Putting Breakfast on Auto-Pilot
Auto-Pilot Breakfast
Last week I shared all about our Simple Lunches template. This week I want to help auto-pilot your breakfast routine – whether you have in-home learners or are on the go!
I overhead Chef Tristan (our 2nd grader) exclaiming to his virtual class that he eats vegetables every morning – his breakfast comes from plants (click to see a video)! That sparked a conversation on the way to school with Chef Noah about what foods come from the earth and what foods come from animals. In our house, we rarely have an animal-based breakfast. Yes, we do have backyard pet chickens that are happily supplying us with 3 eggs a day, but we enjoy these for lunch or use in baking. There’s no metabolic reasoning for this – I simply keep breakfast mess contained and quick, and cooking eggs takes more effort than I’m willing to do Monday-Friday. Video here of our morning shake!
Now I’m also a big advocate for adequate protein in the morning, and avoiding excess sugars found in most popular “breakfast foods.” We also intentionally try to go plant-based more often than not, so this is why we choose a vegan protein shake to make for everyone in our family.
Our trusty Vitamix (high-powered blender) provides us a smooth, delicious shake day in and day out! It’s not just a protein powder and liquid – we really “beef it up”… for lack of a better term.
Our breakfast smoothie includes:
unsweetened plant milk (almond, coconut, etc.)
ice
vegan protein powder (pea, rice, hemp) We currently use Orgain from Costco
fresh or frozen fruit (berries, mango, banana)
spinach (lots!)
super food seeds: hemp seeds, flax, chia
cacao nibs, unsweetened coconut flakes
nut butter (optional, adds flavor)
Chef Tristan loves his morning smoothie!
Green goddess flavor!
We mix up the flavors and usually have ingredients on hand for at least 3 mixes through out the week.
Chocolate Monkey (banana + peanut butter)
Mango Oxidant (vanilla powder + mango + turmeric + cumin)
Berry Blast (chocolate or vanilla + mixed berries)
Chocolate Covered Cherry (frozen cherries)
Green Goddess (vanilla powder + mango or banana)
Overnight Oats
Check out my posts and Overnight Oats recipes here!
My view on popular breakfast foods:
Beverages
These are a quick and tricky way to swallow a whole lot of sugar. Let’s explore some common breakfast beverages.
1. Juice: While juice may be seen as “healthier” than a soda, it could very well have just as much sugar in it. Juicing fruits removes the fiber, which arguably, is by design to soften the blow of the sugar load (slowing digestion and absorption, keeping blood sugar stable). Natural fruit sugars can be high, but that does not mean that fruit is unhealthy. Concentrated and manufactured juices have lost the health benefits by processing, including fresh antioxidants, probiotics and phytochemicals from the live plant. Freshly pressing and making your own juices would keep the integrity of the nutrients (but still losing the fiber). In my experience, juicing is a BIG effort and mess – so I don’t do it. We stick to whole foods. Throwing a piece of celery in a Vitamix smoothie is no problem! Pick up a whole apple or orange for a snack – rather than the packaged, nutritionally inert juice bottle.
2. Coffee: Magic Bean Juice. While I don’t have a *problem* with coffee (ahem, I can see your face) – there are a few points that can make the decision to drink or not to drink more informed. One: there’s documented phenomenon that caffeine causes breast cysts. Having personally experienced a recent breast health work-up, I can attest to this. While it may be a “benign” condition I challenge that biological responses such as this are not without consequence. Two: Coffee is easy (too easy) to over-sugar. Have you ever looked at the ingredients in coffee creamers? Yikes… to a lot of things we can’t pronounce. Try dialing it back, going with unsweetened options, fat-based or black! Three: go organic. If coffee is that important to you, make it high quality to reduce pesticide load, and support sustainable agricultural practices. Four: inflammation. If you have chronic inflammation (pain, infections, swelling), you should probably avoid foods that cause a high histamine reaction. It’s like pouring gas on a wildfire. Five: dairy. If you have some nebulous health symptoms and have never tried to eliminate the common allergens such as gluten, dairy, soy and corn – you may want to try one-by-one (or do a complete elimination with slow introduction). Swap to non-dairy. Six: digestion. Many people are aware of the laxative type effect from drinking coffee, but chronic use can actually lead to constipation and reliance on caffeine, creating a vicious cycle. It is also recommended that coffee be avoided by those who suffer from ulcers… and let’s not forget about the millions that suffer from IBS or IBD (irritable bowel syndrome or inflammatory bowel disease). How often is it recommended these patients alter what contents they put IN their digestive tract? …..Please understand me here: I drink coffee. I choose to brew my own organic, freshly ground beans in a French press, and froth unsweetened almond milk, top a dash of cinnamon. Seasonally I’ll buy a sweet almond milk creamer and use it VERY sparingly. On special occasions, my husband and I will go on a coffee date and get something totally crazy from a local coffee shop. It’s all about balance, right?
3. Milk: I alluded to this above, but dairy (cow’s) milk is something I believe most Americans should probably scale back on. Yes, there are some benefits to drinking milk – such as calcium sources, those can also be found in vegetables (leafy greens, nuts). Is it natural to drink the milk of another mammal? I’ve toyed with dairy free lifestyle for years – and often feel much better without. But cheese is delicious. Probably because the proteins trigger an emotional response in the brain… I’m talking GOOD cheese here, not slimy orange semi-liquid drenching everything. That will clog your arteries, people!
Cereals
I’ll keep this short and simple – common cereal grains are over-used and over-produced in the Standard American Diet (SAD). Most packaged, processed foods are constantly trying to convince you that they are good for you – marketing, health claims, flavors, etc. Most are doused in sugar and genetically modified ingredients. Do I think all grains are inherently evil? No. They have sustained human life for centuries. I do think our common agricultural practices have adulterated the source, and it is clear by the rampant health conditions we are dealing with in America. What are cereal grains? Wheat, millet, rice, barley, oats, rye, sorghum and corn. This covers a lot of breakfast foods (bagels to pancakes, grits to cream of wheat). While they do provide sources of fiber, b vitamins and simple carbohydrates, cereal grains have been over-processed, striped of nutrients coupled with sugar 90% of the time.
Bars
What about breakfast bars?
While this isn’t in our typical routine, I will pick up some pre-made bars from KIND BARS when we travel. This is the flavor we love right now! I avoid making breakfast into dessert — avoid the chocolate! Look at the SUGAR content in any packaged items! Ideally, go for more protein than sugar.
Remember…
Kids will follow your lead. If you take a stand against marketed “kid food” – such as cereal, by never introducing it to your kids, they won’t ask for it.
We recently (accidentally) walked down the cereal isle at Costco last week. My kids had NOTHING to say about all the boxes in the isle. They literally do not recognize it, nor do they ask for it.
They understand where food comes from… and it is rarely a machine.
p.s. Check out my blog from a few years ago on Breakfast — eggs, banana pancakes. Love yogurt? Most kids do! Grab some plain, unsweetened yogurt and fresh or frozen fruits and GF granola and make your own! Avoid the pre-packaged hyper-sugar doses!