Clap Your Hands, Say Breakfast!

25 years ago, the only way you could get me through an entire bowl of Cheerios was to throw a cup of sugar on top of it. No joke. It was a snowy breakfast savior. For a long time, there was a tug-of-war between my parents and I about just how much sugar was allowable. My mom came up with some kind of trick that had me believing she could measure how much sugar had been used that day. Total BS, but it worked at the time.

My, how times have changed. For two years now, I've equated breakfast with Cheerios and a banana. It's somewhat of a science, although admittedly, it was an easy process to perfect. You have to get the feel for your preferred level of ripeness in a banana, the amount of milk (in my case, Silk) you enjoy and lastly, the ratio of cereal to fruit that suits you.

I happen to prefer bananas pretty ripe. Nothing makes me puke in my mouth more than a green, even if ever so slightly, banana. So I lay down a "bed" of Cheerios, upon which I lay the slices of banana (this ensures that I don't eat all the fruit in the first few bites) and then fill the remainder of the bowl with cereal. I usually run in the morning, so the Silk (I... ehh... don't do well with the...  lactose) just becomes another fluid and I drown 'dem Cheerios with it. Again, because I often run before I eat, I'm pretty hungry when the time does roll around, so the bigger the bowl, the better. A breakdown of each scoop usually consists of 50% banana, 50% Cheerios. This renders an even, clean finish. Perfecto.

What happened between my childhood and now? Some might argue that my taste buds changed but I don't buy it. Every kid loves sugar. It's like crack. I'm not kidding. It was as if I needed that taste in my mouth for anything to be edible. We certainly don't start out that way. I've seen my nieces eat mashed peas and not think twice. Then we realize we have choices and if we're going to eat something, it might as well taste good, right?

That's probably the way it's always going to be but at the end of the day, we're the ones that are responsible for what we put in our body. I'm still pretty picky about what I eat, but I'm coming around... slowly. I still hate green peppers and the thought of eating a raw tomato without it being on some kind of sandwich doesn't sit well with me but I've come to find that, in general, most naturally occurring foods taste pretty good. Who knew?