Breakfast IS an important meal of the day and I tip my hat to those who do Intermittent Fasting by missing this meal. By the time I pack off my kid to school and cradle my cup of tea, my stomach makes sounds that would make Aslan proud. So, missing breakfast is just not my cup of tea (pun totally intended.) Sure, I try – what with using blackstrap molasses instead of sugar in my tea, but still.
Now coming down to it, I love love love our regular breakfasts – upma, poha, idli, paratha and egg, chilla, bhurji pav – but the slump I feel after having any of this is frustrating. The lethargy and struggle to stay awake is real. It doesn’t make me feel energetic and pumped for the day, it just makes me want to climb back into bed and curl up.
I’ve read that fruit can help with the post meal slump, but I cannot imagine having just fruit for breakfast. I’ll start feeling hungry while I’m trying to finish the fruit and the all-sweet breakfast is something that just makes me feel off for the rest of the day.
So, while browsing bigbasket like I usually do in my spare time – trust me it’s worth it; the gems you’ll find – I found this almond butter by Happy Jars. They had a cute little 60-gm value pack and I thought what the heck, let’s try it.
Honestly, it made life so much easier just having this jar handy. The no added sugar part was the big plus point and the fact that you can have it with any fruit makes it that much better.
I tried having just the almond butter and an apple for breakfast and I felt a bit peckish only after a couple of hours, so I knew I was on to something! The consistency is quite thick and you really don’t need too much to actually taste it and enjoy it. I finished the 60-gm pack over three breakfasts – not bad eh! So of course I ordered the larger pack and set about finding the best way to eat it.
To make the breakfast hearty and not something too light that’ll have me reaching for something mid-morning, I toasted some multigrain bread, spread some almond butter on it, and topped it off with a sliced elaichi banana. Uff! That first bite was the perfect mix of creamy, sweet and crisp goodness. The bananas were quite fresh and firm – mushy and I’d straightaway make some fritters!
I enjoyed this for a few days and then figured it could do with a little something something. A few months ago, I’d roasted some seeds because I’d read that adding seeds to your diet can do wonders for you hair, skin and stomach. They had me at hair! So out came my roasting pan and I had myself half a Tang jar full of sunflower, pumpkin, flax and white and black sesame seeds. For two days I ate a spoonful of seeds and was picking seeds out of my teeth for hours. So I closed the jar and forgot about it and didn’t remember it till I was looking for something to top up my banana, almond butter toast.
I sprinkled a teensy bit on one corner of my open sandwich and took a bite. And from that experience I tell you, you need to try it too.
Now, this is my go-to breakfast. Multigrain toast, a smearing of almond butter topped with banana/apple/pear and a sprinkle of mixed seeds. No post-meal slump, no lethargy, no bloating and best of all in one meal you manage to squeeze in a bit of fruit and your nuts and seeds, quota for the day! It’s too soon to tell if the nuts and seeds are working on my hair and skin, but the gut health – DEFINITELY!
