new brekkies

You know what’s so fun? Mail. I love getting something exciting with my name on it (well before I photoshopped out my name and address :D Just take my word for it). Even better is FREE stuff in the mail.

I have sung the praises of slickdeals.net before, but seriously, if you want free stuff, go there. Forums>Freebies. Go marvel.

An exciting package:

Also got this in the mail and it just made me laugh:

The suburbs are such a surreal place. Only here would there be a company called “stars of the lawn”. Okay back to brekkers.

I *love* cream of wheat. It is my ultimate sick food. I think it is absolutely delicious. But, praise be, they have new INSTANT cream of wheat, and one of your options is Healthy Grain Cream of Wheat- aka WHOLE GRAINS! Because regretfully, I inhale a bowl of original cream of wheat… and then am hungry thirty seconds later. I need me some fiber, particularly in the mornings.

The package contained the sample, a coupon, and the rockin' nutritional info.

So my favorite Cream of Wheat topper is applesauce. We had some Mott’s Original but… there’s 22 grams of sugar in one one-cup serving. I decided to make my own.

One pink lady, chopped up on my sun-drenched cutting board.

Sprinkle with cinnamon, stir, nuke for one minute, stir, nuke for another minute.

Et voila:

I mixed up my Cream of Wheat. You mix it with 3/4 cup hot liquid, either water or milk. I decided to do all milk. I’ve been stressing about my calcium intake lately. I actually ended up adding an extra splash of hot water (already in my kettle for tea!) because it was quite thick- a lot more so than original cream of wheat.

The verdict? I loved it! I don’t think everyone would: it was thick, and bland, and tasted bran-y. If you’re like me, you LOVE that! It was also just very hearty and stick-to-your-ribs.

I spooned half my applesauce on top and had the other half with some chopped almonds.

An extremely satisfying and nutritious breakfast.

The previous morning, I woke up earlier than I cared to (7:40, which felt like 6:40 due to daylight savings).

I also woke up craving a cold breakfast. The only cereal we had (pre- yesterday's stocking up) was Special K, which is another one I where I eat it, enjoy it, and am ravenously hungry again ten minutes later. What I really wanted was overnight oats… but I had no over night! I decided to mix ‘em up, get back in bed and read, and see what happened.

The book:

Original photo here.

This book is amaaaaazing! If, like me, your interest in food/nutrition is part of a general fascination with the inner workings of the human body, you will love this book. She takes you through a day and all the things your body does in it without even realizing it.

Example: when you face a potentially stressful event (let’s see you’re crossing the street and panic at a car coming towards you) your body, as part of the stress response, starts releasing clotting factor in your blood in anticipation of an injury- even if you never get hurt!

So I finished that guy, and then came downstairs about an hour later, where the oats had already done some decent absorption.

Plus a banana, some pecans, and some cranapple butter, and I had myself a nice brekkie.

Finally, today’s brekkers. Another new product!

Not free (alas) but dramatically on sale for $2.29. I never pay more than $2.50 for cereal. It is already dramatically overpriced, and really I should only eat oats but sometimes I like some crunch. And I got to support organics, so that’s nice.

Okay so this cereal has a fabulous assortment of textures.

And is intensely, intensely crunchy, even with milk.

And the flavor rocks! It’s lovely and sweet and maple-y (if any out there loved French Toast Crunch- not its soggy and in my opinion inferior counterpart Cinnamon Toast Crunch- this cereal is for you). And this is in spite of only having 7 grams of sugar, which is pretty great for breakfast cereal. And it’s whole grain, gluten free (I mean I can have gluten but it’s nice for people who can’t), high in fiber, etc. A keeper!

To accompany, I finished off some fruit salad I made last night.

Jazz apple, banana, papaya, clementine, and strawberries. Lovely!

I love it when my breakfasts look like sunshine.

However, this had less protein (and probably calories in general) than my usual nut-ified breakfasts, so I had an emergency handful of soy crisps before running out the door to my second interview for a job (!) at noon.