January 07, 2010

In a Rut



There is nothing like starting your day out with a fresh blanket of snow to make you feel joyful and new. We have more of this coming our way and I will enjoy it even more when all my little ducks are home and I don't have to worry about them. This is just what I needed this morning on my first day at home by myself since the middle of December.


Speaking of mornings, mine have become very predictable and dull. This is what I start my day out with most every day. Sometimes I switch it up and have a low fat multigrain waffle with peanut butter instead. I know. I'm living on the edge. Please help me out of my rut by telling me what fairly healthy, fairly easy thing you love to eat in the morning. Don't be afraid to share the weird stuff. You're talking to a girl who's been known to eat hot chocolate mix dry and puts potato chips and chocolate syrup on her vanilla ice cream. Clearly I'm adventurous. And a foodie.

If, speaking of ice cream with chips and chocolate syrup, you have resolved to eat healthier this year, you should go pay a visit to the inspiring Tales from the Coop Keeper who is fighting the battle one pound at a time and taking us along for the ride. Then go read what Tiffany accomplished last year in her own battle of the bulge. She's an amazing success story. Then, if you want to learn how to save money on all that healthy food (because budget seems to be another popular resolution) then you should go visit Flower Patch Farm Girl and read this and this and you will be inspired. You will actually want to grocery shop. And save money. Who knew?

17 comments:

  1. I'm so vanilla when it comes to weekday breakfast. Special K with red berries or strawberry oatmeal and wheat toast. Sadly when we went to target last night for a few things they were out of bread completely so I am stuck with plain bagels.
    I will say though that since I got my new waffle maker I've been adding a little splash of vanilla and a pinch of nutmeg to the mix and they come out delish!

    Another tip that makes me feel all cheery when I'm in a rut is drinking out of big fancy merlot glasses. OJ just seems better out of a giant baloon wine glass.

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  2. Toast one frozen waffle. (I am partial to Eggo Buttermilk, but you can have a healthy kind, if you must.) Dollop some vanilla yogurt on top. (Dannon All Natural Vanilla. No ifs and or buts. OK, fine. Choose whatever kind you like...but it must be vanilla.) Top with chopped fresh fruit. Berries are best. But peaches are a close second. And I know that's only so helpful when we're all buried in snow and fresh peaches are months away.

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  3. I'm definitely going to check out those budget links, thank you! I'm not a breakfast eater at all so unfortunately I'm no help. Sometimes besides my coffee, I just mix up vanilla yogurt, fruit and granola sprinkled with just a few mini chocolate chips. I know it's boring but I have trouble getting anything down first thing in the morning.
    ~Michelle

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  4. I'm pretty boring at breakfast too. Kashi go lean every.single.morning!

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  5. Well, if you've been known to eat dry hot chocolate mix, you just might like chocolate toast. Lightly butter a piece of toast and then sprinkle on chocolate milk powder (Nesquik). I actually haven't had this in years, but your post made me think about it.

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  6. Sweet Jen, thanks for mentioning me....I hope my struggle can help someone. Speaking of peaches FPFG, I had a dream last night that there was a peach tree loaded with fruit the size of softballs, and that there were raspberry bushes so full of berries you couldn't even see the leaves, and there must have been twenty hummingbirds. It was a beautiful technicolor dream. I digress...

    What I like to eat for breakfast is a 1/4 cup of each mixed up in a bowl, yogurt, cottage cheese, fruit and granola. It's my morning gruel. Tasty, healthy, easy and quick. Doesn't require a lot of chewing either.....:-D

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  7. I've been on a honey and walnut kick, can't stop myself. I put it on greek yogurt, oatmeal, toast and so on.

    BTW, I'm just catching up and your "Joy" tray is one of the most amazing things I've seen lately!!! I may have to make my own version...Thank you for the inspiration, your such a talent!

    Lynea

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  8. I am compulsive, and eat the same thing for breakfast every day. Kashi cereal with fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries. Skim milk. Coffee, 2 Splendas, some half-and-half with a bit of French Vanilla Coffee Mate. Yeah, I know I go wrong on the last two.
    Brenda

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  9. OMG - I thought I was the only one who eats dry hot coco mix!! My husband & friends always pick on me for that...

    My current weekday breakfast..melting american cheese on a whole wheat bagel in the toaster oven. I call it, "Cheesey Bagel".

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  10. Your hot chocolate comment made me laugh out loud because I've been known to eat the Nesquik milk chocolate mix out of the tin! After reading all the girls post on their breakfast food I need to step it up a notch, I eat sort of fiber raisin cereal that I can't even remember the name of it, talk about boring!

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  11. Oh, so glad you asked! ;)
    I'm totally hooked on oatmeal...my husband and I took a cross country trip to Seattle this summer(we also live in central Indiana!)...we enjoyed various "presentations and embellishments" to what can be an ordinary breakfast...
    Most mornings at home, I enjoy adding a mixture of the following to my hot cereal: frozen raspberries, strawberries, chopped honeycrisp apples, walnuts, cinnamon and sweetener...YUMMY and so HEALTHY!!! Warning: Try it and you may be hooked! :)

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  12. Tea from a lovely teapot, fresh toast with unsalted butter and a dollop of homemade jam, and lastly, but never to be missed, a little bowl of blueberries and sometimes raspberries, topped with toasted pecans.

    Long ago my doctor told me to "eat blueberries for healthy eyes," so I always do that. In the summer I can have fresh ones from our little patch of blueberries on the bluffs by the sea. But in the winter, it is frozen berries tucked into the microwave for half a minute.

    Good, I promise.

    Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island

    P.S. Where in Indiana?? I am going to give a talk in Brown County at the T.C. Steele Historic site.

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  13. I like to eat yogurt with granola. Specifically I love the Yoplait lowfat raspberry yogurt with some granola on top.

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  14. I get in those ruts too. I like to stick to the tried and true. Two of the things I eat the most are spinach quiches from South Beach Diet cookbook, this blueberry & banana smoothie with protein powder (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/recipe.php?recipeId=2420), hard boiled eggs and although I am not a cereal person, I love Kashi Blueberry Morning cereal.

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  15. Oh man, I just fell asleep thinking about my boring morning banana....I can see I need to broaden my horizons. A couple years ago, I was hooked on Kashi's Cocoa Beach granola - seriously, chocolate for breakfast - it was great stuff.
    Love your snow picture....so pretty.

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  16. OK - you asked for it. Breakfast is almost always high-fibre bread toasted crisp with a little butter and french marmalade with a bit of sharp cheese along with tea. However, it is not what is eaten but what it is served on that is important. I always use my favorite well-worn china luncheon plate - the pattern is American Rose. And the tea is made properly in a china teapot and served into one of my many old lovely teacups and saucers.
    Last year I lost 30 lbs (on Weight Watchers - and gained back 5 over the holidays for a net loss of 25) I still want to loose about 30 more.

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  17. well...i'm no adventurous eater...HOWEVER....last year i lost about thirty pounds....and ONE of the things i did was eat my carbs and fruit in the mornings...and then i try to stay away from carbs most of the rest of the day....so if i want a handful (or more) of really sweet grapes or a cupcake or a rice krispie treat, i eat it in the morning...never in the afternoon or evening....i've been known to save cakes and cookies for breakfast with my coffee....and then no more carbs the rest of the day....anyway...i'm a vanilla latte girl...every. morning. vanilla. latte. sometimes....WHOLE WHEAT TOAST....i know. crazy.

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