Associate web editor Rochelle Bilow really loves breakfast. Sure, she’s a morning person by nature, but what she really digs about breakfast is that it’s an opportunity to start the day on the right foot. It’s a chance to eat something healthy, fast, and homemade. Here, she’s sharing her favorite hacks for easy weekday breakfasts.
I have to give props to my mother: Every single morning, no matter how busy, stressed, or tired she was, she made a healthy, from-scratch breakfast for my older sister and me. (Once my sister entered junior high and left for school earlier than I did, I even served got multi-course breakfasts, which still rank considerably high in my best-meals-ever canon.)
These breakfasts were never fancy, but they did always feel special. Rarely did my mom just set an open box of cold cereal on the table—unless, of course, it was Cracklin' Oat Bran, which is obviously the best cold cereal on the market. She would often scramble eggs with cheese, sprinkle cinnamon-sugar over perfectly golden toast, or mix together miniature parfaits with plain yogurt, her "famous" rhubarb sauce, and a sprinkle of granola, all of which were excellent.
But none of them were quite as good as her Graham Cracker Soup, a bizarre-sounding concoction borne out of a weekday morning when pantry supplies were running low; the fridge even lower. My resourceful mother broke up a few sheets of graham crackers directly into a cereal bowl and added a splash of milk. She mixed it with a spoon, let it sit for a couple of minutes, then presented it to us with one of those, "Yes, you are definitely going to like this," smiles that only moms seem to have mastered.
I'll admit: I was skeptical at first. But this breakfast is so good, the memory of my first time still haunts me today. It isn't hard to make (obviously), so I often do. I use plain grahams and crumble them up into pieces. They should be small enough to fit onto a spoon, but not so small that the disintegrate in the milk. We drank skim growing up, but these days I'm all about whole milk—it has a richer, creamier consistency that not only tastes better, it makes for better graham cracker soup. Add just enough to moisten the grahams; you'll use less than you would for regular cold cereal. I also add a dash of cinnamon and a drizzle of maple syrup. Using cinnamon grahams would also be delightful, although I admit I haven't tried that yet. I do enjoy yogurt and granola, but for this purpose, you really must use milk: The beauty of this is in how "soupy" it gets.
The really important thing is that you let the grahams sit for 2-3 minutes before eating. They soften in the liquid and take on a texture that's strikingly similar to sponge cake. Wait too long and you'll be left with very thick, graham cracker-flavored milk. Which, come to think of it, might not be so bad, either.