Christina Najjar

Sugar Free Superfood Granola

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Homemade granola superfood

Oh, breakfast. If you read my blog, you know I have a weird relationship with breakfast. As much as I know breakfast is important, my stomach can’t seem to want to allow me to eat breakfast right when I wake up. This tends to be problematic for work. I climb up ladders and run around like a headless chicken for hours before I can take a break and get something decent to eat.

I’ve been bringing smoothies to work, but they aren’t substantial enough, and I end up being hungry fairly quickly. My new attempt at fixing this problem is granola. The good thing about granola is that you can change the recipe to include all sorts of different flavours and nutrients, according to your mood and your needs.

Since there is a possibility I will be moving in a couple of months, I wanted to use up some of the extra little bags of food I have. I wouldn’t usually put almonds in my granola (but maybe that’s going to change), but I had a bag of slivered almonds laying around. I was debating using raisins, but then decided there was enough variety in this granola. I’ll save the raisins for the next one.

If you’re doing one of those vegan, gluten free, sugar free, alcohol free detoxes, this granola is perfect. It doesn’t even have to be a breakfast. You can snack on it while sipping a cup of green tea. It’ll fill you up enough to avoid snacking on junk.

Sugar Free Superfood Granola

Ingredients
2 cups rolled oats – not the quick cooking kind (I use Only Oats)
2/3 cup slivered almonds – mine were blanched
2/3 cup unsweetened coconut shavings
2 tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp hemp hearts
2 tbsp flax meal – using whole flax won’t get you all the nutrients
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp oil (use coconut oil if detoxing)
1/4 cup maple syrup

Directions
Preheat over to 350F.

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl (my chia seeds tend to all end up at the bottom). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I highly recommend it). Spread the granola in an even layer and bake for 30 minutes. Cool before transferring to an airtight container.

Tofu Scramble (vegan)

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I bought a package of silken tofu to try to make a vegan version of cream cheese icing, but after reading online about how awful that was going to taste, I decided to repurpose the silken tofu. I’ve always been a bit curious about tofu scramble, especially since I started liking tofu.

I’ve noticed that many carnivores think vegetarianism is terrible because tofu tastes bad. Ignoring the fact that many vegetarians don’t actually eat tofu, it’s important to understand tofu before deciding it tastes awful. Yes, tofu is tasteless. That’s what makes it beautiful. It’s super versatile! You just have to make sure to add tons of flavour to tofu, and you may just have yourself an amazing meal.

The tofu scramble is made to resemble eggs, but don’t expect it to taste like eggs because it won’t. If you decide to modify the recipe I provide you with, just remember to add a lot of flavour to it.

Tofu scramble: vegan breakfast staple

Tofu Scramble

Ingredients
1 package silken tofu
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 bell pepper, chopped (I used green)
1 tsp turmeric
1-2 tbsp oil for frying
salt and black pepper to taste

Directions
Add oil, onion, and garlic to a large frying pan over medium-high heat and toss around for 1 or 2 minutes, until it’s nice and fragrant. Throw in the silken tofu and mash it a bit (not too much) with a fork. Add turmeric, salt, and pepper, and toss around to coat evenly.

You want to make sure the water evaporates so that your scramble isn’t soggy. It took mine about 15 minutes to reach the point that I like, but it’s a matter of tastes. Make sure to toss the scramble around every few minutes to help the water evaporate faster. About five minutes before it’s done to your liking, add in the bell pepper. Makes 2-3 servings.

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats (vegan, no added sugar)

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Overnight oats are such a convenient concept. They take just a few minutes to put together, and then time and your fridge do the rest of the work. If this is your first time trying overnight oats, I’m warning you that some people don’t enjoy the texture. Personally, I’m really picky with textures, but I really enjoy overnight oat texture.

Overnight oats are versatile too. I like apple as a breakfast flavour, but really, you can keep the milk, oats, and chia seed proportions intact and flavour it as you wish. Some of my other favourite flavours include pumpkin spice and chocolate nut butter.

You can make a few tweaks to boost the nutritional content of this recipe. Chia seeds are a great source of healthy fats, but our bodies can’t access the fats in whole chia. While this may alter the texture a bit, you can grind the chia seeds before throwing them in, making the fats more available.

Additionally, if you’re only going to eat adequate protein for one meal, breakfast should be that meal. It helps “set the tone” for how your blood sugar levels are going to behave that day. This is especially important for diabetes, hypoglycemia, and hormonal conditions like PMS, PCOS, endometriosis, and infertility. To boost the protein in these overnight oats, I like to add some ground hemp hearts or hemp protein powder.

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats

Apple Cinnamon Overnight Oats (vegan, no added sugar)

Ingredients
3/4 cup non-dairy milk
1/3 cup gluten free oats
2 tbsp chia seeds
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Splash of vanilla extract
3 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 apple, chopped
Optional: maple syrup, honey, or stevia to taste

Directions
In the evening, combine all the ingredients except the apple sauce and the apple in an individual bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, add the apple and the apple sauce before serving.

Saturday Morning Pancakes (vegan)

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The biggest chunk of my morning routine consists of delaying getting up. This leaves me little time to do everything else one does in the morning, so I end up having to choose what’s more important to me. It’s sad to say, but doing my hair is higher on my list of priorities than breakfast. I drink my cup of lemon hot water and my shot of apple cider vinegar while I do my make up, I brush my teeth, and then I’m out the door. I tell myself I’ll just eat a nut bar at work (if I had a nickel for every time I also skipped the nut bar…). As you can imagine, pancakes before work are as likely as beach weather in January.

Vegan pancakes that can be made without sugar

On the odd day, I do like to have a nice breakfast. There’s nothing like pancakes to keep you full until your next meal. I’ve experimented a lot with vegan and gluten free pancakes. It should be said that it hasn’t been an easy one to figure out. This recipe is the closest I’ve ever gotten to gluten-textured pancakes, but it’s not quite the same, so be warned.

Vegan Pancakes

Ingredients
1 flax egg – 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp warm water
1/3 cup sorghum flour
1/3 cup starch – I do half potato starch, half tapioca starch
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup brown rice flour
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp corn free baking powder*
4 tsp maple syrup
1 3/4 cups non-dairy milk
1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
1 tsp vanilla
Oil for frying

Directions
Start by preparing your flax egg by mixing the water with the flax. It needs to sit for about 5 minutes. Beat well until it looks frothy.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Then, in a separate bowl (or a large measuring cup), combine the wet ingredients. Pour the flax egg and the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix well. The batter will be thick, but it should be a bit runny. If it doesn’t spread out in the bowl on its own, add more milk, 1 tablespoon at a time. You still want it to be thicker than gluten-containing pancake batter.

Pour oil in a frying pan and let it warm up over medium heat (or slightly lower). Using a ladle, pour a bit of batter in the frying pan. You’ll need to spread it with the back of the ladle. After about 3-4 minutes, flip it and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

*For a more crepe-like consistency, omit the baking powder and increase the amount of milk until the batter is quite runny.

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Christina Najjar - Natural Nutrition

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