BREAKFASTS OF THE MIGHTY MORTALS

The sun sprays through my bedroom from the balcony. As usual, I have left the doors open to receive the morning and even though it is cold, I am under my cloud of feather comforters, braced by pillows, getting ready to emerge.

Breakfast is calling!

I love to dine. I love long dinners with friends, bantering words and letting conversations wander where they may. I love afternoon lunches in some new found café, outside in the shade on a warmish day. And I love cooking a late supper for a lover, or a girlfriend who needs to talk.

But most of all… I love breakfast.

Though I have a myriad of lunch and dinnertime specialties I can flounce up at a moments notice (if my larder permits), I’m notoriously limited in my breakfast menu. It’s a choice because there are really only two things I crave and they are both, for me, the breakfast of Warrior Queens, of Goddesses on the Move, of Mighty Mortals… for after eating either of them, I feel like the Empress of Energy herself.

I don’t care that I am utterly porcine as I linger over the heaping helpings I give myself. A magazine or book is always at hand. I read, I eat, I revel in both, I take my time. The music plays…usually classical music from the radio. The sun comes looping in over my dining room table from another angle, and I am in breakfast bliss for as long as I can make it last.

When my friends come to stay over, they are always treated to one of my two breakfast choices. They never complain. Well.. .maybe a little afterwards, because they have eaten a lot, down to the very last morsel. But later, when they have vitality enough to lead an army and aren’t hungry yet even at 3 in the afternoon, they again come forth with compliments. Warrior breakfasts. Breakfasts for Mighty Mortals.

My breakfasts are obvious. Nothing new or exotic about oatmeal or toast and eggs. So then, what’s the mystery? Why so delicious? Why so powerful? Why so addictive?

Well, it’s all in the accoutrements, just like jewelry, perfume, and makeup on a plain woman.

So here they are, my two breakfasts, all dressed up in their finery for you to enjoy….

OATMEAL AND THEN SOME…

Oatmeal
Water
Ground cinnamon
Stevia (or sugar or honey… but stevia has no calories)
Raisons
One banana
Flax seeds
Sunflower seeds
Sesame seeds
Coconut flakes
Milk (or coconut milk and then don’t use the flakes)

You’ll need a spice grinder for the flax seeds. If you don’t have one, pound them down to a powder beforehand with a mortar and pestle, or soak them for a couple of hours and use them this way – a little slimy, but actually delicious! (chew thoroughly)

Cook up the oatmeal in the water and add the raisons, cinnamon, and stevia (only a few drops), or just a bit of sugar or honey).

Chop up a banana and put it in your bowl. Try to use a shallow bowl that is larger than a normal cereal bowl.

Place sunflower seeds in a dry pan and toast over a low flame. Add sesame seeds and take the pan off the burner once they begin to hop and pop.

Put the oatmeal over the top of the bananas. Sprinkle your flax meal over the oatmeal, then the coconut flakes, and then your toasted seeds. Add a bit of milk, and you can rest assured that not only will you be full and satisfied, you will also be super energized and ready to take on your day full tilt ahead!

PS – it sounds like a lot of work, but I’m telling you that I whip this up in about 2 minutes.

EGGS AND TOAST Oooh La La

Two fresh eggs from the farm, natural the way their mother bore them.
Fresh parsley, chopped up fine
Smoked paprika
Salt and freshly ground pepper
A dollop of ghee or a smidge of olive oil.
Honey

Two pieces of the whole-est grain bread you can find, or else that great Italian bread that melts in your mouth.
Ghee* or butter
Olive oil
Good quality honey
Cinnamon

Ok, all these ingredients sound kind of contrary, but I assure you when you put them together and taste the consequences, you will be amazed.

Break the eggs into a pan that has been heated with olive oil. Sprinkle the paprika, salt, and pepper over them and then add the parsley. Cook over a very low flame with a cover just until the tops of the eggs have set.

Meanwhile, toast up the bread. Spread a thin layer of ghee on the surface (or butter if you’re feeling luxe), then a thin layer of honey, and then a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Put the cooked eggs on top of the anointed toast and voila!

With a hot cup of green tea, you’ll be deep into a breakfast heaven worthy of the Breakfast Warrior that you’ve just become.

* Ghee is so easy to make, but you need to do it at least a day in advance. Just put a hunk of high quality butter in a heavy pot over low heat (preferably over a heat diffuser) and let the fat burn off. Ladle off the excess, let cool, and then put in a wide-mouth jar. It will keep in your pantry, un-refrigerated for quite a while. When it “hardens” it has this wonderful nutty aroma and is great to use on a thousand things.

Michele Kadison