Now that The Mister is back at work, Mikey often complains that he misses their early morning breakfasts.  So do I (mainly because it meant I wasn’t making them), and one night after dinner I casually mentioned to The Mister how making breakfast, the easiest meal of the day to prepare, gently sucks from my soul the will to live.  There is something about matching cereal with fruit so early in the morning that I find as complicated as balancing chemical equations.  The Mister just looked at me and smiled, those inscrutable eyes of his giving nothing away.

The next morning, I stumbled into the kitchen and found this.

I think he left the cereal box out to mock me.

A breakfast of cereal and fresh cut strawberries for the boys prepared by The Mister before leaving for work.  I called him immediately, of course, thanking him for helping me in such a simple but thoughtful way.

“Oh, you’re welcome, but it was for Mikey.”

“What?”

“Well, I mean, for you too, of course.  Ahem.  But Mikey told me he missed me making him breakfasts so I told him last night I was going to figure out a way where we could still have breakfast together.”

I see.  Most likely Mikey missed eating breakfast before noon, but that’s neither here nor there.

Not to be outdone, one day Mikey woke up even earlier than usual, and after laying with me for a while in bed said, “Mama, you don’t have to worry about breakfast today.  I’ve got it under control.”

I stumbled into the kitchen and found this.

It didn’t escape my notice that Mikey’s version of breakfast also includes an old bag of candy, scissors, a crazy straw, and a plastic golf club wrapped in duct tape, which makes cereal and fruit a tame combination by comparison.

This is one of my favorite breakfasts. Two months ago, this breakfast would have been a snack around 2pm, since I always skipped breakfast and rarely ate lunch. And, to be honest, there would have been less apple and a whole grip more brie cheese. Okay, maybe the apples were crackers.

I don’t know about the new meal plan. It requires me to drink 2 cups of milk a day, which I find repulsive. I’m back to the original plan until I can meet with a registered dietitian (anyone know of one in southern California?) who can come up with a meal plan that doesn’t offend my tender sensibilities.

Some other things I have for breakfast: eggs, bacon, fruit and yogurt– nothing exciting.

What do you like to eat for breakfast? I’m looking for inspiration, always.

In order to eat as clean as I like and still stay within my point value, I’m going to need to rework my recipes and do research on low fat cooking. While I am normally opposed to artifical flavors and colors, preservatives, and ingredients I can’t pronouce, I decided to let all that go until I am comfortable with the program. I thought I would share some of the foods that helped me stay on plan last week. And, so that I don’t waste the Mister’s severance on foods that suck, I’m hoping you will chime in with your own favorite diet foods.

Weight Watchers Canadian Bacon English Muffin Sandwich

I never eat breakfast. In fact, I rarely eat before 1pm. But studies show that for me to have any chance of losing weight with lasting success, I need to feed my metabolism by feeding myself. This sandwich is actually very tasty. Not nearly the revolting mass I thought it would be, and at FOUR points, it’s plan friendly. But, it’s also loaded with sodium, so a homemade version is on my list of recipes to build.

Thai Style Chicken and Rice Noodles

There are some days where I lose track of time and don’t realize I am hungry until I am ravenous. Those are the days when I get fast food for lunch, and to avoid that, I bought a few frozen foods entrees to eat when I’m too hungry to cook or make smart food choices. The first time I ate this was on one such day, and I thought it was DELICIOUS. I was so, SO happy with the product. Today I had it again, and I didn’t love it as much. Extreme hunger is key in enjoying most of this food, I suppose. Oh, and if you are Thai, or married to someone Thai, or enjoy eating Thai food, you would be wise to keep things in perspective. This is frozen diet food, after all. FIVE points.

Newman’s Own Balsamic Natural Salad Mist

I love salads and most of our dinners include a salad either as a side or the main meal. The problem is that with my penchant for homemade dressings, nuts, seeds, cheese, and dried fruit, I’m sure my salads have more calories than a greasy cheeseburger. I bought this for the spritzer bottle. I really didn’t expect to like it! It’s not fantastic, but it’s really not bad, and it’s definitely better than most bottled dressings. One servings is 10 flavor packed spritzes, which is almost enough to dress a salad. For ZERO points, I’ll take it.

Skinny Cow Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Sandwich

The Mister bought me these to replace my Dairy Queen habit. The first time I tried these, it was day one of my diet and I had Dairy Queen the night before. I thought they tasted mediocre, at best. I think what tasted weird to me was the peanut butter ice cream. I’ve had skinny cows in the past in vanilla and chocolate flavors and always thought they were tasty. These swirled numbers were a different story–but only temporarily. Now that a week has gone by without any Dairy Queen, I think they taste great. One sandwich is THREE points.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert: these are the food items that helped me stay on plan in a pinch. What about you? Any favorite products that help you stay on your diet?

One of my New Year’s resolutions is to recapture my health, and I am pleased to say I have taken this commitment to heart. I am three days into my 11th, 12th, and 13th resolutions. I’ve abstained from sugar and processed, refined food, haven’t had to take any of my prescription stomach medications or antacids, and haven’t had one sip of diet coke. I’ve even had breakfast, which I am sure you are not surprised to hear I usually skip. I hate breakfast. Not the concept, per se, but the traditional food offerings. Eggs are revolting. Danishes and other pastries are equally disgusting. Don’t even get me started on cereal. And you know what? I don’t even like pancakes! You can see why it is pretty easy for me to grab a diet coke and go.

But, I’m trying to be better and set a good example for the boys. To that end, and since I don’t see me liking breakfast foods anytime soon, I decided to rework the idea of breakfast. Those of you out there who are diehard breakfast fans (Hi, The Mister!) will not appreciate the following recipe, but maybe it will make a tasty, light lunch or mid afternoon snack.

Let’s make a little Tomato Crostini, shall we?

The ingredients are simple and healthy, and the recipe (if you want to call it that) is perfect for those of you with little time on your hands.

*I apologize for the poor picture quality. There is a film on my lens I haven’t been able to remove. It would help if I knew what it was and how it got there!

• 2 Slices whole grain bread
• 1-2 Fresh tomatoes, more or less depending on size. I used a mix of grape and small in low acid varieties for my stomach
• Pecorino Romano (Like parmesean, but made from sheep’s milk. Again, this is for my stomach. Parmesean works just fine.)
• Sea salt
• Olive oil

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees if you’re in and out of the kitchen (like I am) or 400-425 degrees if you’re short on time and can catch the bread before it burns.

Start off with a good, dense bread. Take two slices and place it on a lined cookie sheet. You need a sturdy bread that can support the water content of the tomatoes once they release their juices. Sourdough works well here, but I can’t eat yeast or gluten breads without feeling like my esophagus is engulfed in flames. Instead, I stick with whole grain, yeast and gluten free breads like Whole Grain Spelt or Spelt White by Pacific Bakery.

Drizzle the bread with olive oil. If you like a crispier bread, place it in the oven while you slice the tomatoes.

Slice the tomatoes thinly, about 1/4″ and remove bread from the oven if you decided to pret-toast. Arrange tomato slices on top of the bread. Spread them out and try not to pile them too much into the center. It looks prettier piled, but it’s easier to eat when evenly distributed.

Drizzle the tomatoes and bread with more olive oil.

Grate cheese on top and sprinkle with sea salt.

Place in the preheated oven and bake until the tomatoes are very soft (they’ll wrinkle a bit) and the cheese is melted. This should take anywhere from 10-20 minutes at 375 degrees (which is why I use this temperature–I can go back to my room and get ready) or 5-10 minutes at 425 degrees.

Take out of the oven, cut into triangles, and enjoy!

I know it seems rather silly to be so excited about my progess since, oh, Sunday. Perhaps I should have held off on this post until I had a more respectable number of days under my belt. I don’t think so, and here is why. I believe part of the reason resolutions fall by the wayside is that we expect perfection and don’t often take the time to ackowledge and applaud even the small steps we take towards achieving our goals. The journey is just as important as the destination. Because of this, I think I’m going to another resolution to my list:

21. Celebrate the small successes.