Breakfast - the most important meal of the day...

You've  heard it a million times - Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Well, I'd have to agree. Breakfast is often the meal that will set up up for either success or failure.  If you start the day off right, chances are you will be more willing to stick to a good diet all day.  If you start off with sugary sweets for breakfast, chances are you will have a rough day of food choices. Not only that, if you are like me, you will end up with a stomach ache!

In our house we LOVE cereal.  We are big cereal eaters.  Or at least we were.  Because as tasty as cereal can be, there isn't much benefit.  It is usually full of sugar.  Even many of the "healthy" cereal options.  And my son and daughter, who are only 3 and 5 could eat two bowls in one sitting, and complain of being hungry an hour later.  It wasn't helping our wallet or our bodies!

In our house, I start most mornings with a green smoothie. The kids and I both have some (haven't been able to convince the husband to trade in his coffee for some smoothie...;) )  But even if you are one who needs your morning coffee, there are other things you can consume with your coffee to rev up your engine for the day!

Oatmeal is a great option. Many people say that their kids complain about oatmeal.  In our house we have lots of "add-ins", and my kids LOVE their oatmeal.   You can put in it nuts, seeds, cinnamon, cacao nibs, raisins, fruit, coconut...etc.  The options are endless!

For those times a cereal craving does hit and nothing else will do, there are quinoa puffs (pictured below).  Think Rice Krispies but instead of rice,  it is quinoa.  We load ours with toppings like nuts, seeds, chia seeds  raisins, agave....etc.  But we don't buy this on a regular basis because it isn't very frugal.

I usually like to start my day off with fruit.  Eating oranges, bananas, or berries along with my smoothie makes the day look better!

In the cooler weather I sometimes need to start my day off with something warm.  A hot herbal tea is the perfect remedy.

Interestingly enough, I discovered someone is doing a 31 day series on "Whole Food Breakfasts."

What is your favorite healthy breakfast?  Do you buy boxed cereal?

(This is day 3 in my 31 day series "31 days of Healthier Grub."  Thanks for stopping by!)

Smoothies

Ooh, smoothies, how you make my heart swoon.  All your nutritional goodness packed in one deliciously yummy beverage.  How you can be a drink, or a whole meal.

Some people reach for their coffee pot each morning. I reach for my blender.

Smoothies are an excellent way to pack tons of nutrition in one glass.  In this house we usually have green smoothies.  This means we add some serious greens to it- spinach, kale,romaine lettuce, etc.  Don't let that scare you though.  You can make these smoothies without tasting the greens.  Here's how.

In your blender, put two bananas, a cup of frozen fruit, and some spinach (or whatever greens you want.)  If you haven't had green smoothies before, I would start out with a small amount of spinach, maybe a handful, or even less if you think you'll be really sensitive to the taste.  Add water to your blender.  Blend it all up and enjoy!

I started with one small handful of spinach when I started drinking green smoothies.  Now I put an average of three large handfuls of spinach in it.  I also will add spirulina powder to it.  Sometimes I add flax seeds,chia seeds, dates....whatever I feel like.  I find if you keep the base the same (bananas, fruit, greens) you can play around with it and add many different things!

We usually put water in ours, but sometimes I'll put orange juice in it. Orange juice is pretty much the only store-bought juice I buy.  I figure buying 100% orange juice is definitely better than buying most other juices.  And although in the ideal situation I'd be juicing my own orange juice, I also have three busy small children and a busy life!  You have to pick and choose what works for you, right?

If you are new around here, you may have missed my previous posts about smoothies.  Check out my pumpkin smoothie, and my green pumpkin smoothie.

Feeling Under the Weather

I've been feeling a little under the weather here, so of course, what do I decide to do when a bad head cold hits?  Move furniture of course!  I have been doing a lot of de-cluttering over the past few months, and some of that has come in the form of furniture. So today I shuffled some stuff around.  My favorite spot in our house right now is this:

(Stop looking at the dust!) ;)

This spot makes me think of those places in Asia where you sit on the floor to eat. This is the hutch that goes to our desk, which is now in another location for another use.  The table holding the keyboard has recently been mod-podged...because come on,mod-podge is fun!

The funny thing is,this computer doesn't get used. We have three computers in this house. Ridiculous, I know, but my husband has his own laptop for work that he takes with him, and I got his old one.  This computer in the picture is just in a bad location...near sleeping kids.  We talked about getting rid of it, but it's actually doing something there...providing us with our wireless connection for the rest of the computers.  I'm sure we could change it around somehow with some tools, but the thought of that is too complicated for my brain.

Anyways, I digress...

So, after I spent the afternoon moving furniture, I was really feeling the head cold.  Totally being in "pumpkin" mood lately, I decided to make a pumpkin smoothie but add some greens.  Greens are definitely a good choice when you are sick!

Pumpkin Green Smoothie:

1/2 cup cooked pumpkin

2 bananas

2 large handfuls of spinach

Milk of your choice

1 Tbsp Agave

1 Tbsp Flax

And I just realized I forgot to add some spirulina, but if you decide to, it will make the smoothie darker of course.

So yummy!

And of course, I had to accompany that with some raw vegan treats.  I've discovered this new website, Healthful pursuit, and I kid you not when I say I've spent the past few nights SALIVATING over her recipes, and bookmarking dozens of ones I want to try.  I did make some No Bake Fudge Drops.  This is the picture that played out shortly after in my house:

Notice they have one each.  I won't tell you that I who ate the other six.

So, all in all, it's been a busy, delicious day.  Now I'm ready to do some crocheting, and fall into bed, ready for a busy day of swimming lessons, flyer reading:), and homeschooling tomorrow.