Run for Breakfast

October 26th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Morning Craziness - (20 Comments)

I had a real breakfast crisis on my hands this morning:

Empty banana hammock.

Empty Banana Hammock

No milk.

No Milk

Well, I guess that’s not exactly true. There was rice milk that Ava drinks… but umm, in a word – no.

Surely I jest – of course this is far from a real breakfast crisis. But I realized I could remedy this situation with a well planned run this morning.

I took the last couple of bucks out of my wallet, stuffed them into my sports bra and planned my route so I would run about 3 and a half miles and end up at the my little neighborhood grocery store before the final half mile trek home.

The last half mile looked a little like this:

Left Right

I seriously wonder what my neighbors must think. Hiiiii don’t worry – we’re moving! NO not to the circus.

I need to give a big shout out this morning to the self timer on my camera and the mailbox for helping me take this series of pictures. I couldn’t have done it with you guys, you rock!

Close
Closer
Closest

(Love that “3 shots” option with the self timer!)

Shake well?

Shake Well!

How about a good half mile shake all the way home? Check!

All in the name of toasted apple cinnamon cereal for breakfast.

Run for Breakfast

I am a breakfast nerd, what can I say. No shame, no shame.

Cereal

My other banana is now snoozing in the banana hammock until some child tells me they want a snack.

One Banana

And the rice milk has a little friend until I get to the grocery store later today. Unfortunately my little corner grocery store is just that – little. Almond milk isn’t ever in stock, let alone hemp milk. Have no fear, soy milk will do!

That'll Due

Breakfast crisis averted!

Hey Blog fans – be sure to head over to Health Blog Helper today and tune in to the latest Health Bloggers Dish interview: Gena from Choosing Raw!


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


Our Sunday Best

October 25th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (15 Comments)

Per usual, I was up before the rest of the crew this morning. I fired up the oven first thing and put together another batch of Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal a la Brendan Brazier and Thrive.

When I made this cereal earlier this week I was sort of surprised at how perfectly chewy the apples turned out. I sliced up a second apple and baked it right along with the cereal, both for an hour at 250.

Apples with Cereal this Morning

I’m pretty sure I saw Mama Pea do this a while ago.

Homemade Dried Apples

I think I can safely stop spending $3.50 a bag on my favorite Woodstock Farms dried apples. These turned out better than I could have ever expected! They’ve only turned out so-so in the food dehydrator. I don’t know why I didn’t try is sooner – Mama is always right!

I moved most of the cereal to a container to be stored in the fridge. (For up to two weeks according to Brendan, but there’s no way it’s going to last that long here.)

Ready for Fridge

Today’s cereal was made with a diced apple, a half cup or so each of sliced almonds, hemp seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, ground flax with a couple dashes of cinnamon and nutmeg. I used a 1/4 c of Grade A real maple syrup today instead agave nectar like last time, as well as a 1/4 c of canola oil.

What didn’t fit in the storage container got moved to my bowl:

Sunday Cereal

I ate my homemade cereal with sliced bananas and got back to work on the Operation: Clean Out the Filing Cabinet project I started while my cereal was baking this morning. Gotta make it a little bit lighter for whichever big, strong, handsome, strapping man I ask to pick up and move to the moving truck in just a few short weeks here. (Note to self: start reminding all the men in my life how big, strong, handsome, strapping they are.)

Operation Get Organized

Once the gang was up and I’d sufficiently spread huge piles of paper all over, we headed out for a Sunday walk/ride on this beautiful fall morning.

A Sunday Walk

Even Ping came along today. (Hissy didn’t fit in the trike trunk.)

With Ping

Goose has recently been renamed Ping and is now a regular tag-along thanks to the latest book I’ve read approximately 100 times over the past couple of weeks here.

The Story About Ping

It was a beautiful morning to make our way slowly and surely to the coffee shop about a mile from home.

Blue Skies

A few weeks since my last cup of coffee, I felt like one today and got a tall pumpkin spice coffee with milk.

Jitters on a Sunday Morning

We admired the fall decorations.

Pumpkin Light Take a Peek

We also noticed that a certain 3 year old is now tall enough to reach the water jug and serve herself.

Tall Enough

Interestingly enough said 3 year old who claims to be “so big!” also claims to be “too little!” to peddle the mile back home.

Carry Tot

Good thing Daddy isn’t too little to carry that big girl, and Mama isn’t too little to carry the big bike.

Carry Trike

This morning’s walk, in combination with a short half mile run to home and back to fetch a coat for Ms. Ava about 5 minutes into our walk – who, let the record show that upon leaving, swore she didn’t need a coat and had to sign a contract stating “I will never argue with mom about needing a coat again” before I agreed to run back and get it – as well as resistance training in the form of tricycle carrying has sufficiently taken care of today’s work out.

Zak Attack had to go in to work for a few hours today so the girlies and I are holding down the fort. Now it’s time to get started on my next Operation; Donate or Toss.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


Over Run Oats

October 24th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (18 Comments)

Thanks to some warm air and the fact that it’s Saturday and no one is rushing off to work at 8 AM, I got to head out for my run well after the sun was up this morning. Some where around the 9 o’clock hour I hit the pavement and had a glorious 54 minutes and 6.25 miles to all myself. Well, good old Jillian was with me too, but she doesn’t count.

Before I left I put together some pumpkin overnight oats knowing they’d be ready to eat by the time I got back. Given I put them together this morning, I guess I should technically call these Over Run Pumpkin Pie Oats.

Over Run Pumpkin Oats

1/3 smashed banana with about a half cup of pumpkin puree, a tablespoon of almond butter, 1/2 c rolled oats and about a 1/2 cup of unsweetened vanilla hemp milk. A little cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger and into the fridge for the duration of my run and clothes changing.

Condense much?

Condense Much?

Oops I meant to add ground flax!

Add Flax

The oats were still a little chewy and it probably would have been better to stick with “Over Night” instead of “Over Run” but I managed. The pumpkin added a lot of volume. By the time I was out of banana and flax I tossed the remaining 1/3 of over run oat mixture into the compost bucket. It was good but I’m working a little harder these days to pay attention to how I’m feeling at the end of a meal and remind myself that I don’t have to clean my plate or bowl if I’m no longer hungry.

A Fun Announcement!

As you may know, I’ve recently been working with Matt on Health Blog Helper to put together interviews from successful bloggers around the healthy living niche. I’ve now come on board full time with Matt and will be writing regularly for Health Blog Helper on all things blog related. My first post on one of the ways self-hosting can save you time went up this morning, check it out if you’re interested!


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


The Brightest Bulb in the Box

October 23rd, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (23 Comments)

I got my run in this morning. A very cold, wet, 5 mile run run – but come hell or frozen water I was getting out there to run today and by God I did.

Immediately upon I scarfing down the same breakfast I’ve had for the past two days Zak and I left to meet my step dad (who, as luck would have it also happens to be a civil engineer and is qualified to do home inspections) for the inspection of the new house!

Bookcases and Fireplace

I haven’t explained much about the house yet but we’re basically moving from our 1980’s 1500 square foot suburban cookie cutter house to a 100 year old 2000 square foot city house that’s got a lot more character and a lot less electrical outlets.

More hard wood floors, but less yard.

Hall, DR, hall, sliding doors

More counter space, but less garbage disposals.

Kitchen

More house to clean, but less laundry to carry down stairs thanks to a laundry chute.

Hall Closet with Laundry (Pony) Chute to basement

There’s actually access to the laundry chute from the kitchen. Throw your hands in the air like you just don’t care about stinky dish rags heeeeyyyy hoooooooeeee!

More cool features, but less new windows. More drafts, and less central air.

Back of Kitchen and Dining Room

We’ll be trading a lot with the move. Zak will be closer to work, cutting his commute time down to about 15 minutes from 35. We’ll be closer to museums, homeschooling friends, but further from family. Our yard is smaller, our new neighborhood is more transitional.

At the end of the day, we’re excited and looking forward to what’s to come!

The girls spent the day with Aunt Ellen while we were at the inspection. I came home to get some work done and the girls came home with a new second hand kitchen appliance.

Easy Bake

I’m positive there is not one of these at the new house!

They picked this up with Ellen today, poor Ellen feeling bad that she didn’t realize until it was too late that this was more than just a toy and didn’t cook pretend food. Although I think the “pretend food” might be exactly right.

But uh oh. What’s missing? I of course say “uh oh” with a certain twinkle in my eye!

What's Missing

No pan! Well shoot, I guess we’re not making any “cookies” tonight.

Artificially Flavored

Don’t get me wrong. I love cooking with a 100 watt light bulb as much as the next guy but I’m more concerned about the contents of these packets of light bulb cookie goodness and wondering if I’ll be the first person to google “organic easy bake oven recipes”.

Organic Easy Bake Oven Recipes

Well that answers that. I smell a new blog. Or at the very least an e-cookbook. Who wants to contribute?!

Oh wait! There’s an Easy Bake Over cook book right in the box! What do you know?

Hmmm, this recipe looks promising… Chocolate Balls!

Chocolate Balls

The girls were definitely distraught that we wouldn’t be eating at Easy Mama’s Bakery tonight, so I helped smooth things over with a couple of giant Wegmans ghost cookie attached at the hip.

Two Ghosts

Appropriate, no?

Totally Appropriate

I smoothed things over with myself for buying my children giant cookies with a giant jug of my favorite salsa! Who knew Garden Fresh Gourmet comes in jugs now? Not me!

Jug of Salsa

I pretended to ignore the dirty looks from Jillian, I know she disapproves of those cookies.

Jillian Health

When I took this out the mailbox today it took me a minute to recognize her! I can’t believe me, not even immediately recognizing my own girlfriend. The horror!

But don’t worry, we made up and had dinner together.

Dinner with My Girlfriend

Left over veggie chili + spinach + red leaf lettuce + guacamole dressing + 2% Fage = a rockin’ taco salad for dinner on a Friday night.

A late run + a home inspection = two posts for the price of one. Or is that one post for the price of two? Oh well, you know what I mean.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


Mom 2.0

October 22nd, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Dinner Time - (25 Comments)

This afternoon, just as I was sitting down to a cup of tea, Ava ran out to fetch the mail. (Reason #454 having kids pays off.)

Look what was waiting in the mailbox for me!

Can't Wait to Blog

A seriously hilarious card from a seriously hilarious healthy everythingtarian – and she even doctored the card up with a little “‘s food“. I told you she was funny!

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, there was an awesome little present inside.

Corn Syrup Kills

Take THAT Corn Refiners Association – in YO FACE. How appropriate too that I had just put agave nectar in my green tea the moment my mail was hand delivered.

Take that child labor laws – in YO FACE.

I had a meeting this afternoon in the city and packed a little snack for the ride home knowing I’d probably be hungry by the time we were done. I got to try one of the Vibrancy Bars I was sent the other day from Brendan Brazier’s Vega product line.

Whole Food Bar

A sumptuous celebration of plant based foods is right! It looked a lot like a Larabar but the taste and texture was very different. I liked it – but I think what I liked best of all was knowing that everything in the bar was boyfriend Brendan approved!

I decided to take the long way home from my meeting to swing by the co-op to pick up fixings for vegetarian chili for dinner. I like to pretend I was just doing my part to support the local co-op, but really it was just an excuse to drive by and stalk my new house in the same part of town. I’m going to pretend I haven’t done the same thing every day this week already.

It was also an excuse to hit up the Kombucha sale the co-op is having this week!

Kombucha Sale

2.79? Can you say “put it in the bag, Susie Q!” Oh yes I did. And I did yesterday too, right before I drove by new house for the 3rd time in one week.

2.79!

While waiting in line I spied a totally appropriate magazine cover.

Mom 2.0

If it means I get six more arms, I’m totally upgrading from Mom 1.8 to Mom 2.0. Isn’t it ironic that I was taking a picture of this magazine cover to run home and blog about it?

Car snack number TWO for the day.

Second Car Snack

Post-meeting but pre-dinner my dad stopped by to amaze and amuse us with his mad pumpkin carving skillz. My father has always been and will always be my pumpkin carving hero. When I’m 72 and he’s 100 I’m still going to make him carve my pumpkins for me.

Carved Pumpkins

Post-pumpkin carving madness, I got to work on the cheapest healthy dinner I know –> Vegetarian Chili.

Dinner on the Cheap

Beans, Tomatoes and some corn from my freezer and spices in my cupboard – this vat of bean goodness cost me less than $7. In fact, less than $6.95 thanks to bringing my own bag! I dare you to find a cheaper way to amuse yourself 12 hours after you eat this meal. Zak’s co-workers are thanking me now.

Veggie Chili

While the chili was cooking, we turned our pumpkins into pumpkin delight!

Lights Out

Pumpkin Mouth Eye See You!

Pumpkin Face

Chili for dinner, topped with the quarter of a perfectly ripe avocado.

Chili Dinner

Do not eat this dinner and then sit too close to lit pumpkins. You’ve been warned.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


No Run, No Guilt

October 22nd, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (12 Comments)

It’s been a little warmer these past few days, so I planned to run outside this morning. Unfortunately by the time it was light out and I had my act in gear, Zak had to put the kibosh on my run to leave something called work.

Fine, I guess you can go to work.

What to do – what to do? Leave sleeping children unattended or find something to do at home? OK, OK get out the yoga mat.

45 minutes of gentle hatha yoga and what was supposed to be 20 minutes of sun salutations turned 5 minutes due to a couple interruptions and then derailed altogether by a growling stomach.

For breakfast today I dove head first into to the fridge to fetch the Apple Cinnamon Cereal from yesterday!

Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal

This cereal is just amazing, and I still can’t get over how simple it was to make! I’ve probably got 2 or 3 servings left and I’m already plotting to make more.

Today I started with a layer of sliced bananas in the bottom of the bowl, topped with cereal and then the rest of the banana on top. I thought this might make a nice pic but those bananas underneath were completely obscured by cereal and hemp milk. Oh well, I tried. But rest easy my friends, I was easily able to uncover those buried bananas with my spoon and shovel them straight into the cereal hole in my head – they didn’t stand a chance.

With bananas

I’m getting better at not feeling guilty if I don’t get cardio in every single day. I’ve come to understand that at the end of the day, weight loss and weight maintenance really comes down to your diet. Exercise is of course important, but I’ve always been active and exercised regularly and still struggled to reach my healthy weight for years and years.

Running gets tricky for me this time of year when the days get shorter. But if I’m mindful of how big my servings are and stop eating when I’m no longer hungry, I can eat what I enjoy and still maintain my weight even if I miss a work out now and then. It’s not always easy and I definitely don’t get it right all the time. I have to remind myself to keep my portions reasonable and stop to ask myself if I’m truly hungry when I feel the urge to go back seconds. When I get it right I don’t have to panic when I’m not able to run one day or can’t get to the gym as planned.

No run today? No sweat. I’ll run AND sweat tomorrow.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


Mama Appleseed

October 21st, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Healthy Habits - (12 Comments)

Today’s homeschooling activity du jour? Apple picking!

We met up with some homeschooling friends at an apple orchard today to enjoy the blast of warm air we’ve had and to do a classic upstate NY fall activity – slip on rotting apples and sit on pumpkins.

Kids! Running!

Kids.  Running.

All the varieties available for picking – some of which I’d never even heard of. Topaz, Fortune, Northern Spy? Come on, you’re just making these up.

Tons'O Apples

On our way to pick some Crispins, Mama Appleseed’s fav!

Crispins!

Apples on Tree

I hope you’re gonna pay for that, kid.

I Hope You're Gonna Pay for That

New header anyone?

Apple Pickin'

And of course no visit to the apple orchard would be complete without tripping through a pumpkin patch.

Pumpkin Pickin' Too

Mmmm I want pumpkin soup.

Thoughtful Ava

Apples picked, pumpkins sat – back to apple headquarters we go.

Apple Store

On the scale! Please note the cookies to the left of the scale and imagine that case holding two less cookies after this picture was taken. A yellow frosting with sprinkles and an M&M cookie to be exact. One guess on who got the M&M cookie.

On the Scale

Just a mere 11 1/2 lbs of apples – give me 3 days.

11 and a half pounds

Dinner tonight was thrown together and made me realize two things:

1. It’s time to grocery shop
2. I really need to get better at meal planning

I made do with what I had on hand. A pile of steamed broccoli with parm and a hummus/veggie wrap in a whole wheat tortilla. It made the hunger pangs go away – good enough.

Hummus Wrap

Thank you all for the congrats on the new house – I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we’re buying a new house and will be moving in a month and a half.

Wait. Who? Us? We’re moving? When?!

This just went so fast! We’ve talked about moving from the suburbs to a city neighborhood for a few years now, I’m excited we’re really doing it! But I think I’m in disbelief too. I keep looking around thinking “we don’t have that much stuff… this won’t be so bad.”

Maybe disbelief isn’t the right word. Denial might be more accurate.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


My Boyfriend’s Back

October 21st, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Good Reads - (26 Comments)

It’s been a while since I’ve written on and on about Brendan Brazier, hasn’t it? Well, my boyfriend’s back and you’re gonna be in trouble.

I’m not sure how I feel about referring to Brendan as my boyfriend in one sentence followed by a photo of a knife pointed in his general direction a moment later. Someone cue the Psycho music.

Chopped Apples

Today I put together another Thrive inspired breakfast based on Brendan’s Toasted Apple Cinnamon Cereal recipe.

I pre-heated the oven to 250 and then proceeded to dice up one apple and tossed it into a bowl with a cup of oats, a half cup each of sliced almonds, ground flax seed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and hemp seeds. I added a little cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and stirred until well combined.

In a separate bowl I combined 1/4 c of canola oil and a 1/4 c of agave nectar. My version varies slightly from Brendan’s because I made due with what I had on hand. (His calls for hemp oil and molasses.)

In the Bowl

Wet and dry ingredients mixed well, onto a coconut oiled cookie sheet it went!

Cereal on Cookie Sheet

Baked Cereal

Baked for one hour, makes 5 servings and keeps in the refrigerator for two weeks.

Speaking of Brendan, he sent me a care package yesterday! Well, it wasn’t from Brendan himself, but I like to pretend it was.

Whole Food Bars

Kelly from Sequel Naturals contacted me about reviewing some of his products from the Vega product line. How could I possibly say no? Well – I couldn’t.

Oh! There’s the oven timer! Breakfast is served!

Real Cereal

Ava was standing next to me when I took this picture and she said “wow mom, that looks like real cereal!”

I LOVED this! Especially fresh out of the oven. The apples were warm and soft, all the oats and seeds gave it the perfect crunch.

It may look like “real cereal”, but it tastes even better! And I wasn’t left wanting to dive back onto the cookie sheet for more – more – MORE. I call this cereal success!


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


After having pumpkin soup at a restaurant last Friday, I’ve had pumpkin soup on the brain. Water on the knee – pumpkin soup on the brain, it’s a real medical condition I swear. Needless to say, I’ve been on the look out for the perfect pumpkin soup recipe to try my hand at it at home.

Bernie shared a pumpkin soup recipe last week, and I stumbled upon a few others that looked great and helped get the wheels in my head turning.

Most of the recipes I found had some sort of milk. I didn’t want to use dairy, and I saw some recipes that called for soy milk but I’m a little turned off by the way soy milk can curdle – not to mention that I prefer to limit the amount of our processed soy in our diets. But coconut milk? Now that’s something I’ll happily throw in the pot.

After browsing enough pumpkin soup recipes to write a pumpkin soup cook book, I came up with just one.

I like to call this They Accepted Our Offer Pumpkin Soup!!!! Or maybe Curried Thai Pumpkin would be more widely accepted? Oh well, who cares. We’re buying a new house! That’s all that matters! And oh yeah, I’m finally eating pumpkin soup again, that matters too!

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 cup mushrooms, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 15 oz cans solid pack pumpkin (cooking your own pie pumpkin would be better – but yeah, not tonight)
1 15 oz can coconut milk (I used lite)
1 – 2 cups water or vegetable broth
1 cup of uncooked quinoa, rinsed and drained
1 Tbsp curry powder (more or less to taste)
1 Tbsp cumin (more or less to taste)
S&P to taste

In extra virgin olive oil, saute onions and mushrooms until soft.

Pumpkin Soup Prep

Add pumpkin, coconut milk, water/broth and beans and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer, add quinoa, spices and salt to taste. Cook on low for about 20 minutes.

I used lite coconut milk – it was plenty thick and creamy, and the calorie savings was significant! I usually steer clear of the “lite” version of anything, as it usually has additives that make it taste better having been stripped of fat, sugar, etc. The only other ingredient in the lite coconut milk vs. the regular coconut milk was water, so I went with the 75 less calories per two oz serving!

Coconut Milk

Served with a piece of Ezekiel toast.

Pumpkin Thai Soup

This made a ton of soup, probably 10 servings? We’ll be eating pumpkin soup until we close on our new house in December and that’s alright with me!


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.


Warm Fruit Cereal

October 20th, 2009 | Posted by Alison Spath in Breakfast - (18 Comments)

Thanks to a surprisingly warm morning, I rode my bike to the gym today.

5 minutes ride there + 10 minute elliptical + 30 minute treadmill + 14 minute long-way ride home = an hour work out that only felt like 40 minutes. That’s just the way I like it.

Juice that is the same color as my counter top is the way I like it too. Aren’t hidden pictures fun?

Hidden Pictures

Zak made juice while I was at the gym and was waiting for me to return. I haven’t made juice in a few days and I guess he had to take matters into his own hands. Oh good! Make me some too while you’re at it!

When I asked him what went into it he said “The Usual”. Apparently that means romaine lettuce, carrots, beets, apple, lemon and ginger.

A real breakfast conundrum this morning: I don’t want oats but I wanted something warm. Fruit cereal sounds good but of course – it’s cold, not warm.

Hmmm… think, think, think…

How about warm fruit cereal? Why I think I just might!

A peeled, sliced gala apple simmer in unsweetened vanilla hemp milk for about 10 minutes to soften up.

Apples Cooking in Hemp Milk

After the apples were soft I added diced banana and cooked for about 3 or 4 more minutes.

Remove from heat, stirred in about a half cup of ground flax seed and poured the whole warm fruity glop into a bowl and topped it with a small handful of sliced almonds.

Warm Fruit Cereal

Warm fruit cereal? Fall breakfast of champions!

Close Up Warm Fruit Cereal

This is still a conundrum though because the point of fruit cereal is two fold:

1. It’s mostly raw (would be all raw but hemp milk isn’t raw)
2. It’s gluten free

So warm fruit cereal furiously scribbles out point number 1 like a toddler writing on your walls with a sharpie, but oh well. It was worth it.


Please know that links to Amazon are affiliate links. It doesn’t change the price you pay, but if you buy something from Amazon after following one of the links in my posts, I earn a percentage based commission from Amazon as a part of their affiliate program. This is one of the ways I generate revenue from the posts that I write here. I promise that I only link to items that I truly endorse. You don’t ever have to buy anything, but if you do, thank you for supporting the site and the work I do here.