Begin healthy in the morning

This past Saturday I went to a wonderful event with good food, fabulous music and a fun group of people. Yet, I sat next one of my friends and trying to convince him to go home. Work stress had gotten the better of him and he looked like if he didn’t relax, he would need serious medical attention soon.

Thankfully, the chorus of voices urging him to go home eventually won out. He later told me that home was only the first stop. He ended up in the emergency room until 3 a.m. His blood pressure had sky rocketed and his was dehydrated.

I’m grateful that when I talked with him on Monday he said he needed to change his habits and he asked me to help him. So when we chatted, we talked a little bit about food. He rarely cooks and doesn’t eat leftovers. I see challenges ahead, but let’s start with a simple breakfast.

One of my favorite breakfasts, and one of the most filling, has become a warm bowl of some sort of grain with fresh fruit and toasted nuts. Here’s an easy way to prepare it.

Breakfast Bowl

Choose your grain—steel-cut oats, quinoa, etc. I also like Bob’s Red Mill 10-Grain Hot Cereal. Follow cooking directions.
As the cereal cooks, prepare some in-season fruit. This week I peeled and chopped a juicy peach for mine.

Choose a raw, unsalted nut or seed (pumpkin is goo) to toast on the stovetop over medium-low heat. How long it takes depends on your nut. For example, slivered almonds cook quickly; chopped walnuts take longer.

Put grain in breakfast bowl and add as much or as little milk as you like. Sprinkle a tad of salt and as much cinnamon as you prefer. Add fruit and stir. Taste for sweetness. If it needs more, add honey or organic maple syrup. Top with nuts.

Enjoy! It will keep you satisfied with no problem until lunch as it also gives you a good start on your portion of fiber for the day.

Fruit for breakfast

I love fruit, especially when I can get it outside of my door. We have a peach tree that we have to duck under when we walk from the carport to our kitchen door. It took root from a pit that Jim through on the ground several years ago. It grew so nicely that we didn’t dare to move it to a more convenient place. This is our third year to have peaches on it and although they’ve battled with the elements, they survived, holding the peaches in their green-leafed palms for us to pick as we go in and out of the house.

In the front of the house we have raspberry bushes, which benefited greatly from the big rains we had several weeks ago. I’ve been picking plump, ripe berries that never all make it into the house. It’s too easy to just pop them right into my mouth. The bushes are so unruly that if someone were to ask me why we let the weeds grow so tall in the front yard, it wouldn’t surprise me!

When time for breakfast arrives, I’m especially happy to have the peaches and raspberries. Besides mixing them with plain yogurt and a few nuts, I also cut them up to put on top of waffles or pancakes. It’s easy to make a simple syrup to serve with the fruit. Simply combine the fruit in a pan with equal parts water and sugar. Cook on medium to medium high until it begins to boil then turn it down to simmer until it thickens a bit. In the meantime, toast some pumpkin seeds or nuts to add crunch to the meal. We poured our syrup with peaches and raspberries over biscuits that Jim made. He declared it to be a delicious “Upside down cobbler.”

Don’t have fruit in your yard? No problem. Find your local orchard. It’s the season when, in many places, their fruit is abundant. Then you, too, can have fruit for breakfast.