(food) There’s a New Breakfast in Town
Since getting my braces put on last week, my mouth has been very sensitive. The first couple days were full of excruciating pain and I really couldn’t handle eating anything that required chewing of any sort. I mean, it even hurt to chew watermelon and that is a pretty soft fruit. Now that I’m almost at the one week mark, the overall pain has lessened but my teeth are still very tender when it comes to biting into and chewing anything hard. So things like chips, pretzel and basically anything that requires the use of my front teeth are still off limits. Basically, everything must be cut into very small pieces so it can go straight to the back chompers. Anywho, this is all just a really long-winded way of telling you that my breakfast standby - the thing I eat for breakfast like 3,574 days of the year - has been off limits. My teeth just can’t handle chomping into my beloved toast with avocado and egg. So, what’s a tender tin grin to do? Head to the pinterest, and find a picture of summer porridge aka cold oatmeal, the latter of which sounds terribly unappealing, so I’ll stick with summer porridge. It’s basically a summerified version of oatmeal but zhushed up to have maximum nutrition and not leave you hungry by 9 am.
I found my recipe here, but I tweaked it a bit to substitute coconut milk for skim milk and in the case of the banana-chocolate combo, I used raw cacao powder for tons of antioxidants. I’ve made the banana-chocolate and raspberry-vanilla flavor combos and they are both tops. I would probably eat them on the reg, even if I wasn’t currently dealing with a case of feeble fence face. I make these the night before so the oats can soak and soften up and the chia seeds can expand, and I reap the following benefits:
Raw Cacao Powder (banana-chocolate flavor only)
- Raw cacao has more antioxidant flavenoids that blueberries, red wine, and green tea.
- Cacao increases the levels of specific neurotransmitters (including seratonin and endorphins) to promote a positive outlook, facilitate rejuvenation, and help make you feel good.
- Cacao is rich in essential minerals including magnesium, sulfur, calcium, iron, zinc, copper, potassium and manganese (source)
Chia Seeds
- Provides maximum amount of nutrients with minimum calories, including fiber, omega fatty acids, calcium, antioxidants and protein.
- Chia absorbs up to 12 times it own weight in liquid and expands to curb your appetite.
- Ounce for ounce, chia seeds have more omega 3-fatty acids than salmon.
- Chia has 18% of your daily value of calcium per ounce, which is three times more than skim milk. (source)
Coconut Milk
- Full of healthy fats that satiate your appetite and help control weight.Coconut milk contains lauric acid, antimicrobial lipids, and capric acid which have antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral properties. Yay immune benefits!
- It is rich in manganese which helps maintain your blood sugar levels.
- The saturated fat in coconut is made up of short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids the body quickly turns into energy instead of storing as fat. Therefore, the fats in coconut milk can aid in weight loss. (source and source)
And all this before 8 am? (pats self on back). Hopefully you’re already familiar with all the benefits of rolled oats (not quick cooking, fyi), raspberries, bananas, and Greek yogurt, so I don’t need to detail those for you smart people.
Overall, this breakfast gets two out of two headgear ratings from me.
So, definitely give it a whirl, especially if you have busy mornings. Since you make it the night before, it’s ready to go whenever you are.
