla is better with the muesli). Most importantly, all of the above tastes ridiculously amazing and is hard to get sick of.

The above is an M creation. He by no means eats this every day, but I like to make an event of weekend breakfast's and M seems to be appreciating this, which makes me happy. On this particular morning, I offered to make M a toasted sandwich which, when he asked, I explained I did in the griller. Oh the things you learn living together! M says the proper way to make a toasted sandwich was as above; fried in a pan, in butter. I'm not big on frying in butter and probably would never have done this myself, but this smelt amazing. He promised to make me one some day and I can't wait to try it.

This was a mini-event weekend breakfast, (probably a Sunday, they're always smaller). Almost all our meals from breakfast to dinner are this different in appearance and ingredients. We're very different eaters (and I'll write about the vegetarian health nut living with the meat eating pretty relaxed eater very soon). We always eat breakfast very late on the weekends to avoid eating 3 very large meals. A late breakfast signals time to relax in my brain.
So, I'd love to know, what do you have for breakfast?And why?
Stay well,Nat x