What's for breakfast?

Oatmeal with rice milk, figs and granola 

& mate lemon green tea

 Since starting this new plant-based lifestyle we've had to change our mainly animal-based meals! The first question we both had was: "what can we eat for breakfast?" Most of our breakfasts included some sort of cheese, milk, turkey or eggs.

This motivated me to research on wholesome, plant-based recipes that would provide a good kick-start for our day! Surprisingly I found a lot more than I expected. I'll be sharing some of those as I begin to try them myself, but so far I'll share the few adaptations I've made the past few days that worked well for me.

 I've always enjoyed my oatmeal, my husband on the other hand has never been interested in even trying. But, he said he is now willing! Woohoo to that!!! :)

So the adaptation I made was to switch cow's milk to fortified rice milk to cook my oatmeal. Of course you could cook it with just water, but I like it better with milk, and rice milk cooked with oatmeal doesn't bring much difference in the taste. Then of course you can add your favorite toppings. I added some figs-LOVE them, and just got some organic ones on sale the other day! And I added some granola on top for some crunchiness. Enjoyed that with a glass of hot mate lemon green tea.

organic whole grain oat bread

 Another great option for a wholesome breakfast is a fresh wholegrain bread loaf (either freshly baked at the store or at home). This one I got it at the store in the morning, so it was still warm when I arrived at home, but the next one I plan on making it myself! You can prepare the dough ahead of time, so that in the morning all you have to do is place it in the oven. If you need to leave early for work and don't have the time to deal with fresh bread, you can always cut them and freeze them in a ziplock bag when you buy them. Then you'll only need to put it in a toaster in the morning. If you keep it wrapped in a plastic bag it will last fresh for a few days. Mine I bought yesterday morning, and this morning was still just as good!

Mine was an organic oatmeal bread!!! SOOOO delicious I have to tell yah!!! Anything made with oat flour is usually my favorite, because they make everything so soft! Baking a cake with oat flour makes it so soft it crumbles. 
So instead of my much loved cheese spread, with jam and a sliced cheese on top, I just used a very good quality fruit spread with a slice of fig on top! Let me tell you, when you have good quality ingredients, you don't need a lot of things to make things taste fabulous! I could eat this bread by itself and be fully satisfied...that's how good it tasted! Adding this wonderful apricot spread and the ripen fig was just the icing on the top! :) So yummy!!!

 Along with this I made my husband and I a juice smoothie with orange juice, 2 cubes of a chlorophyll blend (parsley, mint & collard greens blended together and frozen in ice cubes), 2 cubes of carrots (pureed carrots frozen in ice cubes), 2 cubes of red beets (pureed beets frozen in ice cubes) and some frozen berry mix (blueberries, strawberries and raspberries). This may sound gross to those not used to mixing fruits and veggies, but it tastes awesome!!!

 

 So refreshing and energizing! Will get you going a lot more than your morning coffee. 

Let's not forget about our fresh fruits!!! They make a great addition to any breakfast meal or could even go solo in a fruit salad mix.Some ideas I love are the famous fruit smoothies, you can substitute cow's milk with a plant-based or nut-based milk. I love smashed bananas with raw honey and oats.

Oatmeal with banana is like a desert to me...love it!

delicious paired with a hot cup of apple cinnamon tea!

Lastly I've done of course the most famous American "meal": peanut butter and jelly! 

But this version is SO much better than the traditional highly processed ones, on processed and refined breads, and processed peanut butters with processed sugary jams! Try buying some good quality, wholesome ingredients, with very short ingredient lists, and taste the difference yourself!

This peanut butter spread I got was the best peanut butter I've ever tasted! So fresh! You look at the ingredient list all you see is: "organic roasted peanuts"! How's that for wholesome? If you check the most popular peanut butter SKIPPY's nutrition facts, it says: "roasted peanuts, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oils (cottonseed, soybean and rapseed)to prevent separation, salt." Check here yourself!


So that's some of the simple changes we've made, and I feel that these new breakfasts are taking me much longer than the previous ones! I feel satisfied longer and with a lot more energy than before. Now I can't wait to try out the new recipes I've discovered, such as scrambled tofu and baking my own whole grain bread!!!