I’m preparing my go-to comfort food for breakfast this morning even while writing this.

This particular food isn’t necessarily my favorite thing to eat for breakfast, but somehow it edges out all others as the go-to for comfort. What is this amazing delicacy, you might ask? It is none other than Cream of Wheat. I microwave an extra large serving size of their original recipe with skim milk, a little brown sugar, and some real butter. No substitutions, no variations. And yeah, I totally “borrowed” the image above from their website. If they call me on it, I’ll take it down. No, mine does not contain any of the extra stuff you see in the image. Though…I do love blueberries and usually eat a handful just about every morning! Oh…and no, they are not endorsing or paying me to write this…though, I wouldn’t mind if they did!

So, anyway…I cook my Cream of Wheat until it almost boils out of the microwave-safe glass mixing bowl, so it will be nice and firm in consistency. And then I eat it straight out of that bowl! It’s warm, filling, I like the texture and the taste. On a cold and dreary day like today, everything about it is comforting for me.

It’s not glamorous or sophisticated. It’s kind of childish, even. In fact, I’ve been eating this stuff since childhood. It’s the first “solid food” I remember eating. It was a very inexpensive way for my single (widower) dad to feed my older sister and me on his meager income.

My childhood memories tend to be few and fleeting. The ones I can recall are more like incomplete pencil sketches rather than fully illusrated oil paintings. But Cream of Wheat I remember. Quite possibly because that memory is attached to my dad getting very angry with me on more than one occasion.

I am a slow eater – usually the last to finish my meal. It’s aways been this way. I can remember sitting in the high chair, being spoon-fed Cream of Wheat by my dad. No doubt he was in a hurry to get me to daycare so he could go to work! But I was in no hurry. I wanted to savor each bite, he wanted to shove it down my face so we could get going! I remember him being SO angry that I just would not hurry up! The more rushed he got, the more deliberate I became.

I didn’t always get to finish my breakfast…

Maybe it’s a comfort food for me today as much as it’s my internal way of saying eff you, dad! I’ll eat as slowly as I want! Whatever the case, I do enjoy it.

And, I always finish my breakfast now – savoring every bite!

Your turn. What is your go-to comfort food or favorite meal of the day? What sort of memories do you attach to comfort food?

(This post took me about an hour to complete, and I just finished my breakfast)