What's for Breakfast?

As a lover of food, I have to maintain a balance of that love by making healthy choices. The morning comes with the ritual of prayer, meditation, exercise and what's for breakfast. This morning, I was in the mood for a hearty breakfast. What do I consider hearty? Well, it is something like a Thanksgiving buffet for breakfast. The kind of breakfast that is served with eggs, cheese, pancakes, French toast, waffles, whole wheat bread, muffins, bacon, sausages, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, yogurt, fruits and juices.

In addition to the fiber in my oatmeal, I was able to get vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which is a good source of iron, complex carbohydrates and protein. Furthermore, studies have shown that oatmeal may help reduce high blood pressure due to an increase in soluble fiber found in the oatmeal. To add to the taste of the oatmeal, I add fruits instead of sugar and might I add it's a delicious healthy choice.

And now for my mini version of a hearty healthy breakfast - the omelet/omelette. My omelette is usually a smorgasbord of spinach, basil, tomatoes, avocado, green peppers, onions, organic baby spring mix - sometimes cheese. Served with 12 grain whole wheat bread and a cup of tea. I am completely satisfied for hours on end.

Today's breakfast was the Kashi Go Lean Crunch with wildflower honey, almond and flaxseed. Needless to say, I feel like I've made a magnificent choice. Honey - flaxseed is recognized as one of the most powerful plant foods on this side of heaven. According to research, it has shown to help reduce the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart diseases and strokes.

How about you? Do you eat breakfast? What do you eat for breakfast?

Your Health & Wellness - Time to Shake It Up

While seeking a new topic to explore, I thought it would be perfect to share this segment from my friend Dr. Maiysha. It's a refreshing way to treat your body to a shift from your normal diet.

Straight from In the Kitchen with Dr. Maiysha:



And here is the breakdown:

The trending topic now is how to make your body more alkaline. Another more popular topic is juicing. So I figured what we do is put the two together and make an alkaline juice for you to drink and help to cleanse your body. We have a lemon, avocado, some celery, cucumber, parsley, some garlic, and just some ice. That’s all you need. So a lot of these have great detox and cleansing element, and they will help to make your body more alkaline so you can help to fight off infections and just keep your body in a healthy state.

What we’re going to do first is we’re going to chop up our avocado. I like to just cut it in half. And we’re going to gut the seed out. What we’re using today for the blending of everything is our NutriBullet. The nice thing with avocados is you don’t to slice it up; you can just slide huge chunks into the NutriBullet just like this. We’re going to get as much of it as we can. This is going to be the core of our juice. Avocados are very, very rich nutrient-dense foods so we want to get as much as we can. If you’re an avocado person, you can use two.

The next highest component is going to be our cucumber, so I’m going to just chop the cucumber into about quarter- or half-dollar-size slices. Cucumbers also have a great fat-burning element to them if you want to have an alkaline juice as well as a fat-burning juice. And again, we’re going to just stick these into the NutriBullet.

And our third largest component is going to be our celery. I have one stalk, and I’m going to slice this as well. I’m only going to use about half of this stalk. Celery tends to be a little bit overbearing in taste when mixed with other elements while juicing. So you don’t want to have your juice taste predominantly of celery. So just a little bit is good.

Our last three components are going to be more for seasoning. So we’re going to use some minced garlic. If you have large, whole garlic, you can use cloves as well. I’m going to use just one teaspoon, a nice, rounded-off healthy teaspoon. You can also use cilantro for taste. I’m going to use one teaspoon of coriander as well for seasoning. And that one can be a leveled-off teaspoon. And finally we’re going to use half of a lemon just to add a little bit more of an acidic component to the smoothie. The more lemon you can tolerate the better. I’m going to slice a couple slices and then just juice the rest into the smoothie. And last but not least we cannot forget some parsley. We have some fresh parsley leaves here. You can chop these prior to juicing. I’m going to simply just use my fingers and break off small pieces and rub them together.

Just to give it a smoothie fill, I’m going to add some ice. Now we’re going to add some alkaline water just to boost the alkaline smoothie effect.

Alkaline water is very cleaning. It’s very good for healing of the cells. So it would make sense for this alkaline smoothie to use the alkaline water. So I just put it up to 9.5; why not use the largest. And I’ll have you just pull this level up. It’s connected right to my machine. There you go.

Seasons Change - Maximize Your Food Experience

One of my favorite scriptures is found in Ecclesiastes 3 which to me serves as the ultimate reality check. It is a straight talk no chaser message on the facts of life. Seasons change and with the changes, we have to accept and make the necessary adjustments

As Fall takes its position, there are a number of fruits and vegetables that are at the peak for maximum taste and offers high nutritious value. It's time for us to flow with the change of the season and get our healthy eats on :-)

Avocado is quite popular as a good appetizer dip for chips, yes, guacamole is a must have for many who enjoy the blend of avocado, onions, tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper, cilantro and a dash of lime juice. What makes it even yummier, is that it lowers cholesterol and blood pressure. It may also help to prevent cancer. Now for the value it contains - Omega3, folate, omega6, potassium, and vitamin B6.

Brussel Sprouts are high in vitamin C and it has cancer-fighting antioxidants which is a plus to guard your health.

Collard greens, kale are high in antioxidant vitamins A and C and other nutrients that promote healthy vision and may lower cancer risk.

Cranberry beans brings you an improved step in the right direction as it has a good dose of protein and it is high in calcium and potassium.

Pomegranate is a fruit that helps to fight viruses, reduces joint pain and importantly may prevent strokes. The inside of the fruit has tiny little seeds covered with a transparent petal of it's own juice. Take a gentle bite and a burst of flavor filled with a tart mixture containing potassium, fiber, folate as well as a high dose of vitamins C and K will set you off just lovely.

Sweet potatoes are naturally one of the most delicious, sweet, nutritious vegetables around. Let's try it without the sugar or the deep fried oils to benefit from its high antioxidant vitamins A and C - allowing it to help boost our immune system.

But wait there's more