Breakfast
Sunday Morning Breakfast is Best
07/18/10
Sundays are all about breakfast. Big, hearty breakfasts that stick to your ribs. Breakfasts that satisfy all those comfort needs as well as our need for communion.
While it can be nice to have others cook for you and, even better, clean up too, I prefer to cook and eat my Sunday breakfasts at home. My job often has me working and serving the public on Sundays. When I have that rare and special time with my family, I prefer to savor it at home.
This morning was just one of those occasions. Since I was working later in the day I enjoyed a relaxing morning with my husband. I was feeling creative this morning so I pulled some things out of the fridge and away I went.
Sun dried tomatoes and spinach scrambled eggs, spiced potatoes and onions, and toast was the menu. clean plates and full bellies were the result.
Start the potatoes first so your eggs do not get cold waiting. Chop an onion and sauté in some olive oil until the onion starts to become clear. Dice a medium russet potato into pieces not much bigger than a quarter inch. The bigger the pieces are the longer it will take the potato to cook. Place the potatoes in a small mixing bowl. Add a teaspoon of turmeric, paprika, and chili powder and mix to coat. Once the potatoes are fully coated with the spice, add to the onions in the pan. Lower the heat on your pant to med-low and cover. Check and stir every fees minutes to keep from sticking. Scrap anything that does stick up from the pan and stir in. Mince about three cloves of garlic and add to the potatoes after about five minutes of cooking time.
Rinse your small mixing bowl so that you can use it to scramble your eggs. Break open about two eggs per person into the mixing bowl and toss the shells in your compost pile. Add one to two teaspoons of stone ground mustard, 1/4 cup soy milk, and whip it all together with a fork. Slice a green onion, including tops, and add to the egg mixture. On a cutting board, finely dice 3 to 4 sun dried tomatoes. If you are using ones that come in oil or water, no prep is needed. If yours are dry, please soak them in some hot water about 15 minutes prior to making the eggs. In a sauté pan, add a teaspoon or olive oil. Heat up and add the sun dried tomatoes. Sauté about a minute and add the egg mixture. Be sure that your tomatoes are mixed in evenly. Take a large handful of spinach and roll it burrito style. Slice through the spinach to create strips (called chiffinade.) when eggs are about half way cooked, add the spinach and mix in. Cook 3 to 5 minutes longer.
Serve with sliced tomatoes or toast. In the picture, we are having a gluten free toast.
Enjoy!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
While it can be nice to have others cook for you and, even better, clean up too, I prefer to cook and eat my Sunday breakfasts at home. My job often has me working and serving the public on Sundays. When I have that rare and special time with my family, I prefer to savor it at home.
This morning was just one of those occasions. Since I was working later in the day I enjoyed a relaxing morning with my husband. I was feeling creative this morning so I pulled some things out of the fridge and away I went.
Sun dried tomatoes and spinach scrambled eggs, spiced potatoes and onions, and toast was the menu. clean plates and full bellies were the result.
Start the potatoes first so your eggs do not get cold waiting. Chop an onion and sauté in some olive oil until the onion starts to become clear. Dice a medium russet potato into pieces not much bigger than a quarter inch. The bigger the pieces are the longer it will take the potato to cook. Place the potatoes in a small mixing bowl. Add a teaspoon of turmeric, paprika, and chili powder and mix to coat. Once the potatoes are fully coated with the spice, add to the onions in the pan. Lower the heat on your pant to med-low and cover. Check and stir every fees minutes to keep from sticking. Scrap anything that does stick up from the pan and stir in. Mince about three cloves of garlic and add to the potatoes after about five minutes of cooking time.
Rinse your small mixing bowl so that you can use it to scramble your eggs. Break open about two eggs per person into the mixing bowl and toss the shells in your compost pile. Add one to two teaspoons of stone ground mustard, 1/4 cup soy milk, and whip it all together with a fork. Slice a green onion, including tops, and add to the egg mixture. On a cutting board, finely dice 3 to 4 sun dried tomatoes. If you are using ones that come in oil or water, no prep is needed. If yours are dry, please soak them in some hot water about 15 minutes prior to making the eggs. In a sauté pan, add a teaspoon or olive oil. Heat up and add the sun dried tomatoes. Sauté about a minute and add the egg mixture. Be sure that your tomatoes are mixed in evenly. Take a large handful of spinach and roll it burrito style. Slice through the spinach to create strips (called chiffinade.) when eggs are about half way cooked, add the spinach and mix in. Cook 3 to 5 minutes longer.
Serve with sliced tomatoes or toast. In the picture, we are having a gluten free toast.
Enjoy!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
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Buckwheat Oatmeal Pancakes with Pear and Apple Topping
01/17/10
A good morning to all! Pancakes are are great for any meal on any day, but on Sunday, they are the best! I have been making pancakes so frequently since I discovered buckwheat pancakes, that I think I might invest in an electric griddle. Currently, I use my omelet pan, making one pancake at a time. I could seriously cut down on cook time if I could make three to four pancakes at once. Especially, since I make more than I need just so that I can throw a few in the freezer for a quick breakfast on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday!
This time I took my oatmeal pancakes and replaced one cup of oatmeal with buckwheat flour. This made the pancakes a little less dense, but still very hardy. The pancakes themselves are slightly sweet due to the banana in the batter.
For the topping, I sliced two pears and an apple into thin wedges. Then I cut them in half. I peeled the pears but not the apple (lots of nutrients in the apple skin.) I placed the fruit in a skillet and set the heat on medium low. I added about two tablespoons of Earth Balance, a tablespoon of honey, one teaspoon of cinnamon, and a half teaspoon of ground ginger. I let that cook slowly while I made the pancakes.
While not a cereal grain, buckwheat is a fruit seed related to the rhubarb and sorrel. Buckwheat is an excellent grain for those who are sensitive to glutens. Nutritionally, buckwheat helps to lower cholesterol and blood pressure. Buckwheat is rich in flavonoids, especially rutin, which are phytonutrients. These compounds help maintain blood flow and keep platelets from cloting excessively. Buckwheat also contains 86 milligrams of magnesium in a one cup serving. Magnesium relaxes blood vessels, improving blood flowand nutrient delivery.
Oatmeal is a complex carbohydrate. That means it will break down slowly helping to stabilize blood sugar. Oatmeal is also full of vitamin A, B complex vitamins, iron, and calcium. In addition, oatmeal provides dietary fiber making it beneficial to the digestive system.
So eat pancakes! And know that you are providing your body with good nutrition while filling your soul with comfort. Life is good!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Oatmeal Apple Pancakes
10/20/09
Nothing makes any day feel like Sunday morning like pancakes. Indugent and comforting, pancakes hit a lot of those taste sensors that makes us grateful for slow, easy mornings. Padding around in our pj's and louging on the couch only compliment the joy of a tummy full of yummy.
This morning I was experimenting with oatmeal in an attempt to increase the nutritional content of my pancakes. They are heavier than a standard pancake, but they definitely passed the husband taste test.
Place all ingredients except the apple in a blender and mix until the oatmeal is all chopped. Slice the apple into thin pieces and set aside. Heat up a frypan on the stove with a little coating of cooking oil or vegan butter. Pour 1/2 cup of batter in the pan. Press two slices of apple in the pancake while cooking. When the edges of the pancake are brown and the batter is bubbling, flip your pancake and brown the other side.
If you have a warmer, keep your cooked pancakes in there until finished cooking to keep them warm and yummy. If you do not them place the cooked pancakes on a dinner plate and then flip another plate on top as a cover.
Also, if you have an electric griddle or one to put on the burners of your stove, definitely use it. It will reduce your cooking time as you can cook more than one pancake at a time.
Ingredients List:
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups soy or almond milk
1 ripe banana
2 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 apple cut into slices
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
Sunday Breakfast
08/16/09
I love when I am off on Sunday. Lazy mornings and traditional breakfasts are an indulgence that we all need on occasion. Cultural rituals like Sunday breakfast feed not only our bodies but also our souls. There is definitely something spiritual in luxuriating with your spouse over the course of a morning. Carlos and I watch all the morning news shows and cruise through the Sunday paper. The cats take turns working on getting our attention and getting scratched. We don’t head out for Sunday brunch anymore. We just can’t eat enough to justify the prices. Besides, nothing tastes better than breakfast at home in your pj’s.
So this morning it was buckwheat pancakes with mango syrup and sliced bananas. I adjusted the pancake recipe for what I had available. This basically meant that it was all buckwheat flour versus a mix of flours and sugar was replaced with agave syrup.
My stepdaughter brought us a container of mangos from her freezer (from her tree) the other day. I sliced the equivalent of two mangos, added some honey and lime juice, and heated it through. I took the immersion blender and created a thick liquid. When the pancakes where done, I piled a few on each plate, sliced half a banana over each, and then spooned a generous amount of mango syrup over it all. My husband went back for seconds, so, in my book, that is a success
.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
A dairy free, wheat free recipe.
So this morning it was buckwheat pancakes with mango syrup and sliced bananas. I adjusted the pancake recipe for what I had available. This basically meant that it was all buckwheat flour versus a mix of flours and sugar was replaced with agave syrup.
My stepdaughter brought us a container of mangos from her freezer (from her tree) the other day. I sliced the equivalent of two mangos, added some honey and lime juice, and heated it through. I took the immersion blender and created a thick liquid. When the pancakes where done, I piled a few on each plate, sliced half a banana over each, and then spooned a generous amount of mango syrup over it all. My husband went back for seconds, so, in my book, that is a success
.
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
A dairy free, wheat free recipe.
Yes, I Eat Vegetables for Breakfast
08/03/09
I get the strangest looks when people find out I eat vegetables for breakfast. People find it so odd that I have stopped volunteering that information. The problem is that my husband keeps bringing it up. Now, I will make a bowl of oatmeal or scramble some eggs occasionally, but primarily, I mix up some sort of whole grain with some veggies and avocado.
This all started a few years back as I was trying to get pregnant. I was doing research on fertility and came across this book about maintaining your body’s PH balance. Most of my research revealed that cleaning up your system of toxins would improve your natural fertility. As I started to follow the book’s prescribed diet, I started to feel better. My issues with constipation went away, my energy improved, and I lost weight.
Basically, the books talks about what happens to foods as you digest them. Some foods become acidic and some alkaline. Acidic foods cause acidic blood and force your body to rob your stores of alkaline substances such as calcium in order to maintain balance. Eating alkaline foods does not cause this reaction. The moral of the story is that you need to eat a balance of acid and alkaline foods to maintain that balance in your body.
Processed foods are one of the biggest culprits to having an acidic system. Traditional breakfast cereals definitely fall into the processed food category. Dairy is also a big category of foods that create acidity in the body, and what do most of us put on our frosted flakes? Bingo.
Today, I make a whole grain like buckwheat or quinoa. I chop up some pepper, cucumber, celery, etc. Mix it together with some lemon juice or liquid aminos. I’ll top it off some avocado and, viola, breakfast!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.
This all started a few years back as I was trying to get pregnant. I was doing research on fertility and came across this book about maintaining your body’s PH balance. Most of my research revealed that cleaning up your system of toxins would improve your natural fertility. As I started to follow the book’s prescribed diet, I started to feel better. My issues with constipation went away, my energy improved, and I lost weight.
Basically, the books talks about what happens to foods as you digest them. Some foods become acidic and some alkaline. Acidic foods cause acidic blood and force your body to rob your stores of alkaline substances such as calcium in order to maintain balance. Eating alkaline foods does not cause this reaction. The moral of the story is that you need to eat a balance of acid and alkaline foods to maintain that balance in your body.
Processed foods are one of the biggest culprits to having an acidic system. Traditional breakfast cereals definitely fall into the processed food category. Dairy is also a big category of foods that create acidity in the body, and what do most of us put on our frosted flakes? Bingo.
Today, I make a whole grain like buckwheat or quinoa. I chop up some pepper, cucumber, celery, etc. Mix it together with some lemon juice or liquid aminos. I’ll top it off some avocado and, viola, breakfast!
Living a life of personal balance, moderation, education, and connection.