Sunday, October 18, 2020

Bad Breakfast Choices by Jenn McKinlay

Jenn McKinlay: I remember the exact day it happened four years ago. It was early morning. I was running on no sleep and feeling rather sad as my father had just passed away. I couldn't manage to get it together to eat breakfast before I needed to go do the things I needed to do that day so I grabbed a fistful of red, white, and blue peanut M&Ms and decided that was breakfast. As a joke, I snapped a pic and posted it to my social media account with the hashtag #badbreakfastchoices.



Little did I know that the post would become so relatable! Turns out a lot of people make #badbreakfastchoices or IMHO very good breakfast choices and they love to share them in the comments, which cracks me up!

Naturally, #badbreakfastchoices became a thing. So much so that a few years ago a friend sent me this very apropos mug. Yes, it's my fave!



Being the author of the Cupcake Bakery Mysteries has certainly helped give me reasons to keep eating...er...researching my passion for dessert for breakfast, including this lemon-lavender cupcake which was a bad breakfast choice from 2018 - soooo good!


I have also pulled my fam into my love of inappropriate dessert shenanigans. My nephew Austin scouted a place in Massachusetts with donuts as big as our heads. Amazing! Of course, donuts are perfectly acceptable for breakfast, but do you see the size of this thing? It is clearly meant to share. Spoiler: I did not share and ate the whole thing!


Yes, I'm quite sure literary historians in the future will clamor to discuss the meaning of my hardcore breakfast-dessert eating just as they opine about Sylvia Plath being a bee keeper, Emily Dickinson a baker, and Flannery O'Connor an aviculturist (she was partial to pea hens and peacocks). 

In looking up the hobbies of famous authors, I have to admit I was disappointed that we didn't have social media back in the day. I really wanted to see Sylvia Plath in beekeeper's garb and Emily Dickinson covered in flour. Ah, well...

So, what about you, Reds and Readers, what are your go to #badbreakfastchoices? 








87 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Hhhmmm . . . You mean breakfast is something other than coffee?

    Actually, coffee is generally all I have for breakfast, but there was this day that the chocolate peanut butter brownies were just begging to be eaten . . . .

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    1. Ha! I have to eat something for breakfast otherwise things get...unpleasant. :)

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  3. I usually have the same breakfast every day, that of Frosted Cheerios. However, too often I crave a cookie after that with my coffee. Right now. I scored some Halloween Oreos at the drugstore today, so that will be my bad breakfast food for this week. Maybe I should call it a biscuit like the English so that I can say I had a bowl of cereal and a biscuit.

    Sunday is the day I might deviate from the cereal. Sometimes I like to make Sunday the funday by having cinnamon rolls or a donut 🍩 or even Eggos with butter and syrup. So, basically I just eat sugar.

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    1. I love that the Brits call cookies biscuits. Biscuits fro breakfast is so much more acceptable.

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  4. I firmly believe that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I also believe that life is short and you should eat dessert first. Although I do sometimes cook a real breakfast, my grab and go delights tend to be chocolate cake with fudge frosting, Heath bars, chocolate chip cookies, fudge brownies (do I get extra points from the food police for forgoing frosting on these?) and the like. Jenn - I so agree that your doughnut was a single serve!

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    1. You had me at chocolate cake. That is the very definition of a perfect dessert.

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  5. Certainly, none of these are “bad breakfasts” ; ) My mother’s go-to just might: cold pizza. May we all have yummy Sunday morning breakfasts today!

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  6. Now you're making me crave a cider donut from our local orchard. I love a piece of homemade pumpkin or apple pie for breakfast, but the thought of your lemon cupcake or the pink frosted donut make me cringe a little. So I guess my bad breakfast choices can't be all sugar!

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    1. I still want a cider donut because there were none when I was at the orchard :(

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  7. Gee whiz, Jenn, I was wondering when you'd get around to this topic. As a new devotee of your literary prowess, (and a hearty laugher at all your protagonists' shenanigans) I have much enjoyed your postings on breakfast. Alas, I cannot eat sugary food for breakfast, even if I eat eggs first, my body doesn't like it at all. All of the choices you post are foods that I can eat at some point and enjoy, too, but not in the morning. I am pretty careful just to eat one sugary food a day, mostly after supper. Don't pity me. I bake delicious and varied breads and we have it each morning with gobs of peanut butter, so there is that.
    Meanwhile, can't wait to see what ya'll eat for breakfast.

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    1. LOL - glad you enjoy the shenanigans! I'm so glad you've found a way to savor breads (another love of mine).

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  8. I'm a coffee, banana, and toast woman, with the exception of the day after Thanksgiving: a big slice of homemade apple pie with a side of Louisiana sweet potato casserole.

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    1. I'm right there with you on the day after Thanksgiving, Margaret, except it's pumpkin pie.

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  9. When I opened this post I was eating breakfast: Peter Pan creamy peanut butter and raspberry jam on whole wheat toast. Or when I crave sugar I'll make French toast. I'm not a big donut or cupcake fan, but I'd never say no to Margaret's apple pie or sweet potato casserole.

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  10. I take that back... Edith's post reminded me of cider donuts. Fresh. There's nothing better.

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  11. I have the same breakfast almost every day: Chobani yogurt Hazelnut Flips. Truly like desert for breakfast what with those chocolate chips in there. However, I have been known to warm up some bread pudding or peach cobbler, either of which I think are fine, healthy choices but I seldom am energetic enough to go to the bother of making them.

    Jenn, didn't you once describe a croissant filled with cheesecake? Perfect breakfast choice if you ask me, and you did!

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    1. Yes, I did!!! It was genius, if i do say so myself. LOL.

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  12. I don't know why a piece of pie or cake is any less virtuous than a doughnut!

    My sister-in-law always saved her dessert for breakfast the next day, even from childhood. We all follow her lead, to this day, and why not? I'm a chocolate fiend, having had at least a square of dark chocolate with my coffee every morning since 1987, but I cannot eat it at night or it affects my sleep. And chocolate HAS to be eaten with coffee. So I also save my chocolate dessert for the next morning.

    And as I read this I'm having a big, fat jelly doughnut left over from our grand opening of the Little Free Library yesterday. Yum.

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    1. YAY, on the Little Free Library!!! I love those :)

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  13. Boring here. Most days I have a bowl of Cheerios with half a banana, after I have a hazelnut latte. Once or twice a week I have eggs in some form, with toast. But yesterday was a treat: bacon and tomato on toast. I make all our bread, so the toast is whole wheat. After reading what the rest of you have, I feel like a health nut!

    Oh, and on weekends I might have two lattes.

    Living on the edge, a wild thing. That's me.

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    1. I exist solely to make everyone feel better about themselves ;-)

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  14. Pretty much my entire diet is a bad choice.

    However, a few years ago my doctor was really on me about my health and suggested I try yogurt instead of the usual crap I eat. Surprisingly enough, I did it and I've stuck with it. I have a yogurt in the morning (usually balanced out by a Drake's coffee cake so that I have something in my stomach that is a bit more substantial.

    I'm pretty sure that entire paragraph counts as a #badbreakfastchoice.

    On Fridays I have breakfast sandwich from Dunkin Donuts, which another doctor once referred to as a fat sandwich given how unhealthy it is. But who can resist the siren call put out by the ham, egg-like substance and cheese stuff (that usually sticks to the wrapper more than the sandwich) on a plain bagel?

    And don't get me started on what happens when the pre-packaged donuts go on sale for Buy 1 Get 1.

    If I go out to get breakfast from a diner type place, I get the big breakfast which is blueberry pancakes, eggs, home fries, toast and bacon. (I provide my own Olympic sized pool of VERMONT maple syrup because ONLY VERMONT maple syrup touches my pancakes). And again, I'm pretty sure all of that counts as a bad choice.

    It's pretty well established that I'm likely to die earlier than all you healthy eating people but at least it will be with food that makes me happy as well as fat. LOL! :D

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    1. Maple sirop can't be a bad choice, it is all natural :)

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    2. LOL. You're my people, Jay. We don't have diners in AZ so I always got to the diners when I'm in New England. There's a Carl's Diner in Oxford, MA that makes a stack of blueberry pancakes the size of my car with a side of bacon to match. LOVE IT!

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  15. I don't like to think of my breakfast choices as bad. They are merely unconventional. Like, a ham sandwich, or tuna salad. Mostly, before the pandemic lockdown, breakfast needed to be fast. I don't do cereal because milk does bad, bad things to the rest of my day. Toast never lasted the span between breakfast at 7 am and lunch at 2 pm. So I'd eat "lunch" in the morning, dinner mid-afternoon, and was quite likely to pick up that toast as a before bedtime snack. These days, when I can eat what I want when I'm actually hungry, instead of strategizing about energy supplies over the course of a 12-hour work day, I often only eat brunch and early supper, where I try to lean toward protein and fruit or veg.

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  16. Replies
    1. Those are a big piece of Kryptonite for me.

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    2. Powdered sugar Donettes are comfort food when I'm sick, and road trip food when I'm off on an adventure. Excellent choice, Hallie!

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    3. Gigi, your breakfast choices remind me of my son. He's about to turn 27 and temporarily back living with us, though very much independent and living his own life. He was always a big breakfast kid, but as an adult I have observed that he's equally likely to start his day with a glass of milk and a stack of cookies, or a bowl of chicken ramen noodles.

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  17. Am I the only person who checked the Anthony Awards? Hank won! According to the Nightstand Book site Hank won for The Murder List. What a great birthday present. Congratulations.

    My mind and my body are having a dialogue. Mind says eat healthy; body says why? Which explains why shredded wheat biscuits get a honey butter bath. I pretend I am eating baklava and the body is happy. Mind pouts.

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    1. I saw that Hank won yesterday and tweeted out both a congrats for the win and birthday wishes.

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  18. I've eaten cakes, cookies for breakfast, but my usual is either cereal or fried egg.

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  19. Yes, Coralee I am still floating! What a joy for The Murder List to win the Anthony… I was incredibly incredibly surprised.
    As for breakfast. I love breakfast so much! Bad breath for this – – will he, there is no such thing. I love cider donuts, so yummy. And coffee cake donuts. And remember that Sara Lee coffee cake that you would drizzle the packet of ersatz frosting on? So yummy. And I went through a whole. In high school I loving cinnamon sugar pop tarts.
    But now, usually, I have egg whites for breakfast. And sometimes splurge by adding cheese. I guess I am boring about it. But I do love to have a sesame bagel with cream cheese and strawberry jam. And yes, peanut butter! On pita! Yum Yum Yum. Now I am off to have breakfast because I am starving.

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    1. Congratulations Hank ! The Murder List is a great read.
      And Happy Bithday belatedly !

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    2. Congratulations, Hank. I think that was a super birthday present!

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    3. I add my congratulations, Hank. Woot woot!!

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    4. Hank,

      HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY and CONGRATULATIONS on winning the ANTHONY for your novel,

      the MURDER LIST. I have your Murder List novel on my iPad.

      Diana

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    5. CONGRATULATIONS, HANK!!! This is just amazing. I think I'll celebrate on your behalf with leftover cheesecake for breakfast :)

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    6. WHAT???Bad breath for this – – will he, there is no such thing.
      WAS DICTATED AS:
      Bad breakfast?--really there is no such thing.

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    7. And AWWW..thank you all! Still floating!

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  20. Pumpkin bars--especially virtuous if there's no cream cheese frosting (but why bother to make them if you aren't going to frost them??)--extra bonus points for the chocolate chips in them. Apple crisp, cherry pie. Especially now, the thought of something extra-yummy for breakfast is a big motivator to even get out of bed.

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    1. Sometimes, if I happen to have lemon pound cake on hand, I toast a slice of it for breakfast.

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    2. Oh yes, toasted lemon pound cake, especially if I have fresh strawberries or blueberries to go with.

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    3. These all seem super healthy to me :)

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  21. Perfect post for today! I just made and ate some cookies and I have no regrets. Love that mug!

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  22. My weekday breakfast is forced on me by health conscious hubby. Sardines! I don’t like them but John wants to make sure our arteries stay open On Sunday I make up for this with a full English: egg, bacon,tomato, fried potatoes and even baked beans. Yum. About to cook now!

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    1. Rhys,

      your full English breakfast reminded me of breakfasts I had when I lived in England. Sometimes they served muesli cereal, which was another favorite breakfast.

      Do you eat sardines by itself or with something like sauce or bread?

      Diana

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  23. Jenn, happy Sunday! What a great topic!

    Speaking of "bad breakfast choices", I remember that I had leftover birthday cake for breakfast.

    Love donuts. Not sure if I can eat donuts now that I cannot eat wheat anymore. I saw these yummy apple cider donuts at Trader Joe's and wondered if it was possible for me to eat one or two. I get sinus attacks if I eat wheat.

    Diana

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    1. Wheat is ruining everything, honestly. I know more people with weird reactions to wheat.

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  24. My favorite breakfast is the morning after a family holiday dinner, where we always have a cheese course - lightly toasted sourdough bread with a thick shmear of good brie or Port Salut. My second favorite breakfast is cherry pie. I think of pie for breakfast as just like eating a danish or pop tart, but with more fruit, so it's better for you.

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  25. Boring breakfast choices in my house: an apple followed by cooked oats with raisins and topped with blueberries and yogurt. I love sugar but I dislike the crash that follows it when I start my day with it.

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  26. Jenn, I love your #badbreakfastchoices! But me, I am so boring. On Saturdays, a fab Dallas bakery delivers to our little local shop, so once a week I have an amazing Danish or a croissant. The rest of the week it's whole grain toast with some almond butter and maybe a soft-boiled egg, or plain yogurt and fresh fruit. Hippy-healthy girl here. Any chance that could be a hashtag??

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  27. #pieforbreakfast My favorite part of making a pie is sitting down with a cup of coffee and a fork the next morning!

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  28. Jenn Jenn Jenn - SISTER! Bring on chocolate covered Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast and I am a happy gal.

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    1. I went to the Krispy Kreme in Carolina Beach, NC and watched them being made. Essentially, ate them right off the conveyor belt. OMG!!!!

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  29. Ignoring that it is Bill Cosby, there was a great riff about his serving breakfast to his kids and rationalizing cake. Flour, eggs, milk. All perfectly good breakfast items. Serve a glass of juice and you're good to go!

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    1. There is a sound logic there, despite the source.

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  30. Mom loved French toast with chocolate syrup, as in a small can of Hershey syrup warmed up in a simmering pan of water. It was okay because she had a cup of tea and glass of orange juice. Then she started on pumpkin pie after holiday dinners though I should point out that these "bad choices" started after her children were grown and out of the house.

    My choices lately have been Eggo waffles with peanut butter, jelly and maple syrup. I get the whole grain waffles and they are just a little dry. That's my excuse And I'm sticking with it. I also have been known grab a can of diet Pepsi during the summer months instead coffee.

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  31. Black coffee. That's it. I eat breakfast only when we're traveling and then I'll indulge! The trouble with breakfast is it makes me hungry midmorning. I mean starving and it's only halfway to lunch!

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    1. Hub is like that. He doesn't eat anything until two in the afternoon. I'm quite certain someone would die if I didn't eat - probably me.

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  32. Not really a fan of cake after dinner, but the next morning? Count me in.

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  33. I don't tend to make bad breakfast choices. Unless you could frozen pumpkin toaster waffles from Trader Joe's covered in real maple syrup. I save my bad choices for dessert at 10 PM at night.

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  34. A lemon lavender cupcake... oh my. I am going to have to try that! I always have black coffee, two cups. My 'bad' choices are leftover pie, especially if it's fruit, which I justify because, well, fruit. My really bad breakfast choice is the occasional PopTart (I get them about twice a year), or sugary cereal (Cap'n Crunch! Apple Jacks!) Mostly I stick to fruit, a protein (egg or a slice of prosciutto), and a half piece of toast or muffin. Weekends, I tend to make pancakes or waffles and bacon. I personally love steel cut oats, but I'm the only one in my family who does, so I'll make a half-batch about every other week, which lasts me three breakfasts. In summer, I like plain yogurt mixed with a dollop of honey, berries, and a spoonful or two of granola.

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  35. I love Pop Tarts. I used to get them out of the vending machine at work :) Small joys.

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  36. I'm one of those boring breakfast people. I tend toward fluctuating blood sugar, and I have learned the hard way that I feel a lot better if I eat oatmeal with walnuts and raisins for breakfast. So I do, every day. It lasts me all the way to lunch with no blood sugar spike and crash, so there you go. BTW, someone mentioned pumpkin pie for breakfast -- I have traditionally considered that part of the whole break from real life that is Thanksgiving weekend!

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    1. Raisins are definitely a dessert food! And, yes, holiday food is exempt from rules!

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