Usually when I tell people that our alarm goes off at 5 in the morning, I am met with one of two reactions.
One possible reaction is sympathy.
"Oh, man, that must be rough!"
But - most usually, it's something more like this:
*awkward silence - paired with the look one might reserve for the criminally insane*
"What's wrong with you?"
I'll tell you what's wrong. Food.
Yup. If I didn't make breakfast and lunch before my hubby took off in the morning - and if our family didn't eat before we left for work or school, we could probably wait until a more sane time of day to lift our heads from our pillow.
Oh sure, as that college student I talked about earlier, I routinely woke up 30 minutes before a class, showered, slapped on jeans and a sweater, and perhaps ate a banana on the way to class.
Then that whole "adult" thing happened. I married a breakfast person. A doctor placed a wonderful child in my arms and said, "Congratulations, Mom".
Alas, breakfasts must happen.
I probably will not blog about breakfasts often, because in our house, our breakfasts are the same every day. They are the same because over the course of time, I have found that if I eat anything else, my day just doesn't go as well. Plus...at 5:20 a.m. (which is when I actually roll out of bed after that blasted alarm goes off) I need something I can do on automatic pilot.
Here it is - my unique and time-tested breakfast recipe, complete with the procedure that usually produces said meal, as well as preparing the lunch for my hubby to take to work:
Oatmeal and Raisins:
Serves 2
2 cups of water
1 3/4 cups of Rolled Oats
Kosher Salt
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon
3/4 ounce of raisins
Milk & butter - optional.
Stumble into the kitchen. Grab a saucepan, place it on the stove burner start the burner on high (which sometimes requires a match, which sometimes results in an entertaining light show as the burner lights), and put the water into the saucepan. Put the lid on the saucepan.
While waiting for the water to boil, grab a loaf of Italian Multigrain Bread, cut two slices, and put them in the toaster (for my hubby). Also measure out the rolled oats, get two slices of sandwich bread out, and place them on a paper towel (to make lunch for my hubby).
When the lid on the saucepan begins to rattle, take off the lid, turn down the heat to low and put a hefty pinch of kosher salt in the water. Stir in the rolled oats.
Set a timer for 3 minutes. Then, get out the deli ham, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, an apple, and V8 drink o' the day from the refrigerator. Get a small container out from the cupboard for the applesauce.
Put two slices of ham on one slice of bread, add one slice of cheese. Remember during this process that you haven't prepped your oatmeal bowl with raisins and brown sugar, so put the bowl on the scale, measure out precisely 3/4 oz of raisins (about the only precise portion measurement habits left over from my Weight Watcher days - but that's another blog post) and one teaspoon of brown sugar and put it in the bowl.
By this time, the timer should have gone off. Stir the rolled oats, then punch down the toast in the toaster.
Return to lunch preparation. Place the sandwich (or actually, sandwiches - often I make one for all 3 of us - but again, that's another blog post) in lunch bags. Grab the almonds from the pantry, and place a handful in a baggie. Spoon some applesauce into the small container.
By now, the toast has popped up. This toaster serves as the timer for judging whether the oatmeal is done or not - so stir the oatmeal, and if it seems the oats have soaked up the fluid, turn the heat off. Then punch the toast back down, because usually, it's not done yet (old toasters...you know how that goes).
Go back to the applesauce. Stir in some cinnamon. Place the lid on the applesauce.
Dish one cup of the oatmeal into the raisin and brown sugar prepped bowl. Place an additional teaspoon of brown sugar on top to melt. This allows the raisins some time to cook as well. Cover the remaining oatmeal so it does not get cold.
Find the lunchbox(which sometimes is nicely placed in the kitchen, other times in the dining room, other times by the door...depending on the amount of exhaustion my hubby endured the day before). Clean out the lunchbox, put yesterday's freezer pack back in the freezer, get a new one out and place it in the lunchbox. Pack the sandwich, almonds, yogurt, applesauce, V-8 drink o' the day, a bottle of water, and the apple into the lunchbox. Grab the sandwich back out because you forgot to put the tablet of fish oil in it (gotta be healthy, you know). Replace it, then put a napkin in the lunchbox, close it, and place by the door so it's not forgotten.
Yell to the back of the house "Kiddo - are you awake?" If there is no response, head to the back of the house, pound on the door of the Kiddo, and say, "Kiddo, you have to be to jazz band this morning...get moving!"
Endure the angry grunting and groaning from the Kiddo's room.
Return to the kitchen, cover the top of the oatmeal in the bowl with cinnamon, and stir. Repeat. Then head to the vitamin drawer, and get out the daily batch of vitamins and other needed medications. This allows time for the cinnamon to cook and meld with the brown sugar.
By this time, the hubby should emerge from the back of the house, ready for his breakfast. It's at this point you realize you forgot to pop the toast back up, and it now resembles Chernobyl circa 1986. Be thankful that margarine (heart healthy, non-trans-fat margarine, thank you) heals all toasting wounds - and that your hubby prizes the taste of charcoal, and slather margarine upon the crispy bread remnants.
Grab your bowl of oatmeal, sit in your comfy chair, wrap yourself in your comfy pink flannel blanket, and enjoy your oatmeal.
This, quite honestly, is the routine every weekday morning, and most weekends. Oatmeal just works.
This is not to say that from time to time, I don't splurge and make some lovely breakfast yummies including lots of fried dough, bacon grease and cheesy eggs...but that is yet a third blog post in the making.
Oh yes, feel free to adjust this recipe as needed to fit your needs. ;-)
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