Showing posts with label Simple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simple. Show all posts

Diabetic Breakfast Ideas: Deliciously Simple Breakfast Ideas for Diabetics

Breakfast is the mot important meal of the day. How many times have we heard that? Well it's true, and especially for diabetics. If you're tired of having the same thing every day, you can switch up your morning food routine with some great diabetic breakfast ideas.

A recent study done in the UK suggests that what we eat for breakfast has a bearing on how our bodies react to lunch. According to the study, eating soon after waking up in the morning may help stabilize blood glucose levels later during the day. The small-scale study investigated metabolic changes in eight obese adults with type 2 diabetes.

Breakfast

The subjects were divided into two groups--one group had breakfast soon after waking up in the morning and the other group skipped breakfast altogether. The researchers noted how blood glucose levels differed between the groups, and found that those who had breakfast showed a much lower spike in blood glucose after lunch, compared to those who didn't have breakfast. The two groups had similar levels of insulin.

Diabetic Breakfast Ideas: Deliciously Simple Breakfast Ideas for Diabetics

What this means for diabetics is, starting the day with a proper meal composed of healthy diabetic breakfast foods can help steady blood glucose levels. Clearly, eating healthy meals in moderate portions and at scheduled times is the best way to manage diabetes. The American Diabetes Association recommends having a similar amount of carbohydrates for breakfast every day. Consistent carbohydrate intake for each meal helps keep your blood sugar levels within range. The recommended amount is between 45 and 60g of carbohydrate for each meal.

With this in mind, let's take a look at some healthy breakfast foods for diabetics.

Cereals

Foods that contain carbohydrates, such as starches, milk, fruits and yogurt can raise blood-sugar levels. If you can control your carbohydrate intake, you will be better able to manage your diabetes. A healthy breakfast, especially during the colder months, is hot cereal. You can prepare a healthy diabetes breakfast by adding fruit and a half-cup of milk to a cup of any hot cereal. A staple in diabetic breakfast ideas is a cup of cooked hot oatmeal, two tablespoons of raisins and a half-cup of skim milk.

Cold cereal is also a healthy diabetes breakfast option for diabetics. You should choose unsweetened cereals that have 2.5g of fiber per serving, at the very least. To prepare a healthy breakfast with 45 to 60g of carbohydrate, add three-quarters of a cup of whole-grain cold cereal to a cup of skim milk. Add one slice of whole-wheat toast with one tablespoon of margarine and you will have a great breakfast to start the day.

French toast

Another healthy option for diabetic breakfast ideas is French toast made with whole-wheat bread, egg whites and skim milk. To stay within your 45 to 60g carbohydrate limit, have two slices of French toast made from whole-wheat bread, with two tablespoons of light pancake syrup and a cup of skim milk.

Shakes

If you're pressed for time or don't feel like eating anything soon after you wake up, having a smoothie may be a good option. A delicious smoothie, packed with essential nutrients, is one of the most fulfilling diabetic breakfast foods. To prepare a healthy breakfast smoothie, add two servings of your favorite fruits, such as a cup of whole strawberries and a small banana, to a cup of skim milk. Add a teaspoon of peanut butter or wheat germ, and blend with ice. You can also substitute the skim milk with nonfat yogurt.

Egg sandwich

Eggs are rich in proteins and can be incorporated into several diabetic breakfast ideas. Eggs help you feel sated, and can make you feel full until the next meal. You can prepare an egg sandwich to start the day off with a healthy breakfast.

To prepare a delicious egg sandwich for breakfast, cook one egg into an omelet and add a slice of fat-free cheese and a slice of Canadian bacon to a whole-wheat toasted English muffin. Top off with a medium-sized banana for a healthy breakfast that'll keep you full for hours. You can also choose to have a bagel instead of an English muffin. Be sure to have a 2oz bagel to control the carbs. Remember, if you have high cholesterol, you should never have more than two egg yolks in a week. You can instead opt for egg whites or egg substitutes.

There are tons of great diabetic breakfast ideas for all palates. If you like fresh fruits, you can add more of that in your meals by having breakfast shakes or smoothies. Or if you like whole-grains, substitute it for fruits or breakfast meats.

Diabetic Breakfast Ideas: Deliciously Simple Breakfast Ideas for Diabetics

If you want to learn more about great breakfast ideas for diabetics, check out http://www.diabetic-breakfast-ideas.com for more simple and delicious breakfast options.

3 Simple and Healthy Breakfast Recipes

The most common reason for skipping breakfast or eating a high-fat breakfast is the lack of knowing how to eat healthier.For example, if I laid out an entire eating plan for you and all you had to do is follow it, life would be great. Sometimes it's not that simple, so here are 3 healthy breakfast ideas for you to get you started:

1. Granola and Fat Free Yogurt - My personal favorite! It's simple, tasty, and very healthy. Start off by getting Fat-Free plain yogurt and your choice of granola. Personally, I look for either high fiber, flaxseed added, or both. Once you have the ingredients, the recipe is simple. All you do is fill your bowl with yogurt and sprinkle a handful of granola on top. For additional great flavor, add fresh fruit!

\"breakfast Recipe\"

One simple bowl can give you up to 25% of your entire day's recommended protein. The best part- you won't feel hungry after eating this healthy breakfast choice and the fiber and protein will give you that added "pep in your step" to make it through your day.

3 Simple and Healthy Breakfast Recipes

2. Fruitty Butter Shake - An excellent source of protein and a great way to start your day- not to mention one of the tastiest shakes you will ever eat! Put all or some of these ingredients into the blender: 10-15 blueberries, 5 strawberries, 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 1 teaspoon flaxseed, 3 tablespoons plain fat free yogurt. These are my favorites, please add or subtract to suite your needs.

This shake does wonders for your energy level and gets you through the day, feeling like you are literally on cruise control!

3. Veggie Shooter! - Everything you can imagine a protein shake being, and more! All you need is an open mind for this one, and get ready to watch your energy levels take off. Again, get the blender out and mix these ingredients: Squeeze 1/2 lemon into the blender and 1 full cup of water, then add chopped celery, cucumber, fresh spinach, carrots, and parsley. Liquify and enjoy!

I like to drink this 1 or 2 times per week. This ensures I am getting the necessary amounts of potassium, magnesium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C. Another benefit of this shake: you won't get that "full" feeling of a lead ball in your stomach, yet your body will be satisfied for the next few hours!

3 Simple and Healthy Breakfast Recipes

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One Simple Recipe for Making Healthy Muffins From Scratch You Can Modify Lots of Ways

Easy Healthy Muffin Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes

\"breakfast Recipes\"

Bake Time: 20 to 30 minutes

One Simple Recipe for Making Healthy Muffins From Scratch You Can Modify Lots of Ways

Yield: 8-12 muffins

This basic easy healthy muffin recipe can be varied in lots of ways. You can leave them plain, add in a cup or so of your favorite fruit and adjust the amount of sugar to suit your tastes. If you prefer larger muffins, distribute the batter among 8 of the muffin cups and pour 1/4 cup water into the empty cups to prevent them from buckling.

These muffins call for a minimal amount of fat - just 3 tablespoons for the entire batch. You can replace all the fat with a fruit puree such as applesauce, if you prefer, but that makes them too rubbery for my tastes.

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup whole grain pastry flour

1/4 cup sugar, or to taste

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

3 tablespoons vegetable oil or melted butter

1 cup milk, plus more if needed

optional additions below

Recipe Instructions

Position an oven rack in the middle of the oven and heat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a standard 12-cup (2-1/2-inch) muffin pan or line the cups with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk tougher the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg, vegetable oil, milk and any optional ingredients (such as 1 cup of fresh or frozen blueberries).

Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined and moistened. (The batter should still be lumpy and thick, but moist. If the batter seems too dry add a little more milk.)

Distribute the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake until the tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean, about 20 minutes (30 minutes for larger muffins).

Remove from the oven and let the muffins rest in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them out of the pan and onto a wire rack to cool completely. Or enjoy warm.

9 Easy Healthy Muffin Variations

Apple Muffins: Stir in one medium peeled and chopped apple with the milk and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon with the flour. Substitute packed brown sugar for the granulated sugar.

Banana-Nut Muffins: Decrease milk to 1/4 cup, stir in 1 cup mashed bananas (2 to 3 medium) and 1/3 cup chopped nuts with the milk. Substitute packed brown sugar for the sugar.

Blueberry Muffins: Stir in 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries.

Chocolate Chip Muffins: Stir in 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips.

Cranberry Muffins: Stir in 1 cup chopped cranberries and 1 tablespoon finely grated orange peel with the milk. Sprinkle the tops with sugar before baking.

Oatmeal Muffins: Decrease flour to 1 cup and stir in 1 cup quick-cooking oats, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon with the flour.

Raspberry Muffins: Stir in 1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries and 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest.

Spice Muffins: Stir in 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and a pinch of ground cloves and ground nutmeg with the flour.

Zucchini Muffins: Stir in 1 cup grated zucchini (squeezed dry to remove excess moisture) and 1/2 cup chopped walnuts with the milk.

One Simple Recipe for Making Healthy Muffins From Scratch You Can Modify Lots of Ways

Martha is a healthy weight loss coach, cooking coach and cookie lover, who loves to share ways to make cooking and eating simple, easy and delicious and help you stop dieting and instead discover the pleasure of happy healthy balanced eating, cooking and living. Her websites include http://www.simple-nourished-living.com and http://www.greateasyhealthyrecipes.com.

Simple Recipe For Homemade Biscuits From Scratch

The recipe below for baking powder biscuits produces a tender, flaky biscuit. Just don't work the dough too much, or they will be tough.

MY BISCUIT MAKING SECRETS:

\"Easy Breakfast Recipes\"

  • You can make the biscuits twice as big as usual so you can make breakfast sandwiches. Just add scrambled eggs, bacon and cheese. You may also make them with vegetable oil and it makes them more flaky. When you use shortening or butter, it makes them more fluffy. I usually add 1/2 teaspoon more of baking powder when I am making big ones. It helps to keep them from being so heavy.
  • If you're new to biscuits, remember - any time you make biscuits (or scones or anything else that uses baking powder or soda to rise) you want to gently mix the dough JUST until the ingredients are all mixed -- don't overwork it or knead it. The more you handle your dough the more the gluten develops and the tougher your biscuits (or pie crust, etc.) will be.

Simple Recipe For Homemade Biscuits From Scratch

BAKING POWDER BISCUIT RECIPE

2 cups flour
2-1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBS white sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold
1-1/4 cups milk (whole milk is best)

PREHEAT the oven to 450 degrees and lightly spray a cooking sheet.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry blender or a knife until it resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk a little at a time, barely stirring after each addition. (Frequent stirring makes these biscuits or any biscuit tough.)

Drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

These are delicious warm with butter, homemade jam or honey. I created this recipe when I lived in Tennessee, and this is certainly a keeper.

BUTTERMILK BISCUIT RECIPE

My favorite and best recipe for buttermilk biscuits is below. Buttery and tender, these biscuits will melt in your mouth. The key to perfect biscuits is the dough must be handled very little.

Make sure all of your ingredients are very cold; the food processor works the best for this. You may freeze the rounds on a cookie sheet for up to 1 month - just put this in the oven frozen at 450 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Another one of my "made from scratch" homemade biscuit recipes.

2 cups unbleached flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 TBS baking powder (without aluminum)
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
6 TBS unsalted butter, very cold
3/4 cup buttermilk*, very cold

PREHEAT oven to 450 degrees; you will need a cookie sheet for this recipe.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Cut the butter into chunks and cut into the flour until it resembles coarse meal. (If you are using a food processor, you will just need to pulse a few times)

Add the buttermilk JUST UNTIL IT'S COMBINED. (Important) If it is a little too dry, add more buttermilk. Turn the dough onto a floured counter top. GENTLY PAT until the dough is 1/2" thick. (NO ROLLING PIN) Use a round cutter or a glass to form the biscuits.

Place on a cookie sheet. (If you like soft biscuits - have the biscuits touching; if you like crusty sides - place them about 1" apart. They will not be as high if you do the latter.) Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the biscuits are a beautiful LIGHT golden brown; do not over bake.

*BUTTERMILK

1 cup of milk
1 TBS vinegar or lemon juice

Place the vinegar or lemon juice in a (one cup) measuring cup and then fill with milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes and it's ready to go.

Part of the secret of my great sausage gravy recipe is the fat. If you are watching your weight and purchased the lean good for you kind of pork sausage; it just won't make good sausage gravy. This is also called "sawmill gravy."

This is a "fool proof"recipe, and when it is poured over my warm homemade buttermilk biscuits; it's a southern breakfast nirvana! Nothing is more comforting to me than scrambled eggs with biscuits and gravy. I could eat this anytime of the day; it's not just for breakfast at my house.

Here are some of my gravy "secrets," so every batch is perfect...

  • Use mostly equal parts of flour to fat.
  • Always add salt right away when making gravy; measure it right into the fat in the pan before whisking with the flour. Add pepper after the gravy is done because it burns easily and will ruin the gravy.
  • Stir, stir stir! (don't forget to stir!) I use a whisk and use it constantly throughout the gravy making process.
  • Last (but not least), cook the gravy on a low temperature.

SAUSAGE GRAVY RECIPE

1 lb pork sausage (your favorite flavor), or breakfast links
3 TBS homemade unsalted butter
1/2 cup flour
3 cups milk
1 cup evaporated milk
1/4 tsp homemade garlic powder
1/4 tsp homemade onion powder
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

On medium heat and in a heavy skillet, melt the butter and cook the sausage until it's no longer pink in the center; drain most of the fat and return to the skillet.

In a small bowl, whisk the milk, evaporated milk and flour together; then add to the cooked sausage directly in the pan. Stir and cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

NOTE:
For something different, you can fry 1 pound of bacon instead of the sausage. Crumble the bacon when it is cooked. It makes yummy homemade bacon gravy!

Simple Recipe For Homemade Biscuits From Scratch

Easy Breakfast Recipes at http://www.misshomemade.com/easybreakfastrecipes.html

Raschell Celleste
http://www.misshomemade.com

Oatmeal Recipes - Simple and Quick Breakfast Ideas

These oatmeal recipes will help to add a little extra flavor to an old favorite. Oatmeal is a healthy and delicious way to start the day and these quick breakfast ideas are simple and easy to prepare.

There are a lot of flavorful oatmeal varieties on the market but there is a lot of sugar added to these and I prefer to make my own additions where I can control the sweetener and use more natural ingredients.

\"Easy Breakfast Recipes\"

You can use plain oatmeal either instant, rolled, or steel-cut oats for these recipes. Just follow the package directions when preparing the oatmeal. All you need to do is add these additions on top of your cooked oatmeal and swirl them into your hot cereal.

Oatmeal Recipes - Simple and Quick Breakfast Ideas

Quick Breakfast Ideas with Oatmeal Toppings:

** Cranberries, walnut pieces and a drizzle of honey

** Raisins, cinnamon and a light sprinkle of brown sugar

** Chopped pecans and diced apples

** A spoonful of plain non-fat Greek yogurt and diced peaches with a dusting of nutmeg

** A spoonful of pumpkin butter, maple syrup and chopped walnuts

** Sliced bananas and a little low-fat plain or raisin granola

** Diced dried apricot with a drizzle of honey or maple syrup

** Strawberry or blueberry all-fruit spread and plain non-fat yogurt

** Drained fruit cocktail (in fruit juice - not syrup)

** Cinnamon or berry applesauce

** Sliced strawberries and a sprinkling of mini chocolate chips

** Strawberries, blueberries and raspberries tossed in brown sugar

** Chopped dates and a sprinkling of toasted coconut

** Any nut butter of your choosing such as: peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc.

** Ground flaxseed and dried cherries

** Wheat germ and cream or soy cream

** A spoonful of flavored yogurt (look for a natural brand)

** A spoonful of low-fat whipped cream cheese and a spoonful of your favorite all-fruit spread

** Canned, crushed pineapple (drain before adding to cereal) with some chopped walnuts

** Sliced peaches, grated ginger and a little cream

Oatmeal doesn't have to be boring. With just a little bit of creativity you can make it something different and flavorful every time. Use your imagination and your oatmeal breakfast will always be delicious.

Oatmeal Recipes - Simple and Quick Breakfast Ideas