Josh Sherman
Now that it’s starting to get cold out, which is anything below 70 degrees here in Florida, I have began searching to find a nice warm breakfast that is quick to prepare as well as portable. I tend to just make smoothies for breakfast but I have grown bored with them and they don’t exactly fall into the “warm” category. Not just that, but I really don’t find smoothies to be a quick thing to prepare. Sure they only take a few minutes, but it’s a few minutes of effort that requires my attention, not simply waiting. Hard to multitask with the exception of making my lunch at the same time. I tend to make my lunch the night before, so that doesn’t really work.
The wife is always trying to push frozen waffles on me as a quick and easy as well as portable breakfast. I don’t hate frozen waffles but I tend to only eat them when I’m drunk. Also, I don’t care for their portability. If you want to consider syrup at all you’re into plate territory and probably need a fork and a knife.
Fortunately because of a BOGO at Publix, I ended up grabbing some instant grits because I hadn’t had any in a while. They are quick and easy and I would make them and munch while getting ready in the morning. That’s when it hit me, “why has no one made portable grits?” If they exist, they haven’t made it on my radar and a few Google searches only provided grits recipes and suggested that they make a great portable meal.
My requirements for a meal to be portable consists of two main things: 1. it has to be able to fit in the cup holder in my car and 2. the vessel for said food must be able to be thrown away. The thing is, I don’t really want to have to carry around an extra piece of empty dishware the rest of the day. Leaving it in the car is no better as it can leave the car smelling and whatever remnants are left dry up and are a bitch to clean. To satisfy my requirements, I went with the obvious and put the grits in a cup. Couple that with a plastic spoon, the whole thing can go in the trash as soon as I get to my destination. I’m fully aware at how unfriendly to the environment this sounds, I’m working on that.
The preparation is quite simple, I start with a red Solo cup and add to it two packs of Quaker Instant Grits, usually cheese flavor. I also tend to kick it up with a bit of Sriracha and sometimes some liquid smoke. This week I am adding some turkey bacon bits to the mix. To that, I add 1 cup of boiling / hot water and stir it up. At this point I can finish getting ready and the grits will be ready to fly out the door with me. BOOM, portable grits! Oh and did I mention that it’s only a few hundred calories?
Why even blog about this? Mainly because this asshole said I should. Also because I wanted to document this for when Quaker or some other company releases grits (or oatmeal, calling dibs!) in portable packaging for noming on the go. I’m always up for some new portable breakfast / snack ideas, feel free to drop your faves in the comments below!
