Avocado Breakfast Burrito

 

Avocado Breakfast Burrito

1/15/2026

This recipe, like many, looks much better in the recipe picture, but I can assure you that the taste fulfills the promise of the glossy photos on the recipe website. It has cheesy eggs, bacon, FRENCH FRIES(!), sauteed peppers and onions, and even avocado for Pete's sake! I have made it before, and a breakfast burrito is pretty much a guaranteed winner with Keshav. It is one of the meals, like mac n' cheese and pizza, that is a winner with him every single time. 

I prepped the ingredients the night before since there were a number of steps in this recipe, and in the morning I fantasized that I was hosting a cooking show where I go to the fridge and pull out the prepped ingredients. But of course it was not a complete fantasy because they really were there prepped. 

I made four burritos so that I have breakfast for myself later in the week. Although this post is dated the 15th, I actually served this to him on the 14th. Last night he left town to visit a friend who lives in New York, so I won't be making him breakfast again until next Monday morning. In the meantime, I have some alone time to myself. 

Keshav said he felt guilty about leaving, and I told him that the guilt is unwarranted because we both agreed on his trip, and I think that him having solo adventures is good for our marriage. And yet I know that he sometimes struggles with going away without me. If you ask me, I think that line of logic was handed to him by his mother, who at times makes him feel that anything he does that is not about her is a "selfish" act. 

Hopefully he shakes off the guilt and enjoys himself in the city. Though it is cold there, the weather is nevertheless gloriously clear and sunny. Just like Los Angeles, but 50 degrees colder. 

*

At home I continue with Dry January, and the experience of this has been very interesting. The two of us have tried to do this for a few years now, but have usually resumed drinking within a week or two because, you know, life. Mind you, neither of us has a "drinking problem", but we are aware that alcohol had become our primary stress relief after a day of work. 

For myself, this was not okay. For us older folks, alcohol affects the body differently than when one is younger, and I found that not only did I not get the desired buzz I used to get, but also the after effects were unpleasant, even after just two glasses of wine. I felt that I was using alcohol with diminishing returns and greater costs; I was hoping to get something from it that it could not longer provide. 

I kept saying to myself that I would create a healthier ritual after work--maybe a light meditation and/or evening yoga stretches. Why was I not doing these things instead of pouring a drink? I realized that alcohol did something for me that was unique: it did not ask anything of me. I felt that everything else, even if it would provide relief, was something that "I had to do". Alcohol instead seems to say, "Let me do it". 

But that is an illusion, and this is why Keshav and I stuck to the Dry January this year, because I wanted to break through that illusion and see if there was really anything I needed relief from at the end of the day.

In my younger years, I did not drink much at all. I worked very hard, and when I would come home I just took care of what needed to be taken care of before going to bed. What I remember from those times is that, despite my busy life and hard work, I was less stressed because I just did what needed to be done without viewing it as a stressful task. I just saw it as a task that needed to be done, and if I didn't do it nobody else was going to. I want to get back to that approach, and this year, Dry January gave me an opportunity to experience the end of my day that way once more. 

The result I came away with is that my sense of "stress" was an illusion I had created that could only be relieved with a drink. The stress I felt came not from actual physical or emotional suffering but from the thought that I was suffering. This is not to say that my days are not difficult, but accepting the difficulty, and thinking of it as stressful, are two different approaches resulting in two very different experiences. 

Dry January showed me that the problem was how I was thinking about my day.

I recently heard someone say that they could not imagine flying in anything less than business class. I thought that was very sad, because what I thought in my head was that I hope I never feel this way. While I certainly love flying business class, I can also find a way to be comfortable in economy or coach. There is a difference between having a preference for comfort and having an expectation or need of it.

Dry January, like many of my choices, succeeded in bringing me back to the edge, where I remembered that the line of discomfort for me is moveable, and that I thrive when it is moved out as far as possible. We can do hard things, as the saying goes. I can end a day of hard work without feeling depleted, in the same way that I can enjoy an Avocado Breakfast Burrito even if it does not look as pretty as the recipe photo.