Breakfast

I have just finished having my breakfast. It is rumored to be the "most important meal of the day" by many people, some scientist included. I am not one of those people. I'd say I eat breakfast maybe once a week, and that's a high estimate. I don't hate breakfast, it's just that I don't love it anymore.

While growing up, I use to camp out at the table and eat two heaping bowls of cereal everyday. Since our family didn't have an excess of money, we rarely saw name brand cereals. Nope. For us it was the off-brands. You know what I am talking about right? Puffed Wheat, Puffed Rice, Circle O-s, and Choco Blasts were the common fare in our pantry. Sure, we also had some version of oatmeal up in the pantry somewhere, but unless it was freezing cold outside, nobody touched it except for dear old Dad.

I wonder what changed in me over the years. If I actually sit down to eat cereal, it will usually be the off brand Raisin Bran that I loved growing up (I think it's better than Post or Kellog's brand). I do enjoy a bowl of name-brand Cheerios from time to time, but that happens only every so often. It used to be that if I bought cereal, the box might not get finished for two months or so. Now, my wife makes sure that the boxes are emptied within a week or so. She eats breakfast every morning. Even when we need to be heading out the door to get somewhere, she will pull out a bowl and sit down and eat. It's kind of bazarre to me. Why rush through something like breakfast? If you are going to eat it, you might as well enjoy it, right?

I've morphed into more of a breakfast bar type of person. If I think about it or feel remotely hungry, I will grab a granola bar of some sort and hit the road. I guess some people have to have breakfast (like my wife) or they will not be able to function properly. I fall at the other extreme end of the line - if I eat breakfast twice in a week, then I feel like I've accomplished some great feat.

So this week I have eaten two granola bars. One on Tuesday and one that I just finished. Tuesday's flavor was Honey Nut and today's was Maple Brown Sugar, both from the Quaker Chewy Wholesome Favorites line. Tuesday's experience kind of bothered me. I love honey and I love nuts. So the natural combination of the two should result in the end-all, be-all breakfast bar, right? Wrong! This was the worst tasting thing I have ever consumed for breakfast, and the fact that they called it Honey Nut just makes me even that more upset about it. It had a terrible after-taste that made you want to spray some Dawn in your mouth and swish it around before rinsing. However, I must say that today's Maple Brown Sugar has at least partially restored my faith in the Quaker company breakfast name and I would recommend ti to anyone who enjoys a good granola bar for the opening meal of the day.

Tuesday made me dislike breakfast, but today it has been rescued back to it's normal level of mediocre-ness in my mind. After all, like I said at the beginning, I don't hate breakfast, but I don't love it either...

Note: The author's indifference to breakfast as a meal does not specifically relate directly to the items that are traditionally consumed at that mealtime. For instance, if you want to make me pancakes, bacon and eggs for dinner, please do so because I love them! I just would want to get up at 6am and make them or eat them at that time per se.