What's For Breakfast?

A long time ago, almost in another life, I went through a time of great stress and I stopped eating.  I had no appetite and I didn't want to eat.  I used to do crazy things like go for long, intense runs in the morning without eating anything, go home, shower and dress and around 2 pm would experience this strange feeling.  The feeling was hunger.  Sometimes I'd be off walking the dog or running errands or something at this time and wouldn't do anything about it until even later in the day.  Not good.  I finally settled on drinking a fruit and yogurt smoothie in the morning.  I didn't want anything to eat, but I could drink.  A smoothie has been the food to break my fast ever since.  These days I put a lot of interesting and tasty things in my smoothie.  Here's a recipe for you to try:

2 bananas

2 pieces other fruit (mango, kiwi, orange* ...)

2 tbsps ground flax seed*

2 large handfuls spinach*

soy milk*

Slice the banana and other fruit into a blender.  Add the flax seed and spinach.  Push the spinach down a bit.  Pour soy milk in until the contents are covered.  Blend until smooth.  Makes 2 servings - 1 for you and 1 to share.

* Buy organic flax seed and keep it in the freezer.  Grind up small batches, about 1/3 cup, as needed and store the ground seed in the fridge.

* Eating spinach this way is an excellent way to get your greens.

* Use unsweetened, organic soy milk.

* If you use oranges, the smoothie will be pulpy.  If you don't mind pulp, drink it down.  I strain my smoothie through a potato masher to get the big pieces of pulp out.

Here's one more recipe for you to try - Black Bean, Corn, Quinoa Salad

1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa

1 can unsalted, unsweetened corn, drained and rinsed

1 1/2 cups black beans

1 red pepper, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced (or more)

1 tsp vegetable oil *

1 tbsp lime juice

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp chipotle pepper puree *

salt to taste *

organic spring greens

avacado

tomato

Combine the quinoa, corn, black beans, red pepper, green onions together and mix.  Stir in the cilantro.  Whisk together the garlic, oil, lime juice, vinegar and chipotle puree.  Pour the dressing over the salad and mix well.  Let stand for a couple of hours to allow flavours to develop.  Serve on a bed of salad greens with sliced avacado and chopped tomatoes.

* I used to make this with no oil, but I find that just this little bit really helps to carry the other dressing ingredients and coat the salad better.

* Buy a can of chipotle peppers in adobe sauce and puree the contents in a blender.  Store the paste in a container in the fridge.

* You can add no salt if you wish.  I like salt, but am trying to not eat so much (remember that I l-o-v-e potato chips) so I usually put a little bit in my food and then not add any when I'm eating.