Breakfast as Ritual
After a long night's sleep, or what is also known as, in parent speak, a long night, a nice comforting breakfast with a happy baby is a positive antidote to the exhaustion that inevitably follows a night of interrupted sleep. Pre-baby I was usually too much in a hurry or not quite up to having breakfast, but as I have learned, it can affect how the rest of the day will unfold, and usually skipping breakfast will mean a lot of quick snacks and varying degrees of irritability.
Upon waking, I guzzle half a litre of water followed by a brewing of tea, usually green. In the meantime I help Baby Green rearrange the living room according to his needs. This usually involves the rearranging of furniture, the scattering of several books in which we search for the one thing that makes that book so zeitgeist ("choo choo! boy!"), the emptying of various toy vessels, the pulling out of various reachable food containers (recently of pumpkin seeds), and the preparation of our first, and often last, shared meal of the day.
Baby Green and parent have a variation of this breakfast almost every morning. It is warm, comforting, quick and easy to prepare, and of course, nutritious. Each of the variations includes either blueberries, raspberries, some other frozen berries or a mixture thereof, as well as hemp hearts, flax meal and a nut milk. For the porridge we combine any two of jumbo oats, quinoa flakes, barley flakes, amaranth flakes and buckwheat flakes, all of which cook in a matter of minutes. The ratio of liquid to cereal varies slightly, generally 3:1, but what is a desirable consistency is subjective, so try and see what works. The berries will contain some liquid and are usually added with the hemp and flax at the end to keep them raw and to cool down the porridge.
Like hobbits, we usually have a second breakfast an hour or so later. This could be a banana mashed with a nut butter, a seasonal fruit bowl with nuts (current favourites are cashews, pre-soaked almonds, and pumpkin seeds) or toast and jam. Daddy Green and Mrs Green each have their morning smoothie.
