Reader Question: Healthy Vegan Breakfasts on the Go

A few weeks ago I received a question from one of HGK's readers and I need every one's help answering it. "What do you do for quick breakfasts for kids. We run out the door eating They usually eat a cinnamon toast waffle plain."

The following are some ideas, but I have a feeling that YOU, the readers of HGK, have a lot of great suggestions for this breakfast challenged family! So please, leave your comments below with your suggestions.

If I have said it once, I have said it a million times (or at least a few times), eating healthy takes planning and preparation. As a society, we have become very spoiled when it comes to food and now we are paying for it dearly.  I won't go into how painful it is to be overweight or how much it costs to medicate yourself after you develop diabetes or heart disease. Feeding a family healthy food day after day does take a lot of time and effort (not to mention money), but the rewards of truly nourishing yourself and your family are so worth it.

So here are some ideas of healthy ways to start your family's day:

#1
Real, whole fruit. I keep a large bowl of washed apples, pears and bananas on my kitchen counter. In plain sight at all times. You cannot imagine how much more whole food my family is eating because of this. Citrus fruits are a little trickier because they need to be peeled, but are also a great breakfast choice. Washed grapes are also a staple in my refrigerator for convenience snacking. Grab a banana and another fruit on your way out the door and you can't believe how great you will feel.

#2
Lara Bars (you can find them at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods and probably at most local grocery chains at this point!). Composed of the fewest ingredients possible, you can feel good about your kids eating these on the way out the door.

#3
Ezekiel toast with peanut, almond or other nut butter. Add bananas for an even better breakfast!

#4

Smoothies. A green smoothie is my number 1 go-to breakfast. You can make these more convenient if you use convenience items or prep things in advance. For example, I purchase one box of baby spinach leaves per week, I just pop a handful of leaves into my blender. I keep ripe frozen bananas in a baggie in my freezer. Other frozen fresh fruit is kept in abundance in my freezer--Trader Joes and Whole Foods are great sources for these things. Other things like kale and celery would need to be washed and chopped in advance and kept in a baggie in the fridge. I like small Persian cucumber because I can grab one out of the package, run it under water and quickly slice it into the blender.

If your kids are not ready for a green smoothie, go ahead and make one entirely out of fresh and frozen fruit with ice. Add a little water if it is too thick. It's like a yummy dessert in a glass. Check out some great fruit smoothie tips I recently learned from a VitaMix rep.

#5
Oatmeal with toppings. You can definitely make this ahead and package into individual serving containers for reheating in the microwave in the morning. Just add a splash of nut milk before heading out the door and stir and it will taste just like you made it that day!

#6
Quinoa salads can be made ahead of time and packaged individually. Quinoa is great with some chopped nuts and dried fruit (think dates, cranberries or apricots) and will last for days in the refrigerator.

#7
Sweet potatoes. Yes, baked for an hour in the oven tastes best, but 6 or 7 minutes in the microwave does the trick, too. You can mash in lots of almond butter for protein, as well as a dash of cinnamon.

#8
Breakfast burrito. Wrap refried beans, guacamole, and leftover stir-fry veggies in a whole wheat tortilla. Ready this the night before and grab one and go! Or how about a peanut butter banana burrito? With or without jelly?

#9
Vegan pancakes. They’re easy and can be made on the weekend and be stored in individual packages perfect for grabbing as you walk out the door. Doctor up your favorite traditional pancake recipe like this: Replace each egg with 1 T ground flaxseeds and 2 T water, and replace buttermilk with almond or soy milk with a little bit of cider vinegar. Replace half the white flour with whole wheat, and add in some blueberries or sliced banana. Click here for The Engine 2's AMAZING Whole Wheat Vegan Blueberry Stuffed Pancake recipe. I made a big batch of these one weekend and enjoyed them all week long.

#10
Banana boats. You can do this with one or two bananas, depending on how hungry you are. Split each banana length-wise and spread each half generously with peanut butter. Optional: top with raisins.

What other healthy and quick breakfast ideas can you contribute to help out this fellow HGK reader?

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And They Said I Wouldn't Cook: Toaster Oven Socca

Thank you to everone who has already entered my blogger giveaway to win a copy of Chef A.j.'s book, Unprocessed. The responses are downright inspiring and it's not too late to enter if you haven't done so yet.

Prior to becoming a Nutritarian, a lot of people have legitimate concerns about whether or not this is a doable lifestyle for them. Unfortunately, as a society, we have become overly reliant on cheap, easy "food" that has little to no nutritional value. It's pretty obvious when considering this way of life that your habits in the kitchen department are going to have to change pretty entirely. Some people have even vocalized that they just don't know where to begin or even how to prepare healthy real food given their schedule and lifestyle. But I am here to say that you must make the choice. It's cook or get cooked, by disease that is. Either you take responsibility for your health or you don't. It's that simple.

Before I began kitchen renovations, my contractor, Dan Dureiko, said I wouldn't cook once our renovation was underway.

My friend, Brian Green, asked, "Do you know about the hidden cost of kitchen renovations?"

"No," I replied, shaking in my high healed, black suede, slouchy boots. This is already way over budget.

"Eating out in restaurants," he laughed.

"I'll show them all," I thought. Plus, there's pretty much no where to go out to eat when you are working hard to be an oil free, plant strong, Nutritarian Vegan.

My back's against the wall.

So I'm cooking, without a kitchen. A stew in my crock pot, quinoa salad in my rice cooker, I've even placed an order for a pressure cooker from amazon.com. I'm not letting a little thing like this

slow me down for a minute! If I can manage to get healthy real food on my table every day without a real kitchen, I won't accept any one's excuses!

This morning I was exploring the message boards on Dr. Fuhrman's Member Center for the first time ever, after participating in a webinar last last night where I learned how to navigate the monster, I came upon a thread about "Socca." It's a little like a bread, a little like a pancake. I've been seeing bloggers talk about it on and off for over a year now, so I was curious when I discovered that it was being referenced amongst Nutritarians. I quickly figured out that I could adapt it for my toaster oven so my 6 year old and I decided to go for it.

I'm pretty sure it was popularized by Michelle and Lori, the Pure2Raw twins over at http://www.pure2raw.com/. Here are two links that are worth exploring if you are so inclined:
All about Socca http://www.pure2raw.com/socca-tribute/
The Socca Videos http://www.pure2raw.com/2011/03/finally-our-first-socca-video/

Of course Maya wanted to start with their Chocolate Socca (sans the cardamom, she's just 6).

I decided to spray my pans with coconut oil spray instead of using the 3 Tbsp of coconut oil that The Twins call for. As you can see from the pictures below, it worked just beautifully without all of that oil.

I divided the batter into 2 9" round cake pans. Perfect size for my toaster oven! Here it is after baking for 20 minutes.

They popped out easily, just like the twins said they would!

Drizzled with maple syrup. My kids took one bite and they were done. I'm pretty sure they were expecting a sweet pancake, but they are more like a moist, dense bread and there is no sweetness except for the topping that you use. Next time I am going to try the straight up plain variety. Making the socca was so fast and easy with the detailed descriptions from The Twins, thanks Pure2Raw!

Have you ever made Socca? What were your results?

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