The One Thing Michelle Obama Ate for Breakfast Every Morning Growing Up

Former First Lady Michelle Obama may know a thing or two about eating fancy meals, but once upon a time, breakfast was the last thing she wanted on her plate. And as a result, she at the same thing to start her day for many years of her life.

Revealing the news in the first episode of the Audible podcast Your Mama's Kitchen, Michelle noted that her breakfast routine was born out of her dislike for the meal itself — despite her family usually going all out for it.

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“I was kind of a picky eater. I didn't like any breakfast-anything. And my brother, who ate breakfast all the time, thought I was crazy,” she told journalist and podcast host Michele Norris. “We had big breakfasts because my brother, he was a growing athlete. So it was everything — cereal followed by scrambled or fried eggs followed by lots of toast and bacon and link sausage. So breakfast was big.”

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Though everyone in her household loved breakfast, Michelle revealed that she absolutely "despised" it — which is why her mother, Marian Robinson, made desperate attempts to get her daughter to partake in the most important meal of the day, too. So what was the compromise, you ask? Michelle, although "really stubborn," decided to choose a breakfast that was a little unusual: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

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“[I ate] peanut butter and jelly every morning until I went to college. That was all I really liked,” she said on the episode. “It was sort of a compromise that I made with my mother because it's got peanuts, that’s protein, a little bit of oil. Nothing’s wrong with bread if we’re having toast, why can’t I have it in a sandwich form and jelly? Everybody was having jelly on their toast.”

While Michelle said that she opted to eat the sandwich for "every morning for most of my life," she's since grown into bigger and better things — including eggs. "I’m big into all of it now. Give me eggs Benedict. Any eggs, any way,” she said.

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And if you're wondering whether or not she still indulges in the nostalgic sweet and savory eat, she admitted that she's pretty much worn out that part of her palate.

Your Mama's Kitchen — which sees Norris interview guests about their childhood kitchens and the impact their earliest culinary experiences have on their lives currently — will see Matthew Broderick, Gayle King, Kerry Washington, and more as guests in the future. You can listen to new episodes weekly exclusively on Audible for two weeks, and on all podcast platforms after that.

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