Michelle Obama Shared the Surprising Breakfast She Ate Every Day for Years

Michelle Obama has been regarded as one of the leading voices in the nutrition space for quite some time. From launching Let's Move! in 2010 to starring in Netflix's kids' food and culture show Waffles + Mochi, it's clear that food has been an important part of her career and life.

On the first episode of the brand-new podcast Your Mama's Kitchen, Obama appeared as the guest alongside the podcast host, journalist Michele Norris. On the episode, the former first lady shared her favorite dishes growing up, from her father's homemade apple pie to her mother's comforting dinners.

But there was one meal of the day that Obama wasn't a fan of but her family treated as most important: breakfast.

"I was kind of a picky eater. I didn't like any breakfast, anything," Obama admitted on the podcast. "We had big breakfasts because my brother, he's a growing athlete. So it was everything. Cereal, followed by scrambled or fried eggs, followed by lots of toast and bacon and link sausage. But every now and then we'd get the patty sausage. So breakfast was big. You know, I was at a time when my mother tried to force me to eat breakfast, but I was really stubborn. I didn't like bacon. I hated eggs."

So what did she eat at the start of every morning? Obama and her mother actually found a meal that worked for her, and it's not your usual breakfast.

"I didn't like bacon, sausage, all of the breakfast food," Obama said. "So what did I eat? Peanut butter and jelly. Every morning until I went to college."

She further described the compromise she made with her mom that helped her enjoy this sandwich every single morning.

"I really like peanut butter and jelly. It was sort of a compromise that I made with my mother because I thought, well, it's got peanuts, it's protein, a little bit of oil," she explained. "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. Let me just put it on my peanut butter. She gave up. And I literally ate peanut butter and jelly every morning for most of my life, literally until I was in college."

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich on whole-grain bread can be a nutritious meal. Packed with protein from the peanut butter and fiber from the whole grains, it promises to be a light yet satisfying meal to help you take on the rest of the morning.

While Obama states that she isn't much of a PB&J eater anymore because of her daughter's peanut allergy—and she's more keen to having "any eggs any way" nowadays—here are some ways to incorporate those classic ingredients into a healthy, complete breakfast:

• Our Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie brings this childhood flavor combination to the next level. All it takes is five minutes and six ingredients to blend up this heart-healthy, high-protein smoothie.
• For a better source of whole grains, try our Peanut Butter Protein Overnight Oats. It's an easy breakfast to meal-prep for the whole week, and by topping it with fruit in the morning, you'll get that same peanut butter and jelly sandwich feeling.
• If you're looking for a sweet sandwich, we get it. This Peanut Butter and Banana Breakfast Sandwich is perfect for just that. It's only three ingredients and can fit seamlessly into a diabetes-friendly eating pattern.

Up next: Ina Garten's Perfect PB&J Calls for 3 Very Specific Ingredients