Easy, Healthy Breakfasts – How to Start the Day Right

We’ve all heard it from our own parents: breakfast is the most important meal of the day. As parents, we have concerns about our children and making sure they are getting what they need to power them through the day, and to maintain their health.

Weston A Price offers the following suggestions for breakfast ideas, along with a description of what makes a good breakfast:

The 4 Rules of a Good Breakfast

Breakfast can be a simple or involved as you like, but there are four rules that should be followed:

1. Fat and protein should be should be the featured nutrients. For most people, a carbohydrate-loaded breakfast based on vegetable juices, fruits, grains, flour, and sugar doesn’t offer enough nutritional bang to get the day off to a good start. Breakfast-candidate foods (preferably produced through non-toxic, pastured-based agriculture) well-endowed with protein and fat, include eggs, meats, fish, full-fat dairy foods such as yogurt or kefir, nuts and seeds, coconut oil, lard, butter and avocados.  Once these fats and proteins are decided on, fruits, vegetables, tubers and whole grains make a wonderful side note.
2. Make at least a portion of breakfast food easily digestible through soaking grains, sour leavening of flours for breads, culturing dairy products, or fermenting fruits and vegetables. In Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon Morell reminds us that, “Almost everywhere in the world, people ate fermented foods on a daily basis. They often ate them for breakfast, no doubt because after a night of sleep, the body needs something that is rapidly and easily digested.”
3. Don’t rush! Get yourself in the habit of going to sleep early enough to allow time in the morning to relax through your morning meal.
4. Plan ahead. Know what you will have tomorrow, whether it is going to be a beautifully laid out fare with flowers and a table cloth or something you throw together in under two minutes

The Incredible, Edible Egg

Protein and fat are essential for breakfast because they are critical for overall brain chemistry balance. And one of the best sources of protein and fat is the egg!

Eggs, laid by sun-bathing, bug-munching chickens, provide an especially brainy breakfast, being the richest source of the nutrient choline. This brain-loving vitamin is a key constituent of cell membranes, giving them flexibiity and structure. It also provies a large portion of two fat-like molecules that acount for a high percentage of the brain’s total mass, meaning choline supports optimal brain function.

Breakfast Options

Keeping to a basic, old-fashioned breakfast menu is fine — eggs (prepared any way: scrambled, poached, boiled, fried, omlet) with a side of sausage or bacon from pastured animals; soaked porridge loaded with butter, coconut oil, nuts, seeds and berries; or French Toast (made with properly prepared sour dough or sprouted bread) served with sausage, butter and a dollop of real maple syrup.

However, there are days when it is fun to step outside of the box, and when that day comes, consider these inspirational ideas:

Breakfast Soup: “For many cultures, soup is a breakfast food. The Japanese begin their day with a bowl of fish broth and rice. French children traditionally consume leftover soup before they start off to school.” Summer Waters. 

Meat and Egg Muffin (Meffins!): The variations for scrumptious morning breakfast muffins are endless with different meats, sausages, vegetables and cheese. Make a big batch and freeze your favorite (see recipe below).

Scrapple or Liverwurst (pâté-like foods made from organ meats): sliced and fried until the outsid is crispy along with scrambled eggs or stuffed in a breakfast burrito.

Fruit and Cheese Sundae: Cottage cheese or ricotta with berries, nuts and seeds piled high in a fun fluted glass

Homemade cold cereal or granola: There are properly prepared recipes below. Serve with cream or cultured dairy product.

Dinner Leftovers: Salmon patties, roast with gravy and fixings, shrimp stir-fry, egg or chicken salad, simple buffalo patties with fixings.

Smoked Salmon: Include with cream cheese or butter.

Creative breakfast or snack recipies for your kids – and the whole family:

 

Coconut Granola

This is great as a snack or breakfast on it’s own; or mix it with yogurt and/or fruit. It’s a variation of a recipe created by Deb Millard.  See recipe in link for crispy nuts.

Ingredients:

• 5 tablespoons soft butter or coconut oil
• 4-5 tablespoons honey
• 3 cups large coconut flakes
• 1 cup halved crispy cashews* (see link for recipe and explanation of crispy nuts)
• 1 cup chopped or ground crispy almonds (*see link, explanation of importance of crispy nuts and recipe)
• 1 to 2 cups halved crispy pecans or crispy walnuts (*see link)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix butter or coconut oil, honey and coconut flakes together in a large bowl. Add crispy nuts and stir togther until well coated.
2. Spread evenly on cookie sheet in one layer. Beware of overcooking!
3. When the granola is golden brown, pull out and allow it to cool completely, which is when it will get crispy.
4. Enjoy!

Strawberry Breakfast Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 1-1/2 cups frozen strawberries
• 1 cup thick yogurt or ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1 avocado

Blend all together in a food processor or blender and serve immediately

Sweet Potato and Bacon

Ingredients:

• Sweet potato
• Nitrate-free bacon

Directions:

1. Cut the potato into bite size chunks
2. Cut bacon strips into thirds (long enough to wrap around the sweet potato)
3. Wrap the pots with bacon. Place a toothpick through it.
4. Place on pan. Bake at 350 degrees, until bacon is cooked and the potato is soft.

Breakfast Bars

Ingredients:

• 1-1/4 cup almond flour (soaked, dehydrated nuts ground into a flour)
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup maple syrup (organic, grade B)
• 1/8 cup filtered water *
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup raisins or dried cranberries
• 2-1/4 cups any combination of pumpkin seeds, chopped almonds or walnuts, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, etc. (soaked and deyhdrated first)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda.
2. Add coconut oil, maple syrup, water, and vanilla.
3. Stir dry ingredients into wet.
4. Mix in the shredded coconut, seeds, and dried fruit.
5. Grease an 8×8 baking dish with coconut oil. Press the dough into the baking dish, wetting your hands with water to help pat the dough down evenly.
6. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Let cool  before cutting; these bars are crumbly. These are very tasty with a dollop of yogurt or créme fraíche.

*Option: for another variation of grain-free granola, leave out the water and prepare as usual. Once the bars have cooled, break into small pieces and place on a baking sheet. Bake at 10-15 minutes, or until crisp and golden. 

Recipe created by Ann Fischer Silva, Clinical Nutritionist

“Meffins”

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. ground, pastured pork (other ground meats work also)
• 12 pastured eggs, beaten.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Approximately 1 cup cheese, shredded or crumbled
• 1 cup cottage cheese
• 1 cup chopped veggies of choice (onion, garlic, peppers, carrots, green onions are all good)
• Herbs and spices of choice (sage, thyme, rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder)

Directions:

1. Grease 12 muffin cups.
2. Brown pork in skillet on medium heat and transfer to bowl.
3. Use the leftover grease to sauté chopped veggies (adding extra fat if necessary; butter, ghee, coconut oil, lard, or tallow).
4. In a large bowl, beat eggs, then add sausage, cottage cheese, sautéed veggies, onion, garlic powder, salt, pepper and other herbs or spices of your choosing.
5. Spoon approximately 1/4 cup of egg/pork/veggie mixture into each muffin cup, sprinkle with cheese and cook between 15-20 minutes, until egg has set.