Living Vegan For Dummies - Alexandra Jamieson [81]
You say you don’t have time for breakfast? Well, no sweat. I offer several nourishing ideas in this chapter to help you plan for success. Baking some dense muffins on the weekend enables you to grab a healthy morsel on your way out the door for the early, hectic part of the week. Simple, fast smoothies loaded with nutritional extras make the end of the week easier to finish.
The beauty of vegan breakfasts is that you can make them in any array of flavors you choose, free of guilt. Enjoy starting your day cruelty- and cholesterol-free with some of my favorite breakfast recipes.
Quick Fixes for Vegan Breakfasts
Easy breakfasts can be so much more nourishing than a bowl of processed cereal or a piece of toast. In one easy meal, you can get complex carbohydrates, protein, healthy fats (also important for longer satiety/fullness), and a variety of flavors to start your day right. The quick and healthy breakfast options I share in this section can be tweaked to your liking too.
Smoothies, for instance, are a cheap, fast meal, and they’re perfect for breakfast. These blended beverages enable you to consume a variety of healthy foods easily in the morning. Proteins like nuts, seeds, and soy yogurt or milk can be supplemented with natural, unprocessed hemp seed powder. Blending several fruits into one drink gets you halfway to the recommended daily intake as set forth by the USDA.
Another fantastic way to make breakfast a quick, healthy meal is to use those leftover grains that are sitting in your refrigerator. Any cooked grain can be made into “oatmeal” with a few simple steps. Thinking ahead to the next morning by ensuring your grains are ready to go is a nice method for eating more complex carbohydrates in the morning. Getting creative with leftover grains offers you a whole new set of breakfast choices. For even easier breakfast options, look at the list in Chapter 9 for some more ideas.
Wake-Me-Up-Before-You-Go-Go Breakfast Smoothie
What’s the easiest way to take your supplements? Buy food-based versions and add them to your morning ritual! This smoothie is a real blast of energy that keeps you full until lunch and provides everything a growing vegan could need. Because this recipe makes a lot, you can easily drink one filling glass and leave the rest in an airtight container for the next morning, thereby reducing calories. The added vitamin C helps preserve the smoothie overnight.
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 large serving or 2 small servings
1 banana, peeled
1 apple, unpeeled, cored
1/2 cup frozen blueberries or cherries
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon flaxseeds
1/3 cup raw almonds or cashews
1/3 cup soy yogurt
1 tablespoon flaxseed oil or Udo’s 3-6-9 Oil
1 teaspoon unflavored vitamin C crystals
1 tablespoon liquid chlorophyll, spirulina, or blue-green algae powder or liquid
2 1/2 cups plain or vanilla soy, rice, or hemp milk
Add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!
Tip: Using water or a nondairy milk instead of fruit juice reduces the amount of sugars contained in smoothie recipes. Too much sugar in the morning can lead to energy lows or cravings for more sugar later in the day.
Per serving: Calories 937 (From Fat 497); Fat 55g (Saturated 5g); Cholesterol 0mg; Sodium 103mg; Carbohydrate 95g; Dietary Fiber 26g; Protein 33g.
Groggy Grain Breakfast Porridge
This porridge is good for those bleary mornings when you can’t put sentences together, let alone complete a recipe! Make the lightly sweetened version if you’re heading out for a long hike, or try the savory option if you want to create a longer-lasting stable energy for a day at the office.
Preparation/cooking time: 5 minutes
Yield: 1 serving
Lightly sweetened porridge
1 cup leftover grain (brown rice, quinoa, or whatever you have)