Breakfast Tea for Balancing Blood Sugar

Recipe courtesy of Rossana from our No Sugar Cooking Lesson and Breakfast in Honor of Diabetic Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor. This infusion is made from blueberry leaves and cinnamon. Add a touch of blueberries, and you have blood-sugar-balancing beverage that will send you to tastebud heaven.

Recipe for 1 quart of infusion
1/3 cup fresh blueberry leaves
1 cinnamon stick

Add ingredients to a quart-size glass jar. (Reused pasta sauce or pickle
jars work beautifully. Make sure they don't smell like it though.) Add
boiling water to the very top, and cover. The leaves and the cinnamon
bark will soak up that water as it's fibers open, so you'll need to "top
off" the jar with water in about 15 minutes. Wait until the mixture
cools - overnight is best - so that the cinnamon and blueberry leaves
impart their full medicinal value to the water. Reheat (but don't boil!
it changes the flavor) or enjoy with chilled blueberries. Yummy
sugar-balancing goodness! It's the best tasting medicine you'll ever drink.

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No Sugar Breakfast in Honor of Diabetic Sonya Sotomayor

In honor of our new diabetic Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor, we gave a cooking lesson on how to create breakfasts that are low in sugar, but high in deliciousness. This is recipe 1 of 3 that was devoured (with lots of moaning) on Sunday morning.

Green Sausage Wraps

Wraps: Romaine lettuce or any broad dark green leaves

The filling:
1 or natural sausages
1 sweet red pepper
1/2 sweet green pepper
2 tomatoes
1 zucchini
1/2 red onion
1/2 cup parsley
olive oil
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (to taste)

Sauce:
1 tsp lavender
2-3 tablespoons mustard
1/2 cup olive or sesame oil
1 pinch ground cardamom
1 lemon

Cut peppers, onion, tomatoes and zucchini thinly and add to a skillet. Add water, and cook on high heat. Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil on top, garlic and sausage on top of the veggies to the skillet. Stir occasionally until the mixture is the consistency that you like. Should be about 5-10 minutes.

Let the mixture cool a little bit and stuff the romaine leaves with it. Add parsley on top. Eat. Enjoy. Prosper.

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Patty Pan Squash and Artichoke Saute for Breakfast

If you are lucky to discover patty-pan squash in your local farmer's market, supermarket or your own garden, scream "Eureka" A much flavorful and delicate flavor that the other summer squashes, it tastes amazing with artichokes, spinach, tomatoes, eggplants or any other vegetable you want to combine it with.

Ingredients:
1 patty pan squash
frozen artichoke hearts
eggplant or vegetable paste
avocado

Sautee patty pan squash with artichoke hearts until tender in water. Add a tiny amount of olive oil on top when nearly done. Fold cooked vegetables into the eggplant paste, and add chunks of avocado to give the dish more substance. Enjoy.

or you can eat this with your favorite protein - beans, sardines or breakfast sausages.

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Cherry Kisel for Breakfast - Even Presidents Love it.

Obama and Putin sitting down to breakfast in Moscow:

"The two leaders, however, appeared to hit it off over a breakfast of eggs, smoked beluga, black caviar, olady [pancakes] with cranberry jam, quail-stuffed pelmeni [dumplings], tea brewed in a samovar, cherry kisel and homemade ice cream for dessert. The meal, which was scheduled to last 90 minutes, stretched on for more than two hours." via The Moscow Times

Epic breakfast. You will have to use your imagination to recreate the quail-stuffed pelmeni and get an actual samovar for the tea, but here's a recipe for Cherry Kisel, since cherries are now in season here!

The traditional recipe uses sugar and potato starch. This recipe uses honey and kuzu root, but I imagine one can use a low-glycemic sweetener, like stevia as well.

2-3 cups cherries or other berries
6 cups of water
4 tbsp kuzu
1 tbsp raw honey

Boil cherries in water until water turns red and the cherry taste is unmistakable in the water. In a separate bowl, combine 1/2 cup of cold water with 4 tablespoons kuzu root. When it becomes a mixture, combine with the juice. Heat for 3 minutes and then turn off heat. Cool, strain and refrigerate for a cold drink.

For a different texture, you can try mashing berries inside, creating a cherry smoothie.

Kuzu drinks soothe the stomach and other inflamed membranes and are known as remedies for digestive upset. If your body is hot, and inflamed in the summer, this might be a great cooling drink. When taken regularly, kuzu drinks strengthen a weak digestive system and reduce symptoms such as frequent indigestion and intestinal gas.

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Green Eggs, No Ham.

Say!
I like green eggs and ham!
I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!
And I would eat them in a boat.
And I would eat them with a goat...

And I will eat them in the rain.
And in the dark. And on a train.
And in a car. And in a tree.
They are so good, so good, you see!
-Dr.Seuss

Sadly I have no pig or ham,
no bacon or tofurky spam

But i do love green eggs, (no ham)
I do! I like them, Sam-I-am!

Ingredients
swiss chard
salt or dulse
eggs

Pulverize chard through a food processor until it is finely chopped, or chop it fine, until the pieces are smaller than the size of a 1/4 of a penny.

Crack open the eggs in a bowl, add the greens, and use a fork to incorporate them into the eggs, until it's a fine green mess. Add dulse.

Pour into a hot pan, cover and cook on low to medium heat.

Garnish with salsa if you like.

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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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Mangú - Traditional Dominican breakfast

From Rossana Inez Rossi
This recipe feeds 2-3 people

This is what I like to call A Dominican Farmer’s Breakfast. I LOVED IT when my parents made me mangú with eggs on school mornings because I knew that was the day I wouldn’t be hungry at all before lunch.

And not only that -- Plantains are rich in Potassium, Vitamin C and contain compounds that are beneficial for people with ulcers - British Journal of Pharmacology: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1987262

You will need:
A pot
Sharp knife
Butter knife
Potato masher
Bowl
3 Green (unripe) plantains
1 Onion
Cooking oil
Olive oil
Vinegar (the kind you like best)
½ pot of water
Salt

1. Put half a pot of water to boil. Add a teaspoon or two of salt, or to your taste. (Don’t know your taste? Taste the water a minute after you’ve added the salt.)


2. Prepare the plantains by cutting off the ends, then cutting them in half. Cut these halves in half lengthwise. Use the butter knife to peel the skin off.


3. When all the plantains are peeled, put them in the hot/boiling water. Cook them at a low boil (med-high heat) until a knife or fork breaks them easily - about 10-15 minutes.




4. While the plantains are boiling: slice the onion. Put the rounds in a bowl, and cover them with vinegar - about ¼ cup. Now, in a frying pan, heat up the oil. When it’s hot, add the onions and vinegar. Cover the pan to prevent the popping sparks from flying out. Check on them! Saute the onions, stirring every so often, cooking them over medium flame until they are soft or turn light brown. Turn off the heat.
   


5. When the plantains are done, pour about ¾ of the water into a bowl. Mash them up until they are soft –you’ll need to add some of the plantain-water as you’re mashing to make them nice and soft – like mashed potatoes, but stiffer.
   


6. Serve the plantains and drizzle the sautéed onions on top.


7. Yummy!

Dominicans traditionally eat this with:

• Scrambled eggs


• Sliced sausages: Cook them first (do not add oil, they have enough fat on their own), and cook the onions with them

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Winter Red Quinoa with Wild Berry Tea

Chewy and warm with fragrant notes of sweet and sour dried wild berries, this breakfast is nourishing and highly satisfying on a cold winter day.

When you need strength and warmth, the best thing for breakfast is a hearty warm grain. The Scots have their oat groats, which have been known to warm the soul on a foggy cold morning and we all know how good they are for us. (That is, of course, if you don't have an oat allergy.)

And then there's quinoa! Ancient people gathered quinoa in the high altitude plains of Peru's Andes, Bolivia and Equador and thrived in those harsh living conditions. And no wonder - quinoa is a complete protein that rivals other grains in nutrition.

What you will need:
a pot and stove
1 cup of organic red quinoa
2 cups water
1 tablespoon or 2 teabags of wild berry tea or hibiscus tea.*
1 teaspoon of dried mint

Soak quinoa overnight and rinse in the morning. Place in a pot with water, mint and tea on the stove on medium-high heat until boiling. It will look like this:



Reduce heat to low and cover. Set timer for 15 minutes and do whatever else you like. Come back in 15 minutes and take off heat -- drain water and serve.

You can also enjoy it with milk or milk substitute.

* If you are lucky enough to find a cheap wild berry tea in an international / specialty market, all the better. I usually buy a Polish wild berry tea in a Russian store here in NYC. If you are lucky enough to have tea or markets like that nearby, good! If not, any dried wild herbal tea or even hibiscus tea would do.

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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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Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Apple Pancake Balls

A delicious no lactose breakfast treat, these baked apple pancake balls are made with whole grain brown rice flour. Unlike white rice, brown rice is highly nutritious - especially full of manganese, B6, niacin and magnesium. Combination of these nutrients is especially good for the morning, as they help relax the muscles and support the health of the nervous system.

Ingredients
2 apples
1 egg
1 - 1.5 cups rice flour
pinch of lavender, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg
1/2 cup of cranberries
1/4 cup walnuts

Shred the apples or cut apples in small cubes. Add flour, egg, lavender, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cranberries and walnuts in a bowl and mix until you form a sticky batter.


Once dough is ready, shape into small balls with cranberries in the middle. The size should be about a tablespoon or smaller. Drop onto a hot pan for baking (20-30 min 325 deg F), or steamer for about 10 minutes or until they look and taste ready.

This is how the balls look steamed: (Please be aware that they will be gooey, because apple gets softer as it heats up.)

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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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Special Holiday Treat! Cranberry / Strawberry Dairy Free Gluten Free Cake with Chocolate Brownie Nut Crust

If you have any type of dietary restriction, you know what it's like to stare with longing at a trans-fat-laden chocolate-covered high-fructose-corn-syrup infused monstrocity being devoured by relatives/friends/significant others and having none.

It sucks being the "special one," while everyone is eating to excess in drunken holiday mirth, even though it's pretty clear the cake won't be very good if you have it. And after that, you will either be suffering from a belly ache, headache, depression or other symptoms of sugar overload.

This gluten-free/dairy-free cake masterpiece is a favorite in any house I bring it to. Make it and become the brilliant cook instead of a weirdo with a dietary restriction. And then, of course, you can have it for breakfast, if there's anything left, that is...

Recipe
1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
1 or 2 fresh apples
3-4 tablespoons of agar agar
2 tablespoons of kuzu starch
1 package of gluten-free brownies
1-2 cups of nuts
cinnamon, allspice and dried mint
1 tablespoon of honey or agave syrup


Make the nut shell:
Combine brownies and nuts in a food processor until mixture is even and easy to work with. (should be like play-doh consistency, or a bit stickier. Line a mold or some kind of pan with wax paper (or aluminum foil) and spread the mixture over the paper, forming a shell.

Alternatives for the nut shell:
Another (vegan) option is to skip the pre-made brownie, and try combining nuts with dried fruit, like prunes, apricots, dates or soaked figs. You can also add raw chocolate for that chocolate kick.

Make the mousse filling:
Boil strawberries, cranberries and apples in a pot. Add spices to taste or until a nice smell has traveled through the whole kitchen. When cranberries are cooked, add agar agar. Add kuzu to cold water to dissolve and then add kuzu water to the pot.

Take out half of the fruits and puree them in the food processor. Add it back to the pot. Stir. Pour into your brownie shell.

Stick it in the fridge to set. Should set in 2-4 hours.

For other brilliant variations, see

Passover Blueberry-Prune Cake
Raw Hazelnut Carrot Cake

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Garbanzo Wonder Salad

My favorite breakfast. It is. This salad has a lot of complex carbohydrates and protein, so instead of falling prey to the mid-morning "feed me!" stomach grumble, I last until lunch.

It's also chock full of amazing nutritious properties -- take dill, for example. Did you know that it contains oils that help neutralize benzopyrenes that are part of cigarette smoke? If you're living in the city, this breakfast will help protect your body from free radical damage.

Chickpea Salad Recipe
2 cups cooked chickpeas (also known as garbanzo bean)
1/2 onion
1 cup red cabbage
1-1/2 cup fresh dill or parsley herbs
sesame seed oil or olive oil to taste

Combine chickpeas with diced onion, cabbage and herbs. Sprinkle oil. Eat. Enjoy. Delicious, right?

makes 4 servings
total cost: $2

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Warm Healing Breakfast: Pumpkin Soup

Cold winter days bring wind and snow and sneezing. Lots of it. But I'm not worried -- I have this soup to soothe me on the days I have a sore throat, warm me on the days the icy winds blow and heal me with its immune-boosting Vitamin A, C, beta-carotine and potassium.


Simple Pumpkin Soup Recipe
1/4 of a pumpkin
1 onion
enough water to cover the chopped pumpkin (around 1.5 quarts)
cinnamon, sea salt, pepper to taste

Sautee onions in pan. Peel and cut pumpkin, and throw into a pot with water on high heat. Boil. Add browned onions to the pot with pumpkins and reduce heat to medium. Let it percolate on the stove for 45 minutes or until the pumpkin is falling apart.

Puree the ingredients, add cinnamon or other spices and slurp the sweet deliciousness.

This is a simple recipe of course. You can spice it up, add more vegetables for a more complex flavor or substitute pumpkin with other winter squashes for variety.

Pot of organic pumpkin soup was around $6 and lasted 3 days.

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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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Asparagus with Burdock Root

Burdock root is known as a blood purifier and garlic, Nama Shoyu and asparagus support the immune system. Asparagus also has a diuretic effect, which is good for treating water retention. But more importantly -- it tastes absolutely amazing!

Recipe
1 cup Asparagus Stalks 40 cal more nutrition data
1/2 cup of Burdock Root 55 cal more nutrition data
2 tsp of Nama Shoyu
1 clove of garlic

Scrub burdock to get the skin off. Cut it into matchsticks. Throw burdock, asparagus (with spices or finely chopped garlic, if you wish) in a pan to lightly sautée or pan-boil in minimum amount of water on high heat. When the asparagus turn bright green, turn off heat. Eat, enjoy and laugh at how easy this was.

Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 4-5 minutes

You might want to eat this in combination with brown rice or some other whole grain, since it is very low in calories.

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Gluten-Free Passover Blueberry Prune Mousse Cake with Banana Cream

This cake uses the natural sugars of dried fruit and honey and the natural fats of nuts to create a creamy, chewy and satisfying special breakfast.


Ingredients

Filling
1/2 cup of prunes
2 apples
1/4 cup of raisins
1 1/2 cup of blueberries (I used frozen blueberries)
1 tbsp of kuzu root (starch)
2-3 tbsp of agar-agar (can substitute plain gelatin, read directions for ratios)

Crust
1 cup of nuts: pecans, walnuts, almonds
1-2 tbsp of oil (I used lemon flavored fish oil for omega-3's)
1 tbsp of cacao-goji powder mix (buy in a health food store or online)

Creme
2 Bananas
1/2 lemon
1-2 tsp of honey

Find a dish or a mold. Line it with something, like wax paper, or aluminum.

Shred nuts to powder-like consistency, adding a bit of oil to let it stick together. Add a tablespoon (or more to your liking) of the cacao-goji berry powder. Once it turns from a powder to a sticky powder that holds together, take it out of the food processor and press it into a mold to form a pie crust.

Place prunes and raisins into about 1-2 cups of water with agar-agar, on the stove to boil. When they seem soft and agar is dissolved, add a cup of frozen blueberries to melt into the mixture. Dissolve kuzu root and add to mixture.

Shred the prune mixture in the food processor to form a mousse, and pour it into the ready crust in its mold. Place it into the refrigerator overnight or until it sets.

For the creme - puree banana, the fresh-squeezed juice of a 1/2 lemon and honey in the food processor. Spread it over the pie. Lift the pie out of its mold by the paper or aluminum. Plate and dig in. :)

Tested and Approved
This was devoured by my whole family, and was loved by everyone except by the surly teenager. But surly teenagers don't like anything in the presence of their mother and father so it doesn't count.

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Days# 7-11 Earth Laughs in Flowers

These are days 7 through 11 of my Eating Green Experiment. You can read about why I began it here.

So there we were - my boyfriend and I, looking out onto the Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge. We were 66 miles from home and his car just made a funny noise and died in the toll lane. The E-Z pass green light was demanding GO and the car was disobeying like a pigheaded metal gas-guzzling toddler.

We waited for the rescue tow truck, as the slight whiff of panic in the air (from me,) was slowly mixing with the music, the scenery, and the scent of gasoline. Adventure, adventure, adventure!

So what has this story to do with breakfast, anyway? Well, I was sort of hungry. And there we were, on the side of the road by the flower bed, battling customer service, insurance companies and parents via phone. Very exhausting. A thought appeared. Grew. Budded, if you will... What about eating... a flower breakfast?

Edible Flower Experiment

Thankfully, my revolt for car exhaust and general caution prevented me from trying the poisonous daffodils, but I present to you my new harmless breakfast:

Broccoli or Cauliflower Floret-Bouquet
Hey, it deliciously rhymes. Boil or steam for 5 minutes, dip in a healthy sauce and put on a stick. Many sticks in a glass - and you have a breakfast bouquet.

And then you can go crazy and add other edible flowers

As soon as I get my hands on some of these, there will be some flowery concoctions presented on this blog.

Photo by Gaetan Lee used under the Creative Commons License

PS. I stole the title of this post from Ralph Waldo Emerson

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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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Days 2 through 5. I'm Eating Green Experiment Continues.

These are days 2 through 5 of my Eating Green Experiment. You can read about why I began it here.

I went shopping finally. Only organic markets have customers who don't get weirded out from my happy tiny squeals of "Arugula! Oh dearest, I will EAT YOU UP!" Or maybe they do, but I did not notice.

Anyway... so how am I doing? Doing well, thank you. I've been trying everything including the quite unoriginal (but tasty) old standby:


Take a bunch of green veggies, cut/tear them, then steam/boil until they're bright green and eat. Add olive oil if you wish. Very good in the morning, for it's warm and less abrasive on the stomach. 5 minutes preparation, 3 minutes to cook. Yes! It really is that quick. The wormy looking white things are sprouts and brown rice which I added in a moment of inspiration.

Price: (estimated) $2.00

The Effects

Day#2 I did not sleep the whole night, tossing and turning. While detoxification symptoms on the internet include insomnia and I am not an insomniac, I figure my money worries were the real reason. Sigh.

Day#3 Worn out, but surprisingly focused and awake, I munched on a salad and ran off into the urban wild.

Day#4 Fully worn, I tried to keep awake long enough in the morning to make myself a sandwich out of some whole grain bread, avocado and greens. It worked. My brain worked, the job interview went very well and I was unusually happy the rest of the day, though can't say how much of that happiness was food related.

Day#5 I need to get some sleep so that I have strength to write further!

Till tomorrow...

Your Crazy Breakfast Madam.

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