This month’s recipe is a guest post from Natasha Kay. I learned about Natasha’s blog when we were both asked to guest post for Tosca Reno. I saw this recipe and immediately want it to share it. Thanks Natasha for letting me!
One Small Step for Breakfast, One Giant Leap Toward Your Goal
I see it too often in the health and fitness world: well-intended and inspired, someone does a complete overhaul of their life only to find that in a few weeks’ or months’ time, they are feeling overwhelmed and fatigued. One small change after another seems to be the magic ticket to a successful weight loss that stays lost!
One of those small changes I always recommend to new clients is to improve daily breakfast habits. Starting the morning with a meal that keeps you feeling energized and satiated is a fantastic way to increase your chances of making better decisions all throughout the day! Starting it off with inadequate foods (or nothing at all) means you might as well get your vending machine change ready because you’ll be reaching for the chips and candy in no time.
Refined carbs and caffeinated sugary drinks seem to be the most common American breakfast — think pastries, donuts, bagels, cereals, breakfast bars — all paired with a sugary vanilla latte. Once the intense sugar spike has worn off and blood sugar levels plummet, the person is left feeling deprived, starved, and reaching for the nearest sugar hit to get them through. It’s a vicious cycle! Eating refined carbs for breakfast (yes, even those so-called “healthy” cereals) is like putting two bucks of gas in your car and then wondering why “low fuel” lights up ten minutes into your commute! What did you expect was going to happen?!
To set yourself up for success, choose a breakfast that provides slow-burning carbs which keep your tank full all morning long and avoid the roller-coaster of blood sugar spikes and falls. Our go-to breakfast for a busy family of four is a steel cut oats recipe that includes just the right amounts of healthy fats and lean protein to keep us fueled — and it tastes great, too! The superfoods up the health quotient by providing exceptional amounts of iron, calcium, and fiber, which also helps with keeping us satiated until lunch time..
If breakfast is still a new thing for you and you’re more likely to eat instant oatmeal, try looking for an organic option that has no added sugars (like the packets of BetterOatsOrganicBareOats that I use whenItravel) and sub them in for the steel cut oats in this recipe. You’ll get all the benefits of the superfoods and those instant oats won’t know what hit ‘em!
One change at a time may seem slow and tedious at first but when it means the small changes stick around, you’ll be too busy enjoying a leaner body and a happier outlook on life to care about the timeline!!
Domestically Yours,
Natasha Kay
Morning Oats Goulash
Serves 4
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 3 cups water
- sea salt
- 3 tbsp sliced almonds
- 3 tbsp raw pepitas
- 3 tbsp raw sunflower seeds
- 3 tbsp raisins
- 2 tbsp ground flax seed
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 tbsp hemp hearts
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- Cook the steel cut oats according to the package instructions (oats, water, sea salt).
- With five minutes left in the cooking time, add the almonds, pepitas, sunflower seeds, and raisins.
- Once served into four bowls, top each with ½ tbsp of each: ground flax, chia seeds, hemp hearts and maple syrup. Some people like a splash of almond milk, too!
Since cooking directions vary with steel cut oats, check your packaging for the proper measurements for four servings and if necessary, adjust the oats and water.
Nutritional Content: 347 calories | 13.5 g fat | 45 g carbs | 12.8 g protein
