Tag: breakfast

Orange Dreamsicle Smoothie

When I was a kid in summer camp, I remember being offered an Orange Creamsicle bar every afternoon. It was such a cold, sweet treat after a long day in the sun. The creamy orange flavor will always remind me of the carefree days of summer. Although I no longer sit around eating Creamsicles every afternoon, I love recreating the delicious flavor of my favorite childhood ice cream treat by blending orange smoothies! It’s a great, healthy alternative to store-bought frozen desserts. Enjoy!

Ingredients
-Zest from 1 orange
-1 peeled orange
-1 frozen banana (sliced before freezing)
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-2 pitted dates
-½ cup soy milk (or milk of your choice)
-Handful of ice cubes

Directions
If possible, use a washed, organic orange for this recipe, as we will include the outer skin in the smoothie.

Orange zest is the top layer of an orange peel and is the source of essential oils, which adds great orangey flavor to your food. In order to zest an orange, use a fine grater and scrape only the orange coloring from the peel. Avoid grating the orange down to the white pith, which tastes bitter.

Add the zest to your blender, along with the peeled orange, 1 frozen banana, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 pitted dates, ½ cup of soy milk, and a handful of ice cubes. Blend all of the ingredients until you have a creamy consistency.

July 2, 2014
Double Chocolate Chip Pancake Surprise

This recipe is regularly on the menu in my house. My kids get so excited when they see chocolate pancakes on the table. They have no idea that mama put a nice collard green-blueberry surprise into the batter. Don’t worry—you won’t notice either, and it’s a great way to use up all of those hard collard green stems that usually end up in the trash.

Last week, I walked you through my daily routine of preparing greens. In that article, I mention that you should save all of the hard collard stems in a plastic bag in the refrigerator. Hopefully, you have those stems ready to use!

(This delicious recipe was inspired by Missy Chase Lapine – aka the Sneaky Chef.)

Ingredients
10 stems from a bunch of organic collard greens
1 cup frozen wild blueberries
2 tablespoons water
1 cup brown rice flour (or any flour of your choice)
½ cup wheat germ
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup soy/almond/rice milk
2 eggs
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
mini chocolate chips (optional)

Step 1
Boil or steam 10 collard stems for 4-5 minutes. Blend the cooked stems, 1 cup of frozen wild blueberries, and 2 tablespoons of water in your blender. This should make about 1 cup of puree. You will only need half of this puree. Freeze or refrigerate the other half of the puree for another day. (Or throw the extra into your next smoothie)

Step 2
Mix all of your dry ingredients into a bowl: 1 cup of brown rice flour, ½ cup wheat germ, 2 teaspoons baking powder, ½ teaspoon of salt, and 4 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder.

Step 3
Mix all of your wet ingredients in a bowl: ½ cup of blueberry-collard stem puree, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, ½ cup of soy milk, 2 eggs and 3 tablespoons of pure maple syrup.

Step 4
Combine wet ingredients and dry ingredients into one bowl, and mix well.

Step 5
Drop heaping tablespoons of batter onto your griddle. Cook over low heat to avoid burning. Add 3-4 mini chocolate chips to the top of each pancake. Peek at the underside of the pancakes to determine when it’s time to flip them. Serve pancakes with pure maple syrup. Please do yourself a favor and spend the extra money for real maple syrup, and avoid pancake syrups, which are a mix of corn syrup, artificial colors and artificial flavors.

Makes about 16 pancakes.

Tip: Refrigerate any leftover pancakes. They make a great portable snack. When you are hungry, just wrap them up and take them with you. They are thick and sturdy like cookies!

You know I’m always trying to get more greens and veggies into my family’s diet! If you are too, you might want to check out Missy Chase Lapine’s cookbook, The Sneaky Chef.

March 9, 2014
Two-Ingredient Pancakes

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any easier than 5-ingredient banana-oat muffins, I am introducing you to two-ingredient banana pancakes. You know why I love these pancakes? I get the SAME amount of credit from my kids for making these pancakes as I do for making a more time intensive flour-based pancake batter from scratch—And you KNOW how annoying it is to pull out all of the ingredients to make real pancake batter with flour, sugar, baking powder, milk, eggs, etc. Who has time for all of that on a weekday? Or even on a weekend, for that matter. If the kids don’t even have a preference, I’m going with the two-ingredient version.

Another benefit of these pancakes is that they don’t need syrup. They are naturally sweet. Do they taste like “regular” pancakes? No, not exactly. The eggs certainly give these pancakes a little more of an omelette consistency, but they are passable, and my kids have never asked whether these are “real” pancakes. If you need more of a flour-y texture, add a third ingredient—2 tablespoons of brown rice flour or another flour of your choice! Enjoy.

Ingredients:
1 ripe banana (with brown spots is best!)
1 egg

Optional ingredients: Add 2 tablespoons of brown rice flour for a more typical pancake consistency. Feel free to top each pancake while cooking with mini chocolate chips, blueberries or nuts.

Directions:
Mash the banana and egg together. Mix ingredients into a smooth batter. Heat and grease a frying pan/griddle, and drop tablespoon-sized dollops of batter into the pan. Cook on medium heat, lifting the edges occasionally to check the underside of the pancakes for doneness and to avoid burning.

February 9, 2014
Banana-Oat Muffins

Let me tell you why I love these banana-oat muffins:

They are quick and easy to make.
You don’t need to drag your electric mixer out of the cabinet for this recipe. You just need a big bowl, a whisk, and a good masher—like what you’d use to smash your potatoes. Making the batter is quick, and 18 minutes in the oven is all it takes to have piping hot muffins on your table.

They are minimally processed.
Forget your highly processed pantry items! No need for white sugar, brown sugar, white flour or flour of any kind. These muffins are sweetened with just bananas.

They make use of old brown bananas.
I can’t handle seeing old brown bananas on my counter top, and there are only so many brown bananas that I can save in my freezer for smoothies. I love that this recipe makes great use of bananas that are no longer edible.

They are gluten-free.
This recipe is gluten-free, so it’s perfect to share with all of your friends. These days, we all know somebody with allergies, so it’s nice to have a few recipes for baked goods that work for everyone. If you have a gluten allergy/sensitivity, please make sure you are using gluten-free baking powder. Your oats should also be labeled as “gluten-free”. Although oats do not naturally contain gluten, they could have traces of gluten if the oats have been grown next to a wheat field or processed in mill that also processes wheat.

They are guilt-free.
All natural ingredients and no added sugar or flour? I would definitely say that this qualifies as a guilt-free recipe.

And, they are kid-approved.
My kids will actually eat these muffins. I usually sprinkle a few mini chocolate chips on the top of a few of the muffin tins before baking. It adds a little sweetness and feels like more of a treat. Feel free to add your own toppings like blueberries or coconut!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups old fashioned oats
2 eggs
3 brown bananas, mashed
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda

Mix all ingredients together, and divide into 12 muffin tins. Bake for 18 minutes.

February 5, 2014
Green Smoothies 101: Buying the Basics

One of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your diet and to start each day with a nutritional bang is to blend green smoothies. If you are ready to join the green smoothie bandwagon, you will need a few kitchen staples on hand to make this a simple, natural process each day.

Stock Your Kitchen

Surprisingly, you can create many different, delicious green smoothies with the same few base ingredients. Just mix and match the following items in your blender with a couple of new ingredients each day to change the flavor. If you are working with recipes rather than mixing up your own concoctions, don’t worry—many recipes will include a few of these ingredients. You might need to add one or two new items from the supermarket, but the staples listed here will be used repeatedly. Nothing listed here will be wasted.

-Greens

In order to make green smoothies, you will obviously need to keep green leafy vegetables on hand. If you are short on time, you can buy plastic containers full of pre-washed organic greens from the produce section of your supermarket. It’s as simple as grabbing a handful of leaves and throwing them into the blender with your other ingredients. If you happen to have an autoimmune illness that affects your joints, I recommend working with greens that are low in oxalic acid, such as kale or collard greens. Stay away from spinach and swiss chard, which are both high in oxalic acid and can aggravate your joint condition.

-Frozen berries

These days, you can find bags of frozen organic berries at most supermarkets. Buy a couple of bags of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries or blackberries. You can buy mixed bags of berries or bags of each individual type of berry. I recommend buying berries that you typically DO NOT eat often or do not enjoy. It’s a great way of adding variety and new nutrients to your diet. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but smoothies happen to be a great way of consuming foods that you’d rather not. Flavors and textures of any particular fruit or vegetable just disappear into blended goodness. Personally, I am not a huge fan of eating fresh blackberries. I happen to enjoy the flavor, but I can’t deal with all of the seeds. It drives me crazy, so now I consume all of my blackberries in pureed form. I just throw a nice big handful of frozen blackberries into my blender, and I get all of the benefits of eating them without actually having to deal with the unpleasant texture of the seeds.

-Frozen bananas

Buy a bunch of bananas, and allow them to ripen on your countertop for a few days. Brown bananas are not particularly appetizing to eat as a snack, but they are perfect for smoothies. Slice each banana, and freeze the slices. Frozen bananas slices blend much more easily than frozen bananas that haven’t been sliced.

-Liquid for your smoothies

I like to stock my pantry with organic, non-GMO soy milk, almond milk, and coconut water. If you prefer a smoothie with a juice base, keep your fridge stocked with orange juice, apple juice, or whatever it is that you prefer.

-Almond butter

If you are worried about getting hungry within an hour or so after consuming your smoothie, turn your drink into a stick-to-your-ribs meal by adding a tablespoon of almond butter to your blender. If you aren’t a huge fan of almond butter, try another type of nut butter, or maybe even a piece of non-GMO organic tofu.

-Fresh Ice

I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve reached into my freezer to grab a handful of ice for my smoothie and realized that my ice smelled a little funky. Whether you have an automatic ice maker in your freezer like me or a few trays of ice that you fill with water and freeze yourself, check your ice before you actually need to use it! Once a month, I dump all of my ice out of the freezer bin that collects my ice cubes from the ice maker. I scrub the ice container with hot soapy water, and I collect all new ice cubes. There’s really no easier way to ruin a delicious smoothie than to fill your blender with old, stinky ice. Take the time to make sure you are using good ice. And don’t forget that you always have the option of skipping ice altogether and just adding more frozen berries instead!

-Lemons/limes

When you first start making green smoothies, you will most likely dapple with recipes that include lots of fruit. Once you become accustomed to these smoothies, you will probably start lowering the quantity of fruit and increasing the quantity of greens and other vegetables. If you move on to these more savory green smoothies, you will want to have fresh lemons and limes on hand. A good squeeze of lemon or lime really compliments any greens or herbs, like parsley, that you might add to your blender. Lemons and limes have quite a long shelf life in the refrigerator, so go ahead and buy a few. Even if you don’t use them today, you can use them in a few weeks, and they will be just as good.

January 26, 2014
Apple-Pie-In-A-Cup Smoothie

This might be my favorite dessert smoothie ever. I call it a “dessert” smoothie because the apple-cinnamon flavor reminds me of apple pie. Turn to this drink instead of taking down a box of cookies and a half-gallon of ice cream. It has the perfect level of sweetness to satisfy your cravings.

Feel free to add a generous handful of baby kale leaves to this recipe. If you don’t mind the green hue, you will benefit from the added nutrition, and honestly, I don’t detect much of a difference in flavor.

Remember to honor yourself and the experience of consuming this delicious drink. It somehow tastes better when you sit down and sip it slowly out of a beautiful glass. I know you are busy. I’m tempted as much as anyone else to just pour my smoothie into a random old mug and drink it while multi-tasking around the house. Let’s change how we eat. Let’s make a real effort to eat mindfully.

Blend:

1 Fuji apple
1 frozen banana (sliced before freezing)
1 Tbsp almond butter
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1 cup soy/rice/almond milk
2 handfuls of ice
1 handful baby kale (optional)

Makes about 20-ounces of smoothie.

January 19, 2014
Train Yourself to be an Early Riser

You can train yourself to be an early riser! Will you love the process? Probably not. Do I love it? Not really. Dragging my sleepy body out of bed is not my idea of a good time…but what I DO love is putting my best foot forward from the moment that I step out of bed. By waking up early, I control the direction and tone for my entire day. Waking early removes the rush and chaos of the morning, and it makes me feel centered and disciplined. I love knowing that I can use the extra time without guilt because there just isn’t anywhere else I need to be at the crack of dawn. I may not put myself first at any other time during the day, but my early mornings are for me. I want you to experience that same feeling—the feeling of doing something healthy, just for you.

So, how do you become an early riser without it being a painful experience? Training. You need to train your body to wake up early. It’s a process. Discipline must be cultivated. I do NOT suggest that you start out by shifting your wake-up time from 7 am to 5 am. That is beyond painful. Just as you wouldn’t train for a marathon by stepping outside and running 26 miles on your first day of exercise, you also shouldn’t expect yourself to wake up two hours earlier than usual on day 1.

Baby steps. That’s the answer to almost any new endeavor—and this is an endeavor that you definitely want to undertake. According to recent studies, early risers are more productive, optimistic, and they even experience better quality restorative sleep. You know you want a piece of that.

Take a baby step by waking up just 15 minutes earlier than usual. Taking this small step will not overwhelm you, and you will establish a new healthy habit. Nobody ever said that waking up early to improve your health must include an hour-long cardio session followed by weight training and a homemade breakfast.

Start off slow. If you have an extra 15-minutes in the morning, use this time to do something to improve your health—something that you normally could not fit into your morning routine. Once you feel comfortable waking up 15 minutes earlier, move on to the next baby step by adding another 15 minutes. If you feel like crap, don’t move on just yet. Fifteen minutes is still a positive change, and you should be proud of yourself for doing it daily.

Wake Up 15 Minutes Earlier

Obviously, you can do whatever you want with your extra 15 minutes in the morning, but here are a few options that I like:

-Prep for dinner.

If the thought of cooking at the end of a long day is exhausting, give yourself a head start in the morning. Wash and chop raw vegetables so you can quickly steam, oven-roast or stir fry after work. Store your vegetables in a bowl in the fridge so they are readily accessible later in the day.

-Steam your greens.

You know you should eat your greens, but who the heck can manage to get them in at every meal? YOU can. The easiest way is to wash, chop and steam your greens in the morning, and to cook enough for the entire day. It’s such a quick and easy way to improve the quality of every meal you eat. Have a side of steamed kale, collards, bok choy, cabbage, mustard greens or broccoli. I always have a serving with my breakfast, and I prepare enough for lunch and dinner, too. Even if you buy your lunch at work, you can always carry a little container from home. Throw your steamed greens into a cup of lentil soup if you like your vegetables warm. This is such an easy, quick solution to improve your eating habits at every meal…and it only requires 15 minutes.

-Prepare your own healthy beverages for the day.

Instead of buying a cup of coffee on the way to the office, a bottle of sweet tea to drink with lunch, and a post-workout sports drink later in the day, brew a quart of your own herbal tea in the morning and take it to work with you. If you don’t drink tea, make a quart of flavored water instead. Add slices of cucumbers and mint to your water or add slices of lemon and lime. The possibilities are endless. Treat yourself to a nice new thermos or jug to carry your drink, or just buy a large bottle of water from the supermarket and re-use that bottle daily.

-Do some stretching, and bang out a few sets of push-ups and crunches.

Even 10 or 15 minutes of movement makes a difference. You will build some heat in your body and feel great.

-Create a schedule.

Time management is your friend. Get the most out of your day by making to-do lists and filling out your daily calendar. Schedule your errands and appointments, make a grocery list, and create a meal plan for the day. Determine when you plan on exercising, and make sure that you actually schedule it. If you fail to schedule your exercise into your day, it can easily get pushed onto the back burner in favor of an interesting television show or an extra half hour of surfing the web. Use the extra 15 minutes in the morning to organize your day and to de-clutter your mind. Just a few minutes of planning can set you on the right path for success.

-Pray, meditate, give thanks.

This is such an obvious suggestion, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it. Sometimes, all we need is a little gratitude, silence and perspective to change the course of our days. There is no better time than the early morning hours to find stillness and peace. Use this time to pray, meditate or write in a gratitude journal. Taking stock of your blessings is transformative and will naturally lead towards greater joy and contentment. Giving thanks brings awareness to your current state of being. I know that my own gratitude practice compels me to take even better care of my body, as I have become more grateful for the miraculous life that I am living. Over the years, I’ve come to really understand that good health is not guaranteed. You can take as many vitamins as you want, eat as healthy as humanly possible, get lots of sleep, maintain low stress levels, breathe unpolluted air, drink the cleanest water in the world, and you can still get sick. Some of this is just luck of the draw. Do the best you can, give thanks for all you have, and fiercely protect whatever good health you DO have.

Wake Up 30 Minutes Earlier

So you’re ready to move on? Go ahead and re-set your alarm clock to wake you a full half hour earlier than usual. Here are a few meaningful changes that you can make in your life with just an extra thirty minutes in the morning.

-Make breakfast.

I’m not talking about pouring yourself a bowl of cereal. I’m talking about a real, nutritious meal. Personally, I like to chop and steam a bunch of vegetables, heat up some miso soup that I cooked the day before, and cook some grains (like oats or brown rice). I know it’s unconventional, but it is healing food, and leaves me feeling nourished and healthy. You can make vegetable-filled omelettes instead, or blend a good smoothie—and if you’re already chopping up fruit for the smoothie, chop a little extra to take to work.

-Yoga.

Take a 20-minute yoga class online. I love the 20-minute yoga classes that I’ve taken. They are surprisingly effective at waking the body up and relieving morning stiffness. Yes, there are 30-minute classes available too, but if you’re waking up 30 minutes earlier than normal, you might want a 20-minute class so that you can have 10 minutes to freshen up afterward. If you don’t want to pay for online classes, do 15-minutes of sun salutations and spend another 10 or 15 minutes working on challenging poses. Take a photo or two of yourself to track progress, and post your photos to Instagram!

-Clean Your House, Pay Your Bills, Sort Your Mail. Basically, go ahead and get some of your chores out of the way. If you have no desire to exercise in the morning, use your extra thirty minutes in the morning to pave the way for a healthy evening.
One evening about a month ago, I found myself addressing 75 holiday cards instead of exercising. In hindsight, I see that this makes no sense. I could have addressed the holiday cards early in the morning, leaving me with no excuse to skip the gym at night. Today, try to think of every excuse that you’ve ever used to avoid exercising in the evening and if possible, tackle those items early in the morning.

-Wake up even earlier

Once you get the hang of waking up 30 minutes earlier, you can continue to add another 15 minutes to your early morning routine. The earlier you rise, the more options you have. Personally, I like having an extra 75-minutes in the morning. I know that once the clock strikes 7 am, I need to get in mom mode and start preparing lunch boxes, brushing knotty hair, cooking kids’ breakfasts, washing crusty faces, etc. If I set my alarm for 5:45 am, I have just the right amount of time to do everything that I need to do to start my day feeling healthy, happy and bright. I used to set my alarm for 5:30 am, but I came to the conclusion that I actually preferred the extra 15 minutes of sleep. I didn’t accomplish more in the morning by waking up at 5:30. Somehow, 5:45 am is just right. You might need to play around with your wake-up time a bit, too. Good luck finding that sweet spot. You won’t regret it.

January 8, 2014