I had never even attempted to make Creme Brulee before I came across a great recipe for it in a Crockpot cookbook of all places!  Yes, I’ve adapted this from the wonderful Make it Fast, Cook it Slow cookbook by Stephanie O’Dea of  365 Days of SlowCooking. You can read my review of it here. 

I adapted the recipe (and doubled it) to be free of sugar and low-carb.  Oh, and I didn’t do anything involving a kitchen blow-torch on the top of it, so I guess this is not truly “creme brulee”. 

I used Truvia (a stevia-erythritol blend) instead of sugar.  By the way, I’m not 100% confident that Truvia is the best thing in the world, the jury is still out. I do trust it far more than any artificial sweetner, but if you’re concerned you can simply stick to your favorite form of stevia and add it to taste. There are lots of different Stevias out there, so go with what you prefer. In this household, right now we’re hooked on Truvia. But I don’t always trust things that are made by Cargill and white.

Creme Brulee

2 cups of heavy cream (preferably grass-fed, like Strauss)
5 egg yolks (Coscto now has 18-ct Organic, Cage Free Eggs for a little over $4! Not bad!)
1 Tbs vanilla extract
3-4 packets of Truvia (or your preferred form of Stevia, to taste)

1. Blend all ingredients together.

2. Place in individual ramekins or a large casserole dish. 

3. Place in crockpot. Fill crock with water to come up halfway around the dishes (like a hot water bath).

4. Cover and cook on high for about 3 hours.  Remove and let cool completely.

5. Transfer and chill in the fridge overnight. It will be a little “jiggly” before you chill it. Don’t worry.

6. Serve topped with sliced strawberries (preferably organic) and enjoy!

Check out some other sugar-free recipes at Naturally Knocked Up. Not all are gluten-free or even grain-free, but they are all at least free of refined sugar and look great!

Photo credit

To see the entire “campaign” for Children’s “Nutrition” by Kellogg, you can click through the pages here, but the website doesn’t give justice to the colorful, multi-page insert that came in the paper.  The document starts off by showing Tony the Tiger giving a “Thumb’s Up” sign, surrounded by boxes of Frosted Flakes, Apple Jacks, Pops, and Fruit Loops.  Yeah, the healthy stuff. They don’t even pretend to promote the Raisin Brain here; it’s straight to the sugar cereals.

Rev up your day with Kellogg’s™ Fuel for School™ program. Starting the day with a balanced, great-tasting breakfast can put you on the fast track to good nutrition. Many kids and adults forget this important first meal. And nutritious snacks from Kellogg allow for easy-to-pack lunches and after-school snacks! So the next time you head to the grocery store, plan ahead and you’ll have the right snacks on hand with the nutrients to balance your family’s diet. At Kellogg, we have great snacking options all through the day.

Ok, let’s examine these “nutritous breakfasts” and their components:

Fruit Loops: SUGAR; CORN FLOUR; WHEAT FLOUR; OAT FLOUR; PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (ONE OR MORE OF: COCONUT, COTTONSEED, AND SOYBEAN) †; SALT; SODIUM ASCORBATE AND ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C); REDUCED IRON; NATURAL ORANGE, LEMON, CHERRY, RASPBERRY, BLUEBERRY, LIME, AND OTHER NATURAL FLAVORS; RED #40; BLUE #2; YELLOW #6; ZINC OXIDE; NIACINAMIDE; TURMERIC COLOR; BLUE #1; PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6); RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2); THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1); VITAMIN A PALMITATE; ANNATTO COLOR; BHT (PRESERVATIVE); FOLIC ACID; VITAMIN D; VITAMIN B12.
† LESS THAN 0.5g TRANS FAT PER SERVING.

Wow, Kellogg. You’ve really outdone yourselves!  A bowlful of sugar, processed grain flours, and artificial colors (oh, and don’t forget the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils!)  This looks like a really nutritious breakfast for my child!

The website claims that this is a balanced breakfast.  Remember when they used to say “this is part of a complete breakfast” showing eggs, bacon, orange juice, and a side of processed cereal? Well, apparently now Fruit Loops is considered balanced all by itself. Nice.

Question: What makes this balanced, again?

Oh, it’s not.

And then, there are Pop Tarts. Do people actually believe these are healthy breakfast options for kids?!?! I’m not trying to be snarky…I’m just really curious.  A junky dessert, maybe, but seriously, a breakfast? Really Kellogg’s????

Oh, and don’t forget Eggo waffles! I’ll spare you the ugly nutritional details, but if you are interested, you can see all the ingredients of their products on their product website. 

Enough about breakfast. What about snacks?

How about “Yogo’s Bits” or Morningstar Farms “Chik’N Nuggets”.  If you ever wondered what a “Chik’N’ looks like, here you have it:

TEXTURED VEGETABLE PROTEIN (SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, SOY PROTEIN ISOLATE, WHEAT GLUTEN, WATER FOR HYDRATION), WATER, ENRICHED WHEAT FLOUR (FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), BLEACHED WHEAT FLOUR, CORN OIL, CORNSTARCH, CONTAINS TWO PERCENT OR LESS OF WHEAT STARCH, SALT, METHYLCELLULOSE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, DEXTROSE, AUTOLYZED YEAST EXTRACT, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS FROM NON-MEAT SOURCES, SUGAR, MALTODEXTRIN, DISODIUM INOSINATE, SOYBEAN OIL, HYDROLYZED SOY PROTEIN, ONION, PAPRIKA, DRIED YEAST, INULIN FROM CHICORY ROOT, CARAMEL COLOR, TAPIOCA DEXTRIN, XANTHAN GUM, SODIUM ALGINATE, SPICES, YELLOW CORN FLOUR, PAPRIKA EXTRACT FOR COLOR, ANNATTO EXTRACT FOR COLOR, BAKING SODA, GARLIC, TOMATO POWDER, CELERY EXTRACT, WHEAT FIBER, LACTIC ACID, SAFFLOWER OIL, BARLEY EXTRACT, CITRIC ACID, NIACINAMIDE, EGG WHITES, NONFAT DRY MILK, SUCCINIC ACID, DISODIUM GUANYLATE, IRON (FERROUS SULFATE), THIAMIN MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), VITAMIN B12.

Ok, I have another question processed food manufacturers: Why the heck do you use so many billions of ingredients to make one product???? Is the extra tapioca dextrin really necessary?

So what are the alternatives? Are there ways that busy moms getting kids ready for school can send them off with a nutritious breakfast on the go?

Check out my 5 day breakfast meal plan for busy moms for some kid-tested, real nutrient-dense foods that can be made ahead or on in 10 minutes or less!

Other than making your own food, you can Fight Back against the propaganda by:

1) Ignoring it and making informed choices for Real Foods.

2) Writing to companies like Kellogg’s.  Take a moment to let them know that there are consumers who want Real Food.  It’s is possible to package and provide nourishing convenience foods, but companies have to know  there’s a market for it.  I personally wrote to Kellogg’s at what a disgrace I think it is that the food they are promoting for children is linked to childhood obesity, type II diabetes, and weakened immunity.

3) Vote with your dollar and use your hard-earned money to support local farmers and distributors of local organic products for nourishing breakfast foods.

4) Get informed on all the Real Food news at Real Food Media and check out what the other Food Renegades are saying this week on Fight Back Friday!

My inspiration? Perhaps it was the Lenten Pancake breakfast I had to, with Lenten self-sacrifice, abstain from last Saturday. I sign up to help with this breakfast every year, in secret hope of being able to covertly add a bit of health to these deliciously sinful pancakes. Unfortunately, these pancakes contain nearly everything that I can’t eat! White flour, cane sugar, soy milk, soy oil, and margarine. It’s almost laughable how every ingredient, though delicious-smelling, reacts horribly with my body.

Even though I enjoyed the massive spread of fruit dishes, I kept yearning for those fluffy, thick pancakes that filled the air with their griddley goodness Saturday morning.

For the record, I’ve experimented endlessly with gluten-free pancake and waffle recipes. When grains were more kosher for my daughter, we loved the blender batter waffles/pancake recipe. It’s truly thrifty and delicious. But as we’ve moved transitioned to a grain-free diet, it’s been a little more tricky. I’ve tried almond flour pancakes but they were just too dense and heavy. I had tried Bruce Fife’s coconut pancake recipe, but it seemed to flop on me. I was ready to resign myself to a pancake-free life, but then I came across a blog I’m finding more and more affinity towards every day.

Everything Free Eating is written by a women after my own heart, and I LOVE her recipes, her writing style, and her perspective on life. She’s amazing. She gave me a starting point for a grain-free pancake. I’ve tweaked it a bit to fit my taste and have come up with what I think is the perfect “I-can’t-believe-it’s-not-bad-for-me” pancake!

After two days of preparing these perfect little chubs, and having my kids gobble them up like hotcakes, (even DH pulled the cold leftovers out of the fridge for dessert last night and devoured them) I thought I’d just have to share them. Coincidence? I think not, given Kimi’s Nourishing Breakfast Carnival today!

Grain Free Pancakes
adapted from EverythingFreeEating

Blend together in the Vitamix:

3 eggs plus enough whites to equal 1 cup (or just 1 cup, total. I’m always looking for ways to use up my egg whites,and I think the extra whites contribute to the fluffiness)
1/2 cup milk (goat, cow, or coconut; we use goat)
2 Tablespoons of Honey or Agave Nectar
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp stevia liquid

Mix together separately:

1/2 tsp guar gum
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup coconut flour

Add dry ingredients to vitamix and blend until smooth. Pour onto prepared griddle and top with your favorite pancake toppers!

Enjoy! And be sure to visit Everything Free Eating for more creative, grain-free recipes and well as The Nourishing Gourmet!

Breakfast, they say, is the most important meal of the day. This is totally true for me; I’ve always needed a full breakfast to get me going since I’m not a morning person. A complete breakfast, thanks to the cereal ads of our childhood, conjures up images of 2 margerined slices of white wonder bread, a tall glass of orange juice, a bowl of sugar-laden, extruded grain cereal, and perhaps eggs and bacon of some kind. I’ll keep the latter, and replace the sugar/grain component with some more filling, lower-calorie, nutrient-dense foods!

I give Rachel Albert-Matesz all the credit for enlightening me to the notion of how to eat a complete, healthy, grain-free breakfast, from her amazing book The Garden of Eating. She offers a simple breakdown of proteins, veggies, and fruit. The way I interpret this is:

25% protein
50% vegetable (half starchy, half non-starchy, but include leafy greens!)
25% fruit

On fasting days when we don’t eat meat, I emphasize the fruit and vegetable and just make sure I stock up on protein the other days of the week.

Here are a few ideas, inspired by The Garden of Eating, for grain-free, wholesome breakfasts:

*scrambled eggs with leftover veggies and apple slices
*bacon and fried eggs with broccoli and oranges
*hard-boiled egg, sardines, leftover vegetable soup, grapes
*nitrate-free apple sausage with cooked butternut squash, butter, honey
*smoked salmon-egg scramble with roasted asparagus and blueberries
*almond butter pancakes topped with raspberries
*herbed hamburger patty with sauteed greens and apples

And my favorite, which is displayed in the photo above, is:

scrambled eggs topped with cortido (Latin American sauerkraut), green onions, raw cheese, and salsa, with a side of collard greens and orange slices. Delish!!

Some tips for eating breakfast:

*Upon rising, drink a tall glass of lemon water or a lacto-fermented beverage. I love to drink a glass of coconut kefir first thing. It really enlivens me.

*Take your cod liver oil next.

*If you must do coffee, please partake after you have hydrated yourself with good-quality water as mentioned above. When we awaken, our bodies are relatively dehydrated from the night’s hard work of digesting, repairing, and detoxifying. Since coffee is so acidic and dehydrating, it’s very contracting and therefore not the best thing first thing in the morning.

*I love to enjoy a tablespoon of coconut oil (the best price is here) melted into a cup of herbal tea. I try to take this about 20 min. before I eat breakfast in order to prevent over-eating. I sip on this as I make breakfast.

*I usually use leftover veggies from the previous nights’ dinners to accompany eggs for breakfasts. This is a great way to use up leftovers.

*Soups make very filling and nourishing breakfasts. They are great when you’re missing that piping hot bowl of oatmeal.

What are your favorite, nourishing breakfasts? Please feel free to leave a comment!

Another myth often believed by traditional foodies is that good food can’t possibly be quick and easy to prepare.

Doesn’t everything have to soak for like 2 weeks before it can be consumed?

Thankfully no! Now granted, many of my breakfasts in my menu plans require lots of advanced preparation, but recently I concocted a deliciously satisfying breakfast “cereal” of sorts that had all the trappings of cereal: milk, crunch, and sweetness– but without all the yucky extruded, processed grains involved.

I call it “Apple-Cinnamon Crunch” and its 100% RAW!!

Here’s what I did:

Apple Cinnamon Crunch: The non-Cereal

Serves 4

1 Granny Smith Apple
1 Stick Cinnamon, ground (or approx. 1/2 tsp)
1 Cup Crispy Walnuts
1/2 Cup Raisins (optional)
1/2 Cup Buckwheat Sprouts (optional)
Raw milk or cream, or real almond milk

1. Shred the apple into large bowl.

2. Toss with cinnamon.

3. Add walnuts, buckwheat sprouts, and raisins, if using.

4. Top with desired amount of milk or cream.

This alkalizing breakfast is light, yet filling, fresh, and alive!

Photo courtesy www.localhs.com