What’s for (Grain Free) Breakfast These Days?

August 7th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (17 Comments)

I’ve had a number of conversations with some friends and family about breakfast recently, and so I decided to put together a collection of morning food photos from the past few months.  Once upon a time I ate overnight oats for breakfast every day!  As I’ve mentioned more than once lately, I’m going the grain free route most of the time and don’t even miss my beloved oats, cold cereal or cinnamon raisin Ezekiel toast with almond butter and banana.

(This [sorta scary] blog post is a good but lengthy explanation of why I’ve chosen to follow a mostly grain free lifestyle.  The Paleo Solution, Wheat Belly and The Primal Blueprint are loaded with convincing info and studies too.)  Read more...

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Build Your Own Chia Breakfast Bowl

April 1st, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (7 Comments)

This is one of the current meals in my breakfast rotation.  I call it a “Breakfast Bowl” because it’s not cereal or oats, it’s just a bowl full of stuff.  And it’s for breakfast.

Today it was a Strawberry Coconut Banana Chia Breakfast Bowl, but your choice of toppings/adjectives is completely up to you.

Tailor this to suit your own tastes –  there are lot of ways to make it a little different each morning too.  Today’s chia breakfast bowl base:

Coconut Chia Breakfast Bowl

(I usually estimate ingredients but measured today for the sake of this post.)  Read more...

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First Day of Spring Greenery

March 20th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (2 Comments)

It doesn’t look like spring outside, but for now it can look like spring in my kitchen.

My forsythia exclamation mark was dotted with today’s green juice breakfast.

Forsythia

Good morning Greener March Challenge Day 20! Here in the northeast we’re all reeaaally ready for some greenery outside too.

Bright Green Juice

Today’s juice was so bright green it almost looked like kool-aid.

(Rest easy, it was NOT kool-aid.)

Today’s noteworthy green lemonade ingredient was fresh parsley.

Parsley in Juice  Read more...

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50 Shades of Green

March 13th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (1 Comments)

Today’s green smoothie was sponsored by a bunch of baby kale that’s been hanging out in my fridge and was “Best By” – uhhh, yesterday.

Kale Best By March 12

Time to get a move on here with this thrice washed kale! I found some frozen peaches in the freezer and grabbed the container of peach kefir from the fridge – a peachy green smoothie was coming together in my mind.

Peach Kefir Kale and Peaches in Blender

And then it was coming together in my blender.

Some frozen sliced peaches, a banana, maybe a 1/2 c of peach kefir and plus a little milk too – and oh yeah, that better-yesterday baby kale.  Read more...

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Almost-But-Not-Quite Raspberry Cheesecake Smoothie

March 6th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (Comments Off on Almost-But-Not-Quite Raspberry Cheesecake Smoothie)

I am on a green smoothie kick. This Greener March Challenge has gone straight to my head.  And straight to my blender.  And then straight to my stomach.  I haven’t made green smoothies in ages, and now I can’t seem to stop.

None of my the avocados from my most recent haul are ripe yet, otherwise I would have made an avocado smoothie again.  I still wanted a smoothie for breakfast today though, so I tried to come up with something different this morning – hopefully just as good as that avocado smoothie.  Read more...

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Smoothie Math Fail

March 5th, 2013 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (5 Comments)

Have you ever made something really, really good – but then just plain forgot to ever make it again?

Maybe it’s because it’s too painful to remember. Our brain knows that we will feel so sad we don’t have that delicious food item in front of us at this very moment, it protects us from the pain and won’t allow us to relive it. Not even a little memory jog so you can make it again. It’s like PTSD, except from food. I’ve got Post Traumatic Smoothie Disorder.  Read more...

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No Bake Grain Free Granola

December 30th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (4 Comments)

I make Lisa’s peanut butter coconut oil cups all the time, they have become a fast favorite around here. (Have you tried these yet?  You need to get on it!) Once they’re made, they are a quick, easy, satisfying snack – I love to pop one before a run (sort of like a direct fuel bite a la Brendan Brazier from Thrive) and we often find ourselves sneaking in to the freezer for one (or two!) after dinner.  Read more...

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Simply Banana Bread

November 4th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (12 Comments)

Last week I spent some time staring at overripe bananas.

Ripe Bananas for Banana Bread

Not these exact bananas. These bananas are actors. This is a re-enactment of the overripe bananas that kept giving me the stink eye early last week, waiting to see what I was going to with them.

(This also means that I’m still staring at overripe bananas.)

I didn’t feel like adding these to the existing frozen banana stash I’ve got going in the freezer, so I opted to turn overripe bananas into banana bread instead of a pureed, cold treat like banana whip or a chocolate banana smoothie.  Read more...

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End of Summer Denial

September 10th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (11 Comments)

It’s almost autumn. The leaves are starting to change. School buses are back on the road. The fresh berries are dwindling on the produce shelves at the grocery store. I even had drag a pair of jeans out of a storage bin from the basement this morning.

This bums me out. The berry part, mostly. I’m not ready to say goodbye to summer fruit just yet. I guess the jeans part bums me out a little too. Thanks for not noticing that I pulled said jeans out of the maternity clothes bin, even though I haven’t been pregnant for 2 months now.  Read more...

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How to Froth Milk at Home

July 19th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (14 Comments)

Whenever we get coffee from a coffee shop, I always get a Cafe Au Lait. I love the steamed milk in my cup, it’s just so… steamy. And frothy. And foamy. And seemingly impossible to reproduce at home without some giant, loud frothing machine.

During pregnancy, I totally lost my taste for coffee. But thanks to (very lovingly) popping this kid out, my taste for coffee is BACK, yo! And as luck would have it, a number of weeks ago I happened upon this post about making milk foam at home without a fancy schmancy milk steamer, and I couldn’t wait to try it.  Read more...

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