Welcome, Dawn!!

The title, "Welcome, Dawn!!" sounds like new beginnings, a new day, right?  It also expresses my happiness at introducing my very good friend Dawn to this blog.  She has recently adopted the Nutritarian style of eating and  I asked her if she would help with the blog.  She's a great cook and artist so we intend to have fun with this!

Dawn was visiting this weekend and our breakfast this morning was a simple combination of bulgur wheat and quinoa cooked in a rice cooker together.  I chopped up an apple and heated it up with some fresh (or frozen) whole cranberries and a pinch of fresh grated nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar.  This made a great topping for the grains.  Next time I'll probably add walnut pieces and almond milk.  Yummy and quick!

Cranberry Apple cereal topping

         Tip:  make more grains than you need for one meal and use the leftovers for another.  Save 15-20 min.

Silk Surprise

It's my day off.  I didn't want the same old hurried oatmeal or tea and toast I have on many work days.  I wanted a smoothie for breakfast and I was thinking decadent but nutritarian.  This is what I ended up with:

Combine in a blender:

12 oz Lite Chocolate Silk (soy milk)
1/2 c. cooked quinoa
1/2 c. blueberries
1/2 c. ice
I was resigned to eating it whether it was good or not and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was delicious!  I sipped it as I read my emails this morning and fully enjoyed my breakfast.





While I'm on the subject of Silk Lite Chocolate here's a favorite late night treat:  Mexican hot chocolate: 
 Start with Silk Lite chocolate soy milk and add some cinnamon, vanilla, and a tiny bit of cayenne pepper.  Heat in a mug in the microwave.  Yumm.

Did you say GREEN smoothies?

much prettier than my first green smoothie

Ninety nine percent of the people who know me know my favorite food is a chocolate malt.  So when I first heard of green smoothies I said, Nope.  Can't do this.  But I had two bags of fresh baby spinach in my fridge and was packing to go out of town for a long weekend.   Had to use up the spinach.  I put it in the blender with frozen strawberries and blueberries, some flax meal and a little water.  The blueberries must have made it darker because my smoothie was NOT the pretty green you see above.  It was decidedly brown.  In fact it looked so chocolately I added some cocoa powder.  Then of course it was a tad bitter so I added a little honey.  Maybe I reduced the nutrient density of my breakfast with the added honey but what about the antioxidants in the cocoa (fat and sugar free!).  Most importantly, it tasted great!