Blueberry and Strawberry Baked Oatmeal with Walnuts and Coconut

Baked oatmeal is the ultimate meal prep breakfast. You can make it over the weekend and have leftovers to reheat and enjoy throughout the week. This version is loaded with summer's ripest berries, omega-3 rich walnuts, and tasty coconut chips. It can be made gluten and dairy free, is sweetened with maple syrup, and flavored with a bit of cinnamon and vanilla extract. In the winter, feel free to use frozen berries, apples and pears, or even persimmons. You can also try topping the baked oatmeal with a bit of yogurt. It's a delicious, nourishing, and super simple breakfast.

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Blueberry and Strawberry Baked Oatmeal with Walnuts and Coconut

Makes about 6 servings
Adapted from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats (gluten-free if desired)
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 cups unsweetened, plain plant milk (oat, hemp, almond, soy)
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 eggs
3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups strawberries, chopped
1 cup blueberries
1/2 cup coconut chips (or 1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Grease a square 8-inch baking dish and set aside.
2. Combine the oats, half of the walnuts, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the maple syrup, milk, eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla.
4. Stir dry ingredients into wet and mix to combine. Gently stir in berries and coconut. 
5. Transfer mixture to greased baking dish and top with remaining walnuts.
6. Bake until the top is golden and the oats are set, about 40-45 minutes. Store covered in the fridge for up to 5 days. 

Three Seed Breakfast Porridge with Spiced Stewed Peaches and Toasted Coconut

Now that there is finally a hint of that fall chill in the air, breakfast porridges are happening full force in my kitchen. The warmth and ease of bowl of slow cooked grains, topped with some fruit and nut butter, offers a delicious, filling, and nutritious start to the day. I love that I can cook a big pot of porridge at the start of the week, and then simply reheat a portion on the stove each morning. It’s efficient, affordable, and my belly is happy.

I’m going to call steel-cut oats the “gateway grain” into the marvelous world of porridge. They are widely available, affordable, totally delicious, and a nutritious choice to start the day. But I’ve found that I can fall into a steel-cut oat cooking rut if I’m not careful, eating oats week after week. Sound familiar?

This recipe provides a bit of variation to the morning oat routine. It’s a combination of millet, amaranth, and quinoa. Often called ancient grains, these three are actually seeds! (You may recognize millet as common bird seed…)

By combining these three seeds, we're upping the amino acid profile and boosting the number of vitamins and minerals of our porridge to provide our bodies with a broader spectrum of nourishing nutrients. We’re switching things up to practice our flexibility, adaptability, and openness in the kitchen and with the foods we eat. 

As we move into this fall season, let's aim for more variety, more colors, and more plants in your meals. Increase diversity! You'll not only make food more fun, but you'll be making yourself more resilient and giving your body the nutrients it needs to feel it's most vital.

Happy fall, all! Enjoy those bowls of porridge with gratitude for the abundance of nourishment this beautiful earth provides. 

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Three Grain Breakfast Porridge with Spiced Stewed Peaches and Toasted Coconut

Makes 4 servings

Porridge
1/3 cup amaranth
1/3 cup quinoa
1/3 cup millet
1 cup coconut milk (or other non-dairy milk)
¼ sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cardamom

Spiced Stewed Peaches
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
2 ripe peaches, sliced
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons water
Pinch sea salt

Coconut flakes, lightly toasted for topping

1)   In a fine mesh sieve, rinse the amaranth, quinoa, and millet. Transfer to a small sauce pot and cover with water. Soak overnight.

2)   Rinse the grains and return to the pot along with 2 cups of water, the coconut milk, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cook uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

3)   While the porridge is cooking, heat the coconut oil over low heat in a small sauce pan. Add the cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, toasting the spices slightly until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the peaches, vanilla, lemon juice, water, and salt. Stir to combine and cook over low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring nearly continuously.

4)   To serve, top porridge with stewed peaches and toasted coconut flakes. 

Strawberry Chia Seed Pudding with Toasted Coconut and Almonds

Ch-ch-ch-chia!!!!

Yes, the same seeds that I watered for my terracotta Chia Pet are the main ingredients of this recipe. I’m totally crazy for the tiny seeds. I add them to smoothies, breakfast porridge, baked goods, and even salads as a nutrition booster. Once considered a staple in the Aztec diet, chia seeds are now considered a “super food” for their nutritional benefits.  

Chia seeds are well known for being a rich source of plant-based omega-3 fatty acids, with more per serving than even salmon. They also provide complete protein, antioxidants, and minerals like calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, molybdenum, and zinc.

The best part – in my gut’s opinion – is the way that chia seeds help with the digestive system. Chia seeds have a ton of fiber. 1 ounce (about two tablespoons) provides 11 grams of fiber, which is over 40% of the fiber RDA for women.  This helps regulate blood sugar levels, lower cholesterol, and aid in digestion. As this recipe will demonstrate, chia seeds form a gel when then come in contact with liquid. Not only does this binding quality provide an excellent egg replacer in baked goods, it also helps bind together stools, promote regularity, and coat the digestive tract in a way that reduces irritation.

After years of struggling with Irritable Bowl Syndrome, learning how to adjust the fiber in my diet has been a key tool in managing my IBS symptoms like constipation and bloating. Chia seeds, as well as flax seeds, have been two ingredients in my culinary pharmacy that keep my digestive system moving and my belly happy.

I should mention however, that when you begin to add fiber to your diet START SLOW. If you are new to chia seeds, their friends flax seeds, or phyllum husk, do not eat half of this recipe by yourself. You could end up with the reverse effects and get quite the stomach ache. Also make sure you drink plenty of water when increasing fiber to your diet. This will also help keep everything moving along in the right direction...  

THE RECIPE
As one of my clients put it after trying a version of this recipe, “These chia seeds are magic!” Without adding anything besides almond milk, chia seeds form a tapioca-like consistency that is creamy, filling, and totally delicious. By blending up some strawberries with the almond milk before adding the seeds, the pudding becomes infused with delicious strawberry flavor. Topped with toasted coconuts and slivered almonds, you might just think you're eating dessert for breakfast.

This recipe makes enough pudding to fill 5 1-cup mason jars, which is perfect if you are looking for an easy no-cook breakfast for you and your family. I've written it for this quantity because it is a great recipe to batch cook at the beginning of the week and enjoy through Friday, since these single-servings can last in the fridge for up to five days. All you have to do the morning of is add the toppings. The recipe can definitely be halved if you want to make a smaller quantity.

Finally, while I've featured strawberries here as the fruity flavor, feel free to experiment with whatever fruit inspires you. You can use the same method with mango, pineapple, or other types of berries. Mango lime chia seed pudding with toasted coconut and pecans anyone? 

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Strawberry Chia Seed Pudding with Toasted Coconut and Almonds

Yield: 5 1-cup servings

2 cups unsweetened almond milk
2 cups strawberries, divided
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sea salt
½ cup chia seeds
¼ cup shredded unsweetened coconut
¼ cup slivered almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 300F.

2. In a blender combine the almond milk, 1 cup strawberries, cinnamon, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt until smooth. Add the chia seeds and remaining cup of strawberries, pulsing a few times so that the seeds become uniformly distributed and the strawberries are cut into small chunks. Pour into single serving mason jars or one large glass container and allow to sit overnight or at least 2 hours.

3. Spread the almonds onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, add the coconut flakes and continue toasting for another 5 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow almonds and coconut to cool before storing.

4. To serve, top the pudding with about a tablespoon of the coconut and almond mixture.

Green Plant Power Smoothie Bowl

When I started the day with this breakfast, I was definitely feeling grateful - grateful for the vibrant colors that made me excited to dig in, the nutrients that would fuel my morning, and the flavors and textures that made me say YUM. This is a wellness breakfast, a super nourishing, plant-powered bowl of green goodness. 

Serving a smoothie in a bowl may seem a little silly at first. After all, isn't the point of a smoothie that its gulp-able, liquid nutrition? Yes it is, but for those fast eaters out there like me, I often find myself drinking my smoothie in about 1 minute. I would never eat a whole banana, cups of kale, pineapple, and avocado that fast! It's a ton of stress on my digestive system.

The idea of the bowl is to slow it all down. By putting a spoon in my hands to break up the bites and adding some textures to make me chew, the smoothie bowl brings the focus back to the senses. And when we eat with all of our senses, we can digest our food better, absorbing the maximum amount of nutrients from our meals.  

With all the fiber, vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and antioxidants in this meal, your body will as vibrant as this smoothie bowl is green. 

CULINARY WELLNESS TIP: Eating mindfully is an important practice to cultivate for all your meals. Turn off the TV, put away the laptop, and give your food your full attention. Digest the food with your mind first, taking in the colors and shapes. Then make sure to really notice how the food feels in your mouth. Try to chew every bite at least 20 times. Read this article from the New York Times to learn more about mindful eating. 

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Green Plant Power Smoothie Bowl

Yield: 1 large smoothie bowl

1 ½ cups curly kale (or leafy green of your choice), washed and destemmed
¼ avocado
1 frozen banana
½ cup frozen pineapple
1 tablespoon chia or flax seeds
½ cup coconut water
½ cup almond milk
1 tablespoon shredded coconut
2 tablespoons Go Hunza Goji Berry Trail Mix (or a mixture of nuts and dried fruits)

1. Combine the kale, avocado, banana, frozen pineapple, chia seeds, coconut water and almond milk in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add more liquid for a thinner consistency.
2. Serve in a bowl and top with shredded coconut and goji berry trail mix. Make it beautiful!

Whole Foods Cleanse - New Years Day Quinoa Porridge

On New Years day, I was feeling sluggish, a little out of balance, and like my digestive system needed a major break. After all the holiday parties, culinary school tastings, restaurant work, and baking projects, I needed a full body re-boot.

January is usually the month of extreme diet pledges, juice and raw foods cleanses. While some people swear by their 5-day green juice cleanses or all-salad-all-day regimes, I find they are usually a pain to follow, extremely hard on your system, and leave you with terrible cravings that will send you swinging back out of health.

I would like to offer a simpler, softer, and definitely tastier idea for those who are feeling ready to bring their health back into balance for the new year. The solution: WHOLE foods. 

Rather than pledge to eliminate "naughty" foods from your diet, try to incorporate as many plant-based foods as possible. We're talking about vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. When you begin to increase the quantity of these nourishing, whole foods into your diet, you will naturally find yourself moving away from the processed, the artificial, and the overly sugared. Think more about what you should eat and less about what you shouldn't eat.

Trust me, your body and spirit will thank you.  

This is the Whole Foods Cleanse. Its the way humans have been eating for millennia. Its not complicated or carefully measured. Rather, it's guided by vibrant colors, inspired by nature's bounty, and driven - most importantly -  by what your body needs to feel its best. 

The problem for most people, myself included, is that resolve to eat well fades without continual ideas of "what's for dinner." And we easily turn back to old, less-healthy habits. That is where Carly's Wellness Kitchen comes in. On this site, I will feature plant-based meals (with some high-quality animal products too) and teach you about basic nutrition principles. As I invite you into my kitchen, I hope you will find continual inspiration to nourish yourself with high quality, whole foods. Wellness begins in the kitchen. So lets get cooking! 

Here's a recipe to refresh your breakfast routine. Ditch the refined cereals and turn to whole grains, cooked to a porridge consistency and mixed with fresh or frozen fruit and chia seeds. In this recipe, I've used quinoa and frozen blueberries and topped it with cashews and shredded coconut to add some healthy fats. The combination of fiber and fat helps keep you feeling full and satisfied. It works for New Years Day or any day. 

Culinary Wellness Tip: Don't have time for this recipe on the weekdays? Make a pot on Sunday and reheat portions as needed with a little extra almond milk. All you'll have to do is throw on the toppings and enjoy. 

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Quinoa Porridge with Blueberries, Chia Seeds, and Coconut

Yield: 4 one-cup servings

1 cup quinoa, soaked overnight if possible
1 cup water
1 ½ + 1/4 cups almond milk
1 inch cinnamon stick, or ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Shredded coconut
Honey or maple syrup

1. Rinse quinoa and combine with water, 1 ½ cups almond milk, cinnamon stick, and salt in a medium-sized pot. Bring to boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Cook for about 20 minutes, or until quinoa is porridge consistency.
2. Remove from heat and stir in the chia seeds and blueberries, adding an additional ¼ cup almond milk. Rest for 10 minutes, allowing the chia seeds to expand.
3. Serve with shredded coconut and a drizzle or honey or maple syrup.