What’s for Breakfast?

I really love snow, and last weekend Northeast Ohio finally got its first real snowstorm of the year. As you might guess, I spent a lot of time last weekend shoveling snow, so I needed a breakfast that provided a lot of fuel. That’s what I want to talk about today. Breakfast. So what’s for breakfast? In a word? Protein. In two words? Nourishing fat. In three words? No stripped carbohydrates. I’m going to share some of my favorite ideas for breakfast, but first I’ll tell you about some of the ways I learned to nourish myself when I was younger and traveling. Continue reading



Nourishing Breakfast Ideas for Kids and the Parents Who Love Them

A while back, a good friend of mine, an elementary school teacher at a small school north of Detroit, says “The kids are bouncing off the walls by 9:30.” It occurs to me that maybe their blood sugars are falling, though 9:30 a.m. is pretty early for that. Then he says that a snack usually helps get them back on track. Yeh, I think, it’s probably their blood sugars. Continue reading


Make Your Insulin Last a Lifetime

If you’ve seen my TED talk, then you know I spend a fair amount of time teaching folks how to use their insulin more efficiently so that they don’t run out, and so they have enough (hopefully) to last a lifetime. Insulin is like a valet service that escorts blood sugar from your blood to all your cells. If you don’t have enough, your sugars start to rise. The fact is that even though you need insulin to live, it is not your friend. You want to use as little as possible. You want the levels of insulin in your bloodstream to stay as low as possible. Just like blood sugar, you want your insulin levels to remain low. Why? Continue reading


Ratchet Up Your Breakfast to a New Level

This week I’m going to spend a few minutes talking about the typical American breakfast, namely toast bagels muffins waffles pancakes “cereal” biscuits bread. Basically just white flour and sugar. Stripped carb. I put “cereal” in quotes because the word cereal really means grain (like oatmeal, millet, kasha, bulgur wheat), and not boxes of sweetened, dyed, highly processed products of limited nutritional value.

Something I’ve noticed just in the past few months is that EVEN friends, colleagues and acquaintances who have made the switch to real food, and who have rid their kitchens of items from that list of typical American breakfast foods above (at least most of the time) can still be strongly influenced by the list. Continue reading



YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Muffin-y Goodness

Of course, this is an especially good week for an egg recipe…

My sister saw a recipe for these beauties last week, and now you should try them! I love the idea of eating a few for breakfast, taking some for lunch, popping one or two for a mid-afternoon snack, and then making a whole new batch. But maybe not all on the same day.

My advice? Use eggs with the brightest orange-yellow yolks, berries with deepest warmest color, and the sweetest, ripest bananas you can find. You can’t possibly go wrong! Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Sharon’s Sweet-Potato Oatcakes

This week I have an amazing new recipe from my friend, Sharon, who was so pleased with it that she decided to send it along to share with us! I am thrilled to be able to post it for you today, because I imagine that you are going to love it, too! I doubled her recipe to give you a few extra to share or save for breakfast tomorrow. Thank you, Sharon! Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Sweet Apple Breakfast Bowl

People are always asking me for new breakfast ideas, and I’ve listed more than a few in these blog entries. In this recipe, using an idea I had never seen before, the apples supply the moisture that allows the chia seeds to grow and supply texture, crunch and protein. Make yourself a Sweet Apple Bowl for breakfast, or put your meal into a small bowl with a tight lid, and take it to work for lunch. Continue reading


YOUR HEALTHY PLATE: Apple-Walnut Oatmeal

Late last week, somehow, while no one was looking, autumn flew by and winter blew in. It’s an achingly beautiful look — trees still completely covered with gold or red leaves, shivering in the foreground of a white crystalline landscape, the lake dark grey in the distance. And it’s really cold, unexpectedly so, so here’s what I’m having this morning. It’s a lot of flavor for breakfast, and they’re all the right kinds. You might smile while you’re eating it. Continue reading