Thursday, January 13, 2011

Breakfast Salad?

I am a traditionalist. I like breakfast in its recognizable forms, especially--hot or cold cereal, eggs and grits, waffles, citrus fruits, cheese toast, bagels, that kind of thing.  On a nutritarian life plan only the hot cereal and citrus fruits make the cut.  So I have oatmeal two or three times a week and green fruit smoothies the other days, and that works pretty well.  I've thought "yuck" when I've seen other nutritarians' breakfast reports including leftover chili, big salads with tomatoes and vinegar dressings, and so forth.

What's a girl to do?

Well, I think about what I expect from breakfast--warm comfort or bright flavors--and I go from there.  Several times I have actually made a breakfast salad, based on what sounds good as I approach the kitchen, and one successful recipe, Apple-Carrot Salad, was a good option a time or two--my recipe was accepted on the Member Center recipe collection on drfuhrman.com

This morning I probably had that recipe in mind when I put together this one, a nice variation, that sneaks in some green veggie as well:

PEAR BREAKFAST SALAD
(Serves one)

1 cup broccoli slaw
1/2 cup shredded or matchstick carrots
2 dried apricot halves, snipped (optional)
2 tablespoons plain lowfat yogurt or substitute
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon powdered ginger (fresh would be fine, better, probably!)
1 pear, diced
1/2 oz. toasted slivered almonds (optional)

Combine broccoli, carrots, and apricot snips. Top with yogurt and spices, stirred together on top of the salad and then combined.  Dice the pear over the top and stir to combine, then top with the almonds.

Verdict:  Excellent.  The veggies and nuts are crunchy, the pear meltingly cool and sweet, and the occasional apricot bits chewy and sweet. This is kind of like a deconstructed smoothie, with broccoli instead of greens. I added my daily flax seed meal to this, and it blends in nicely.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing. I would have to keep the grits....love them!

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  2. Sounds great but using yogurt is a no go on a nutritarian diet.

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  3. Thanks for your comment, Cassie! In previous years Dr. Fuhrman's books and website have allowed for small amounts of animal products, though I agree that the highest-level protocol does not. Remember the ANDI scores from Whole Foods? On that list plain yogurt matches up with almonds, avocado, white potato, and brown rice. See here: http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/andi-food-scores.aspx .

    And you could certainly use soy yogurt if you like, or some other "dressing" of similar character. :-)

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I'd love to know what you think of these or if you have suggestions for improvements!