A common question I get from many patients with diabetes is “What do I eat for breakfast?” After all, the traditional American breakfast is often loaded with carbs and sugar from pancakes (with syrup), waffles (with syrup), cinnamon raisin toast, English muffins, banana bread, hot cereal, cold cereal, blueberry muffins, hash browns, etc. etc, or fat; bacon, sausage, sausage gravy, corned beef hash, fried potatoes and the like. That leaves you with eggs, yogurt, fruit or cottage cheese if desperate (which I’ve never been desperate enough to go there).

During a 10 year period in my life eggs and I didn’t get along. And unfortunately during this period, I also didn’t like yogurt or honestly fruit yet other than the standard apple, canned pineapple and cantaloupe. What can you say, I’m a veggie girl. Fruit has to make a conscious effort into this body. One day I’ll write a whole confessional, I promise.

Anyway during this time I struggled eating breakfast. “Why bother?” was my actual thought. If I ate one of the above mentioned items even if it was a heaping pile of pancakes that made me long for elastic pants to be in fashion, in 2 hours max I was hungry again! And not just hungry, but dizzy, sluggish, give me more sweet carbs hungry. Stale doughnut here I come.

Of course, once I became a dietitian, it all made sense what was happening INSIDE my body. But none the less, it still was happening. Plus I learned I was not alone.

When you fill your body with quick acting, albeit “cheap carbs”, that’s how your body is going to react. It’s your body’s reaction of saying, “I’m dying here!” Not in the literal sense, but in the overdramatic, I need more than what you are offering sense. This is where protein, fat and/ or fiber come in.  

Before I go any further, I was able to re introduce eggs into my system without creating a GI volcanic disruption, discovered a yogurt I could tolerate (Yoplait Whips Key Lime flavor at the time and now I only eat Plain!) and my fruit repertoire has increased 20 fold at least!

See, everyone can change!

I thank my husband for helping me rediscover the joys of breakfast. He LOVES breakfast! When I’m attending an evening meeting, his dinner with the kids is breakfast. When I’m stressed or short on cooking time, my go to for dinner is breakfast. My husband does a little dance when he sees this up on my kitchen menu board (when I remember to update it).

It’s amazing when you have little feet to care for, how you up the health quotient. My kids are pancake and waffle connoisseurs. Preferably with chocolate chips. What kid isn’t? So when given the choice for dinner, that’s usually what they pick as well.

One of the other confessions that I have is my 3 year old darling boy is a dietitians nightmare! I do believe he eats 7 foods at best. The only sources of protein he eats right now are peanut butter and yogurt. No cheese, vetoed eggs out of the blue, no milk (only Almond which has only 1 stinken gram), no meat, no fish. Oh wait, he’ll eat a frozen boxed fish stick or restaurant fried chicken tender only when in the mood. And still that’s only a few bites at best. And yes that’s the boy in the picture. I believe I bribed him with candy to get his lips that close to a peach.

So when one of my favorite bloggers posted a “Fuel your Fancy” waffle recipe I was intrigued. First Snack-girl.com is a great website if you are looking for everyday recipes that don’t taut the latest diet trends. I don’t think it’s in her forte to do that. The girl has a PhD in Genetics! She’s all about the science.  

The recipe post was actually sponsored by Daisy Cottage Cheese. This also intrigued me because I loathe cottage cheese (if you couldn’t tell) and had almost a full tub of the local store brand leftover in the fridge from when my cottage cheese loving mom was visiting. I don’t believe in tossing perfectly good food, especially when it’s a good protein source. So I grabbed my Ninja, dusted off my waffle maker and went to town.

This recipe is EASY!!

Grab 1 cup of whole oats (I used 1 minute instant whole oats), 3 eggs, 1c cottage cheese, ½ teaspoon of baking powder, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and blend until smooth. I added a heavy dash vanilla too. Why not! Add the batter to your waffle maker and they’re golden brown when the light goes off!

Voila! Done!

Check out the printable version of this recipe at Snack-girl.com. Heck tell her KimLeneghan.com sent you and leave her a nice comment. She’ll love you for it, just like I do! 

She’s figured out the nutritionals for 2 large or 4 small waffles to provide 15 grams of protein- WOW!, 16 grams of carbs (1 carb serving/ exchange) and less than 1gram of sugar. I ended up with 3 waffles in my maker, however, there was lots of spillage so I’m assuming if I had been more careful I could have easily made 4 waffles the size of a dessert plate.

And the best part, the boy ate it!

The 2nd best part, I wasn’t hungry an hour later! Or even 2! I made it 3.5 hours before my body got a twinge for something else to eat. And not even a stale doughnut. Or handful of chocolate chips.

So confession time. Do you skip breakfast? And why? Comment below.

Also, if you liked this recipe please share it with your friends. Don’t forget to sign up for weekly tips, fun, humor and a dash of diabetes sprinkled in. 

Hugs!