Oxymorons, their opposite … and hot breakfast

If you’re a working mom … ha, what is the opposite of an oxymoron?

I mean, if an oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two seemingly opposite ideas (living death, seriously funny, deafening silence) for greater effect, what’s the opposite of that?

“Working mom” really is the opposite—it’s two words that are so similar in meaning that it’s almost too redundant: all mothers work, whether it’s in or outside (or, increasingly, from) home!

By the way, if you don’t know, I’ll save you the time—Google informs me that this is called a tautology, and if Google says so, it must be true. (Yes, that’s sarcasm font.)

Anyway, among us working mothers, one of the most frequent memes to show up on social media in the early summer is about how excited we are about the prospect of not packing school lunch for 8–10 weeks.

It’s funny (not really) that I don’t see any in the fall about how excited we are to go back to packing them again….

At our house, packing lunch and making a healthy breakfast for the kids has definitely gotten easier as one is already in college and the other one is now (mostly) responsible for his own.

We’re still a household that believes in homemade breakfast—a real breakfast, with a balance of protein, fats, and whole carbs, not a giant coffee “dessert” or other refined-sugar-laden instant option.

Photo by Chuk Nowak, 2016

Not gonna lie—we do occasionally have cold cereal and toaster pastries in the house, but they’re an occasional exception. And now that the weather is getting cooler (maybe?), hot breakfast is much more appealing.

Yes, I’m that “nobody leaves home without breakfast” mom, so over the years, I’ve learned how to have healthy options not just available but easy for me to make during the week.

One of my standbys is hot cereal made from scratch, not the add-hot-water-and-stir variety since those usually come with and inordinate amount of unnecessary packaging and almost always with too much refined, added sugar. (Listen to a free webinar on sugar and why/how to reduce it in you life.)

Think it’s difficult and/or time-consuming? Think again.

Have you got any leftover cooked whole grain—brown rice, quinoa, millet…?

(If you have adopted my Fl!p Your K!tchen® meal planning system, you will because you know to create intentional leftovers)

You can use that leftover cooked grain to make hot cereal—no need to buy those prepackaged varieties. (Download a simple recipe)

As long as you set a timer, you can be doing any of the myriad tasks we do to get everyone out the door on time! At Simply: Health Coaching, I’m all about making healthy simple.

Leave me a comment and let me know, what’s your favorite, quick, made-from-scratch weekday breakfast?

And if you’re interested in how to Fl!p Your K!tchen®, come see me at the Kerrytown Bookfest this weekend in Ann Arbor!