Breakfast: A Bright Beginning

I've recently become completely enamored of breakfast as a meal.

Now, when I was growing up, I used to HATE breakfast. I thought breakfast was a waste of time, a terrible misuse of those extra minutes between snooze alarms. In fact, eating breakfast actually made me feel nauseous, since my stomach seemed to be unable to cope with food so early in the morning. I was never really all that hungry until I got home from school, anyways, so I never felt like I was missing out by not eating brekkie.

In fact, from about age three until age seventeen, when I left home, do you know what I had for breakfast (if you could call it that) every single day of my life? A glass of Ovaltine. I was OBSESSED with the stuff. Remember those silly Ovaltine commercials with the little kids yelling "More Ovaltine, please!"? Well, I could have been one of those kids. And that was all anyone could coax me into eating before noon...until recently.

About a year ago, though, I discovered the joys of eating a delicious breakfast. Why? Well, part of it might have been the knowledge that eating breakfast is actually really good for you, but another part of it might have been that great middle ground meal— brunch. Brunch is a fabulous idea. Whomever decided that waking up at a leisurely hour, putting on a comfortable knitted sweater (and perhaps a scarf or beret), and drinking any number of delicious beverages (coffee, tea, mimosas...) in combination with any number of delicious food items could be a good idea was a Mighty Genius, and ought to have won, I don't know, the Nobel Peace Prize or something.

So about two years ago, I started with Cheerios. Simple, delicious, easy to fix. Then I moved on to toast with jam— sugary sweet, but also simple and delicious! Then, in France, I discovered the breakfast crepe— and the dessert crepe, which I devoured just as early in the morning as the breakfast crepe, much to the horror of my French host family.

Now, my obsessions are threefold:

-Honey Bunches of Oats. OH. MY. GOD. Someone stick the Philosophy E. Walker Stamp of Approval on this puppy, because this cereal is AMAZING. When Adam first proposed the purchase of such a cereal, I balked; after all, "bunches of oats" doesn't really conjure up amazing taste sensations. But wow, this stuff is SO GOOD. (And probably pretty bad for me, but I break up my HBOO consumption with days where I eat healthier things.)

-Chocolate chop waffles. You know the only thing better than chocolate chip waffles? Chocolate chip waffles made in my HELLO KITTY WAFFLE MAKER. BOOYA.

-Adam's famous "Who-Hash." Adam is an amazing cook, and one day, about a year ago, he invented this awesome egg scramble with bacon, onions, celery, and lots of different spices. He calls it "Who-Hash," after the meal mentioned in The Grinch.

Recently, though, I've felt the need to transition into the era of the smoothie. Everyone in New York seems to be carrying around smoothies, but their smoothies seem to be of the high-fructose-corn-syrup-containing kind, and I figure I could make something even better myself, at home. I have berries, and yogurt, and milk, ad honey, and even tangerine sorbet (all natural!), so maybe those ingredients can combine into a delicious smoothie this week.

I'm always looking for new things to try for breakfast. Anyone have any ideas?