Tuesday, March 23, 2010

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:

edited cream of wheat

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

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

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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.

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

Et voila:

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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.

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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.

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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:

awesome 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.

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

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Finally, today’s brekkers. Another new product!

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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.

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And is intensely, intensely crunchy, even with milk.

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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.

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

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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.

11 comments:

Tamara Marnell said...

That fruit salad looks brilliant! Man, I wish we had affordable fresh papaya out here in the corn fields...

Genesis said...

interesting book.

ive never had overnight oats but i guess its the same as when I mix my oatmeal in some yogurt and wait maybe an hour, same thing happens...oatmeal softens up...and its really good.

Anonymous said...

ooh - new YUMMY brekkies! Everything looks great. I love making baked apples - and also love the taste of whole grains and especially bran!!

Lauren said...

I'm totally gonna try Cream of Wheat now! I bet I'll love it :-)

Good luck on the job interview chica!!!;-)

Molly said...

you must try my breakfast usual:
1 T cream of wheat
1/3 cup oatmeal
1 banana
1 cup water

top with peanut butter and cinnamon!

do it do it! The texture from the cream of wheat is amazing!

Ana said...

I have never had cream of wheat!! Your b-fasts do look delicioso and very sunshiny:)

La said...

Ha I love this post. I love breakfast - especially cream of wheat!! I miss that stuff...must get some asap.

Karin said...

Goodies in the mail are great. Especially when they involve food :)
Great breakfast eats!

Anonymous said...

That book sounds very interesting. I am going to put it on my must read list. And your breakfast sounded very yummy!! ;)

Vaala ◪ said...

I agree, getting stuff in the mail is awesome (well, except bills and boring stuff like that).

Astra Libris said...

Congratulations on the second interview!!! You rock!! I'm soooo excited about the whole grain cream of wheat - I loooove cream of wheat! :-)