Breakfast

When my doc suggested I try eating Paleo, he started by asking me what kinds of things I was already eating. I wasn't expecting that question, so I hadn't really given it any thought, and I kind of rambled through the list of some of the things I typically ate. After many of the things I mentioned, he said something like, "Nope!" Finally, I was starting to get frustrated and essentially wailed, "What am I supposed to eat for breakfast?" His response, also delivered in a bit of a wail, "EGGS!"

Okay, so it's true: for many people eating Paleo, breakfast can be a bit of a problem. Many people suggest eating leftover meats and veggies from the previous night's meal. With rare exceptions, I'm not that into eating savory foods in the morning, and I'm skittish about leftovers in general, so this wasn't a very attractive proposal. Some people eat lots of fruit, and while I'd be open to including fruit, I didn't think that would hold me through the morning, or give me the strength to make good choices at lunch. I even read one post during my online research that suggested focusing one's efforts to adopt Paleo on lunch and dinner because breakfast can be such a pain.

As much as I was frustrated when thinking about what to do, I was reluctant to give up because breakfast is low hanging fruit. What I mean by that is that, at least for me, I almost always eat breakfast at home. I typically eat the same thing for breakfast every day, with occasional, slight variations. I also almost never wake up in the morning and think to myself, "I really want X for breakfast today." I usually wake up, take a shower, eat breakfast and don't start thinking until sometime after that! It's not until I'm going about my day that I start craving something, so when trying to improve the quality of what I'm eating at lunch and dinner, I'm dealing with those feelings. At breakfast? Just eat. I knew that if I could come up with an effective plan, I could easily eat at least one good Paleo meal each day.

So, here's a little overview of what I came up with:

Hard-boiled eggs. So easy! I usually boil an entire carton's worth on the weekend, which sets me up nicely for the week to come. I occasionally swap these for fried eggs if I have extra time, but I'm glad not to be standing in front of the stove every morning while I'm trying to get out the door and off to work! I use basically these directions and very rarely get a yolk that turns green. (My primary modification is that I don't have a separate vessel of cold water, I just change the water after 12 minutes, and then again 12 minutes later before putting the dried eggs into the refrigerator.) I sometimes use salt and pepper, or dried dill, to season them.

Paleo "muffin." I found this recipe online here. I have varied it slightly by using golden Flaxseed meal, partly because I find that it's more available. I mixed up the muffin in the mug, cooked it in the microwave for 1:15, dumped it out and it looked like this.

I usually cut it into slices, which look like this. Does it taste like bread? Not particularly. I  LOVE that it's warm and a little bit chewy, which reminds me of the toast I ate every single day for years.

Coffee with SO Delicious Creamer. I'm a bit obsessed with making sure I have my coffee in the morning. I know it would be wise to eliminate it, but it keeps my daily headaches under control (even knowing that this is probably a dependency cycle), so I'm not willing to give it up at this point. Until just a few days ago, I'd been using my regular old CoffeeMate non-dairy powdered Sugar Free creamer which was definitely NOT Paleo. It took me some time to find a suitable replacement.

The good news is that I finally did! This creamer is made without dairy milk, so no lactose issues to worry about. It does have sugar in it, so it's not strictly Paleo, but it's way less processed than my old stuff. It's not quite as sweet, either, but it's working for me so far!