Mar 16, 20204 min read

Breakfast time, anyone?

"A good breakfast is a start of a good day."

Who doesn't like waking up to eat an amazing breakfast? Many people consider breakfast to be one of the most important meals of the day. And this is true for my family! Some of my favorite memories are eating homemade breakfasts with my family.

First, I want to talk a little bit about the benefits of eating breakfast.

According to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, there are six important reasons to eat breakfast.

Breakfast encourages healthier eating. People tend to consume more milk and whole grain when they eat breakfast versus skipping it. The milk people have contains calcium which is important for the human body. This meal also fills your stomach and helps prevent snacking and overeating later in the day.
Breakfast balances blood sugar levels. Your body better breaks down glucose, or blood sugar, when you eat in the morning.
Breakfast kickstarts your metabolism. Eating breakfast in the morning helps get your metabolism working and it helps burn calories throughout the day. When a person skips this meal, the body tends to conserve instead of burn extra calories

4. Breakfast boosts energy levels. People who eat breakfast have shown to have an increase in physical activity which helps prevent weight gain and fatigue.

5. Breakfast promotes heart health. When people skip this meal, it can lead to weight gain which contributes to high cholesterol and high blood sugar levels. This can then lead to heart disease.

6. Breakfast stimulates the brain. Eating breakfast can help you focus, reason and process information.

Here are some sites for more information about why we should eat breakfast:

I have many fond memories of making and eating breakfast with my family <3.

I absolutely love the way my mom makes scrambled eggs! They are usually cheesy and soft. In restaurants, the eggs tend to be hard, little to no seasoning, and clumpy so I don't order scrambled eggs when I go out. To the left is a picture of scrambled eggs I made the way my mom showed me with kielbasa (a Polish sausage pronounced KEHW-bah-sah in Polish, or "kill-BAH-suh" or "keel-BAH-suh" in America) and coffee.

Growing up, my dad would make pancakes on the weekends for our family. Sometimes these pancakes were plain and other times they had banana or even handpicked blueberries from our vacation thrown in them for flavor and texture. I made these pancakes from scratch here in Spain when I was craving pancakes like my dad used to make.

For me to eat oatmeal, I have a very specific requirement - it must be made by my Grandma K. All the grandchildren call it her famous oatmeal! While she would make it, I tended to peer over her shoulder to try and learn her way of making it. But when I make it on my own, even to this day, it is never the same. I ask her every time what her secret is, and she always answers that it tastes so good because it is made with love!

Another delicious breakfast my mom would make for my brothers and myself is what we call a bird's nest. This simple dish is a slice of bread with a hole in the middle cut out for the egg. Both sides are buttered and then the hole is cut out. The slice is put into a frying pan and an egg is cracked into the middle. It can be flipped after a couple of minutes to brown the other side and to continue to cook the egg. When I talked with my friends about this dish only using the name, they weren't familiar with it. However, after describing the dish, I learned that there are several names used and they knew it by other names. Each of them called it something different, for example "egg in a basket", "egg in a frame", and "egg in a hole". I turned to the internet and discovered that this dish has at least sixty-six different names. Check out these websites below for more names! Which name would you call it by?

My all-time favorite breakfast is biscuits and gravy! My Grandma K is from the state of Kentucky in the south, and she introduced this dish to my family. Since then, it has become a staple and comfort food for me. This is a dish my parents would make on the weekends, and I always looked forward to this breakfast the most. In Spain, biscuits are considered cookies. But the biscuits used for this recipe (pictured above), are basically scones without sugar and are like circular-shaped pieces of bread. The gravy part is a roux base. A roux is a mix of fat and flour cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Butter is melted and then flour is mixed in to thicken up. Next up is the milk. Milk is added to make the sauce. Once you have your desired thickness, you add salt, pepper, and other seasoning to taste. Sausage can be added to this dish as well for even more flavor and added protein.

What are some of your favorite breakfast meals? Make a list and send it in!

This website has a couple pages filled with some fun recipes you can try out at home. Check out the one below!