Here’s the thing: my husband is basically a breakfast mastermind. The kitchen is a place of brilliant epiphanies and creative outpour for him, but breakfast in particular seems to be his niche. I’ve written before about how our Saturday morning breakfast tradition is for Hubby to cook breakfast and watch the baby while I take a shower and get the only real alone time I have during the week. I talk about how important that time is for me to stay sane, but I’ve never talked much about how delicious Saturday morning breakfasts are around here.

Last Saturday morning, Hubby really knocked it out of the park. He did it so much so, in fact, that it deserves its own blog post. It was that fabulous. 

I think we can all agree that Nutella is to die for. Nutella, however, is hardly healthy–did you know it’s 40% sugar? That’s why it tastes so darn good. Obviously, the flip side of that is that it’s destroying your body from the inside out. That’s rarely stopped us before, but this time we’re legitimately trying to make lifestyle changes that includes cutting out sugar and so that means bye-bye Nutella. My dad was here this past week and Hubby decided to make crepes, but what are crepes without Nutella? Nothing, that’s what. But no Nutella was really not an option, so what did we do? Send Hubby to the store to buy hazelnuts.

Of course there were no bags of ready to eat hazelnuts available, so he bought hazelnuts in the shell instead. He then proceeded to crack them open one by one before he realized the recipe for homemade Nutella we were going to use wasn’t healthy. He then proceeded to make up his own recipe.

What a problem solver. Gosh, I love this man.

Raw, whole hazelnuts. Cacao powder. Raw Manuka honey. Pure vanilla extract. Ice cold milk.

I’ll bet this is the stuff God will feed us in heaven. 

There were other toppings Hubby made too, but when I think back on that blissful morning all I can think about is the joy bubbling over as I took that heaping spoonful of homemade Nutella and spread it loving along my crepe. It was euphoric, rapturous delight. That, my friends, is what beauty is.

I ate so much Nutella on my first crepe, I hardly had room in my belly for more. Oh, but there was so much more. First off was the berry compote Hubby made with fresh strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. He mixed them all together over the stove and added red wine and then reduced it into a syrup. It had the slightly bitter red wine note paired with the sweet berries and it was thick and rich and so so yummy.

He also cut and peeled apples and made a cinnamon apple filling with the apple slivers, cinnamon, and raw honey. There was tartness with a touch of sweet from the honey and the cinnamon helps regulate blood sugar so we were doing our bodies a favor by eating it.

The lemon yogurt was the perfect light topping we needed after so much richness. I never would have thought that lemon yogurt would be tasty but all my husband did is mix fresh lemon juice and plain Greek yogurt together and it was fantastic. I need more of this in my life.

Of course, the crepes were also homemade. I don’t know exactly what he put in them–I make it a habit to stay out of the kitchen during Saturday morning breakfast not only because that defeats the purpose of getting alone time, but also because Hubby is still learning the art of cleaning the kitchen at the same time as cooking. It’s possible, but yes, it takes a whole lot of practice. If I even set foot in the kitchen I notice the flecks of flour and the dishes left out on the counter and I go into mad-woman cleaning mode.

It’s better for me to just stay in the bedroom.

During the great crepe breakfast extravaganza, however, I had time to come in and help him clean up. Get this: my husband was in the kitchen making us the most fantastic crepes ever for four hours! Four hours, people! That is dedication, and did it ever pay off.

It didn’t stop there, either.

In our house, Saturday morning breakfasts always includes something sweet and something savory. Usually the savory is something egg related–Greek scrambled eggs, egg breakfast pizza, sausage and egg casserole–but this week it was bacon and egg bagel breakfast sandwiches.

Admittedly, I was so stuffed after my four delicious crepes and far too much homemade Nutella, I didn’t touch my breakfast sandwich. I wrapped it up and stuck it in the fridge and it didn’t resurface until yesterday morning and I was blown away. Who is my genius of a husband that he can make even a humble breakfast sandwich taste that good? It was simply an everything bagel, hickory-smoked bacon, a fried egg, and pepper jack cheese, but it was absolutely bursting with flavor, and I don’t think even Einstein Bros Bagel Company’s green chili cheese bagel breakfast sandwiches taste that good.

I married a brilliant man.

If Hubby hadn’t already earned my dad’s approval, he had after Saturday morning breakfast. My husband put in four long hours of work (like I said, he hasn’t quite perfected the art of multitasking in the kitchen) and the resulting breakfast was nothing short of an extravaganza. I can’t let him put in that amount of effort and make a breakfast so fantastic and then not brag about it on my blog.

Our journey to change the way we live is extremely challenging at times–I absolutely love chocolate cake and we’ve found some pretty tasty fairly healthy alternatives, but we can’t eat chocolate cake whenever we want. Hubby’s homemade Nutella, however, we can pretty much eat whenever we want. Lemon yogurt, berry compote, cinnamon apples–we can eat those whenever want too because take the honey out of the cinnamon apples and they’re all naturally occurring sugars. Of course, there’s not anything we can eat literally any time we want because part of living healthily is balancing food groups, but this comes pretty close.

So, babe, here’s that blog post I promised you. You’re the best. Please make me more homemade Nutella and breakfast sandwiches soon.