Breakfast for Two

Breakfast is one of the best meals, it can really make your day - or break it! Maybe it should be called 'makefest' instead of breakfast, anyways, hopefully this inspires you, as breakfast doesn't need to be the typical greasefest of bacon, eggs, sausage, hash browns, toast with butter, which would make me feel like yuck all day!

- Crock pot full of barley, black eyed peas, potatoes, onion, fennel seed, black pepper and bay leaves

- Steamed beets with onion and kale, with a mint, parsley, lime, and hemp oil dressing

- Sweetless granola made with toasted almonds, oat flakes, orange juice, cardamom, green stevia, flax oil (pour on after) and blueberries

- Sharla's bloobie pancakes made with whole rye flour, goat milk and oat bran

- Homemade almond milk, sauerkraut, goat kefir, oatgurt, mint/catnip tea

- Blueberries, orange slices and sliced tomatoes from my garden!

YUM!

Sourdough pancakes for champions

What to do with your excess sourdough starter? It is really important to keep your sourdough starter going, if you like that kinda thing, but what do you do when you get too much!? Pancakes!!! Requiring a REALLY healthy, super bubbly starter (and thick like a pancake batter, not watery), sourdough starter will cook up a beautiful pancake if your starter is just right. Make sure your starter actually RISES in the container you're keeping it - which means it's thick enough, and bubbly enough.

Grease a pan up with a little butter or your preferred fat, and when hot (but not too hot, just hot enough that a drop of water from your finger hisses nicely, not angrily) pour out a little cake of batter and swirl the pan so it gets as thin as possible. Cook it well on both sides, and that's it!! If it's a little rare on the inside, don't worry, the grain is already fermented, which means that is nearly pre-digested anyways!! These pancakes do require a bit more time to cook though, so it is better to cook on medium-low heat, and have each one sit for about 5 minutes.

Serve up with granola, or your preferred toppings.

Probably the healthiest granola recipe ever..

Granola is so yummy, and a nice transitional food for the accustomed morning cereal eater, as it is a food that can be prepared simply and eaten with milk. However, the downside of granola, is that it is often made with refined oils, concentrated sweeteners, rancid nuts and seeds, hot spices, and generally just kinda heavy, greasy and overly sweet. What is the solution? Make your OWN with good ingredients! Here's how I do mine:

- DRY pan toast some almonds and pumpkin seeds until aromatic (do NOT burn!)

- Add some oat flakes and stir quickly - not too much toasting time for these guys. If they are over-heated, it will not be good for your liver or heat condition, and generally not recommended.

- Chop in some fruit, like apple slices, or stir in some blueberries. The fruit may sweat and add moisture to the dish, but if it doesn't, add a TINY bit of water, or better yet, a little bit of orange juice (fresh squeezed is best).

- I usually stop cooking at this point, even before the fruit usually, and put it into a bowl, however you can add spices and continue baking it for a little time to make it more warming.

- Add spices like cardamom, green stevia, nutmeg, etc, but cinnamon tends to be too hot, and if eaten before bed can cause things like night sweats, or worsen inflammation, etc.

- I put the warm granola into my bowl, (this is where I add the OJ, fruit and spices actually), and then pour over a little flax or hemp oil to give it some richness and greasiness.

- I was a little extra hungry, so I broke up some brown rice cake into as well and stirred it.

- I was also gifted a little dark chocolate, so I chopped that up and stirred it in as well too!

- Since I make my own goat kefir, which is really my only animal product, I topped it off with that, or I might add a little homemade almond milk with it as well.

NO sweeteners, refined or cooked oils, no salt, no flours, no junky nuts, and all fresh! YUM!

Cooking for one... pot!

I LOVE one-pot meals. Really, there's nothing more satisfying then the coming together of flavours in one dish, which really, makes digesting quite easy. Consider the pot acting as your stomach, working out all the chemical differences, so that by the time you eat it, it is chemically like 'one food'! Oh yes - the finest of food combining - cook it all together!

I cook things in order from slowest to fastest, obviously. So this is how I might cook myself a one-potter:

- Put a little water in the bottom of the pot and bring to boil, or at least hot

- Add spices to infuse like a tea... such as cumin, fennel, mustard, bl. pepper (my favs)

- Add pungent vegetables like onions, leeks, garlic, etc. I think I used ginger and leek here

- Add hearty root veggies, like potato, carrot or beet. I think I only used carrot in this dish

- When roots are soft, add other veg like zucchini, which is what I did here

- I tossed in some nuts and seeds as well - which soaks and cooks them a little, which is good

- From here, you can add more water and add some grain, as I did with quinoa! Cover and cook until grains are soft, for quinoa - about 15 minutes. I threw in some brown rice pasta because I was having a party for myself that night, and pasta is pretty fun.

- Add herbs at the end, like thyme or whatever else. I added my fresh ones at the very end though

- Serve a dishfull, and that stir in some leafy greens like kale, and they'll cook in just the heat of the food.

- Prepare a small dressing/sauce, or simply just pour over a little flax/hemp oil, apple cider vinegar, or whatever inspires you.

- Add fresh chopped herbs, like basil, parsley, chives, or whatever ya got!

This is pretty elaborate, but my entire meal came from one dish! It made enough for two servings, and I had just ONE POT to clean up! Isn't it amazing.. ONE POT!! :)

Spicy Summer Salad

This was a preferred breakfast, lunch or dinner for me when I felt the urge to eat something crunchy, cool, and raw in the heat of summer. However, I don't really like the watery, overly moistening and cooling effects of just regular leafy greens, especially ice berg lettuce, but I found these amazing 'spicy greens' from the Organic Oasis near my home that contains a mix of mustard greens, and other little pungent-bitters that appeal to me much more than the watery-crisp block of ice that normal grocery lettuce is.

To add some substance and richness to my salads, I always add pumpkin seeds (usually hand pan-toasted), or almonds, and then added some cut apple, and then a few fresh things from my garden such as tomato, basil, parsley, shiso, and then add a dressing made up of flax oil, garlic, apple cider vinegar and a little miso. I sprinkle on a little dulse too, if I'm in the mood for it. I usually have something heartier with this as well, like a cooked veg or grain, but sometimes just the freshness of a simple salad, especially with the rising sun, is all that I need to make me grin and feel centered.