Rethinking breakfast

Since wheat, dairy, eggs, oat, corn, sugar, and pork are out, breakfast is a whole new ballgame. I'd already started to shy away from pork sausage when my digestive issues suggested something was seriously wrong when I ate dairy or wheat.

I began to supplement eggs with hash browns or turkey bacon (Wellshire or Applegate brands).  I finally cottoned to the fact that eggs were a problem (sulfur + gas = humiliating public appearances). Now that I know for sure eggs are out, I don't know that I'd whip up a breakfast of hash browns and bacon. Seems incomplete. Gotta check my hash brown brand now, too. So many things to check . . . .

Breakfast cereals

Cereal. No bones about it, I can't eat it anymore. As I mentioned in my bucket list, I continue to look for a brand that is safe, but so far, I've only found two that come close to meeting my restrictions: Enjoy Life Foods Perky's Crunchy Flax and Nature's Path Millet Puffs.

Crunchy Flax is fruit juice sweetened (raisin) and contains honey. I'm not allergic to honey, but my naturopath asked me to avoid this b/c it is considered an inflammatory. I can't say I'm adhering to this precisely, but I'm trying. The anti-inflammatory list further restricts my limited food choices to barely there. I'm picking and choosing what to avoid on that list for now. Allergies trump anti-inflammatories. Sorry, a girl's gotta eat . . . .

The ingredient that worries me more is salt. I can't have regular table salt b/c many brands contain dextrose (corn) and the innocuously-named, anti-caking agent known as yellow prussiate of soda, aka sodium ferrocyanide. I don't know about you, but anything that binds with cyanide doesn't sound like something I should ingest. I'm buying Mediterranean sea salt now. No dextrose. No prussiate. The Crunchy Flax, unfortunately, does not say sea salt. So . . . I think that is off my list for now.

Millet Puffs are . . . okay. Nothing to write home about. They are manufactured in a plant that also processes wheat, but I haven't found this to be a problem. They'll do in a pinch. I'll hunt for more as time allows.

Hot cereals - replacing oatmeal

I miss oatmeal. My favorite breakfast was oatmeal with brown sugar and home-grown organic blueberries in the morning.  I've learned to swap out Quinoa flakes for oatmeal, and coconut sugar for brown sugar, but it's not quite the same. I find quinoa a little too earthy. Like dirt earthy. I'm learning to like it. Did I mention I miss oatmeal?

Another option I found recently at Whole Foods is Arrowhead Mills Organic Rice and Shine Hot Cereal. A fancy name for brown rice grits. I don't follow the microwave instructions on the box. I tried - once - and got a soupy porridge of undercooked grits. You're suppose to let it sit to thicken, but I'd be a grandmother before this happened. I kept microwaving it until I got the texture I was looking for. Infinitely more palatable. Feels like I'm making oatmeal - 1/4 C grits, 1 C unsweetened coconut milk, dash of sea salt. Microwave on high for three minutes, add two handfuls frozen blues, a handful of dry-roasted walnuts, 1 tablespoon coconut sugar and zap another thirty seconds. Yum. Hey, my first recipe! This, I can eat.

A couple of other options I found are buckwheat groats and hulled millet. I've already made the millet like you would a side dish - boil in water and let simmer for 20-30 minutes. The taste was good - mild, almost grain-like - but it didn't have the right mouth feel for breakfast. I will try again, this time using DF milk and the microwave, see if I can get it creamy.

Smoothies

This is one of my favorite alternatives. Quick, easy, satisfying. Delicious. I get protein from nut milks as well as a protein powder (Nutribiotic Rice Protein Powder - vanilla flavored) that the wonderful Gluten-free Goddess recommended on her site. My favorite so far has been a pumpkin pie smoothie. I've tried various recipes but haven't found that perfect combo yet. When I do, I'll post.

Granola

Try finding store-bought granola without oats. Or sugar. Or corn (as in starch, dextrose, dextrin or hidden in salt). Ain't happening. However, a lot of vegan websites, especially gluten-free or raw vegans, post recipes for granola. Raw foodies make something called "buckwheaties" which is a dehydrated form of buckwheat groats used as a replacement for oats in granola recipes. As my dehydrator should be here any day now, I look forward to trying this.

Pancakes/waffles

We weren't big pancake or waffle people, so I can't say I miss them. Not nearly as much as eggs. Guess I need to rethink pancakes. Lots of GFDFEFSYCF recipes out there for pancakes. And I suppose french toast is totally out. Until I find a sandwich bread recipe sans yeast. And an egg replacer. I used to make a faux french toast for my son using nutritional yeast, coconut milk, cinnamon, sugar, and vanilla extract. Doesn't sound like much but when you can hardly eat anything, it's ambrosia.


That's as creative as I've gotten to date. This is only one of the many food groups to explore and remake in a new, allergy free existence . . . .