breakfast for every meal

Since I basically eat oatmeal every day for breakfast since it is both extremely tasty and extremely filling, I tend to reserve all other “traditional” breakfast foods for other meals.

Omelets! So filling… at lunchtime.

My omelets typically involve

1. Greens

2. Cheese

Sometimes they are pretty, sometimes not. I’d call this one medium pretty.

 

Toast for grains group. Celery for veggies group. Grapes for the fruit group. Always bucket of tea.

  

Fun fact: I went to brunch for like two seconds one time and then left.

Actually, I dropped my boyfriend off for brunch… with my former boss who hates me… so I declined to stay.

But we were at Dama, my beloved favorite Ethiopian place. So before former boss arrived, largely due to anxiety and desire to fill the time on my part, we ordered some attractive Ethiopian bread. Whole wheat! Wrapped in leaves! Too bad she showed up and I had to run out the door immediately and didn’t have more than a bite. Me and my incredible social skills.

On less awkward topics, back to oats. Did I say I typically have oats for breakfast? Sometimes I have it for lunch, too.

Overnight oats, actually, their container hinting at their contents:

 

That Greek yogurt, non-nonfat. Non lowfat. FAT fat! A welcome hostess gift from the boyfriend, who came over for dinner some night and bestowed a few upon me.

The full-fat stuff falls FIRMLY in the treat category (you kind of gasp at the saturated fat grams), but my heavens, a few spoonfuls on one’s overnight oats (along with milk, oats, ‘n fruit) makes for a decidedly heavenly bowl.

And the Greeks would approve. There wasn’t a lot of low-fat over there.

Along with a gorrrrrrrgeous salad. Gosh I am remembering how good this was and planning on making it again (full disclosure: I ate all the stuff in this post like two months ago. I am hella behind on blogging).

Okay, so my mom made her Mom’s beet salad which is sliced roasted beets and raw sweet onion, tenderized in a bath of olive oil and red wine vinegar.

SO AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS.

Along with that I plated up some greens, tofu, and avocado. SUCH a complete salad, SO delicious.

We’ll call this a breakfast lunch hybrid.

Another classic in the breakfast-lunch hybrid category is the poached egg on salad.

 

So great, right?! I just did greens and shredded carrot, plus avocado, plus a drizzle of lemon, so then the lemon (acid) avocado (fat) and egg yolk (more fat!) emulsified into this blissful dressing atop the veggies. Stupid good.

Part of this complete (breakfast for) lunch with yogurt ‘n apple ‘n flatbread ‘n peanut butter.

Along with every breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack/dessert/anything, tea is served. Always. Why? I am always cold. I am never adequately hydrated. I am always seeking the warming comforting  nostalgic vapor and flavor of tea.

My mom and sister both concur.

So our tea kettle gets a LOT of use.

So it died, finally. So my mom got a new one. The EXACT same model as the last one, cause it treated us nice.

To clarify, lest we go, “Curses! There’s that broken kettle on the counter, taunting us as we heat water in the microwave!” she labeled it. Ah, the joy of a shiny new tea kettle.

Fun fact: we need an electric, rather than stove-heated kettle, because certain people I know have left kettles on stoves and then left. And forgotten them. I have not done this, but several of my loved ones (related and non-) have done so. Because there are enough stressors in the world, we have an electric kettle, which politely boils the water and turns itself off.

Sunday brunch creation:

For the meal when you have a little more time to make something exciting. And want a certain filling oomph.

CARROT CAKE OATS!

Dessert for brunch!

Ingredients:

Oats in your preferred quantity (I do 1/2 cup)
Milk/water ratio of your choice (I do half and half)
For seasoning: cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg
For sweetness: fresh and/or dried fruit; I’ve done fresh pineapple slices, dried dates, Craisins
For carrot cake essential bliss: roasted carrots (chopped up teeny tiny, put on a cooking spray’d baking sheet and roasted til golden), and roasted pecans (again, just popped in the toaster oven til aromatic)

WOWZA!

 

Things that would likely also be extremely good in this:

Coconut

Raisins

Cottage cheese

Some sort of cream cheese icing

Maple syrup

What else?

 

Speaking of roasted, this creation here was the BEST dinner.

We had farmer’s market tomatoes. Which seems like a contradiction in terms in winter, but greenhouses. Whoo. (Whoo? What are peoples’ thoughts: does the shortened transit make it okay to buy local tomatoes in winter even though greenhouses suck up more energy? What are the carbon ethics?!)

Anyway, they were good (fresh and local) but not great (winter.)

So, ROAST! Olive oil salt and pepper. For awhile.

 

Meanwhile, PROTEIN PLATE! (This meal was the ultimate in leftover utilization)

Leftover steelhead. Hard boiled egg. Crumbled goat cheese.

 

Meanwhile CARB PLATE. My sister had brought home three bagels and immediately forgotten about them for weeks so I turned them into bagel chips.

 

Then tossed on some whole wheat toast, for whole grains.

 

Then tomatoes out of oven and behold a VEGGIE PLATE!

Roasted tomaters, beautiful farmer’s market wee cucumbers, avocado, beautiful farmer’s market microgreens.

I’m thinking radishes would also make a delicious addition. 

And thus (rounded out with some macaroni and cheese and spinach my sister had made), a NEW YORK DELI MAKE YOUR OWN SHMEAR DINNER EXTRAVAGANZA!

Billions of mini bites of bliss.

If, like me, you like eating interactively (grabbing things, smearing things, combining things, eating with your hands, recommending combinations to other people, trying bites that combine as many flavors as possible), I highly recommend this style of meal.

LIKE bagel chip with cucumber, fish and microgreens. OR toast with roasted tomato and hardboiled egg. FUNNEST DINNER EVER.