Breakfast Alternatives, Pass the Rice Please

For a long time I didn’t eat breakfast. It started when I was in high school. I’d get ready, rush out the door to catch the city bus, usually miss it, then have to walk the two miles to school, arrive late and get a detention slip. None of the Buenos. My early twenties where similar, but I was also waking up at eleven A.M. on some days. But I was also steeped in chaos.

Let me explain the mindset and environment I was in so you can have a better understanding of why I was making the decisions I was. Maybe you’ll recognize some of my patterns as your own and learn from my mistakes. If not at least you’ll get a new perspective and a sweet new breakfast recipe.

Us taking Care of Our Needs is Usually shaped by Our Routines & Environment

I’ve worked in the restaurant industry for many years. If you have too you’ll know that the people in the business are amazing, hard working and giving. But we sacrifice healthy routines such as eating, to push through and get the job done. We drank a lot of coffee however, and sustained on the shared plates of food stashed around the BOH which we would pick from as we rushed by on our way to somewhere else. We were all super high functioning, and being in the middle of a rush mixed with the heat, noise and sheer number of bodies can be exhilarating. But this also meant that we were running on fumes and super dehydrated.

This was the case for me. What I hadn’t realized was that aside from being dehydrated, I also thought I thrived in chaotic situations. I thought the crazier the better. This was not only unsustainable, but also a form of denial and neglect. Let me explain why.

When We’re Steeped in Chaos

In the family I grew up in, there was usually some emergency happening. Everybody would run to whatever situation that needed attention and we would all chip in to resolve the issue. But the emergencies never stopped. I thought this was normal until I saw how most other families lived. Then I realized that we were the exception.

The culture in families like mine is that you help as soon as you are able, but more accurately before you’re equipped to. For me this meant getting a job at 14, because if you weren’t pulling your weight by the time you were able to get a job, you were dead weight. So you jumped in a soon as you could for fear of being rejected. That would happen eventually anyway, but we couldn’t see that far ahead. Plus none of us had the tools to be successful in a chosen field. So we got whatever was available because we were in a state of emergence.

Out of the Frying Pan & Into a Bowl of Rice

When I realized this was detrimental to my health, I knew I needed to break free. I did so dramatically. But a clean break was what I needed to start fresh and build the healthier habits and relationships, in a healthier and less chaotic environment. I started cleaning my space more regularly, keeping up with supportive friends in healthy ways. I learned how to take care of my household, i.e. bills, keeping tabs on health insurance, getting my finances in order, living within my means and working on my long-term career goals. But maybe most importantly, I learned how to cook for myself. What’s so strange about the restaurant industry is that we know how to cook, just not for ourselves. Hence why I never ate breakfast. But I didn’t like most breakfast options, and the ones I do like take a long time to make. Let’s take a look at the solution I’ve discovered to help keep me on track with my healthy eating habits.

Thai Sticky-Rice

In a former role a admin at a large medical company in my neighboring town, I worked with a charge nurse who I had this discussion with. She’s from the Philippines, and her response to me was, “sometimes I just want a bowl of rice”. Me too.

Most countries don’t have separate foods for breakfast. That is almost solely a US cultural practice. It’s common in most countries to eat whatever they had the night before. So when my nurse friend from the Philippines was pining for a bowl of rice, that is the norm for the rest of the world. But rice is also a cereal. This got me to thinking about how I could turn rice into a new breakfast menu item. Here’s what I came up with.