Summary

The author, a vegetarian with multiple food restrictions, learns to overcome an aversion to eggs to improve their protein intake and health, recalling childhood memories of breakfast-for-dinner nights.

Abstract

After facing severe health issues, including significant weight loss and a hospital stay, the author is advised by their doctor to incorporate more protein into their diet. Despite an initial dislike for eggs, they are encouraged to expand their diet beyond Rice Chex and almond milk to avoid hospital readmission. The author reminisces about their childhood, realizing they used to eat eggs during breakfast-for-dinner nights prepared by their sister. This nostalgic recollection leads them to start eating scrambled eggs, which they come to enjoy for lunch or dinner, leading to improved health markers.

Opinions

The author initially dislikes eggs but comes to appreciate them as a necessary source of protein.
Food had become a source of anxiety due to various health issues, including allergies, IBS, food poisoning, and colitis.
The author prefers a simple diet of cereal and milk, suggesting a reluctance to change their eating habits.
Dr. LP is firm in their advice, emphasizing the importance of a balanced diet and the potential consequences of not adhering to nutritional guidance.
The author's husband enjoys eggs but typically consumes them in the form of a frozen breakfast sandwich since the pandemic began.
The author's father loved traditional breakfast foods, influencing the family's occasional breakfast-for-dinner tradition.
The act of eating eggs for lunch or dinner, rather than breakfast, seems to be a psychological compromise that works for the author.

Noodle Prompt / Breakfast for Dinner

Never, Ever for Breakfast

Remembering childhood food

You need to consume more protein, my doctor said, and that’s difficult when you’re a vegetarian with food allergies, IBS, and colitis. How about eggs? Great source of protein. Easy to prepare.

I hate eggs, I said solemnly.

My doctor shook his head and replied, I think you need to get past that.

After four weeks of diarrhea, a weight loss of 35 pounds, and a 5-day hospital stay, I was weak. Weak and shakey.

Food had become my enemy — first with allergies, then with IBS, then with food poisoning, and finally, with colitis. The only food I could eat without fear was Rice Chex and almond milk. Simply looking at food triggered an anxiety attack. My heart raced, my muscles tensed, my stomach lurched.

Can’t I survive on cereal and milk, if I take vitamins? I asked hopefully.

No, Dr. LP said definitively, If you don’t start expanding your diet and gain some weight, I’m going to readmit you to the hospital. How would you like to get fed through a feeding tube?

I didn’t. But, I also didn’t want to eat anything but my Rice Chex and almond milk.

We rarely purchased eggs. When we did, they went bad before we could use them.

My husband likes eggs but saved them for our breakfasts at restaurants. Back before Covid. Back when we still felt safe in public spaces.

He replaced restaurant breakfasts with a frozen breakfast sandwich he likes. That’s how he gets his eggs.

The only way I could ever eat eggs was scrambled — really well-scrambled — no runniness remaining. And, even then, I didn’t care for them much.

As I look at a half-dozen eggs long past their expiration date, I suddenly remember that I ate eggs as a child. But, when? With no mother at home, my sister and I preferred skipping breakfast so we could sleep a little later before rushing off to school. I was in my late 20s before I began my days with a meal. And, of course, it was usually cereal.

Suddenly, I remember the breakfast-dinners that we used to have when I was a kid. My father loved breakfast — eggs, sausage, bacon, toast — he ate the same thing every morning at 4:30 am for most of his life. He liked breakfast so much that we had it for dinner a couple of times a month. How had I forgotten that?

My sister prepared the eggs, always scrambling mine until they resembled rubber. My father’s were fried over-easy. I don’t recall how my sister liked hers.

I never ate sausage or bacon, just two scrambled eggs and toast.

With that memory in mind, I bought a dozen fresh eggs.

I ate two scrambled eggs four times a week for two months. For lunch or dinner. Never, ever for breakfast. And, I liked them.

My protein levels increased. I gained a little bit of weight. My doctor was happy.

I guess I do like eggs — but never, ever for breakfast.

In response to this Breakfast for Dinner prompt by Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她):

Ode to Cereal

a poem and a writing prompt

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