What's Your Most Eccentric Breakfast?

Breakfast is an unconventional matter around our house. Cold Pizza has become relatively common fare among the 20-something set and hardly gets so much as a double take these days. We’re not big pizza eaters, so that would pale in comparison to some of our other choices. Eggs and toast would certainly be an irregular occurrence here, were it not for my husband.

When I was younger, cow’s milk was traded for soymilk after developing health consciousness about bovine growth hormones. What ultimately emerged was an aversion to breakfast food for breakfast. Soymilk is a bit more expensive than cow’s milk, though not quite as high as rice or almond milk (the latter are delicious and worth the price.) Trying to avoid an overload of sugar took me away from the typical grab-and-go pastries, pop tarts and granola bars. Even the healthy cereals often contained barley malt, sugar cane or rice syrup for sweeteners. The price of boxed cereals eventually broke me of a 20-year cold-cereal habit.

My quest for interesting versions of breakfast had more to do with taste and thinking outside the bowl. I have eaten soup to begin my day: vichyssoise to be exact; not to be confused with bouillabaisse, which is fish soup. You can eat anything for breakfast, but my personal exception is fish. I’ve tried upon rare occasions to eat fish for breakfast. I’m sure people do. I’m not one of them. Fish and my stomach can’t even think about each other until 11:30am.

In my twenties, I discovered hot peppers and Louisiana Hot Sauce. Hot Gazpacho for breakfast--now we’re getting interesting. I was eating breakfast tacos long before anyone thought they were a great idea. Mexican breakfasts really jolt my awareness to a new wide-awake level when I’m guzzling a gallon of orange juice to put out a jalapeno mouth fire at seven in the morning. I might get about as many endorphins from peppers as a 30-minute work out.

One of my favorite odd breakfast foods is crushed corn chips with salsa, sour cream or plain yogurt and jalapeno slices- a morphed version of corn flakes-like Mexican cereal. Another rare treat is meatloaf with vegetarian quiche. I’ve eaten cold lasagna, sometimes spaghetti sandwiches, or spaghetti pitas. You are most likely to catch me eating leftovers. Another favorite is any kind of Chinese take out. Yes, hot.

So that people aren’t out there getting tummy aches, I don’t eat like this everyday. Many days it’s a banana and coffee. (Ok, I like those flat ones from Trader Joes that look like they got steamrolled.) Or sometimes, fruit and an English muffin (with honey, cinnamon and flax seed powder).

What unconventional items are you eating for breakfast these days? Maybe we’ll find out that we are no longer the typical Americans, consigned to bacon and eggs. Maybe the reason people go out for ‘typical breakfast fare’ is because we no longer have time to cook it ourselves, because we no longer eat that way on a daily basis. So, tell us, what is staring you down at sun up? What are you plating up next to your cup of Joe in the early am? What are you calling breakfast??