SEC S4-W2 | My favorite breakfast | by @ozenozge

Hello dear friends;

Is breakfast really a marketing miracle or the most important meal of the day? According to one theory, Kelloggs ran a marketing campaign to boost sales, saying "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day". Intermittent fasting advocates in particular have argued that breakfast does more harm than good. When I was trying to lose weight, I followed the IF diet and skipped breakfast, but as a breakfast lover, I couldn't keep it up for long. I don't know if it's the most important meal, but I definitely can't give up breakfast.

_{The collage was prepared with Canva}

Yesterday, with the invitation of dear @busraca, I participated in this beautiful contest and I will tell you about both Turkish breakfast and my favorite breakfast.

What is your favorite breakfast?

_{This morning I made oatmeal with banana and peanut butter.}

I realize that I would be betraying Turkish cuisine by answering this question with oatmeal porridge, but for various reasons, starting with oatmeal has been my go-to choice lately. The first reason is that the classic Turkish breakfast contains a lot of calories. As I will explain below, Turkish breakfast consists of caloric foods such as bread, butter, jam and honey. I am trying to get into a healthy lifestyle, so starting the day with oatmeal is a good alternative for me. Oatmeal has a very good nutritional value and keeps me full for a long time. I enrich its taste by adding some of my favorite fruits, and peanut butter, which is my favorite food, goes very well with oatmeal. In addition, you can diversify your recipe by preparing it with various fruits and nuts. Besides these, one of the biggest advantages is that it is very practical to prepare. I can prepare it in almost 5 minutes. The fact that it is something I can easily prepare because I don't have much energy when I wake up in the morning multiplies my love for oatmeal.

In short, oatmeal is my favorite breakfast because I can adapt it to my diet, because I love its taste and because it is very practical to prepare.

What ingredients does it include?

_{The ingredients I used to prepare my breakfast}

The main ingredient is oatmeal. Apart from that, you can diversify your recipe as you wish. I will share with you my favorite recipe that I prepared this morning. It is very simple to prepare this recipe consisting of oatmeal, milk, banana and peanut butter. After cooking the oatmeal and milk over low heat, I slice a banana and pour peanut butter on top. This morning I added chia seeds as an extra. Sometimes I mix the oatmeal with yogurt without cooking it and add peaches or seasonal fruits.

What time do you have breakfast? And who prepares it?

Unfortunately, I'm a sleepyhead, so it takes me until noon to wake up. By the time I get up, my parents have already had breakfast. They don't like oatmeal at all and they usually prepare a very heavy Turkish breakfast. It's good that I sleep in and don't see them, otherwise sometimes it's hard for me to resist the pastries.

What are the typical breakfasts in your country?

First of all, before I tell you about Turkish breakfast, I would like to talk about the etymological origin of the word "breakfast" in Turkish. Breakfast in Turkish means "Kahvaltı". In other words, it is a combination of the words "Kahve" (coffee)☕️ and "Altı" (before). During the Ottoman period, coffee drinking culture was quite common. Since drinking coffee in the morning on an empty stomach caused discomfort, something was eaten before breakfast to protect the stomach. This is where the word "kahvaltı" derives from.

Turkish breakfast varies from region to region, but at least certain products are present in every region. A variety of cheeses. Feta cheese, Ezine cheese, Tulum cheese, braided cheese, at least one of these types of cheese is definitely included in breakfast tables. Eggs are also a loyal member of breakfast tables. It usually changes daily according to the type of cooking. Scrambled eggs, sunny side up or boiled eggs are consumed at breakfast with different cooking methods. Olives are another essential product. Apart from that, another product that is often a guest at breakfast tables is bagels. In fact, when I was working, there were many times when I consumed only a bagel and tea for breakfast. The products I mentioned above are the most important parts of a breakfast table. Apart from that, various pastries can be added to them on special occasions or when you have guests coming. I think this is something unique to Turkey, but fried potatoes are also quite common at breakfast.

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_{From my weekend breakfasts outside}

In a country that gives so much importance to breakfast, there are many businesses that serve breakfast only. Especially on weekends, it is very popular to go out for breakfast. The products I mentioned above and many more are served at these breakfasts. It is impossible to leave these tables without being full. In fact, most of the time we cannot finish all of these breakfast foods. I shared with you a few frames from the breakfasts I had outside.

Finally, while talking so much about the coffee drunk after breakfast, I want to share with you the Turkish coffee I drink. I invite dear friends @lanegra2804, @petface and @enveng to this challenge.

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_{Turkish Coffe and me}

I hope you liked my article😇.

Thank you for reading.😊