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. ;-)

The Next Level: Grain-Free Banana Bread French Toast over a Campfire

Here I am humming with pleasure at one of my favorite things: cooking outside! We went for an overnight trip to Tahoe to feed our souls before embarking on a huge hunk of busy-ness. Always well worth it. And the food? Always well worth it. Food does taste better outside.

The aspects that a photo can't convey are the heavenly fresh scent of the redwoods and Douglas firs, the rushing of the alpine creek that was directly past this little campsite, the crackling of the fire with its occasional stinging smoke in my eyes as I shuffled the pans. The feeling of cool powdery dirt between my toes. The fact that it's perfectly acceptable to use the lid of a camping pot as a cutting board. The added smells and sounds... the breaking of usual rules. ;-)

We've been quite pleased with the previous Homey Grain-Free Banana Bread recipe. I happened to have most of a loaf to take with us on our camping trip. And then it dawned on me: French toast! Oh, man. We fried (pasture-raised, artificial nitrate- nitrite-free) bacon beforehand, and then fried the French toast in the leftover grease. You know it! I made the batter the usual way; I beat an egg for each person with a pinch of sea salt, and about a teaspoon of organic maple syrup. Then I let the pieces of banana bread ~ about the width of my thumb, 3/4 inch thick? ~ soak in there on both sides. The pan and grease were hot enough that when I put the first piece in, it sizzled on contact ~ how you want the pan when you fry pancakes. Most of the pieces browned and crisped nicely on both sides, one piece got a little more ... charred.. as the fire licked up a bit. All a part of the camping experience, right?! Then we added pats of yellow butter, a drizzle more of the maple syrup, and a generous handful of ripe local blueberries. With the foil of a perfectly crisp piece of bacon, this French toast was divine.

That piece in the middle is mighty dark, but I love the way the blueberries look with this plate. I can smell the campfire from here. :-)

You might be grimacing at such a full-on presentation of fat. There is a lot in this meal. But the beauty of eating nutrient-dense foods is that a little goes a long way. Unlike the fluffy, empty, saturatedly-sweet piles of French toast that most (I think I could actually say all) restaurants offer, after a couple small pieces of this French toast, even a hearty eater like my husband is satisfied and fueled for a long hike in the mountains ~ instead of for a several-hour belly-rub on the couch.

I need to add that a meal that I eat that includes good meat and good fat is never complete without a heaping spoonful of fermented veggie, and hopefully something else fresh ripe and raw. This is where my summer salsa comes in. One of my favorites of the summer season is cherry tomatoes. With ripe cherry tomatoes that burst with sweet sunshine flavor when I bite into them, I can easily pass by the price-inflated slicers (till the end of the season when they're priced to move). And cherry tomatoes are so easy to grow. Whereas slicers take some skill, cherry tomatoes overproduce with abandon. This season my favorite has been Sun Gold. I buy a pint every time I go to the co-op. My other favorite this year is cucumber. I am not finding the Armenian cucumber I loved from the Berkeley farmers' markets, but any that I've tried this season have been good! So I've been halving Sun Golds at every meal, tossing them with another fresh veggie, such as chunks of cucumber, and then I add a few scoops of fresh sauerkraut to the mix. A splash of olive oil sometimes, a sprinkle of sea salt. This is the ideal summer accompaniment to a hearty breakfast. I dare say, a must.

Salsa of Sun Gold cherry tomatoes, cucumber, and cabbage-n-cauliflower sauerkraut smiles in the redwood-filtered morning sunlight.

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!

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.