On Ivan’s recent posting which is Absolutely Not About Prunes 😉 , the question was raised about why certain foods are considered proper breakfast food and others not. So I got curious as to why it’s somehow okay to eat bacon & eggs for breakfast but not, say, spaghetti and meatballs. Like, how did that happen?
Why corn flakes and not deep-fried spicy prawns?
Perhaps it’s because most breakfast food nowadays is quite fast and simple to prepare – bowl of cereal, toast, yoghurt & fruit, etc… Is it just because we tend to be so rushed and bleary-eyed in the morning that we can’t put together anything more interesting or more complicated than those few options? Or are there specific foods that are actually better (healthier) to eat first thing in the morning…to break one’s fast?
What’s your favourite brekky and why?
casa azahar 
Last night’s leftover pizza 🙂
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On weekends, if we go out, veggie benedict or a tofu and veggie breakfast burrito. If I cook, I like a nice fritatta or sourdough pancakes.
On weekdays, I don’t take the time to cook a sit-down breakfast, because I leave the house around 5:45. Breakfast is usually a piece of fruit and cottage cheese, or the previous night’s dinner leftovers. Which frequently involves cold pizza or spaghetti (but no meatballs).
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Leftovers = breakfast, as far as I’m concerned. Doesn’t matter what it is.
I can’t help wondering if the breakfast cereal industry has done some really aggressive marketing at some point, and the collective subconscious has somehow accepted it as gospel truth.
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Leftover curry. Failing that, anything spicy, say a roll with fried egg and lime pickle. Cath likes either cereal or something sweet like toast and jam. Give me savoury any day.
I like a nice veggie fry up (eggs, halloumi, potatoes, tomato, mushrooms) – but not necessarily at breakfast.
Most mornings I can’t face food. It’s strictly coffee, mood stabilisers, anti-depressamts and Omega-3 capsules. IO can go most of the day without eating. I’m like a camesl, only prettier. Just.
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3 strips of bacon, browned and drained, topped with 2 eggs, cooked over easy, then flipped and cooked just a minute on the other side. With a couple of pieces of whole wheat toast, buttered. Orange juice. Because my mom used to make that for us on Sundays, that or pancakes.
What I *am* eating, because I have to eat better now: a carton of nonfat sugarfree yogurt (Yoplait, my favorite), 2 slices of whole wheat toast with either peanut butter or speadable fruit. Coffee, decaf with fat free half n half. Works for me if I can’t have the other…
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Curry for breakfast… Sounds fabulous to me. 🙂 It used to bother my sister when I had curry for breakfast, so of course that was all the more reason to do so.
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Hey, if it’s good enough for a billion Indians…
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In the past kedgeree was regularly eaten for breakfast by upper middle class/aristocratic Brits, which originated in Anglo India.
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/tools/recipefinder/display_recipe/0,,4170,00.html
Also I seem to remember from reading nineteenth century novels like Middlemarch all kinds of meat and fish were eaten. But then they got up around midday and were certainly never in a rush.
Personally all I can stomach in the morning is a few cups of strong Italian style coffee.
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It does depend how much time I’ve got – cereal is fine on normal (weekday) mornings.
A bit more time (to enjoy) then toast – with butter.
Plenty of time then for me you’d have to go a long way to beat fried bacon, eggs, mushrooms, sausage – maybe with beans and fried bread.
(Is it any surprise I’ve got some weight to lose?)
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My favorite breakfast is usually what we have. A fruit/yogurt smoothie made with (per person): 1 egg, 1/2C plain yogurt, 1 C fruit (usually blueberries or peaches), 1 T flax seed oil, 1T honey. Blend the heck out of it and serve.
I also like a bagel toasted w/ cream chesse.
And last night’s left over pizza, oh yeah.
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What is this leftover pizza of which you all speak? 😉
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LOL 😀
Reminds me of a series of meals during the Canadian holiday – a misjudgement in the size of pizzas meant we ordered enough that we ate all we could one night, then again for lunch the next day – and still ended up throwing the equivalent of one complete pizza (made up of several different kinds) away.
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“series of meals during the Canadian holiday”
Big Bad Johnny P this is a new one on me about Canadians and pizzas. Could you expand?
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Sorry – the Canadian holiday was discussed on Azahar’s Friends Photos thread in h2g2 – basically about a recent family holiday in Canada.
But whilst there, we wanted a cheap meal one night – and being very British, had a fixed idea about how big a pizza would be. Again, being British, we didn’t think to ask. With the result in my post above. IE – series of meals being evening meal then lunch the following day (+ throwing one complete pizza away) out of what was intended to be one evening meal.
We would have had plenty for a couple of breakfasts as well had we wanted to.
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Az, left over pizza. The stuff that is there the following morning??? You have to order too much for there to be left overs. I think.
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Big Bad Johnny P this is a new one on me about Canadians and pizzas. Could you expand?
🙂 He will if he eats too much pizza!
(sorry)
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“Az, left over pizza. The stuff that is there the following morning???”
Um, yeah I know … I was joking. 😕
Actually, we only ever go out for pizza (the order in stuff around here is total crap) and never end up with any leftovers.
Edward! 😀 You and zoomer oughtta get together. On second thought …
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Az, I figured you were joking, that’s why I put three question marks there as “She was trying to be funny ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” (Quote from Die Fledermaus) We don’t go out for pizza any more since Jim learned how to do a Neapolitan style crust. He always purposely makes too much because we like the cold pizza for breakfast thing so well. The three cheese pizza w/ pesto sauce is particularly great and yes, I admit it, I am bragging. (Sorry)
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I occasionally make my own pizzas, but I don’t do crust from scratch very often. Not because I’m lazy, but because I hate having to handle dough with my hands. We rarely go out for pizza, though, because all of the good local joints deliver and it’s more fun to eat it at home. And yes, we usually spring for a large enough pizza (not hard to do, since I can only handle one or two slices at once, depending on whether it’s thin crust or stuffed) to have a slice each for the next day’s breakfast.
Pesto sounds divine. I can’t eat it, though. I’ve been looking for a recipe I can make at home which substitutes something I am not allergic to for the pine nuts. Any suggestions, anyone? (Sorry if I’m drifting too much!)
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I think I sent you a nut-free pesto recipe earlier, PC … somewhere. Perhaps on your recipe post? Will look it up again – looks quite simple. And if you add a little extra fresh parmesan you shouldn’t really miss the pine nuts.
Yeah, if anywhere around here did nice home delivered pizzas I could see ordering a couple of them for variety and having the rest the next day. Our usual pizza place does those really nice thin, cripsy crusts and only have one size option (small, individual size) so that’s why we don’t end up with leftovers. We usually order two and ‘swap halves’.
The only thing we ever get delivered here are those whole chickens that have been roasted on a spit in front of huge gas-flame grills – very nice.
I think my favourite brekky (for every day, not weekend brunch) is wholegrain toast with a drizzle of olive oil and thinly sliced tomatoes on top. Yum.
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I’ll check the recipe thread and see if I find the pesto recipe. Now you mention it, I am pretty sure you did give it to me.
Wholegrain toast with olive oil and tomato sounds sublime right now. *drool*
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Breakfast is nice when you´re staying somewhere else and someone is making breakfastfor you. Then I can eat otameal porridge, toast, fruit, oj, coffee…
At home a fistful of pills swallowed down with some fruit juice followed by a large mug of strong coffee with hot milk. Sometimes toast with sliced turkey or salami- depending on what the cats prefer at the moment
I really don´t like to eat in the mornings
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Cat-based brekkies don’t sound like such a bad thing – they can often keep you healthier than you might be feeling inclined to be. *hug*
I have to admit I don’t usually get hungry for brekky until about 10am … but I do need my strong cup of cafe con leche first thing. If I skip breakfast I usually end up not eating again until mid-afternoon, which I don’t think is a good thing.
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I don’t think coffee (even with milk) counts as breakfast. Coffee is more like the elixir of life and you really don’t want to meet me at about 10 a.m. if I haven’t had any. . .Yes, I am an addict. We have become so addicted to Good Coffee that we now buy green beans and roast our own in a little roaster thingy we bought a year ago and once you have gone down that road it is very hard to go back.
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I found it hard ‘going back’ to not being able to grind my coffee beans every morning, as I used to do in Toronto, but moving to England meant I no longer had my fabulous Braun coffee mill (a proper grinding mill that could be set to various levels of grinding, not like those other types that are just like small blenders with blades 🙄 ). Also seriously missed my espresso/cappucino maker … but really, couldn’t take them with me.
The French press stuff we make at home is okay – end up using far more pre-ground coffee than is recommended. For a really good cup of coffee we go out to our favourite local breakfast bar and have proper fresh-ground espresso with hot milk.
But I only drink coffee in the mornings. Need at least two of them to crank-start the ol’ engine … any more than that turns me into a nervous wreck! 😉
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I started grinding my own beans at home about ten years ago, and I really would miss having the ability to do so. Although I no longer have my fancy-schmantzy high-end grinder and am now using a little single-button Krups grinder (which works fine). The Trader Joe’s here has really good selection of coffee beans, including several organic and/or fair trade options.
At work, they provide us with coffee. They buy packets of ground Starbucks stuff. And I’m so spoiled with fresh-ground, I rarely drink the stuff at work. Which is rough, because I can drink a cup of coffee every hour till lunch if it’s available.
For a REALLY special cup of coffee, we also visit a local 24-hour breakfast and sandwich cafe and have a “Zombie”: a huge mug containing two cups of coffee, three shots of espresso, hot milk, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup drizzled on top. My hands are usually shaking so much by the time I’ve finished that I wind up needing both hands to drain the cup. 😉
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Toast and tea for me.
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Is it wrong to crave salsa at 7 am?
I’ve been craving it for days, and I can’t stop. One of my favorite things to put on eggs or hash brown potatoes or…
I even got desperate enough to make some the other day — couldn’t afford to buy it, had to have it. Recipe here, if anyone’s interested. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/F1732240?thread=3495196
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Huevos Rancheros! Que bien! Que rrrrico!
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It’s not wrong to crave any foodstuff at any time, as far as I’m concerned. Though I’d make an exception for the ‘chili con tofu’ a friend of mine made once. Vile, that was.
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Mmmm! Huevos rancheros! Also chilaquiles!
I make a chili con tofu so good, no one has ever noticed it was tofu. 😉
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When I was in India I could never get into the habit of eating spicy stuff for breakfast, so it was always egg, or cereal with disgusting milk for me there.
Today I had one of my favourite breakfasty breakfasts – poached egg on toast and marmalade on toast (main course and pudding you see). But, I quite often just have last nights dinner for breakfast if I get up late, things like ratatouille and ragu go very nicely on toast, and leftover soup is always good.
Here’s another question: how many people eat breakfasty things not for breakfast? I know I do. I quite often have a bowl of cereal just before bed if I’m hungry. At two of the best restaurants in the world they’ve made a point of having breakfasty things on their menu. The Fat Duck in England has a pudding of bacon and egg icecream with tomato jam, caramelised brioche, morels and caramel sauce. (It didn’t quite do it for me ;-).) El Bulli in Spain has a seafood paella made with Kellogg’s rice krispies (which I haven’t tried sadly). I couldn’t find a picture of it, but I found this instead:
http://www.elbulli.com/catalogo/catalogo/anyo_familia.php?lang=en&id_familia=7&anyo=2005&id=1166
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Eeew … I’d read about that Fat Duck bacon & egg icecream. And to be honest, paella with rice krispies doesn’t sound too great either.
There’s an El Bulli hotel near Sevilla called Hacienda Benazuza where you can go for gourmet cooking lessons – 4 days for a mere 3,000€.
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Bargain!
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How does one cook a gourmet? Getting him to sit in the roasting dish might be a challenge at first.
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🙄
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Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.
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I’m quite fond of a big bowl of cereal in the mornings, especially if I chuck some raisins and sultanas on it.
Quite often, I’ll make too much ratbane curry (so-called because I left some out one night and next morning there was an exploded rodent next to the plate) and rice for myself and it becomes breakfast, which I rather enjoy.
Sometimes I’ll make pasta, just plain but quite salty, and if i’ve made a fruity Thai curry I usually leave some sauce aside for the next morning.
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Aren’t raisins and sultanas the same thing? (Carefully avoiding any mention of the deconstructed vermin referred to above)
Sometimes I’ll have breakfast for dinner, especially if I’m eating out. Omelettes are good at any time, I believe there’s a law or something.
BTW, McDonald’s has now announced that they will serve breakfast “all day” — whatever that means! *I* think it means that’s their most profitable meal of the day. I’m such a synic…;)
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Something that struck me during my first visit to US in 1980 was the possibility ho have breakfast around the clock.
I soon developed an unhealthy taste for pancakes with maple suryp and whipped butter. When I came home some five weeks later I had put on 7kgs…
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All-day-breakfasts are quite a popular thing in the US and I think even in Canada to a certain extent.
Yesterday we had a totally decadent brekky (well, brunch). Ham and cheese omelette sandwiches on toasted wholewheat bread, with lots of dijon mustard. It was fabulous!
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