Metatalktail Hour: Breakfasting

October 1, 2022 1:50 AM

I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Please tell me what's for breakfast?

What's your typical breakfast? Cereal? Pastry? Natto? Shakshuka? Dosas? Churro? Congee? Toast? Fruit? Yogurt? Egg thingy? Full English? Pho? Cold pizza? Black coffee? Is it different on the weekends? What about today — what is or was on the menu?

And what is your *ideal* breakfast? What, when, where? Tell us your breakfast deets, please! Or just pour me a Mimosa and tell us what's happening by you, what have you been up to, what's on your mind? (Just no politics, please!)

posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 1:50 AM (101 comments total)

Breakfast! Yes!

Most mornings I have porridge. I'm usually doing this solo at the moment instead of with a toddler assistant at the moment, and I'm missing the little ritual (I usually am breastfeeding her sister, so she mugs her dad for cereal before I get there.) Here's our ritual: I pour instant oats into a measuring cup (usually the 1/4 one- somewhere between 2/3 and 3/4 of a cup is the right amount) and she tips it into the bowl. Then we make a hole, and I get a spoonful of peanut butter. She says "taste! Taste peeta" and dips both index fingers in. Then I remind her that the water is hot, and pour in the boiling water, melting the peanut butter, and stir. (Usually also pour the water over the loose leaf tea in my mug strainer). Now she's getting so grown up she stirs a little. Then we microwave for two minutes. When she was younger we had a different fridge and she'd help get out the ingredients, but we now have a freezer on the bottom fridge that she can't reach. While it's microwaving we get out the maple syrup and milk, and frozen pear, deal with my tea. Pear goes in to the microwave after the porridge. I use a hot mat I bought in highschool to bring the hot bowl back to the bench. Maple syrup and milk go in. She tastes the maple syrup drip. Both fingers again! I mix to start so the milk can't slosh out, then she mixes. She has taken to dishing up her own porridge into her bowl. The still partially frozen pear is mixed in to help her porridge cool down. We move to the table and eat. She usually asks for more of my porridge!

On Saturdays, sometimes we have a cooked breakfast. This is toast, bacon, mushrooms, half a tomato, hash browns, sunny side up egg, and baked beans. Sometimes a chipolata. Toddler loves the hash brown and will steal all your beans if you're not careful.

Especially if we have people over for breakfast, we might have waffles. Maple syrup, fruit, and whipped cream from a can.
posted by freethefeet at 3:56 AM on October 1, 2022 [7 favorites]

(wow that porridge description is a bit stream of consciousness sorry- a bit like the chaos that is cooking with a toddler!)
posted by freethefeet at 3:58 AM on October 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

Weekdays: my work has some decent snack/breakroom food options, including a couple of granola bar/breakfast bar choices. I often just opt for a couple of those.

Weekends: one day of each weekend is my Gym Day, and I reward myself with brunch after, at a cute little spot on my block; I've gotten the same thing so many times that the staff has started just asking "the granola, right?" when I walk in, and skipping giving me the menu. It's a bowl of granola and yogurt with berries, and I get a side of bacon. ...Although sometimes I change it up and get their croque monsieur. On weekends my first morning homemade cup of coffee is a cafe au lait instead.

Once in a blue moon I'll go with something elaborate; sometime on Labor Day weekend I made up a small batch of charro beans and had some of that with a couple fresh corn tortillas and a fried egg. On big holiday weekends when I've been on my own, like a Thanksgiving or Christmas during Covid, I do one of those egg-and-sausage casserole thingies.

And every so often either my roommate or I will suggest a delivery from a favorite bagel shop in our hood; he opts for a bagel with a scallion cream cheese, I get my go-to breakfast sandwich order (sausage, soft-scrambled egg, and cheddar on a roll).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:07 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I was never a breakfast person until I was on some meds that I had to take in the morning after eating. I had an hour+ commute to work & I did apple slices--easy to prepare, easy to eat while driving, and very filling. When I stopped taking the meds I found I still wanted something in the morning so I started making single serve oatmeal when I got to work.
Now I'm only working part time and my commute is 5 minutes and I'm back to no breakfast. But most Sundays I make a skillet breakfast with potatoes, onions, sausage, peppers and cheese that is hearty and delicious.
posted by bookmammal at 5:10 AM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Oh! Christmas of 2020, in the midst of the pandemic when everyone was stuck at home, I insisted on trying to make kedgeree for us because I wanted to try it finally. And some other holiday in 2021 I also made a traditional Full Irish Breakfast; a friend had sent me the makings some time ago, and I wanted to finally start using it.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:10 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh, thanks for this topic, by the way; it is rainy and gross today in New York, and we're probably in for more of the same tomorrow; I really needn't leave the house today except for a quick run to pick up my CSA box this morning, and a movie tonight, so I'm planning on some around-the-house food processing in general - rounding up some of the little mostly-empty containers of dried beans in the pantry and just cooking them all, nudging them towards finally being used up in stews or soups for the week's meals. And I realized that I could also turn some of them into huevos rancheros tomorrow morning.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:17 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

A bagel with peanut butter is my go-to breakfast at home, although I make pancakes or oatmeal if I feel fancy.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:50 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sometimes it’s toast.

Realistically, it’s more likely

1. Feed the cats wet food, making sure they don’t get confused or distracted. One bowl, one snout, no fighting.

2. The older cat gets the dry food she prefers. The younger cat gets a sprinkling of dry food that she doesn’t really like, but she likes to pick at it.

3. Consolidate wet food, clean the floor.

4. Check water bowl.

5. Do some bathroom things.

6. Cuddle briefly with the younger cat, because it’s the only time of day she wants to cuddle.

7. Decide shower first or breakfast first?

8. Proceed.

9. Somewhere in there clean up the disgraceful mess they’ve made.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:56 AM on October 1, 2022 [8 favorites]

I eat a bowl of cereal every morning - Aldi brand Cheerios, Corn Flakes, or Raisin Bran, whatever I bought the last trip to Aldi. I also have two mugs of tea.
posted by COD at 6:00 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

My mother-in-law has been bringing us groceries while my wife's been sick, and I love her but she has no sense of how much food people can actually eat. So the other day I made a 23-egg fritatta, because we had three cartons of eggs, two of which were just past their sell-by date. It's delicious, and contains, among other things, a bag of frozen mixed vegetables that we acquired from a friend who just figured out her autoimmune trigger isn't gluten or anything common, it's fucking corn. Which is in everything.
posted by restless_nomad (retired) at 6:05 AM on October 1, 2022 [8 favorites]

I’ve got half a leftover fried eggplant and fresh mozzarella sandwich from the Italian deli, so I’m gonna disassemble it and heat up the eggplant and top it with the mozzarella for breakfast. Ooh, and maybe a fried egg on top of that.

Years ago I stayed at a mid level hotel in Basel on someone else’s tab, where they had the most spectacular breakfast buffet with six kinds of cheese, ten kinds of bread, eight different meats, all sorts of familiar and exotic fruit, yogurt, granola, boiled eggs, omelet bar. I daydream about that buffet all the time.
posted by moonmilk at 6:50 AM on October 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

Today's breakfast is a cinnamon raisin bagel with butter, which is a treat because I'm usually doing something lower carb. I'm having a huge iced coffee to drink, which I have been doing daily for several months since I learned to make my own after realizing that a 7-dollar iced coffee from Starbucks every single day was not going to be economically viable. I'm not a coffee snob so I make mine from instant packets in a quart-sized mason jar, with enough almond milk, heavy cream and flavored sugar-free syrup to make it delicious. Bonus is that I don't have to leave the house to have it, or pay Doordash $30 to bring it to me.

My most usual breakfasts are either tuna salad, or two hard-boiled eggs and a glass of V8 juice. Unless there is cold pizza in the house, in which case I will have a couple of slices with a cup of hot black coffee.

I love breakfast food. An ideal breakfast would be eggs benedict, with extra hollandaise. Skip the english muffin and put it on top of hash browns, please. Sausage gravy with biscuits is another favorite, with runny eggs, bacon and hash browns on the side, and some extra gravy to dump over everything. I LOVE a breakfast or brunch buffet, and have been incredibly bummed since my favorite Mexican place went out of business during Covid. They had a nice little brunch buffet on the weekends that we'd go get after church as often as I could talk the Mr into it.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:51 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Last week (not this one that just passed, the one before it) we were in Ireland and we are desperately missing Irish tea. It is literally the best tea we've ever had, anywhere. Apparently there's a reason for that! While we were there, we consumed many a full Irish breakfast, which was fun, but not really my everyday thing. I generally have a bowl of Great Grains Raisin, Date, & Pecan cereal and a cup of tea every morning. Sundays can mean eggs and toast and sausage but it just depends.

I'm a bigger fan of breakfast for dinner, so things like frittata and waffles and omelets are more likely to make an appearance then instead of breakfast. Also a huge fan of brunch, same deal.

Also missing the incredible scones we had in Ireland. And I miss Ireland.
posted by cooker girl at 7:25 AM on October 1, 2022 [6 favorites]

My usual breakfast is a Premire protein shake (I swear I don't work for them, I just love their product). Depending on how easily I get out of bed, it's either a chocolate or vanilla one mixed with cold brew coffee, or a flavored one thrown in my backpack to drink at work.

Today, I was super hungry and I have some bananas from my lunches to use up, so I made a peanut butter and banana sandwich on thin sliced whole grain bread. That's my usual lunch.

If I happen to have left over pizza, then that's for breakfast. Cold please.
posted by kathrynm at 7:26 AM on October 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

I am a creature of habit, and I almost always have two slices of avocado toast (I mash the avocado up with salt, pepper, Trader Joe's Citrusy Garlic seasoning, and a squirt of lime juice), topped with nutritional yeast and some sunflower seeds. However, I somehow managed to run out of bread, so instead I had steel-cut oatmeal with brown sugar and homemade applesauce. I already had the homemade apple sauce. I bought a big bag of apples to eat with honey for a sweet new year, and I seriously overestimated my appetite for apples and honey. I made apple cake and apple sauce, and I still have two more apples that I need to do something with.

I am seriously considering changing up my normal breakfast, partly because avocados have gotten more expensive, and partly because I may be getting a tiny bit bored of it. This question is timely!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:41 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'll eat just about anything for breakfast, as long as it's not sweet. I really prefer leftover dinner for breakfast, but leftovers usually get assigned lunch or dinner duty around here. I enjoy a good breakfast sandwich, too, with sausage, bacon, pork roll or even a processed meatless burger patty.

My doctor has been encouraging me to eat oatmeal for breakfast, but I loath the texture of instant oatmeal. Last week I discovered quick cooking steel cut oats, which have a much more pleasing texture to me. I've been dressing them up with black bean and garlic sauce and chili crisp, along with the occasional egg, or maybe some very sharp cheddar cheese, to make them palatable to my savory-oriented palate.
posted by mollweide at 7:43 AM on October 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

I think I'm the only person in the world who is just not into breakfast foods. They're fine, I do not mind them, but I'll almost always do the lunch side of brunch. Every so often I'll do a avocado toast or eggs benedict.

In high school we had to get up too early for me to be hungry, so I"d frequently just skip breakfast. If my mom hadn't left for work yet, she'd insist I have breakfast, even if it wasn't breakfast food (also not her thing). So sometimes we'd eat a bowl of spaghetti together.

I'm still not usually hungry in the mornings, so now weekday breakfast is coffee.
posted by ghost phoneme at 7:50 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have porridge with a chopped banana in winter, currently a cereal bar and a banana. I’m dairy, gluten, and egg intolerant which makes breakfast choices so hard, luckily I’m happy with the same thing every day for breakfast! Lunch is harder and I can’t repeat it forever. When I go home and out for brunch there is a good place that does a vegan gluten free full English.
posted by ellieBOA at 7:52 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I'm on a 1500 calorie/day diet right now, so breakfast is 1/3 cup Refrigerator Oatmeal* topped with a sliced banana.

*Combine 1 cup traditional steel-cut oats with 1 cup 2% milk. Refrigerate at least overnight. Makes three servings. (Yes, that's right: no cooking.)

(Diet-wise, I've lost 11 lbs, with about 20 more to go to lose this accumulated COVID weight, which came about because for the past few years our mantra has been "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.")
posted by Short Attention Sp at 7:58 AM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

Two poached eggs on buttered toast, with pepper. Large mug of Assam tea. Glass of orange juice.

If I've been sufficiently organised to prepare the night before, Birchermüesli. When it's very cold, porridge with milk.
posted by offog at 7:59 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Weekdays is usually just coffee, either black or with a splash of whatever creamy liquid is in the fridge (could be milk, oatmilk, heavy cream depending). I sometimes have a pack of breakfast cookies or a yogurt midmorning if I get hungry before lunch.

Weekends I get empanadas at the farmer's market most Saturdays. Steel cut oats if I'm too lazy for the 4 mile round trip walk. Sunday I make brunch whenever the night owl boyfriend gets up - sausage, over easy eggs and toast for him; scrambled eggs, often with a quick tater tot based "hash" for me. Sometimes muffins or a quick bread if I've been ambitious.
posted by the primroses were over at 8:01 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

We eat oats in different forms with coffee.

One day ……just mixing some almond butter with sprouted oats,salt,spices and eat with blueberries.
Another day …hot porridge with rolled oats cooked with milk,coconut sugar,cardamom, maybe some goji berries and sliced almonds.
On a cold/rainy day like today, I make steel cut oats upma with all leftover veggies from last week’s CSA.
Whenever avocados are ready, we eat almond tortillas with avocados,mustard,cucumber, tomatoes,onions,fresh arugula(for the crunch) and the jalapeños for the kick.
When bored or lazy to make anything,then it’s always a toast / bagel( especially love the Trader Joe’s pumpkin bagel at this time of the year) with some butter and jam.The aroma of the pumpkin bagel always lifts our spirits up :))
posted by SunPower at 8:52 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I’ve been in Italy for the past couple of weeks so breakfast (my breakfast, anyway) has largely consisted of prosciutto and mozzarella made within a few miles of wherever I’ve been staying. Also Cappuccino and orange juice the color of blood.

Way better than Cheerios.

I can’t even begin to describe the dinners here.

Ciao.
posted by bondcliff at 9:20 AM on October 1, 2022 [14 favorites]

Slice of toasted Dave’s Killer 21-Grain bread, butter, local honey, coffee with oatmilk/coconutmilk half-n-half blend. Simple.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:41 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

200 g frozen blueberries from Costco (theirs are the best), in one of these bowls, not the other bowls, microwaved for 1:47
15 g chia seeds, let to sit on the now-thawed blueberries while I putter for a bit
200 g Greek yoghurt, usually Costco's nonfat

I eat the same thing for breakfast probably 99% of the time that I'm home. It is delicious and nutritious and easy and then I don't have to make a decision.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:58 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Beans.
posted by aws17576 at 10:16 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Don't overthink it.
posted by aws17576 at 10:16 AM on October 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

I'm also a not-sweet, mostly not-breakfast, person, but once in a while...A couple weeks ago we finally got to spend time with some dear friends, mosey around and look at stuff, eat at a restaurant, hang out a bit. Our friend stayed over, so the next morning I made brunch, featuring cream-cheese stuffed french toast with apples and toasted pecans sauteed in honey & butter, blueberry breakfast sausages, and tofu bacon I made using my bacon rub with a bit of liquid smoke, cooked slow in the little oven to give it a bit of texture. With bubbles and juice and lots of fresh hot coffee, and dear friends, it was wonderful. The stuffed french toast was really good, not sweet-- I was expecting sweet, which isn't my thing, but cooking breakfast for other people is fine by me-- but having it turn out rich and complex was wonderful.
The following week my partner and friends went out again, and everyone has Covid. I was expecting to get it so stayed home mostly, but I haven't gotten symptoms or tested positive, so it looks like I can go enjoy this lovely fall weather after all.
posted by winesong at 10:31 AM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Breakfast is a two-step process for me. 1) About a quart=litre of weak tea [wea?] while waking / Mefiking / blogging / emailing 2) an hour later I'll be ready for two slices of toast and marmalade and one more cup of tea. In the late 90s I was part of a European quango which meant travelling to Hotel Breakfast Buffet-land [as described by moonmilk above] several times a year. It was wonderful except for the piffling little coffee cups they supplied. I tried to remember to pack an enamel camping mug when I left home, so I wasn't jumping up for a refill every three slices.
posted by BobTheScientist at 10:35 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

i would like justice for breakfast, please


or failing that, a freshly baked gianduja chocolate plié , like this one with a really high end cold brew.
posted by lalochezia at 10:43 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Breakfast, eh? A large fountain Diet Coke. That's it. Boring, I know.
posted by Splunge at 10:49 AM on October 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

just got back from Kuala Lumpur / Singapore so a lot of my breakfasts were mixed east/west - but I really got a taste for youtiao (aka yu char kway) with kaya and a nescafe tarik.
posted by alchemist at 11:56 AM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Recently discovered that a local diner does flavored mimosas, so have be slowly working my way down the list. I've finished the list, but need to double and triple check to make sure my answers are right.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:48 PM on October 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

I have got to have protein for breakfast. Usually it looks like one of the following:

1. Steel cut oats topped with pecorino and a fried egg. I toast the oats in butter first before adding the water, so they're kind of like risotto.
2. Rice (kept hot in the rice cooker from dinner the night before) topped with a fried egg and sriracha
3. Dinner leftovers as long as they involve protein

I take this and a cup of coffee back to bed and eat it there. In the winter I have my heated mattress pad on, which makes it extra cozy.

corpseinthelibrary, if you have a Winco, try their frozen blueberries. I think they are ever so much better than the Costco ones. They're quite as good as the expensive organic ones from the food co-op.
posted by HotToddy at 1:00 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

More often than not on a weekday morning I'll opt for a bowl of granola, fruit - usually blueberries or sliced banana, walnut pieces, and kefir milk.

This summer I improvised a savory Asian-inspired oatmeal bowl that I enjoyed way more than I expected to and it's become a semi-regular weekday choice. Before this I'd never been a fan of oatmeal, but in pursuit of variety (and fiber) I was looking for an alternative. The first time I made it I was ready to toss it out if it didn't work, but I was happily surprised by the result:

- Put 1/4 Cup of rolled oats and a couple teaspoons of whey powder (for protein) in a microwave-safe bowl and mix until the powder is distributed and not in clumps. If you like, throw in a few smaller pieces of dried mushroom like shiitake or portobello to reconstitute as the oats cook. Add a little more than 1/4 Cup of water and stir to combine. Probably you can leave out the whey powder and replace the water with milk, but I haven't tried that.

- Microwave on 50-60% power for a minute or so until the oats are done - I like mine just a little chewy, but if you like them softer let them cook another minute. Note: the whey powder can make it bubble over, if that starts to happen open the oven and give it a couple stirs before continuing. Add a little water if it looks too dry.

- Pull the bowl out of the oven and mix in a spoonful of crunchy garlic in chili oil (not the spicy kind), a spoon or two of miso paste depending on how salty you want it, a spoonful of ginger paste, and a small dash of sesame oil. Add hot sauce if desired and dig in!

Less often, depending on circumstances, I'll have leftovers for breakfast. Any sort of potato is always welcome, or a slice of pizza briefly warmed in the microwave (too lazy in the mornings to deal with proper oven reheating), or some other not-typically-breakfast-food...whatever I've got in the fridge. As I mentioned before, I like variety. But things like waffles, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, etc. are only very rare options, because that's an awfully heavy carb load first thing in the morning.

I usually wait until mid-morning to make coffee these days. I used to make coffee my first order of business after waking up in the morning, but as I got older that changed without any conscious effort on my part...

My once-a-week weekend morning treat is a couple eggs, usually sunny side up, and buttered toast to mop up with. Sometimes I throw a glug of store-bought marinara in the pan to heat up before putting in the eggs, to make an ersatz low-effort "shakshuka" - very tasty!

Wow, that got a lot longer than I expected. Maybe food plays too central a part in my life?
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:01 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh! This summer my doctor was a little concerned about my cholesterol (a bit higher than it's been, probably just thanks to 18 months of being more sedentary from Covid and broken knee) and I tweaked my diet a bit until I could get more mobile. One thing I tried was to up the whole grains - and I discovered this make-ahead multigrain cold porridge thing, a mix of steelcut oats, quinoa and millet cooked together and then cooled down and mixed with lemon-laced yogurt and some blueberries and nuts. It is delicious, and also kept well in the fridge as a makeahead grab-and-go breakfast option.

I've pulled out 6 types of dried beans to be cooked; two are done and cooling on the counter, two still need a bit longer, and then I ran out of pots so the last two are still soaking and will have to wait until tomorrow. I had four going at the same time, and my roommate came home a moment ago and remarked on the humidity and only then did I notice "oh, huh, the windows are all fogged up."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:34 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I usually have a cereal bar from the Healthy Baking Company. They are a local business and make these bars that are vegan, gluten-free, nut free, processed sugar free, high protein, and high fiber. I order in quantity and keep them in my freezer--20 seconds in the microwave while my coffee brews and I have a yummy breakfast. I usually get the Healthy Energy Bars that run around 160 calories, but for a treat, I will also get a 1/2 dozen or so of the Coffee House Bar which includes hemp and coconut and are a little higher in calories.

This is a small business that has been around for a long time, and they were hit hard during COVID because the small restaurants and health food stores they supply were also hit hard so I feel good that I can support them. They have discounts for buying in quantity as well.
posted by agatha_magatha at 1:58 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Back when I ate breakfast more regularly, I'd make a breakfast taco every morning. Simplest is one scrambled egg w some green onions, top with cheese, some hot sauce, put in tortilla. Very Texas.
posted by monologish at 2:12 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

In the colder months (so, starting now, yay) I make "vipassana porridge". As served at Dhamma Dipa, the UK centre for Vipassana courses.

A) Standard oatmeal porridge (I do 1:2 organic oats to water, simmer and stir til it looks done)

B) 50:50 prunes and raisins, soaked in water overnight.
Bring the soaked fruit and juices to the boil. Turn off heat.

Serve a few spoons of B) over A), topped with sunflower seeds.
B) keeps in the fridge, just warm it up as needed.

Tastes like enlightenment.
posted by Balthamos at 2:14 PM on October 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

> corpseinthelibrary, if you have a Winco, try their frozen blueberries. I think they are ever so much better than the Costco ones

I do and I shall.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:34 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I LOVE breakfast. For home meals I prefer sweet to savory, but I don’t need it that sweet. My usual workday breakfast is bob’s quick steel cut oats soaked in soy milk, with chia, hemp, pepitas, crunchy PB, apples, and cinnamon. I eat it at my desk, and it helps me look forward to going to work.

When I dine out, I usually go savory because the sweet breakfasts are just dessert. I love Mexican flavors for breakfasts - huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, veggie breakfast burrito. Then it’s nice to end the meal with something sweet - half a donut or even some awesome fruit.
posted by obfuscation at 2:41 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I planned on having some leftover "the Imam fainted" eggplant with scrambled eggs and a little yogurt, but I never got around to it, so we mixed up the eggplant in a chili mac sort of thing for a late-ish lunch instead. Generally, I'm coffee-always-first-even-before-eyes-are-fully-open, and then maybe brekky if I can rustle it up. That usually means doing something with eggs and whatever is left over from the night before. Unless the leftover is soup. Then I just have Soup, breakfast of champions. Pizza def gets heated and an egg on top. Also breakfast of champions. Then some more coffee. Always some more coffee, because also breakfast of champions.
posted by taz (staff) at 2:41 PM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

My favorite breakfast is leftover pizza.

Otherwise, I usually have some cheese.

Breakfast foods belong in the evening for me. I love pancakes or waffles at dinner time.

What I really love on pancakes, instead of maple syrup, is Nutmeg syrup: it's less sweet and has a lighter consistency.
posted by mightshould at 3:59 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I ain't never heered of no nutmeg syrup, nary a peep about this. And nutmeg rates right up there in the pantheon of spices. Must goog it.
posted by Oyéah at 4:30 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

1 cup non-fat vanilla yogurt. 1/4 cup granola. 1/2 cup berries (strawberry or blackberry). 1 scoop whey protein. 1/2 cup water. 4 ice cubes. Blend for 1 minute. Enjoy!
posted by SPrintF at 4:40 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I ain't never heered of no nutmeg syrup, nary a peep about this.

Nor me neither, but it looks easy enough to make your own.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:51 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I love breakfast. I will eat the same thing for breakfast for many weeks, months even, then change it up. My favorites
- Any hearty bread toasted (crisp, please), buttered, the with half an avocado spread on top, topped with creamy soft scrambled eggs and fresh (from the garden) tomatoes. This only happens a few weeks a year.
- Same hearty toasted bread, topped with avocado, a grinding of salt/ pepper, and a generous sprinkling of dukkah.
- Hearty toasted bread (do you see a theme here?), with a microwaved egg (20 seconds or so, still a bit runny), salt/pepper
- Greek yogurt (Costco) topped with homemade granola (i use this recipe from Eleven Madison Park)
- Fresh rolled oats cooked with raisins and lots of cinnamon, topped with roughly chopped walnuts, and warm milk
All of these are consumed after I’ve drunk half of my 16 oz insulated mug of coffee with cream (pour over).
Side note, we grow our own oats (some of them), make our own raisins from seedless grapes grown by a neighbor, and our hens provide us with fresh eggs nearly year-round. It’s a nice life we’ve cobbled together.
posted by dbmcd at 5:21 PM on October 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

I tried making overnight oats.

Eating them left me feeling like a sad Victorian orphan.
posted by betweenthebars at 5:30 PM on October 1, 2022 [6 favorites]

dbmcd, can you elaborate on the microwaved egg? I really need some protein in my breakfast, and that sounds fast. Thanks.
posted by mollweide at 5:31 PM on October 1, 2022

Against all odds and expectations, I have a partner now. Last weekend when he was here, I made blueberry pancakes and bacon. I plonked a bottle of maple syrup down on the table and explained that this was a rite of passage when dating an American: pancakes will be made for you. He accepted this with a certain grace.

The pancakes turned out OK; they were from a box of Bisquick that I needed to use up, but I did include vanilla and a bit of cinnamon to bring out the blueberries. Next time I'll use plain flour and get fancy with buttermilk and lemon zest. I have a trusty plastic bowl-with-a-spout from Ikea that I've been using for pancake batter since college. I add the blueberries to the pools of batter just after pouring.

When on my own, breakfast is more responsible: muesli, yogurt, ground flaxseed and plant-based milk of some kind, with blueberries if I have any, or raisins if not. Sometimes in winter I'll do porridge with cinnamon, raisins and brown sugar.
posted by Pallas Athena at 6:20 PM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

if you have a Winco, try their frozen blueberries. I think they are ever so much better than the Costco ones

The Winco blackberries are full on marionberries and usually 1/2 inch to an inch long. Tastiest food hack.
posted by fiercekitten at 6:33 PM on October 1, 2022

Since I retired at the onset of Covid times I have eaten a substantial bowl of sugarfree chocolate milk pudding. A cup of cafe au lait and a few dried apricots complete the meal. I love sweets but eat no sugar so this satisfies my need for sweet. Since I took up eating this creamy deliciousness I have lost 40lbs and kept it off.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 7:30 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

In the past, I haven't normally breakfasted, or really eaten until mid afternoon. But, living alone for the first time in more than a decade, I've been going out of my way to eat rice and nattō several times a week. (My ex didn't forbid me from eating it and wouldn't have done, but really disliked it. Making two breakfasts seemed weird, so I didn't do it. It's been a long time.)

I'm also exploring coffee again after a few years of kind of forgetting about it. A cup of yogurt and a moka pot has been my habit lately. Except when I'm running late.
posted by eotvos at 8:13 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Almost always: a homemade 2% milk latte, fresh fruit and buttered toast or an English muffin with some cinnamon sugar.

Occasionally, I'll add or substitute a soft-boiled egg to get some protein. Or I'll make an omelet filled with whatever's in the fridge.

When we have a pan of brownies, as we do now, it's a latte, fruit and a brownie. Fuck yes, brownie for breakfast. Current batch, minus the nibs.

My wife prefers savory breakfasts and will have a fried egg with sautéed greens or mushrooms. Even though I prefer the flaky, cinnamon-y breakfast flavor profile, my absolute favorite breakfast is a savory one: a toasted bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, diced tomatoes and capers.
posted by emelenjr at 8:20 PM on October 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

My mom and I are going to visit Kid Ruki tomorrow and together, we’re going to go into the city because Kid Ruki has two different assignments to do at The Met. Man, to be 20 and going to art school right outside New York City. I’m a little jealous. (Even more so that her dorms have private bathrooms and she ended up not having a roommate. I have to share a bathroom!)

Breakfast will be a Dunkin’ iced coffee. And if the traffic gods smile upon us, maybe we’ll stop at a Greek diner along the way. I don’t like to eat in the morning, but I like Greek diners more, so I’ll make an exception.
posted by Ruki at 8:22 PM on October 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

A favorite used to be steaming hot steel cut oats topped with some quality vanilla ice cream, melting into it.

Ive tried to reform a bit and replaced the ice cream with dried cranberries. They really are the ideal dried fruit for this purpose; I’ve tried just about everything else and nothing works as well ( I lack the brainpower to deal with fresh fruit prep in the morning… maybe that would work better but I may never find out…)

And coffee from the Senseo! Still kicking after 17 yrs!!!
posted by Tandem Affinity at 10:58 PM on October 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Not a breakfast person, but am having a cooking day today. I have an almanac book which I have really enjoyed this year. It has a biscuit recipe each month and I am planning to make March's today - Cornish fairings. It also tells me it is the start of Pudding month (savoury puddings) and I plan to get suet for making leek pudding.

There is also a song of the month and October's is The Costermonger's Song. I can't find it online, but found Eggs for your breakfast in the morning (information page which links to the song), which is associated with the same singer.
posted by paduasoy at 2:13 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh man I love breakfast. I don't always eat it on weekdays, because I'm pretty sedentary and don't really need it, but it's hands-down my favorite meal for indulgence. Hash browns, in a big skillet with meat and veg, or on the side of two eggs over-easy; a nice chewy bagel with lox and cream cheese; my father-in-law's Belgian waffles, with syrup, just-ripe banana slices, and toasted pecans; a nice bowl of stovetop oats with fruit and nuts and just a bit of brown sugar; a collection of pastries from the bakery down the street, divided so that we each get to have a little bit of everything, with half a grapefruit on the side; a couple generous dollops of Greek yogurt with some nice whole-grain cereal and a couple quartered prunes.

All you cold pizza fans have a friend in Mr. eirias: in our house this is known as "pizzaforbreakfast" and letting it touch the heat makes the breakfast invalid.

There was one friend who for many years was our every-Sunday date: I think we ate brunch at basically every place in town. Life got away from us both, and we barely saw him in 2019. In February 2020 I remember sitting with him at a restaurant and saying: let's let this year be better, let's this be the year we bring back brunch. Well...
posted by eirias at 4:07 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Black tea with milk and sugar, definitely. Then the rest of breakfast can range from leftovers (leftover pizza gets warmed in the microwave with Red Hot splattered on it) to scrambled eggs (often with cheese wrapped in a tortilla, or instant oatmeal. Ince in a while, particularly if I’m going in to the office that day, I’ll get chai and a breakfast baked good (bagel, often) at a coffee shop on the way.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:30 AM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh and I was delighted to learn that hard boiled eggs in the instant pot are trivially easy, easy to peel, and excellent.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:31 AM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

You have no idea how painful it is to be a person of breakfast in America while also strongly disliking eggs. This -- admittedly kind of self-inflicted -- problem has plagued me for half a century and shows no sign of easing.

There are mitigating mechanisms, of course. I make a pretty great biscuit and gravy that just so happens to be vegetarian because sausage gravy is a pain in the ass. I make a decent oatmeal and a fucking fabulous bowl of Wheatena which apparently nobody on Earth has heard of. A good diner with a substantial menu is likely to have a chicken fried steak or, at least, a passable pancake; I can and do just ask to hold the eggs. A crepe is about the eggiest thing I can take for breakfast. I don't make a great crepe but various bougie breakfast joints do.

There are breakfast cuisines that aren't quite so limiting but can be less fulfilling. Pizza straight out of the fridge the next morning is lovely. Donuts and pastries are great but on the light side for a whole-ass meal. An awesome baguette with some cream cheese alongside an espresso is a delicious, simple way to start your eating day. It's just a little too simple if you're trying to make a big deal out of breakfast but let's just say I do indeed keep baguettes and cream cheese and a moka pot stocked.

It's just that the whole thing is pretty limiting when one likes to Go For Breakfast. So, so many places are eggy as fuck. It's not unusual that there's only one or two items on the menu I'm willing to order. Hell, I've been to places where I literally could not order any breakfast entreé whatsoever because the entire breakfast menu is comprised of egg-forward dishes. I get to attempt to compose a sort of tapas breakfast out of the side menu when this happens. It works, usually, it's just expensive and often limiting.

Things can be even harder on the road. If one doesn't have the luxury of lingering and needs food fast, food on the go, or even a fast food breakfast one is faced with few options that aren't essentially "here, eat this egg."

Of course, just being a person of breakfast in America is already kind of a pain in the ass if one likes to eat out. There is no way to buy a breakfast at any reasonable hour in the morning without braving a total zoo, and usually a wait. There is no breakfast joint that isn't mobbed to fuck in the morning. I have, most literally, had to put on hard pants and leave the house by six in the goddamn morning just go be able to acquire a hot meal without having to stand in a crowd and wait outside for someone to shout my family's name.

Being the only early riser in the house, I then miss out on one of the best things about breakfast in the first place: a family breakfast.
posted by majick at 6:35 AM on October 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

Oh, man - some of the best breakfasts I've ever had were at my aunt's house, the mornings after Christmas or Thanksgiving or something.

....All through my childhood and a little into college, we spent all our big family holidays in Massachusetts since that's where my grandparents were based; and I had an aunt and uncle who got a HUGE house there (9 bedrooms, 9.5 baths) when I was like nine, so we all usually bunked there so all us cousins could hang out.

And some of the BEST parts of those visits were the morning after whatever holiday. I'd wake up, pull myself together a little, and go wandering down to the kitchen; I was one of the earlier risers, but my aunt would already be there, sitting at the big kitchen table and reading the newspaper. And she would always great me thus:

"Well, good morning! So, please, help yourself to whatever you want for breakfast - we have a few kinds of cereal in that cupboard over there, and I have a couple different kinds of bread and I even got some bagels if you want just toast, and there's a couple kinds of jelly in the fridge....I just made coffee, and there's orange and cranberry juice in the fridge; and your daddy went to go get some donuts and a couple more newspapers, and he said he can make eggs and bacon for whoever wants that when he gets back. So please feel free, help yourself!"

And I'd get a little something, greet my father when he came back and get one of the papers from him, and nibble on the bacon as he made it, greeting other people who staggered down as they woke up; everyone felt free to come on down whenever, linger in the kitchen chatting with whomever was there, slip out when they needed to, eating whatever.

Everyone has a kitchen from their childhood they would want to recreate - that's mine. If I win the lottery I want a kitchen big enough for me to be able to do that.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:30 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Weekdays it’s just a cortado, cappuccino or latte macchiato for mrs. slkinsey and me, made on the Lelit Bianca I got as a lockdown present for myself to replace the Rancilio Silvia I had been using for circa 25 years.

Usually one weekend morning we’ll have a proper breakfast that might be oats or grits from Anson Mills (the latter often topped with a crispy fried egg and homemade Louisiana style fermented hot sauce), or some kind of egg prep with some sort of cured pork with some sort of toasted member of the bread family in some sort of arrangement. Maybe twice a year it’s pancakes or waffles.
posted by slkinsey at 7:41 AM on October 2, 2022

6 tbsp oats with 200ml water, microwave for 3 mins at 650w.

mix in two raw sugar cubes (the small ones you use for tea or coffee) and let sit for 2 minutes.

optionally add slice banana or berries on top.

every day since march 2020! hah
posted by lazaruslong at 8:52 AM on October 2, 2022

homemade whole wheat waffles with figs from the backyard tree. pretty much perfection :)
posted by supermedusa at 9:35 AM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

a person of breakfast

😄
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:37 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

On weekends, I go down to the produce market that sets up on a street a few blocks from my house on Saturdays. Buy a big loaf of amazing, crusty sourdough bread from a kindly, old Venezuelan gentleman.
Also get strawberries, blueberries, mangoes, avocados, oranges, and/or whatever fruit is in season.
Breakfasts are big, thick slices of bread with butter (which is only allowed on weekends) and mashed avocados (we're Chilean—avocado is a staple food for us), plus some fresh fruit, tea, coffee, maybe some ham or pastrami, maybe scrambled eggs, always fresh orange juice.
I basically have this fantasy that I'm running a B&B, and this is the breakfast I'd serve my guests.
posted by signal at 9:44 AM on October 2, 2022 [5 favorites]

yum

/me books a room at signal's B&B
posted by taz (staff) at 9:48 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

taz: "/me books a room at signal's B&B"

You'll get the friends & family discount and the good chocolate on your pillow
posted by signal at 9:49 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

❤️
posted by taz (staff) at 10:11 AM on October 2, 2022

I've had the same breakfast almost every day for decades: PB&J on whole-grain bread and black coffee. It's satisfying, low-effort, and has a very predictable effect on my blood sugar.

That said, I do love a (vegetarian version of) full English breakfast, and make it for brunch on Christmas morning.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:02 AM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

For years breakfast meant - something to eat. When I was a kid especially it was really 'breaking the fast' and I woke up _hungry_ and the habit stuck with me for the next 40-odd years. In the middle of the pandemic madness I quit drinking _and_ eating breakfast. Which at that point was mostly some kind of bread/toast/pastry (for about a decade, call it '88 to '98, I got coffee and some kind of pastry thing every work-day morning from the same place: 'coffee regular and a danish.' It was good coffee but not great - it was NYC diner, OTC coffee - which has a particular bitter, not especially good but not bad either thing going - the kind of coffee people get with two spoonfuls of sugar and milk. Life goes on, I changed habits of going to that one bakery for a while and then left NYC altogether and on a return trip years later I swung by 'the bakery' for the hell of it. Vittorio's son was still there - had assumed the business and the building and was now, thanks to real estate prices rocketing - kinda well off. And still a nice guy. It was oddly touching and a bit of a missed opportunity. I drank his coffee for so many years.) I don't miss it. I have a coffee or two and I'm good until around lunch time.

Alright, all that's nice but here's the thing: We have a walnut tree now, with the 'new' house and I was pretty damn excited to gather walnuts and then I built a thing in the attic to dry them on and, you know, kind of nerded out on it for a bit. I think I gathered about a bushel. It was a lot - not crazy but a lot. The attic is un-insulated but still, I thought, perfect for drying walnuts in. I felt pretty damn clever.

Yesterday we got to the house, it was raining but I went out with kid-the-first and gathered all the walnuts on the ground and there was another half-bushel (I say bushel, but really about a laundry hamper: I know bushel is a 'real' metric of volume but somehow I think the one is equivalent to the other) and we bring them up to the attic and - WE WERE ROBBED! All the walnuts were gone! It was - a crime scene, a genuine crime scene - chaos, mayhem leaf litter everywhere and just a few nuts left. My god, I really didn't know how to feel. On the one hand I was annoyed the walnuts were gone, on the other I was amused at the thought of whatever rodent (Marder, Raccoon, Squirrel, field mouse, take your pick) found the stash and promptly freaked out. What a winter they had planned. I was also peeved because I went through the trouble of building a drying frame and collecting them (which involved a ladder and a stick to whack them down - not a difficult thing, but some effort went into it.)

We put out more walnuts last night and this morning, again, most were gone - never even heard the interloper! (Our brave and powerful dog didn't either). So this afternoon I gathered what was left, added newly fallen nuts to the bag, left some as temptation, and then we put up a critter-cam.

We shall see.
posted by From Bklyn at 11:14 AM on October 2, 2022 [9 favorites]

I’m in charge of breakfast in our house, and I tend to keep things simple. Cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon if we have it, toast with avocado and/or jam. Waffles, pancakes, French toast, cheese grits and a fried egg, or biscuits and gravy are staples. This morning I went for donuts, but they’d sold out and closed already, so I went to US Market and got chicken-on-a-stick for both of us. Some damn fine chicken-on-a-stick.
posted by malthusan at 11:16 AM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

I don’t normally read MeFi on the weekends - it’s a workday treat for me - but I just wanted to pop in and say that today is my 20th anniversary at MetaFilter!

My life is almost unrecognizable from 20 years ago.

When I joined MeFi I was in a relationship with a man. 2 days after I joined MeFi I met the woman who would eventually become my wife when the relationship with my boyfriend ended. I’ve been pregnant and given birth twice, achieving my highest dream: becoming a mother. We have 3 teenage kids who are our favorite people in the world.

When I joined MeFi I was working as an assistant. Over the last two decades I’ve been promoted several times, changed industries twice, carved out a career path for myself, and 3 weeks ago I started a new dream job as a member of the executive leadership team.

When I joined MeFi I had recently moved to CT and was trying hard to make new friends outside of the framework of school or kids. Now I have a solid core of friends, many of whom met through me and have become friends on their own account.

When I joined MeFi, my mom was still alive and my dad had many more years before his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

When I joined MeFi, I was desperate to get a dog but wasn’t in the right living situation or financial circumstances. Since then, I’ve had 3 - one who passed away early when he was hit by a car, but also one who was our best companion for over 13 years, and one who joined our family as a puppy 2 years ago. I’ve also overcome my distrust of cats and now we not only have 2 ourselves but we also regularly foster pregnant mamas and their kittens.

When I joined MeFi, George W Bush was president and I would never, ever have thought that I would one day wish that the new Republican president would be more like him. I also would never have thought that 20 years later we would still not have a female president, and that abortion rights would be overturned.

When I joined MeFi, I would never have guessed that two decades later I’d still be here. Mostly lurking but always reading.

Thanks MeFi, for being my favorite little corner of the web! <3
posted by widdershins at 12:21 PM on October 2, 2022 [22 favorites]

Cheers to you widdershins!
posted by obfuscation at 12:27 PM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Bizarrely, despite living on different continents until recently, the eventual Mr Tangerine Man and I separately developed nearly identical breakfast habits. It was great to have that in common when we moved in together.

Nearly every day it's fruit in huge blue mugs (recently berries, a banana, passionfruit) with yogurt, Bob's muesli and some extra almonds, raisins, dried goji. Orange juice with a shot of cranberry in a wine glass. And a latte.
posted by tangerine at 1:28 PM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh, and I think the vinegar problem is finally resolved.

I haven't assessed the extent of collateral damage yet, though. That much ozone exposure can degrade a lot of materials, in particular rubber and rubber-esque things. Many items that were exposed have rubber bits in them and some of that rubber was already well-aged: my wonderful, custom refoamed, full size Cerwin-Vegas; anything with a belt in it like disc-based consoles, floppy drives, tape decks, the laserdisc player; various fits and fittings and internal pieces in any of a number of vintage computers and electronics.

It's likely that many or all of them have sticky rubber that needs to be cleaned, at least, if not replaced. The grippy part of my almost-new Bluetooth mouse needed stickiness cleaned. Surely the vintage gear suffered a bit as well.

Also my office -- on the far side of the wall where the spill happened -- still smells faintly of ozone.
posted by majick at 1:55 PM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

Also, since I tend to hang around at the bottom of these threads:

Everyone has a kitchen from their childhood they would want to recreate - that's mine.

That is an awesome childhood kitchen, indeed, and I love how various people were participants both logistically and socially.

In my own childhood, kitchens -- at least my kitchens -- were not really great gathering spaces. Practically speaking, my father's kitchen was excellent for its purpose: one man who loved to cook and didn't want anyone to help. The triangle was a little tight, prep space a little short, and social space nil but I still dream of that gorgeous mostly-functional Wedgewood. It's my stepbrother's kitchen, now.

All the other kitchens of childhood were pretty mediocre both from a practical and social standpoint. Family dinners were always a thing in both households, for sure, but the kitchen itself not so much. My grandmother's kitchen was where she spent the day brooding, smoking, and drinking her gin. I could hang out and have conversations but it wasn't a lively place. Neither was my childhood, so that makes some sense.

I've had a some truly bad kitchens, a mediocre kitchen, a couple of good kitchens of my own one of which was an excellent gathering place and one truly fabulous kitchen that I will never again see the equal of for cooking or for socializing. My current kitchen is well better than acceptable but not quite in my top three.

The ongoing pandemic, however, has really put a severe dent in the joy of kitchens as a social space for me.
posted by majick at 3:13 PM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

The world’s most comforting breakfast, ful medammes.
posted by The Last Sockpuppet at 3:31 PM on October 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

a person of breakfast

😄

My people!

Typical breakfast: oatmeal ("old fashioned" thicker oats) with whole milk because it takes zero thought or effort. Tasteless but filling.

Preferred breakfast: anything savory, nothing sweet. I am ok with a traditional American diner breakfast, like a Denver omelet or hashbrowns and bacon. A step up from that is a "full English" but there's nowhere to get that here; the northern Europe youth hostel breakfast spreads with cheese, meat, and bread are good too. I love Latin American savory breakfast options (breakfast tacos, chilaquiles, empanadas, etc.), but rarely have the motivation to make those for myself in the morning.

Dream breakfast: I genuinely fantasize about an eating tour of Malaysia ever since someone described some of the breakfasts there to me. I've been told about wonderful-sounding savory breakfast foods in Indonesia, too.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:30 PM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

majick - Mr. gudrun is also a Wheatena fan! Just got some for him recently after not having it for a long time. Any cooking tips?

I'm not much of a breakfast eater, all things considered, so the usual is some kind of cold cereal with oat milk (due to lactose intolerance) and a cup of hot black tea with a bit of milk and sugar. If I'm in a hurry it might just be a Simple Mills Dark Chocolate Almond flavor Almond Flour Bar (and tea, the tea is a given ... we have so many kinds of tea at home).

Occasional treat breakfasts include a soft boiled egg in an egg cup with buttered toast fingers for dipping, or scrambled eggs, buttered toast, and maybe a side of bacon. Big indulgence treats would be something like Belgian waffles with butter, real maple syrup, and cut up fresh fruit on top. Nostalgic indulgent breakfast of my youth in France - buttery flakey croissants served warm with butter and strawberry jam, and with hot chocolate, or hot tea. Travel breakfast indulgence: churros con chocolate.
posted by gudrun at 5:56 PM on October 2, 2022 [2 favorites]

For the past several years, it's been a smoothie (banana, peanut butter powder, unsweetened cocoa, milk [either dairy or almond]). I should probably add some flaxseed.
posted by thomas j wise at 6:41 PM on October 2, 2022 [1 favorite]

I've had the same breakfast almost every day for decades: PB&J on whole-grain bread and black coffee. It's satisfying, low-effort, and has a very predictable effect on my blood sugar.

Oh, I meant to add, when I told my English-born doctor about my daily PB&J, he shook his head and sighed, “So American.”
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:43 PM on October 2, 2022 [3 favorites]

Big indulgence treats would be something like Belgian waffles with butter, real maple syrup, and cut up fresh fruit on top.

Takes me back to high school and the first time I went to Area All-State Chorus. We stayed with host families, and by the time we got done with the first day’s exhausting rehearsals I was so happy to collapse into any bed that I didn’t take much note of my surroundings. When I woke up sprawled out like a swastika in a queen-size bed under a down comforter in a Laura Ashley guest room, I realized this kid from the wrong end of the smallest town in the region had landed in clover. Another girl from a different school was in the second Laura Ashley guest room.

We staggered down what were probably mahogany stairs to cappuccino, cloth napkins, and freshly-made Belgian waffles with whipped cream and fresh fruit. NPR wafted around the formal dining room on surround-sound speakers. Our hosts encouraged and humored our schoolgirl French. We were driven to the host school so we didn’t have to rush for the bus; I still don’t know one make of car from another, but at that point I wasn’t used to a functioning heater or doors that latched on the first try.

When we got to rehearsal that day and traded stories, the snooty kids from my school grumbled about their night sleeping in the farmworkers’ bunkhouse and having to gather the eggs before they could eat them.

So, Belgian waffles always remind me of that time I got to be Cinderella for breakfast.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:06 PM on October 2, 2022 [6 favorites]

Mr. gudrun is also a Wheatena fan! Just got some for him recently after not having it for a long time. Any cooking tips?

My friend, you have come to either the very wrong person or exactly the very right person. I am absurdly particular about my Wheatena preparation.

Use the ratios as described on the box, with perhaps just slightly (very slightly!) less water as I prefer mine slightly al dente. The serving sizes are also just about right. The instructions, however, leave a lot to be desired otherwise.

Heat over full flame until boiling. Reduce heat to a medium-low flame until there isn't an obvious level of loose liquid. The grains will puff subtly but you might not notice this for the first few times, that's okay. Crank the heat down to the tiniest flame level at this point and simply let it make ominous blupping noises for about 10 more minutes. When you can form the remaining substance into a heap that mostly sustains its shape, serve it.

My preferred serving suggestion is to plate it into a smallish, deepish bowl in a volcano shape. This shape helps cool the currently preposterously hot food. Tuck a generous pat of butter into the crater of the volcano, ideally poking it down into the cereal to help it melt in. Dust the butter with salt.

Take a tea spoon (not a measuring teaspoon, a service tea spoon), shove it into the bag of dark brown sugar, and squish the sugar into a puck in the spoon. Plop the sugar puck onto the side of the volcano and serve.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
posted by majick at 10:10 PM on October 2, 2022 [4 favorites]

I've successfully found one type of breakfast meal that I will enjoy without abandon-- croissant sandwiches with perfect avocado, topped with maldon salt. If I need more protein, I'll put some deli meat in it.
posted by yueliang at 1:24 AM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

TUM: Belgian waffles always remind me of that time I got to be Cinderella for breakfast.
Our teenage son went on a French exchange with his school. He phoned home to say he'd arrived. We asked "Are you staying in a flat or a house?" He replied "Flat, house or erm chateau?" The host family sent him back with a couple of bottles from the cellar - way above our pay-grade.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:26 AM on October 3, 2022 [3 favorites]

I just had the scrapple at our local diner. It's not actually what anyone would call scrapple, it's a sausage patty cooked into a pancake then the whole thing is covered with sausage gravy. So despite the inaccurate name it's amazing.
posted by Tehhund at 8:07 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

For the last few years I've been doing what I think of as the lazy person's eggs benedict. Toast an english muffin and start melting a pat of butter in the pan. Around the time the butter has melted and I've broken two eggs into the pan the muffins are done. Plate the muffin halves and put a generous dollop of mayonnaise (replacing the hollandaise of a proper eggs benedict) on each one. By this time the eggs have cooked on the bottom and you can flip them for a nice over-easy (instead of poached) then place them on the english muffins and season with a generous shake of Old Bay.

It's not as tasty as a proper eggs benedict with all the trimmings, but I'd say it's more than 2/3rds as tasty for less than 1/3rd of the work. Definitely a satisfying hit of fat and protein for something that I can prepare and eat in under 10 minutes as I'm rushing to get ready for work.
posted by firechicago at 8:08 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Bacon, egg and cheese on a kaiser roll, of course, from my local deli. Wash it down with a diet coke.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:51 AM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

The Last Sockpuppet, that's a great Wikipedia page for ful medammes!

In the Middle Ages, the making of fūl in Cairo was monopolized by the people living around the Princess Baths, a public bath in a tiny compound near today's public fountain of Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha, a block north of the two elegant minarets of the Mosque of Sultan al-Muayyad above the 11th century Bab Zuweila gate ...

I feel like I stepped into an historical mystery novel wherein our hero is tasked with solving a foul and mysterious crime at the Princess Baths. Imagine a minion all unsuspecting just sleepily ambling along on his way to pick up his master's breakfast jar of fragrant and simmering ful medammes only to trip over a dead body ...
posted by taz (staff) at 10:28 AM on October 3, 2022 [6 favorites]

A cup of coffee or tea. Three graham crackers. A compensatory handful of walnuts, to be shared with the bird that recognizes the sound of my cabinet and bag.

I am not proud, but I am fed.
posted by desert outpost at 2:39 PM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Breakfast! I love breakfast, but I also like quiet and routine in the morning, so I almost always eat eggs and toast with coffee in my house the same way every day. Actually getting some protein and fat in me along with the caffeine seems important if I want to be capable of talking to other humans afterwards. After that, I'm usually not hungry for about 5 hours. But I do like other breakfast foods, especially all the sweet dessert-y ones I never eat because I get cranky 2 hours afterwards if I start my day with them. So I guess the ideal breakfast for me is indulgent pancakes or French toast or some amazing pastry at 2pm an extremely late second breakfast.

I really want to explore international breakfasts, especially from India and Pakistan. I've seen some amazing pictures and I bet they're all delicious. I would absolutely go to a Breakfasts Of The World restaurant (ideally small plates or buffet style, or an oft-rotating menu, for maximum tasting). But only after I've had breakfast.
posted by deludingmyself at 3:15 PM on October 3, 2022 [2 favorites]

Breakfast for me is almost always Aldi brand cereal and some yoghurt. It's only been since I've lived with my (now) wife that I eat breakfast at all, though.

But yesterday, because we were camping and that's what we do when we camp, it was bacon, two fried eggs, two hash browns and a slice of toast.
posted by dg at 8:52 PM on October 3, 2022 [1 favorite]

Up until about a year ago, I almost never ate breakfast. Even on days when I skipped dinner the night before. Now, I generally try and do "one big thing" on the weekend and parcel it out over the week. (This week, it's crustless spinach quiche). If I'm really ambitious, I might make two medium things to have a little variety during the week.

I just started working mostly remote and have noticed my partner sometimes reheats soup for a light breakfast. I've started taking up that habit. Make a big ol' dutch oven on the weekend and preportion, and good to go. It's nice, because it's easy, more variety again, and I don't feel I have to finish a portion. I also don't feel I have to eat it right away or have to skip it completely if it gets too close to lunch time.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:44 AM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

I got my daily breakfast from Mefi. Years ago there was a whole thread about soft boiled eggs and I thought, oh, hey, my mother used to make those, I've never bothered but I liked them, I think I'll do that. And now, more weekdays than not, I have a soft boiled egg, two slices of whole wheat toast with vegan butter or olive oil spread or something and two pieces of morningstar farms fake bacon. Boil the water in the pot as I boil the water for the coffee (french press forever) egg into boiling water, turn the heat all the way down, timer for 7 minutes, toast and fakon on a piece of tin foil into the toaster oven, turn on. Feed the dogs, turn around, the timer is going off. Seriously I think I have had that for breakfast four days a week at least for hmmmm, 6 years? Now I have to find that thread.

If I run out of time I have whatever is handy and fast: leftovers, a pb&j. This morning it was a frozen breakfast burrito. I also always have an Emergen-C in a glass of plain seltzer.

On weekends I usually like to make a fancier or at least more elaborate breakfast. I really like eggs so it's usually some egg thing, maybe poached eggs with real old fashioned grits, or a breakfast burrito with soyrizo and tater tots and sauteed veggies and cheese. If the family is home or there are houseguests we do decent bagels with local smoked fish because Josephsons is here and oh. my. god. I can't afford to go there often but once in a while I splash out. Smoked halibut is possibly the best thing on earth. Add cream cheese and capers and red onion on a decent bagel and it's just perfect.

edited to add the link, I forgot it
posted by mygothlaundry at 3:17 PM on October 4, 2022 [1 favorite]

Sometimes of a Saturday morning, Mom would bust out the electric griddle and make a big mess of pancakes. She’d make shaped ones for us kids, with chocolate chip eyes for the animal shapes. We’d have maple syrup, Karo syrup, and two or three different kinds of jam or jelly. The fun part was tossing King the dog his share like Frisbees and watching him jump up to catch them. Never saw him miss.

On Boxing Day we’d have fried mashed potato patties full of ground ham, to use up the leftovers from Christmas dinner. And if there was leftover pie, so much the better.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:27 AM on October 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

For me just now it was the two(!) eggs from yesterday which cracked immediately (and were immediately withdrawn) from the boiling water. Mixed with some fresh-grated cheddar and chopped ham, everything tossed and scrambled in mostly butter in the non-stick pan. Penzey's Fox Point sprinkled on top and served with warmed mini-croissants (from the Winco bakery!) and green tea. And afterwards, possibly the last peach of the season.
posted by Rash at 10:04 AM on October 6, 2022

Most days, I must eat breakfast or I'm really, really cranky by the middle of the day. Mid last year when time had no meaning, that changed some, but now I'm back on needing to eat.

What I eat varies wildly depending on the day. Mornings where I know I need food but I'm just not feeling it yet, I'll make myself a smoothie when I make my wife's (she get a smoothie every day because she is not a breakfast bitch but is on meds that have to be taken with food). I go through phases - the current phase is tamago, made in a big batch on Monday morning and whacked up into pieces to be eaten with some fruit or veg or both every morning. This morning it was a mess of mushrooms and peppers and some leftover rice.

Summer mornings when I'm really not ready to food but I'm hungry (I know that sounds weird) I'll down a bunch of watermelon.

I went through an overnight oats stage this summer. I'd always thought the texture was going to be funny, but I finally tried them and I'll be dipped, they were amazing. I also went through a chia pudding and basil seed pudding stage this summer.

I am my father's child and will totally eat dinner leftovers for breakfast.

Weekends, we do pancakes or waffles or crepes or French toast. We'll do eggs Benedict when I'm feeling fussy. Her girlfriend is coming into town this weekend so I'll make a breakfast casserole for the week.

When we go out it all depends on where we are; I'm gluten intolerant so carby goodness is easy at home and totally dependent on where we're eating when we're out, but there's always hash browns or home fries if they're on the menu.

Coffee is never optional.
posted by joycehealy at 6:24 PM on October 6, 2022

Most days since moving back to the old home place, it’s a bowl of cereal and some black coffee.

I pour my coffee through a rubber filter-holder into a big thermos, but usually it’s tomorrow’s coffee. I put it in a big glass bottle and stick it in the fridge overnight. I don’t have the temperament to get picky about my coffee operation these days, so fridge-cold black coffee is the level of repeatability I can handle that won’t burn my mouth.

Sometimes I get bored of cereal so I switch cereals or have a grilled cheese or something.

Sundays, Mom makes scrambled eggs with whatever assorted add-ins from the fridge.

Having a routine is nice right now.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 10:01 AM on October 7, 2022

Weekdays, I just have black coffee until I eat lunch anytime between 11:30 and 13:30.

Weekends, if I'm at home, it's still more of the same. But if I go out, I love a restaurant breakfast. High-end, low-end, and everything in-between. Benedicts of all sorts; basic eggs and bacon; hash; chicken and waffles; I'll eat it all. I just want someone to make it for me.
posted by hydra77 at 3:45 PM on October 7, 2022 [2 favorites]