February 22, 2011

New Breakfast Routine

The most difficult meal to adapt to when we started our new diet was breakfast--we were so used to having cereal and fruit every day.  Now I have to cook most mornings!  We have a fairly set routine now, and though it includes a lot more prep and clean-up, we're all happy with the food we've been eating.  Kenna is a great breakfast helper, and I've been making the kids do a lot more with the clean-up, so the days we've done school, we really haven't been too far behind.  Here's our breakfast schedule, more or less:

Sundays & Wednesdays--pancakes (either coconut or banana-peanut butter) with fruit
Mondays & Thursdays--scrambled eggs with sausage (turkey sausage, no sugar for the boys; Jimmy Dean's all-natural sausage with 1 gram sugar for the girls), raw veggies, some kind of muffin
Tuesdays & Fridays--fried eggs, sausage patties, raw veggies (I like to saute veggies with my sausage), some kind of muffin
Saturdays & any day of the week we are in a hurry--homemade yogurt with GAPS granola (made from raw and soaked pumpkin and sunflower seeds, coconut, honey, and cinnamon), fruit

When we first started the diet, I cooked for Ted and later cooked for the rest of us.  Ahem.  Ted now eats leftovers from whatever I cooked the day before!  We're trying not to use the microwave--it kills all the food's nutrients--but he unfortunately must use it at work for his lunch anyway.  I try to put things in the oven to warm for him, but a lot of times he just zaps his breakfast.

I make our muffins in bulk using variations from a basic coconut flour muffin recipe.  (I can post this later if anyone is interested.)  I HAVE learned that we much prefer to double the amount of vanilla called for, and depending on what type of muffin, I also add almond extract.  The original recipe was too egg-y for me.  (I like eggs, but I want a muffin to taste like a muffin!)  The recipe from the book makes 6 muffins. 

I'll pause here so you can laugh as long and loudly as I did.

I immediately quadruple any recipe from that book!  The first week of our diet I made 72 muffins--24 blueberry and the rest basic coconut flour.  Now I probably do a couple of baking sessions a week, as we like to vary what we make.  We like the carrot and pumpkin recipes as well, and tomorrow I'll try apple-cinnamon.  We've made homemade jam in bulk (there's even some in the freezer now!), which goes very nicely on the plain muffins for a treat.

Hopefully this gives a bit of a glimpse into our new life...is it any wonder I spend so much time in the kitchen, LOL!  Good thing we do a lot of school in there so I can multi-task!

5 comments:

Tina said...

How are you making your jam with no sugar? Honey? Just curious, I made homemade jelly last year but didn't like at all how much sugar I had to put in it.

As For Me and My House said...

I make mine with Stevia....don't know if you can use that or not. Or, do you just leave the sugar out altogether?

As For Me and My House said...

Sounds like you are adjusting to your "new life" very well!

Debi said...

You continue to amaze me! Are you canning your jams? I've been wanting to learn to do this forever.

Thanks for inspiring me with eating healthier. I love being gluten and dairy free so far. Don't miss either of these foods. Having a less gassy, crampy stomach is pure heaven. Kyle's stomach is also feeling so much better.

Beverly said...

Our jam is easy: for every 6-7 ounces of raspberries/blackberries (that's the only berry I've tried, based on original recipe for raspberries), melt 1 Tbsp butter and add 1 Tbsp honey. Stir well, add the berries, and simmer until it's the consistency you want.

Debi: I've been freezing the extra jam; there are no preservatives, so I don't think we can "can" the jam, per se. We just keep what we'll use in a couple of weeks in the fridge and put the rest in the freezer.