Crackers and American Cheeze - the Healthier Version

How do you satisfy a craving for a sweet, flavorful cracker with cheese when you can't have gluten (wheat) or dairy?

Cracker ingredients:
1/2 cup shredded coconut, 1/2 cup flax powder, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1 tablespoon tahini, 1 teaspoon spirulina, 1 tablespoon of raisins, 2 small carrots, 1/2 sweet pepper, 1 tbsp cold pressed coconut oil

Cracker recipe:
Process everything in the food processor. Spread onto dehydrator sheets in thin crackers(or oven at the lowest setting) and dehydrate until solid and crackery like consistency.

American cheeze ingredients:
raw macademia nuts, 1 small raw carrot, 2 cloves or more - a lot of garlic for the funkiness, sea salt and a pinch of turmeric

American cheeze recipe:
Process everything in the food processor until it's spreadable.

Top with sprouts or your favorite vegetable.

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Breakfast Makeover: Celebrating Passover with Amazing Breakfasts (Part 3 of 3)

It's getting close to the end of Passover. Tired of matza? How about creating a bread substitute that doesn't taste like matzah but doesn't have any leavening?

Raw cracker sandwich with kale and avocado


Crackers
1 cup Flax seeds
1/2 cup Almonds
1/2 cup Sunflower seeds
1/4 Walnuts
2 tbsp coconut butter
1 carrot
1/4 red pepper
1 tablespoon curry powder

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Spread on a dehydrator tray and dehydrate overnight or 8-10 hours.

Sandwich filling:
Avocado
Tomato
Kale
Cucumber

Add the filling in between 2 flax cracker breads to your taste and pleasure. Munch. Enjoy!

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Breakfast Makeover: Celebrating Passover with Amazing Breakfasts (Part 1 of 3)

I recently received this letter from Karen, who graciously agreed to get a Breakfast Makeover.

I have been on a quest to eat healthier. I just discovered some breakfasts that do keep me full until I am ready for lunch. I dont know if I really paid that kind of attention to my morning appetite. Since Passover is approaching my choices for eating a healthy & fulling breakfast will be significantly diminished.

I wont eat eggs or beans and I am moving away from eating dairy. I am not a particularly "big" meat eater. I will consider tuna as breakfast.

I wont be able to eat any grains (other than store bought matzoh. Will you or have you already written about what you would do during Passover?

Dear Karen, here is my first choice for a Passover breakfast. It makes me sing anytime I create it. Try to make it and see how you feel!

Purple Breakfast Shake



This is a delicious and energizing way to start any day, but especially so on Passover. Eating all that white flour matzoh, you need to keep your blood sugar levels even and this is just the thing.

The flax seeds add the brain boosting omega-3, blueberries provide antioxidants, kale is rich in cancer-protective substances and the almond butter on top serves as a great bonus Rorschach test. Try to figure out what I drew!

What you will need:
10 minutes (5 to prepare, 5 to eat, 5 to wash the blender)
food processor or blender
1 cup kale (I used my favorite purple/red kale)
1 cup blueberries (frozen or fresh)
2-3 tablespoons of flax seeds
1/2 cup or more, almond milk (add as much as you need - less for thick, more for more watery shakes)
2 tbsp of almond butter

Process blueberries, flax, kale, 1 tbsp almond butter and milk in the food processor. Pour out into a cup and sprinkle the rest of almond butter on top. Savor slowly. It's so good.

More amazing Passover breakfasts to come tomorrow!

Do you have any suggestions for Karen in the meantime? Please post in the comments below.

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Purple Kale Wraps: Raw Food is Delicious

I dreamt of this Spring-inspired breakfast on an unusually warm February morning. I miss springtime -- and salty seaweed, fresh sour-sweet tomatoes, smooth avocado and crunchy sprouts inside a kale leaf smell like spring, taste like spring and if I close my eyes I can pretend it is spring.

What you will need:
5 purple kale leaves
1 tomato
1 avocado
dulse and sprouts to taste

Wrap all the ingredients inside a kale leaf. You're done. Quick and easy.

If you are not used to a lot of raw food, especially in the morning, add a healthy salad dressing to the inside of the wrap. I myself love garlicky dressings on these, but not everyone is brave enough to eat garlic in the morning.

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Milky Goodness! Choosing the Right Milk Substitute

Photo by Gwire used under the Creative Commons license

Hitler's breakfast usually consisted of a glass of milk and 2 slices of dry bread. The internets told me.

That is not to say milk is bad because Hitler enjoyed it. I can't blame him for that, afterall... If you've ever tried dipping crispy fresh bread into milk, and biting in, you know what I'm talking about -- the soggy smooth pleasure mushing inside your mouth, the textures and the taste - satisfying milky smooth taste.

But milk can also play havoc on the human body - from digestion, increased cancer risk, to that whole dioxin thing.* And with milk substitutes and the real thing's popularity increasing worldwide, what's the best and healthiest choice for our morning's cereal?

This is Part 1 of 5 of the Breakfast Lab milk series which examines milk substitutes available today.

Part 1: Almond milk
Popular since the Middle Ages, when it was called Almond Mylk, almond milk keeps fresh longer than cow milk, and is a rich source of vitamin E and magnesium, nutrients that are vital to human health.

Good for lactose-intolerant or gluten-intolerant people, for general brain and heart support

Bad for people with nut allergies

Sample Recipe: Spiced Raisin Almond Milk
1 cup ground almonds (please do NOT use bitter almonds.)
3-4 cups water
(if you want to make more, keep a ratio of about 1:3)
soaked raisins
cinnamon, nutmeg, salt if you need it

Grind almonds and raisins in a food processor or a mortar if you want to go medieval. Pour water in the almonds. Let stand for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sieve or finish pureeing until smooth in a blender. Add spices to taste. If it's too bland, add a tiny pinch of salt.

(If you sieve, you can use the remaining almond putty for other recipes, like breakfast cake.)

You can also find almond milk in health food stores and online. I like Pacific Natural Foods brand and Blue Diamond Brand unsweetened milk but they don't stand up to homemade.

Homemade spice: about $3 / 4 cups
Pacific Brand: about $4 / 4 cups
Blue Diamond Brand: about $3.50 / 4 cups

What do you like about Almond milk? Have you ever made any interesting flavors? Please share. :)

* More Reading:
Cancer Prevention Coalition
Weston A. Price Foundation
Harvard School of Public Health
www.notmilk.com
www.nomilk.com

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Raw Blissful Breakfast: Fruit with Chocolate Pudding

Sugar from the fruit and the fat from the poppy seeds, avocado and chocolate combine to provide steady energy throughout the day.

1/2 avocado
1-2 tbsp of raw chocolate powder
1/2 tsp of honey to sweeten if wanted, but really, the fruit is so sweet, it balances out
Fruit
poppy seeds or ground flax seeds

Chocolate pudding: combine avocado with chocolate. Add honey.

Dip fruit into pudding, and dip into poppy seeds. Salivate. Munch. Enjoy.

Chocolate pudding came out grainy on the first try, but it was still very good.

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Açai Fruit Smoothie

I do love a frozen treat for breakfast. And when that frozen treat tastes like chocolate and berries, packs a "superfood" punch and wakes you up, all the better.

Deep in the Amazon rain forest grows a berry that is assumed to be one of the most nutrient rich foods in the entire world - the Açaí (ah-sigh-ee). It is crammed with more anti-oxidants than blueberries or pomegranates, and has healthy omega-3 oils, protein and dietary fiber. Good for your skin, heart, body and brain. And now, through the wonder of modern food distribution, I found it in the freezer section of the NYC Union Square Whole Foods.

I would love to find an original recipe that Amazon tribes have eaten for centuries, but for now, I will have to console myself with a simple frozen slushy experiment:

Ingredients
frozen açai
organic peach
pineapple

Blend together in a blender or food processor. Salivate, serve, eat and enjoy. :)

My Other Frozen Concoctions
Watermelon Slushy
Mystère de Chocolat

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Day#6 Collard Green Wrap

This is Day 6 of my Eating Green Experiment. You can read about why I began it here.

The Wrap. The epitome of portability. The melding of flavors, one rolling upon the other. Just the right size to grab with your hand and go. It's becoming my favorite food in the world, but the whole wheat wraps that I've seen in the supermarket have ingredients that I can't pronounce, and they make me extremely sleepy, so I've found a substitute! Big leaves!

Collard Green Wrap
1/2 avocado
red cabbage
baby leaf greens
1 cucumber
1 radish

Cut away the tough stem of the Collard green so that it can bend. Stuff with with your favorite veggies and it's good to go.

Preparation time: 5 minutes

And collard greens are a nutritional cancer bomb:
"A study of Chinese women in Singapore, a city in which air pollution levels are often high putting stress on the detoxification capacity of residents' lungs, found that in non-smokers, eating cruciferous vegetables lowered risk of lung cancer by 30%. In smokers, regular cruciferous vegetable consumption reduced lung cancer risk an amazing 69%!"

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Green Day # 1 - Saladicious

This is Day 1 of my Eating Green Experiment. You can read about why I began it here.

Late Saturday morning - the fridge looks like a bunch of hungry gnomes have been sleeping there overnight. All that is left from the week are some carrots, a tiny limp bok choy, a nearly empty jar of miso and the whistling wind, (or is it the hum of the refrigerator?) Definitely need to go shopping.

I grab a lonely carrot, some leftover romaine and dill, and start creating magic.

Recipe
carrot
romaine
dill
scallions
bok choy

Dressing
1 tsp of white miso
1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp of omega 3 oil
1/4 of tsp raw honey

It's a salad - so obviously you chop it up or tear it up and it's ready to eat.
For the dressing, combine all the ingredients until it tastes amazing. Munch gratefully and loudly.

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Chayote salad for Breakfast

The sweetness of carrots and chayote mixed together, provides steady energy and a host of nutrients to a start of a great day.

1 Chayote
2 carrots
1/2 avocado

Shred, mix and enjoy!

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A Fig of an Experiment

5 fresh or frozen green figs
1 banana
2 plums
blueberries to taste
coconut
sesame seeds
1 tablespoon lemon flavored fish oil (for that doze of omega 3) or
oil and a spray of lemon juice.

Combine. Eat. Enjoy.

A colorful and tasty breakfast to refresh the body, especially if it's sluggish from sleep. Fig is alkalizing, and has been used to moisten dry throats, treat coughs, sore throats and to clean out the intestines. In case you need help with that sort of thing. :)

I've been experimenting with lots of figs lately. This is just a very not boring fruit salad and more inventive stuff is in the works...

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Have your Cake And Eat it Too

Ohhhh this was a good breakfast. The tiny chocolatey tryptophan bliss chemicals are pouring through my body right now, so forgive me if I sound all... happy and everything.

1 cup Hazelnuts
1-2 tbsp Almond butter
1-2 tbsp raw goji and cacao mix
2-3 Carrots
1 tbsp Agave Nectar
1 pear or Apricots
2-3 tbsp Shredded Coconut

Soak hazelnuts overnight. When they are full of water, shred them in the food processor with almond butter, agave nectar, cacao mix and coconut until the consistency is like dough.

Spread out in a mold. Shred carrots in a food processor. Add as much shredded carrots on top of the dough as you can. Top with sliced apricot or a pear. Cut off a piece, and share with others!

Nuts are full of nutrients, such as magnesium, iron and potassium, which play an important role in the body. If you ever have spasms and tension in muscles, you need more magnesium! If you tire easily and feel weak, you might need some iron. And potassium helps your nerves and muscles function properly. Good to start your day off right, isn't it?

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Pinapple-y Goodness

Pinapple contains enzyme bromelain that is known to ease inflammation and swelling after strains and sprains, although, as always - don't eat if you're allergic, etc, etc.

Ingredients
1/2 fresh pinapple
1 scoop of Green Vibrance optional
1-2 teaspoons of fish oil, lemon flavor

Crush the pinapple flesh in the food processor until smooth. Add the Green Vibrance and fish oil. Enjoy.

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Five Barbaric Ways to Eat a Watermelon (For Breakfast)

Derived from my mom's 'what-do-you-think-you're-doing?-lectures'

1) Cut a watermelon in half. Give 1 half to your loved one. If you don't love anyone else, save the other half for tomorrow.

Spoon out the center, taking care to destroy the sweet sweet evidence. Once you have a big enough hole and enough juices to fill it, make sure to drop as many seeds into it as possible - now you have a rocky bottom. Float something to represent boats - prepare to do a naval battle.

2) Cut watermelon in weird shapes. Eat it and put the crust back together, preferably gluing it. Now you have a fake watermelon. Impress all your friends by lifting that sucker with your finger.

3) Cut a watermelon in a serrated way, eat all of it out, color it white and tell everyone you found a dinosaur egg

4) Drop watermelon on the floor. If floor is clean, pick up the pieces and eat them. If the floor is dirty, utilize the 5 second rule.

5) Build a watermelon pyramid to defy the Egyptians or something even more crazy


...and then run to your bathroom/outhouse/tree stump.

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Aprikose Fruchtsalat

Apricot Fruit Salad

Apricots
Sesame seeds
Poppy seeds
a little sesame toasted oil
lemon or lime

Cut apricots up, add a bit of oil, and sprinkle seeds to your liking. Splash with lemon or lime. Devour.

From Healing with Whole Foods:
Apricots "used for dry throat, thirst, asthma, and other lung conditions when there is fluid deficiency. Because of its high copper and cobalt content, it is commonly used to treat anemia. They must be used cautiously during pregnancy and avoided in cases of diarrhea." yeah, they can totally clean you out... but these won't:

Almond Butter Plum Sandwiches

Almond butter
Plums
Whole Grain Bread

Spread some almond butter on the bread. Cover with plums. Enjoy.

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Mystère de Chocolat

What made me so giddy and chipper today? My new favorite breakfast.

What you need:

1) Frozen berries (blueberries are perfect)
2) Raw cocoa powder - don't substitute with hershey's or supermarket chocolate. That stuff will kill you.
3) Almond butter

Throw frozen berries in a blender, add a spoon or so of raw cocoa powder and some almond butter – top with walnuts or whatever strikes your fancy, and you have a pleasure-chemical-inducing ice-cream-like frozen breakfast for those unbearable hot mornings.

And look how healthy:

Chocolate and blueberries are richer in antioxidants than wine or brussel sprouts. Antioxidants are believed to play a role in preventing cellular damage and the development of such chronic diseases as cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts.

Chocolate and almonds are a few of the best sources of magnesium. And a lot of us are deficient in magnesium. Signs of deficiency include:

* Muscle cramps in legs or feet
* Muscle twitches
* Aching muscles
* Migraine headaches
* Dental pain
* Brain ‘fogging’
* Anxiety or irritability
* Restless legs

Read more about the health benefits of blueberries, chocolate and almonds.

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Watermelon Slushy

Another glorious breakfast for those days when you wake up feeling "beh". My body smells like vanilla now. I'm not kidding.


Freeze chunks of watermelon overnight (I had a yellow fleshed watermelon)

In the morning:
Combine in the food processor with

vanilla
cinnamon
and fresh squeezed lemon juice of 1 or 2 lemons.

Sooo light. Sooo refreshing. Needed some mint, though.
And perfect to rehydrate after a night of sleep. Plus, watermelon is full
of vitamin C and beta-carotine, which "...have been shown in a number
of scientific studies to reduce the risk of heart disease, reduce the
airway spasm that occurs in asthma, reduce the risk of colon cancer,
and alleviate some of the symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid
arthritis."

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