Creative Breakfasts for Mommie and Baby

It's true: I haven't posted on this blog in *years* and really don't know where I found the time.  
But I do love writing about my adventures in nourishing, delicious cooking!  

I got a question from a dear friend, and enjoyed responding so much, I thought I'd share it here.

Her question was:
Hi, my tiffie!  I would love to get hot, relatively quick breakfast meals for the mornings I go to work ~ steel cut oatmeal is losing its favor with me.  Something where baby Seone [15 months] can easily share with me ~ b/c she is such a big girl now!!  Any ideas?  

Here's what I wrote:

Hi, Arlene! 

I am high as a kite having just learned that Tiff had their baby this morning!!  baby Jude.  <3 br="" nbsp="" style="font-family: Verdana;">
My suggestion for breakfast food is custards!  they are so easy and so versatile.  i make a custard out of eggs, and leftovers.  the variations are endless.  
Just think frittata with a little extra liquid.  
when i make them, i count how many eggs most people usually eat, and add an extra one or two depending on how many servings you want [if cooking for a group ~ add two, if cooking for just a couple ~ add one].  
then add... soup... already cooked veggies... cooked fruits... nuts... i mean, the options really are endless!  the Official ratio for a custard is 1 egg per cup of liquid. but it is really just so flexible.  and if you want it to bake faster, just put it in smaller baking dishes.  so a "typical" custard for me would be.. 8 eggs ~ you can even add extra yolks for nourishment, and 1 pint of leftover soup.  puree with handheld blender ~ or NOT! ~ add 1/2 cup of melted fat of your choice, seasoning, and then bake at 365 until the center is not liquidy, and the top is browned.  you can add cheese on top for extra deliciousness [broil this in the last minutes if you want].  it is really so flexible.  the other day i made a custard with eggs, leftover co-op soup (which had black beans, corn, and bits of bacon, and cream), leftover restaurant grits, and then grated cheese all over the top.  it was soooo good.  everyone (family and friends) marveled.  ;-) 
another favorite is eggs with ... yogurt or cream, sliced-thin apples, and then leftover/precooked oat groats.  cinnamon and a little honey if you like.  chopped nuts are nice in this too, like walnuts or pecans.  it really just goes on and on.  

winter squash puree makes an excellent easy one.  

do you get the idea?  please ask more questions if needed! :-)  


Also, hearty breakfast muffins ~ just add a little extra solid to the custard = you have a muffin! 

my basic ratio is: 
3 eggs
1 yolk
1 cup of small coconut flakes
1/2 cup liquidy something, such as yogurt or banana or applesauce
spices and a 1/4 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda 
1/4 cup melted fat, such as butter/ghee or coconut oil, poured in slowly as you mix


i add a sprinkle of [grassfed] gelatin [here's my source] for extra nourishment, flax seeds, nuts.. 

here is a recipe from some i made and posted on my blog, with a reference to the original recipe, for some examples. 
http://food-a-file.blogspot.com/2011/11/baked-sweet-grain-free-acorn-squash.html

and here's another recipe.  i've been playing with bananas lately, and recently have been adding carob chips and/or carob powder to the mix, and it is just so delicious (don't know if your carob chip source is as good as the one at our co-op, but i hope so!  you could also use chocolate, but don't know if that would sit well with Seoney!) 
http://food-a-file.blogspot.com/2011/07/baked-homey-grain-free-banana-bread.html
I make these for breakfast and don't mind if Anjali [4yo] eats them exclusively all day long; they are just so wholesome, nourishing, and satisfying.  they also hold me over for hours; they are so hearty.  no mid-morning sugar-crashes in sight! 

I hope this helps.  Please let me know if you have questions.  once you get the hang of these, they take just a few minutes to put together ~ which can be done the night before, and baking time.  so, a little longer than oatmeal, but they offer so many options.  <3 nbsp="">

Baked: Sweet Grain-Free Acorn Squash Muffins

It is essential for me that when someone tries something I make, they simply say, "This is good." I don't want them to say, "This is good...considering it's [grain-free] [healthy] [made with liver] [etc.]." So I'm excited to be experimenting with grain-free treats that are simply yummy ~ not conditionally yummy. ;-) It's also important to me not to use specialty ingredients. Real, old-fashioned ingredients that are no longer generally carried at a regular grocery, such as soup bones and liver from grass-fed animals ~ yes; fancy "gluten-free flour" ~ no.

I've been using this grain-free muffin recipe for years now. And I've honed custards (a mix of egg with liquid, such as cream or milk, soup, pureed veggie or fruit, etc.: looks like a post I need to create!) ~ both sweet and savory ~ to a perfection. So now I'm working with this concept: of eggs with different thickenings, essentially, to come up with all kinds of (mildly) sweet, grain-free baked deliciousness. My way of cooking, mind you, is largely "a little of this, a little of that;" I only use rough measurements. And I encourage you to try this method in your own kitchen as much as you dare. It takes practice and a bit of adventure. But if you start with quality ingredients, even if it's not contest-worthy, it'll most likely still taste good. ;-)

So here's a rough recipe I created this morning that turned out yummy. Especially successful because the toddler asked for seconds and thirds! I hope I have the time to share more of these recipes soon.

Sweet Grain-Free Acorn Squash Muffins

makes 9 small muffins

Preheat oven to 375.

3 eggs ~ from a local farm you know and trust

about 1/3 cup leftover baked acorn squash (butternut or pumpkin would work well, too)

1/4 cup flax seeds, ground in a seed/coffee grinder

1/4 tsp organic butter, melted

3-4 medjool dates, pitted and chopped fine (or chopped in a food processor)

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

Extra butter to grease the muffin cups.

Blend all ingredients. I use a hand-held mixer. Pour into well-greased muffin cups. Bake until firm and brown ~ no longer than 30 minutes; probably closer to 20.

These muffins are so moist and satisfying! My 3 year old daughter ate three at one sitting! That's a record-breaker. The flax helps them to stay together and have body, while not being too "flaxy" (read: "crunchy-granola 'healthy'"). And the dates add just enough sweet without creating a sugar high and subsequent crash! These muffins stand on their own, but you know I won't flinch if you melt some butter or cream cheese on top. And I bet a drizzle of raw local honey would be divine!

Involve your children in the process! Kids love to help if we'll let them. And helping ensures they'll like the end product more because they can take pride in it. It might take a few more minutes, and some food might end up on the counter or on the floor. However, an interest in cooking that starts early is a life-skill that is worth the investment. Anjali helped me make these by pouring in the dry ingredients after I measured them. She also quality-checked the dates. ;-)

Baked: Homey Grain-Free Banana Bread

Back before I started keeping this blog, this is the way I kept track of recipes I wanted to remember:

I still like this tactile way of keeping up with cooking, like the way I like hand-written, poetic cookbooks, and don't really find a use for overly scientific, technical cooking directions; cooking is a wholly sensory experience. Writing it down gets even more of your body involved. I also like the cute pictures I always drew to illustrate. ;-)

When I smelled that unmistakable pungent fragrance of very ripe bananas from the bowl on the counter, I felt the rush of a longing: for old-fashioned, classic, comforting banana bread like I ate when I was a kid. I didn't want anything exotic or gourmet; just some moist banana bread with a generous layer of melty gooey cream cheese on top. Of course I would use nutrient-dense ingredients instead of the standard white flour and white sugar, but I wanted my rendition to be as reminiscent as possible to the one I ate on a sunny summer afternoon, spread out on the back porch of Mom's kitchen when I was a kid.

My taste for sweet is so sensitive these days that if you are used to eating Standard American sweetened foods, this might not do it for you. But for me and my family, it was perfect. Moist and just juicy enough, with a delicate texture when warm, and the twang of ripe banana-meets-nutmeg. The thing I also like about this wholesome version is that the egg and butter balance out the sweet-sweet banana so that you (and your children!) don't get the sugar spike and subsequent hangover of a usual sweet treat.

For bioavailability, I soaked the organic almonds overnight beforehand by covering with filtered water with a tablespoon of salt. Then I ground them in a few batches in the spice grinder. There were still some big chunks, but mostly a fine meal.

Homey Grain-Free Banana Bread

preheat oven to 350 and butter a breadloaf baking dish.

2 cups soaked but not toasted almond meal

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

3 pastured eggs from a farm you trust

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup Sucanat/Rapadura

3 overripe bananas, mashed

1/3 cup butter, melted

Mix the first group of ingredients thoroughly. Beat the eggs and mix in the vanilla and Sucanat till combined. Then add the dry to the wet and mix. While stirring, pour the butter in till it's all incorporated. Bake until the center is firm. The outside will get very brown. Let sit for a few minutes before slicing and eat while still warm ~ or toasted ~ with a nice slab of cream cheese on top.

This blog entry is a participant in Food Renegade's Fight Back Friday!

Using Up the CSA Veggies: Sunday Morning Frittata

Frittatas are excellently versatile and hearty for any meal, and are easy to make. Their leftovers also make great cold or re-warmed snacks. I called this a "Sunday Morning Frittata" because it takes a bit of time to prep the veggies, and frittatas have a festive, "Sunday Brunch" kind of presentation. But of course you could prep the veggies and eggs the night before and quickly and easily make a frittata any morning of the week.

I've been making frittatas regularly with our CSA subscription to Riverdog Farm, as they can incorporate so many veggies with delicious results. Just chop up whatever veggies you want to use ~ onions or garlic always make a nice base, plus maybe a starchy vegetable, such as sweet potato, potato, or beet, and then a huge pile of greens ~ so good for you, and cook down to next-to-nothing, so they don't take up a lot of space. Plus eggs, maybe add a seasoning herb, and some cheese on top at the last minute for added flavor and satiety. Voila! A satisfying, rainbow-nutritious meal in a skillet!

Beet, Spring Onion, and Spinach Frittata

pastured lard and/or grassfed butter or ghee for the pan (be good to yourself; be generous with the fats!)

(I also added a spoonful of nitrate-free, pastured bacon grease for flavor)

3 medium-sized beets, sliced

3 egg-sized spring onions, without greens, sliced

a hefty bunch of spinach, chopped, and rinsed well

10 eggs

a generous sploosh of grassfed cream, or grassfed whole milk, or plain whole-milk yogurt

a teaspoon dried dill, or more of freshly snipped dill

sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

yogurt cheese or goat cheese

In a medium-large cast iron skillet, I melted lard and butter on medium-low heat. I sauteed the beets and onions together until they were soft and the onions were sweeeet. I added the spinach and mixed and cooked till they were all wilted. While these were cooking, I mixed the eggs with about 1/4 cup of raw cream (yum!) and salt, pepper, and dill. When the veggies were ready, I positioned them evenly in the skillet, and poured the egg overtop. I turned the heat down to medium, and did nothing else till the egg was set but still runny on top. I turned the broiler on (and shut the bedroom door to prevent the smoke detector from coming on!), and then placed generous dollops of homemade yogurt cheese* all around. Popped it under the broiler for a few minutes until the top was set and browned. This does not take long!

I think frittata is perfect with a side salad and sauerkraut. I served what's left of the Salad Kraut.

*With the consistency of goat cheese, all it takes to make yogurt cheese is just pouring yogurt into a linen/cotton napkin, tying it up with a rubber band, and letting the whey drain into a bowl. I use the whey for fermenting projects ~ like apple butter! Drain for a few minutes, or even overnight, depending on your desired thickness.

Coconut Cornbread

This is my first entry in Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays! Enjoy! : )

..last bite..

Oh.

Fresh out of the oven, this cornbread deserves an ode. It is every bit worthy of art-photography. Even for my devoted WAPF-loving taste, this cornbread ~ fried in both lard and coconut oil ~ feels very rich if not decadent. As much as I wanted to eat the whole pan, I could only eat a piece (..or two..). And that is the beauty of nutrient-dense foods: you can only eat so much of even the most delicious meals because they actually satisfy. You can, of course, make this vegetarian by skipping the lard. But don't skimp on the fat! Add extra coconut oil, or butter.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet in the oven at 450.

Melt in the skillet:

2 tbsp+ lard

2 tbsp+ coconut oil

Dry ingredients:

1 3/4 cup cornflour* ~ half blue, half yellow, just for fun

1 tbsp Sucanat

about a cup unsweetened shredded coconut flakes

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp seasalt

Wet ingredients:

1 cup raw whole milk

1 cup whole yogurt

3 eggs

Whisk the eggs and then combine with the dairy. Pour wet ingredients into dry and blend thoroughly. Pour batter into hot hot skillet ~ it will sizzle as it makes contact with the hot fat! Be prepared! Bake till golden, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean ~ maybe 20 minutes.

This cornbread is so rich, you might not even need to spread it with butter...

But why take the risk? ; )

* I didn't nixtamalize the cornflour for this recipe, but I wanna try it the next time; I finally found some pickling lime in the canning section of Ace Hardware. I think I'd need to reduce the liquid slightly after nixtamalizing.

Strawberry Clafoutis

When we got back from vacation, the strawberries were weighing down their stems. Huge, red, fragrant strawberries calling out to me from across the garden. There were enough ripe for me to pick six of them right then, and still leave many to ripen to perfection on the stems. Heart-pumping, for this amateur gardener! Though they were luscious enough to eat immediately, I actually had enough to make a recipe!

With the Nourished Kitchen's Blueberry Clafoutis fresh in my web-browsing memory, I headed to the kitchen.

Don't let the French name intimidate you. This is a very simple custard that is so easy to make. It seems like a treat or even a dessert, but with the cream and eggs, it's nourishing enough to be a filling breakfast (though very difficult to share... ;-). Drizzle with a little extra cream, or, to take it the next level ~ brunch with friends or dessert, pile fresh-whipped cream on top.

Strawberry Clafoutis ~ for 2 or 3

(using strawberries and eggs from our own backyard. that feels really cool. :-)

With ingredients like these, how can you go wrong?!

Preheat oven to 350.

Grease a baking dish or pie pan with lots of butter.

Arrange artfully in the dish:

about 2 cups ripe strawberries, halved, then sliced

Whisk together:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

whole milk to thin the batter, as needed ~ it should be like crepe batter: thin.

3 pastured eggs

1/3 cup sprouted spelt flour

1 tbsp arrowroot powder

2-3 tbsp sucanat

1/4 tsp seasalt

1/2 tsp vanilla

Pour to cover strawberries.

Bake till golden and crisp around the edge, firm in the center ~ how long depends on the size of the dish; ours took about 30 minutes.

Devour.

(I rarely include photos of finished foods. A) because I am busy eating, and B) because I don't like how the photos usually come out. This one is passable; I like the arrangement of the strawberry slices most.)

Organic dairy is recommended;

from a local, small dairy's better;

raw is best! :-)

Wholesome Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love chocolate chip cookies. And what's more satisfying and comforting than homemade cookies fresh out of the oven? I'm not sure. After I bake a few to eat, I scoop the rest out onto parchment-lined cookie sheets. Then I freeze them, and store the frozen cookie dough blobs in a ziplock bag in the freezer to have just a few at a time whenever I want. Since I haven't eaten sugar in such a long time, it doesn't take much to get my fix. Understandably, Anjali loves cookies, too, so I have been adding the chocolate to individual cookies (for me) right before bake time so that she can have some chocolate-free. Come to think of it, she would probably love the addition of a few raisins in hers! Baking small frozen cookie dough blobs takes hardly any more minutes to bake than room-temperature dough. But, oh! How gratifying!

Here is my more wholesome version of the Joy of Cooking's "Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie" recipe.

Whisk together dry ingredients:

1 cup sprouted spelt flour (or bulgar wheat, freshly ground!)*

1/2 tsp baking soda

Blend till fluffy:

1 stick softened butter

1/2 cup (or more, to taste; remember: I don't like food very sweet) Sucanat or Rapadura sugar**

Add, and blend till well combined:

1 pasture-raised egg

1/2 tsp seasalt

1 tsp vanilla

Add, in increments, dry to wet ingredients.

Drop by the spoonful onto a greased, or parchment lined, cookie sheet.

Press into each cookie dough blob right before baking

(or after a few minutes in the oven, if the cookie dough blobs are frozen):

1/2 square (or more) high quality chocolate per cookie, chopped into pieces ~ right now for cookies I love Alter Eco's Dark Chocolate Velvet, with its "delicate touch of milk"

Bake at 375 until golden ~ soft in the middle and a little crisp around the edges.

Perfect.

Yum!

*Even whole grain flours are not nutritiously sound unless they have been soaked overnight with an acid (like vinegar or whey), sprouted, or soured, as in sourdough. Taking the grain through these processes mimics germination. This activates the seed to release its nutrients and de-activates its anti-nutrients, called phytates. When eaten, phytates can spark or exacerbate digestive problems, reactions and sensitivities, and actually pull nutrients out of the body to process the grain. (Scientific details about that here.)

Sprouted flour is really nice to work with ~ it's light and fluffy, not heavy and sawdusty like some whole grain flours, and works well when converting many regular recipes to healthier versions. It doesn't compromise texture. It can be found online, but is rather pricey (though not bad if used only for the occasional cookie or biscuit recipe; for other things, like breads, just soak non-sprouted flour overnight). I use spelt instead of wheat much of the time for health reasons since it doesn't have as much gluten. For cookies and biscuits it doesn't seem to matter. But fortunately, if you don't already have sprouted flour in your freezer, bulgar wheat ~ used to make tabbouleh ~ is sprouted, too. And you can find it at most natural food stores; grind it at home for this recipe using a good coffee grinder (or grain mill or high-quality blender).

**These sweeteners are cane sugar with the natural minerals left intact (Rapadura is a brand name), making the occasional sweet treat more nutrient dense.

As always, I recommend organic ingredients. If you can buy them from people you know and trust, all the better!

Illustrated

If this goes through: I did it! I emailed a photo to my blog, using my
phone. Crossing fingers before hitting Send...

What We Ate (while you were on a date)

Dear Austin,
I had a craving and made late-night Jali-won't-sleep muffins! And she helped! We had a blast. I threw them together as quickly as possible to ensure I actually got to eat one before Little Person made it obvious that bedtime had come! We finally trotted up to bed (with a second muffin in fist) at 9:45. Whew!

Ingredients: 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (thought it was sprouted, but it's not - oops!), about 1/4 cup leftover, already-cooked steel-cut oats, 3 eggs, 1/4 cup yogurt, 1.5 tsp baking pdr, cinnamon, nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt, vanilla, sesame seeds (with extra that Jali added when I turned around! Heehee ), and 2 slices chopped up frozen apple, a forkful of honey, oh and a stick of butter! They are tasty. I wanna experiment with using just the leftover oats with eggs.

Jali does quality control before I slide them in the oven.

Red Flannel Hash of Sorts

Another winner!

Enough for 5-6 for breakfast.

2 large red potatoes, cubed

1 large onion, chopped

2 large beets, cubed

1 large carrot, chopped to match the size of the other veggies

butter

olive oil

thyme

5 breakfast sausage links, cut into little pieces, then browned

8 eggs ~ scrambled

sea salt and pepper, to taste

(optional: leftover sauteed greens ~ beet or otherwise, reheated )

Roast the first set of ingredients in a covered baking dish at 400 till soft. I took the lid off for the last 15 minutes.

I reheated the leftover greens with the sausage in its final minutes of cooking.

Then I layered the egg, and sausage mixture on top of the roasted veggies. I highly recommend doing the chopping and cubing the night before. That makes it much easier and quicker in the morning (I'll try to remember that next time!). Colorful, hearty, and flavorful.

muffins!

Fresh-baked muffins make me all warmy inside. They feel like home and like family. To me, muffins are a breakfast comfort food equivalent to the dinnertime bowl of macaroni and cheese. They feel like someone who loves me wrapped me in a cozy soft blanket and a big hug. A muffin straight from the oven is like a little gift I get to open up and savour. With butter!

This morning I made myself muffins. I used the recipe that one of our dear teachers in the Bauman Natural Chef program shared with us years ago. These muffins ~ although delicate and light in texture ~ eat more like a meal than a snack. They are wholesome, nourishing, and grain-free. And unlike their sugar- and white flour-laden commercial counterparts, are actually a perfect solid start to a productive morning.

The recipe is quite versatile and open to add-ins. This is the way I made it today:

Lizette's Breakfast Muffins

Preheat the oven to 350.

1 cup raw almonds*, soaked overnight**, then chopped finely in a food processor or blender

1/4 cup butter, melted

3 eggs

1/4 cup yogurt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients. Pour batter to fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake until golden.

Smear with more butter, and jam, as they're hot from the oven.

Additions, substitutions: you can use coconut oil in place of the butter, applesauce or ripe banana in place of the yogurt (though without the yogurt, I'm wondering if you'd need to add 1/2 tsp of baking powder. . ), and you can add just about anything you would to a normal muffin ~ chocolate or carob chips, frozen berries, a dash of cinnamon or nutmeg, dried coconut flakes. . yum!

*It is important to buy organic almonds. Since last year, all almonds ~ *except* for ones you buy directly from the farmer, at the farmers' market, for instance ~ must be either irradiated, fumigated, or pasteurized. Organic laws ensure that almonds will only be pasteurized (heated) instead of undergoing the other toxic manipulations. But organic almonds you buy in the store are no longer raw ~ as in, you couldn't plant them and grow a new plant, no matter what they say on the bin. (bummer!!)

**Almonds, like all seeds including nuts, grains, and beans, have their nutrients locked away so that they can be deposited in the ground and make new plants. In order to make their nutrients available to us, and to neutralize inhibitors that protect the seed and challenge our digestion and nutrition, we must mimic the germination process for these seeds. This means giving them a warmish, moist, slightly acidic environment like they would experience if they were placed in soil. It's easy to do, but takes a moment of pre-planning. For nuts ~ cover raw, organic nuts in filtered water with a little salt and let them sit out on the counter overnight. In the morning, you can either use them still soft like I did for this recipe, or dry them in a dehydrator or oven on a very low temp until crispy.