Cooking with Ike / Need New Breakfast / Mileron 15 years ago

Need New Breakfast

I need to eat breakfast. Otherwise, my stomach hates me and I'll have a migraine before lunch.
So here's my problem. I'm spending 4-7 dollars a day on breakfast.

On a typical day, my breakfast consists of:
One breakfast sandwich, typically sausage, bacon or porkroll, on english muffin, croissant (not buttermilk), or bagel (not like, a NYC bagel, it's kind of a fake roll-like bagel). Cheese, fake egg.
One container of yogurt of various flavors or brands.
A drink, usually fruit juice, white tea, or V8

With this breakfast, I typically eat by 8am and I feel pretty good and can make 4-5 hours before I eat lunch (my biggest meal of the day, usually.)

I've tried, over the last couple years, to "cheap out" my breakfast, by buying the 52-packet Quaker Oatmeal box from Walmart or warehouse stores, combining that with fruit (banana, pear, peach) and water, but for two problems:
1 - Oatmeal gets really farking boring every day, even WITH pre-flavored packets
2 - I'm starving by 10:30am.

On days that I work a later shift (2-4 days a month) I eat cereal (frosted miniwheats or Raisin Bran Crunch) around 7:30/8am, then eat a small lunch (hot dog or small sandwich, yogurt, water or tea) around 10:30/11am. Then I have "lunch" at 4pm.

I would prepare a breakfast of some sort, but for the fact that my "getting ready for work" time slot of an hour is more often than not taken up by toilet time than anything else.
Also, I can't eat earlier, as my little purple pill (nexium) needs to be taken as soon as I wake up, and I need to wait at least an hour to eat, otherwise I have terrible heartburn throughout the day.

I briefly tried having a bagel for breakfast - just a bagel - but that left me feeling weighted down and tired.

I also tried doing a Tuna-like atkins breakfast, with a quarter pound of tuna salad, fruit or yogurt, water/tea, but I ended up having a mercury reaction... Yeah, so I don't do tuna daily anymore.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Verileah 15 years ago

The noble breakfast burrito!

http://www.gracelaced.com/2011/01/25/the-frugal-table-budget-breakfast-burritos/

Do you have an allergy to eggs or are you going with fake eggs for health reasons? Eggs in moderation are good for you! What I do for scrambled eggs is have one whole egg for flavor, then mix in 2-3 egg whites (I buy the egg whites in the milk carton). Throw in whatever fresh veggies I have leftover or on sale and I have a nice healthy breakfast.

Yogurt and granola can also be purchased in bulk - much cheaper than in the individual packages. Add whatever fruit is on sale (blueberries yay) or do frozen fruit, it's tasty!

Orange juice always seems to blow the budget out of the water - I personally can't drink it straight and so I water it down a lot. My husband is religious about drinking orange juice, though.

(Is picturing a poor watered down alot Sad

)

I do eat a little differently than you do - I'm more hobbit style, with a breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, tea, dinner, supper...lol. So the eggs I might eat on one occasion, the roll on another, the yogurt on a third...but it might work!

pharren 15 years ago

Orange juice always seems to blow the budget out of the water - I personally can't drink it straight and so I water it down a lot. My husband is religious about drinking orange juice, though.

He apparently has gastroesophageal reflux disease (or worse). Not sure if you were recommending orange juice or assuming orange juice, but with all the acidity, it's probably not so great for acid reflux :P That may also be the reason for the "fake eggs".

That does seem like a *huge* breakfast (I eat a granola bar, for example, and that's it), so I wouldn't even know where to start, even without considering whatever complication has you taking Nexium.

ROzbeans 15 years ago

Try eating 6 meals instead of 3. Snack at 10 and at 2. Up your protein. Have a nice day.

Verileah 15 years ago

Yeah, when he said fruit juice I did assume orange juice. Fruit juice -and- V8 might not be doing anyone any favors then, and iced tea (assuming you make it yourself) is cheaper anyway, so win-win.

pharren 15 years ago

I wondered about the V8, too. Seems that would be too acidic by far (but maybe not as much as orange juice? maybe even more?). Too many unanswered questions. Diabetes? GERD? These would make a big difference in peoples recommendations.

Gongaa 15 years ago

Coffee and clay, baby.

Clay contains 100% of the USRDA of clay.

Lessa 15 years ago

Bagel and Cream cheese, quick and easy to make at home, and portable with a sandwich baggie so you don't have to eat it first thing in the morning. Can toss in a banana or apple instead of fruit juice and a bottle of water to drink. Put a granola bar in your pocket for a mid morning snack.

Could also make a regular deli sandwich, if you dont have issues with lunch for breakfast.

You could also get a package of craisins or raisins or strawerries other fruit to put in your cereal or oatmeal to make it less boring.

I generally don't eat breakfast, don't like it, I tend to wait til late afternoon or dinner time to eat.. which I know is bad but it seems like if I eat I want to keep eating the whole day, and I weigh about 15 pounds more than I did before I had kids, so eating more just makes me feel gross.. ><

Jetamio 15 years ago

I really struggle to eat first thing in the morning, but if I don't, I don't get to eat til about 1pm because I dont get a break. I usually just try to force down some cereal or a banana.

Mileron 15 years ago

I take Nexium for GERD

I don't have a problem with V8 causing reflux, but OJ (especially cheap/crappy OJ) hurts. By fruit juice I mean cranberry, apple, grape, combos.
Strangely, I can drink V8, but not eat tomato sauce. At all.

I can't eat eggs for reflux and "other end" reasons. Which sucks, because I love love love breakfast burritos. Sadly, the only breakfast burritos I can eat safely are made at Rudy's BBQ in Austin. Which explains why I don't mind eating them every day when I visit Sarah.

It's really not a big breakfast; a smallish sandwich, a small yogurt. I did buy a bulk box of yogurt over the weekend when shopping, but didn't get to pack it yet. I also was looking for the bottle racks of V8, but all they have left in most warehouse clubs in the area are cans. Canned V8 tastes like metal water.

Oh and as much as I love bagel + cream cheese (veggie bagel w/ strawberry CC, or raisin bagel w/ veggie CC) I'm lactose intolerant, too, so CC causes agony.

Yogurt is fine though. As is american cheese.

Lessa 15 years ago

Cheese causes a reaction? You must be really sensitive, cause the less processed the dairy, the less lactose is in it ( I think. )

Ive been intolerant since I had my kids ( not before.. another awesome thing having kids can do) and I have to watch how much milk I can drink, the less fatty the milk, the worse the reaction. ( same with Ice cream) But if it's richer it doesnt bother me at all, such as cheese, or real cream.

Buy some Lactaid tablets.. they're chewable and over the counter ( there are generics as well) and they work.

Verileah 15 years ago

Hmm, well fake eggs are kind of expensive, so that might be messing you up as far as cost :\.

What about making pigs in a blanket and freezing those? Or maybe using rice and beans as filler in the breakfast burrito so that you use less fake egg?

Edit: Can you eat nuts? Peanut butter? Sounds like you need protein and (good) fat in your breakfast to keep hunger at bay, and nuts are a good source of both. Peanut butter on a waffle, yogurt with nuts and fruit, even just nuts by themselves might be good.

Mileron 15 years ago

All diary products cause one of two reactions (sometimes both.)
Out of deli cheese - american cheese, provolone, and cheddar, now that I think further on it - are all I can eat.

However it's not the typical stomach reaction - I'll get a migraine instead. The stomach reactions are saved with sour cream, cream cheese, buttermilk in anything (pancakes, biscuits, croissants, ranch dressing), real whipped cream...

Yeah, I'm weird, what can I say.

I do have Lactaid handy - I keep some at work, in my laptop bag, at home, and my fiancee even carries some for both of us (she reacts far less than I do).

I haven't been able to drink real milk in years; I've been subsisting off the Lactaid brand milk, which is about twice the price, but hey, it's milk I can drink. I even drink milk with almost every meal since discovering it.

Yogurt with nuts and fruit sounds like a nice combo... I've recently taken a liking to pistachios and I've always loved peanuts, cashews, and macadamias.

ROzbeans 15 years ago

Drink Soy milk. Just as good.

Verileah 15 years ago

Almond milk? Rice milk?

Which one is best for you? *doesn't know*

ROzbeans 15 years ago

Yeah, which one won't give you the shits?

Mileron 15 years ago

They all do. Hah. That plus they taste fucking nasty. Even tried oat milk. Yuck.

Verileah 15 years ago

I heard soy milk gives men bitch tits O_O.

Or rather (o)(o)!

Lessa 15 years ago

Lol, I don't like any of that either, and Lactaid milk is the same as milk with the tablets really, its just got whatever is in the pill added to the milk. My mom is very sensitive too.

I can have milk if its 2 % or heavier with a tablet, and I can have real cream ice cream but I try to avoid it cause I don't need that sort of calorie and fat intake.. no matter how yummy it is. >< I think the difference has to do with the dairy being broken down during processing.. so like, skim milk would be horrible where whole would be tolerable with a tablet..

You could fry up some bacon at night or on the weekend and refrigerate it and make a quick blt in the mornings. ( also something that could be made into a burrito or bagel)

ROzbeans 15 years ago

You should just stop eating.

Lessa 15 years ago

I've tried that, it never works Sad