Breakfast Options

This week, I tried to do a few new things with breakfast. If I'm in a hurry (I am getting 5 kids out the door, after all) I'll just have a bowl of GF Kelloggs Rice Krispies. These are very low in sugar and they suffice with a bit of almond milk. However, I've found that they are also not very filling -- so you need something to eat again about 2 hours later.

On Wednesday evening, before I went to bed, I made GF oatmeal in the crockpot. I like to use the gluten free oats from Bob's Red Mill. I put 2.5 cups of water in the crockpot and stirred in 1 cup of oats with a pinch of salt. I also stirred in 1/4 cup of golden raisins. In the morning, I ate this with a bit of almond milk stirred in and a teaspoon of agave to sweeten it up a little -- a breakfast that left me full much longer and was very warming on these cold, winter mornings.

Last night, I tried something similar with kasha in the crockpot, to be served for breakfast this morning. I've never cooked kasha previously, but I found a recipe using a delightful new app from Whole Foods. The app allows you to search for recipes depending on your diet and whether you adhere to any special guidelines. It also has a cool feature allowing you to put in a few ingredients that you have on hand and then it will search for recipes using those ingredients. I decided to try a recipe called "Kasha Breakfast Porridge." Kasha is toasted buckwheat, which is gluten free and not related to wheat at all. At my Whole Foods market, it's located on the aisle with rice and beans.

In the crockpot I combined:

2.5 cups water
1 stick of cinnamon, broken in half
1 cup kasha
1 pinch salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Like the oatmeal, I cooked it on low overnight and in the morning, I had a yummy, warm breakfast -- high in protein, very low in sugar, and fat-free. DELISH! As you can see from the photo, I topped mine with blackberries and a drizzle of almond milk.