I am a bit of a health food fanatic.  I love reading healthy living blogs and magazines and have received many great ideas from them.  In the event that others might find it helpful, I plan to use this blog to share some of my recipes and practices.  So in that vein (and overpowering the nagging voice in my head saying that no one cares what you eat for breakfast) ….

Over the years, breakfast has become my favorite meal.  I exercise in the morning, so by the time I get to breakfast, I want something substantial.  I have tried various types of breakfast foods and have narrowed it down to three or four different themes.

My favorite by far consists of four ingredients:

1.  Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal.  It is delicious.  It looks a little like Grape Nuts, but unlike Grape Nuts, it does not taste like kitty litter.  For each serving size, which is one cup, there are 190 calories.  Often with granola type cereal, the serving size will be 1/4 cup with calories around 200 per serving.  This cereal also has a significant amount of protein.   I put 3/4 cup of Kashi in a bowl.

2.  Nature’s Path Heritage Heirloom Whole Grains.  A good friend recommended this cereal to my husband to help lower his cholesterol.  I tried it and loved it.  I add 1/4 cup of this into my bowl – which is 40 calories.  This cereal is very high in fiber with wheat, oats, spelt, barley, millet & quinoa (the mother grain).  My bulldogs share some of this with me as I get my breakfast ready.

3.  One container of Dannon’s light and fit yogurt – either vanilla or cherry vanilla.  80 calories per container.  Low sugar Greek yogurt would be an even better option.

4.  Fruit.  This is my favorite part – and I love telling people about this.  How many of us have gotten discouraged after throwing away fruit that has rotted in our fridges?  Try buying frozen fruit.  I buy blueberries, cherries, raspberries and peaches.  I put a mix of whatever I feel like at that time in a bowl, pop it in the microwave for a minute and it is ready.  The warm fruit mixed in with 1, 2 and 3 above is absolutely delicious – and very healthy.  Make sure that your fruit does not have added sugar – it doesn’t need it.

I sprinkle ground flaxseed and wheat germ over the finished product.  Yummy.