Berries! So much goodness, so big flavor, so small size. They don't get nearly enough love. Let me love on them here then. If you want to excel in your game, you need the right fuel. You probably won't achieve a word record on an empty stomach. It won't do to be too full either, will it? Balance, that's what you need. How are you going to tip the scales in your favor? Berries, I say. Full of nutrients, fiber, and greatness. You want to be filled with greatness too? Then fill yourself with berries.

So many kinds of berries to consider, too. Take raspberries, for instance. It's the perfect addition to a bowl of cereal. It's the perfect addition to a Saturday morning like today, I tell you. It works perfect for all kinds of cereal. Hot cereal, cold cereal, lukewarm cereal. Fine, scratch the last one, that doesn't sound too appetizing. Hot cereal though, perfect. If you don't believe me, I'd say give it a try. A bowl of oats, then add raspberries to it. You could also add some nuts and quinoa. 😋️

What's that, you don't know about quinoa? I'll tell you then. It's a seed. A nutrient dense, healthy seed. When you buy them, they are coated with a bitter plant coating called saponins. Just rinse them off first. Then, you'll measure 1 3/4 cup water and make it boil. Just when it starts boiling, add 1 cup of quinoa and lower the boil to a simmer. Wait until the water gets absorbed and evaporated, about 20 minutes or so, and it's done.

Back to our regularly scheduled program of berries. Oats, quinoa, raspberries, pecans. That's what you call loaded oatmeal. Regular oatmeal is too boring, see. Loaded oats, that's where it's at. Don't go skipping breakfast if you want to be a master of first person shooters.

Of course, there's plenty of other berries to consider, aside from raspberries. We're just getting started. How about blueberries? Stroustrup wrote a book about C++, and right there at the start he talks about blueberries. Well, blueberry muffins. That's the thing. Blueberries go great in muffins. It's not because muffins are so great, although they are, but it's because blueberries are great. The key is in the portions though. Have you ever had a blueberry muffin with way too many blueberries? That just won't cut it. You need the right amount of blueberries 🫐️ to make muffins work.

Let's not forget pancakes. 🥞️ Blueberries go great in pancakes. You put them right in the batter and fry those pancakes with blueberries in them. Actually, it's been a while since I had blueberry pancakes. 🤔️

Does anyone eat blueberries alone? No I don't mean by yourself. Like just a bowl of blueberries. Would you eat it? Actually, rarely would I crave blueberries without them being part of something. That's just not how blueberries go. They just beg to be joined with a pastry of some kind. I mean, I love blueberries, you just have to have them in something.

Next we have the blackberries. My wife said to me one day, how can you eat blackberries? The seeds get stuck in your teeth. I said back to her, see here, when you eat blackberries, you can't chew them hard. Don't try to grind them in your teeth. You don't need to bring your teeth all the way together to eat blackberries. Mash them gently. If you do, the small seeds get mixed up with the juice instead of getting stuck in your teeth. Then you can just swallow them. You don't need to try to grind up blackberry seeds. They are too small. Just break up the blackberry in your mouth and you're good.

I like to add blackberries to my breakfast. Whether you are having pancakes, waffles, French toast, or whatever your breakfast may be, you can't go wrong with blackberries on the side. The trick is to find the right ones. Good blackberries are kind of sweet.

Now just imagine this breakfast - blueberry pancakes, blackberries on the side, some pecans, maybe a little whip cream. It's a sweetness overload. Better have some coffee with it.

Moving on, there's the matter of strawberries to attend to. You can't go wrong adding strawberries to the mix. Sometimes, strawberries are kind of big, so you'll need to cut them up a bit. I like to cut them into slices. You can arrange them good like this. A good meal has a good presentation, and strawberries are a perfect addition to it.

A while back, I went to a cafe for breakfast. I wanted to add some things to my French toast there. They had lots of options. Bananas, strawberries, pecans. I was so greedy that day. I told the server to add everything. So they did, they added everything. Actually, I was surprised when the bill came by, because there was an extra charge for each one of the extra things I added. My breakfast turned out to cost twice as much as I expected it to be. Of all the things that were added to my breakfast that day, one thing stood out more than the rest: lingonberries.

Let me tell you about lingonberries. Usually, they come in a jar of jam. It's a little more expensive sort of jam than what you might normally get, but it's well worth it. In fact, just this morning, I had lingonberry jam with my French toast. Absolutely perfect. Lingonberry jam has a very light berry taste. It's perfect with pancakes, French toast, and so on. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, they say, and berries are certainly a great way to get a little additional fiber on that. Berries for the win!