Breakfete Breakfast

While some of us want to move from a fete season to a fast season at the beginning the year, we suggest something in the middle... a truce for the fight between our mind and body from all that deliciousness of the holiday season. What better way to start not just the year but your everyday, than with the king of meals - The Breakfast. A healthy breakfast with a concession might help some of us get back to walking, if not running, to a wonderful start. So we bring all our favorite breakfasts that is helping us tide over to the other side.

1. Egg Lovers Delight - Frittatas are a favorite in our home. It’s got everything from protein to veggies to carb in it, and so many different ways to make it. Here is one of them:

Ingredients

◻ 1-2 tbsp butter

◻ 10-12 eggs

◻ ½ onion

◻ ¼ cup green or black olives

◻ 1 green pepper

◻ 2-3 whole roasted pepper (jar)

◻ 1 steamed/baked potato

◻ ¼ cup grated cheddar or pepper jack

◻ 1-2 cup spinach/kale or any other green

◻ 1 cup cooked bacon/chicken/salmon

◻ ¼ cup grated parmesan

◻ Salt & pepper

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F and in a large oven-proof skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add thinly sliced onions and cook for few minutes, stirring frequently, until the onions are soft and golden brown. You can now add the thinly sliced green pepper and sauté it too until it becomes soft

2. Add diced potato, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stir to cook with the onion and pepper for a couple of minutes. After that add your greens - kale/spinach and stir to cook about 1 minute. Finally, add the roasted red peppers and olives and stir until everything is hot.

3. Meanwhile lightly beat together the eggs with the salt and pepper, mix until the eggs mostly come together. Optional - Add your choice of meat or fish into the hot mixture and mix it in well and let sit for about a min. Make sure all the ingredients are evenly distributed across the bottom of the skillet.

4. Now pour in the egg mixture so that it evenly coats everything. Top the grated cheese like you would on top of a pizza. I prefer this method to mixing it with the eggs because you can evenly distributed it as a thin layer on top and also reduce cheese usage. Let it sit on the stove for a min to set the edges, then put the skillet in the oven.

5. Watch the frittata as it cooks. Let it cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the eggs are set but remove it before the eggs brown very much on top. Slide the frittata out of the skillet and onto a cutting board. With a long knife, slice it into wedges like a pizza and serve warm.

NOTE: You can use any ingredients you want! Mushrooms, leeks, different cheeses, tomatoes, zucchini, squash. It tastes the best with garlic bread but if you want to stick to healthy have some fruits instead... So go on, enjoy your fruitatta!

2. Solid Start - For those who don't feel like purely solid meals cut it we have the smoothie/smoothie bowl.

Breakfast smoothie/ Breakfast oat bowl

Ingredients

◻ 1 cup oats (soaked overnight for smoothie)

◻ Handful of berries (strawberry/blueberry/or whatever is seasonal and locally available)

◻ 1 banana (fresh if making breakfast oat bowl, and frozen if making smoothie)

◻ ½ cup (or more depending on the consistency you prefer) Milk of your choice (almond milk/soy milk/oat milk/skimmed milk/etc)

◻ Chia seeds

◻ Dark chocolate shavings, nuts (almonds/walnuts/etc) for garnishing (for oat bowl)

Preparation (smoothie)

1. Leave 1 cup of oats to soak over night.

2. In the morning, blend all the ingredients together, pour into a smoothie jar, and enjoy!

Preparation (oat bowl)

1. Cook oats with milk on the stove top as you would normally. Allow it to cool. Pour into a bowl.

2. Top it with chopped fruits, nuts, seeds and dark chocolate as shown in the image above. The toppings leave a lot of room for personal preferences and creativity. So don't limit yourselves to these ingredients, choose your favorites!

3. Enjoy!

3. Bread is life - Some of us just can't do without something bready to start our day.

So take your pick from sprouted whole grain, sourdough, rye bread, oat bread, flax bread etc. Once you choose that the next step is to decide what are you in a mood for - savory or sweet?

We have some options right here for you, let take it step by step

◻ Choose Bread: Oat/Rye/Flax/SourD/SproutG

◻ Choose Base: Yogurt/Almond Butter/Cottage Cheese/Hummus/Avocado

◻ Choose Topping: Strawberry/Banana/Blueberry/ Raspberry/Cucumber/Tomato/Egg

◻ Choose Seasoning: Salt/Pepper/Chili Flakes

These are just few of the options that are so easy to put together since we may find so many of these items a staple at our homes. We have listed these but sky is the limit when you want to try different variations of the above.

Here is a sample for each day of the week:

1. Avocado (with lemon juice + parsley), Egg, Salt & Pepper

2. Yogurt & Strawberry

3. Almond butter & Banana

4. Cottage Cheese & Blueberry

5. Hummus, Tomato, Salt & Pepper

6. Yogurt & Raspberry

7. Hummus, Cucumber, Salt & Pepper

Such a delight to look at, don't you agree?

4. Indian in US - I would like to think of the dosa as our version of a pancake. This Carrot Oats dosa takes less than 5 minutes to make and is power packed in nutrition. This is my mom’s version of getting the kids to eat healthy in the morning and I am so excited that I get to share it with all of you.

Ingredients:

◻ ¾ cups oats ◻ ¼ cup rice powder

◻ ½ tsp cumin ◻ ½ tsp ginger(grated/crushed)

◻ ¼ cup yogurt ◻ ½ cup + ¼ cup water

◻ ½ carrot(roughly chopped) ◻ Coriander

◻ Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Add all the ingredients save the ¼ cup of water to the blender. Blend it until you get a smooth batter. pour the batter into a bowl, add the remaining ¼ cup of water into the blender and pour into batter.

2. Heat the non stick pan. Add ½ tsp oil and spread evenly with a brush. Add the batter and spread it smoothly just like you would with the usual dosa batter.

3. Add ½ tsp of oil around the edges of the dosa and allow to cook for 2-3 minutes until browned on one side. Flip and cook on the other side for another minute.

4. Serve it with your favorite chutney. I like it with my mint chutney.

5. On the move - If you are always on the move, or some mornings you feel the mastication process requires too much effort we always have the chia pudding to get us up and running. This one is also perfect for some among us who wouldn’t mind a dessert for breakfast. It doubles as both and tastes just as indulgent. These seeds are rich in antioxidants, omega 3’s and calcium.

Ingredients:

◻ ½ cup milk

◻ 2 tbsp chia seeds

◻ 1 ½ tbsp maple syrup/honey

◻ ½ tsp vanilla essence

Berry options:

◻ Mixed berries

◻ Blueberry pudding: ¼ cup blueberries, lemon zest

◻ Strawberries & cream pudding: 4-5 strawberries, 1 tbsp Greek yogurt

Preparation:

1. The base for any chia pudding is the same. Take ½ a cup of milk, add 2 tbsp chia seeds and mix it into the milk for a minute with a fork until well combined with no lumps. Stir in the maple syrup and vanilla essence to get the perfect base. Cover and keep for a minimum of 2 hours or refrigerate overnight.

2. The next step is purely left to your favorite flavors and what you have at home. The most basic preparation would be to add a mix of chopped berries on top.

3. Other alternatives include blending ¼ cup of blueberries, add this puree to the pudding, grate in some lemon zest. Lemon and blueberries go really well with each other.

4. Another alternative would be to mash 3-4 strawberries with a fork, add the mashed puree, sliced strawberries and top off with a tablespoon of Greek yogurt to have your very own strawberries and cream.

And there you have it. A perfect mix of both savory and sweet to cater to all our cravings. Everyone knows that a good and healthy breakfast sets the tone for the rest of the day so lets make that change and get our A game on!

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31