30 Before 30: The Ritual of Breakfast

So one benefit of unemployment is that I have the time to make a breakfast I actually LIKE now.

I've never been a huge fan of breakfast, or so I thought, until I was on my own and able to eat what I wanted for breakfast. It turns out I like breakfast just fine, as long as it's not a cold bowl of cereal. (Which isn't to say that I don't occasionally go through a period of wanting only Life cereal for breakfast... Mmm, Life cereal.) I prefer a hot meal, preferably more savory than sweet, which to me always seemed like the antithesis of breakfast because those types of breakfast were only on the weekends, and even then they were rare.

Well, I guess part of wearin' my big girl panties is that I get to eat whatever the heck I want whenever I want... so now I want a breakfast that used to be reserved for weekends, if on a smaller scale.

It's not a big meal that I make for myself; I scramble an egg, add some pre-diced ham warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds, and throw some cheese and black pepper on top when it's still warm (The ham is plenty salty on its own, btw, so you don't need to add any salt). I toast a piece of bread and slather some butter on it - just enough for taste, and to get a little of that softness that toast gets when melted butter attaches itself. Grab a piece of fruit, preferably citrus, and a hot cup of coffee in my favorite mug, and sit down in my big ol' comfy recliner...

I take a minute, look at the bounty of deliciousness before me, take a sip of my coffee, and for just that millisecond, my senses overwhelm my usual worry-a-minute train of thought and I feel nothing but contentment.

Breakfast is one of the few meals that, when I take the time to enjoy it, I really savor it. My dog does, too, as she looks at me longingly to drop a morsel for her to snatch up. Unfortunately for her, I don't drop a bite.

This isn't the only breakfast I eat; usually, I'm still grabbing something quick to shove in my mouth and get on with my day. However, I notice I start my mornings in a much better mood when I take the time to make this kind of breakfast. It satisfies my soul more than it fills my stomach, and some days you need that emotional kind of hunger quenched more than the physical.