Better Mornings

Tip #2

E A T breakfast. Preferably H O T and homemade. 

A crucial habit to almost anyone who wants to begin to rock their mornings is a real, hot, home-cooked B R E A K F A S T. I say "almost" anyone because some people are in comas. Or have night shifts at work and their morning is really their evening. But if you're not hospital bound with feeding tubes for sustenance, or completely out of sync with the sun in your internal circadian rhythm (in either case, not likely reading this blog and tying to become a morning person,) you should really consider adding a hot breakfast to your daily routine.

And by "hot breakfast" I really do mean a meal that has been cooked. At the risk of offending almost everyone in America, I'm going to make the bold statement that cold cereal does not count as "breakfast." At least not the kind that's going to have a real impact on the success of your morning. I'm no stranger to the tired mornings where my baby woke me too often from teething or illness, and being exhausted I just didn't get myself up in time to cook breakfast. I definitely have those days. But they aren't the norm anymore. I do everything possible to keep my mornings sacred because I know how much my morning sets the tone for my day. And those mornings where cereal is my only recourse for getting myself fed before work are mornings I do not count as Better Mornings. Those are Try Again Tomorrow mornings.

Hot breakfast everyday requires a little  planning, and a little bit of know-how. Can you cook an egg? Then you can have a hot breakfast. 

How do you like your eggs? I like them every which way, but my go-to is over-easy in a cast iron skillet generously coated with real butter. Eat them plain, eat them on toast, in a breakfast sandwich, with a pastry, in a breakfast burrito, on top of last night's dinner leftovers (especially if it's steak or stir-fry). Eggs have so many styles, all you need is a little effort. 

Don't or can't eat eggs? Oatmeal, baked sweet potato, pancakes, muffins, toast.... Any basic that you can cook well can be a fantastic breakfast with the right ingredients, prep, and effort. And the great thing about basics is that they can be varied any way you choose, so they don't have to become boring.

The key element in the hot breakfast: effort. The first thing you're doing to invest in your day is investing in your body. By cooking home made, simple food, you're more likely eating "real" food, which has real sustenance for your body and doesn't need to be "enriched with vitamins and minerals" in a factory, because God himself put vitamins and minerals in those eggs and veggies and fruits and whole grains. And I promise you, that whole-foods effort will feel different by mid morning than that cold cereal effort. My hot breakfasts get me straight through to lunch without needing to snack.

And this effort does require thought ahead of time. I have to make sure my fridge is stocked with eggs, avocados, fresh bread, fruits and veggies, plain yogurt, and good cheese before my work week begins so that I can easily put in 15 minutes of effort each morning to have a killer breakfast. Or I go with an even easier breakfast by making steel-cut oats the night before or fresh granola; add the fruit and yogurt, maybe some flax or chia seeds, we're good to go. (And "hot" is really more of a generalization for any breakfast that you make yourself from whole, real ingredients.)

Have you tried steel-cut oats with ripe peach, tangy yogurt, and a splash of maple syrup? This isn't the gloppy oatmeal that traumatized you as a kid. This is cereal the way it should be.

What I'm saying is, fall in love with breakfast. It will take effort, learning new skills and recipes, and planning ahead, but when you start your day with real breakfast... Wonderful things await you every time you wake.

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R E C I P E

*Your basic epic breakfast sandwich*

[to be varied at will, and often]

You'll need:

•Fresh bread, English muffin, or bagel, in two slices 

•1-2 eggs

•cheese, sliced

•avocado, sliced or mashed

•sea salt and fresh ground pepper

S T E P S

1. Toast bread slices

2. Fry eggs in a hot, greased skillet (takes about 2 min depending on desired doneness)

3. Place hot bread/bagel/muffin slices on your plate and start topping with cheese and avocado

4. Add eggs and and salt/pepper last

5. Put the sandwich parts together and slice down the middle (so that you can see all the delicious layers you're about to eat, and so that if your eggs are good and runny, the yolks distribute themselves over all that cheese and avocado goodness.

V A R I A T I O N S

• bagel, cream cheese, thick tomato slices, bacon, chives (good with or without the addition of eggs)

• English muffin, eggs, sharp cheddar, honey ham slices fried with the eggs

•toasted sourdough bread, mashed avocado, sprinkle of lemon rind, sea salt, and pepper, bean sprouts, runny egg on top (eat open-faced)

•bagel, scrambled eggs cooked with sautéed onions, spinach, and mushrooms, topped with Swiss

•bagel, sun dried tomatoes, scrambled eggs, provolone 

What is your favorite breakfast sandwich?

Weeknight Baking // Cranberry Orange Scones

 

The hidden benefit of being stuck at home in the evenings for Roger's 6pm bedtime, is that on nights when I used to be busy with church, I get some me-time. I do miss going to the evening services with Dave, but I can't tell a lie, the solo time has been W O N D E R F U L. 

Last night I put on some comfy clothes, threw on some Needtobreathe, and sang along as I made scones. The recipe I used as a base for all that precise, leavening-and-fat-and-flour-ratio business uses fresh raspberries and all purpose flour, but I am almost out of regular flour so I mixed in whole wheat like no big deal. And we had no raspberries, so, I improvised, and I think it worked out.

R E C I P E

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Cranberry Orange Whole Wheat Scones

Adapted from Martha Stewart's "Fast Raspberry Scones" (which I am addicted to making!)

I N G R E D I E N T S

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1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) frozen unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1 cup buttermilk

1 large egg yolk

3/4 cup dried cranberries

The zest of one orange (about a tablespoon), divided

M E T H O D

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Preheat oven to 400. In a large bowl, combine flour, 1/3 cup of the sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or use your hands to pinch the butter into the flour until pea-sized pieces form. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, half of the orange zest, and egg yolk. Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour the buttermilk mixture into it a little at a time, folding the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until dough just comes together. 

Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface and roll it out to about 1 inch thick. Press cranberries firmly into the dough and sprinkle remaining orange zest over the top. Fold dough in half and roll it back down to 1 inch, then fold and roll one more time. Gather and pat dough into a 1-inch-thick square (if you care about cutting uniform scones, which I obviously didn't) and cut squares or triangles out to form your scones. Place pieces, about 1 inch apart, on a large parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle tops with 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake until golden brown, 12-16 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through. Let scones cool slightly on wire racks. Serve warm or at room temperature.

These little dudes would taste magical with lemon curd or maple butter. Or just eat them as is. I ate about 3 of them for breakfast this morning.

If I had more time I would have used the juice from the orange I zested and mixed it with confectioner's sugar to be a finishing glaze. Maybe next time.