Rather than being a boring, ho-hum meal, a vegetarian breakfast can be a delightful adventure.

Because your body and digestive organs have rested during the night and you have your day’s activities before you—there is no better time to have a hearty meal!

Can’t eat much in the morning? Chances are you are eating too heavy of a meal too late in the evening and your digestive organs are laboring all night and are exhausted in the morning. Try eating lightly in the evening and not closer than three or four hours before bedtime.

Upon arising drink at least a pint of warm water with a lemon squeezed in it an hour before you eat.

Now let’s view some food ideas:

It is possible to obtain some fairly nutritious dry cereals that are not full of sugar and salt and other health hazards. Read a lot of labels—thoroughly!

Have your cereal with warm or cold soy, rice, or almond milk. (again read labels on your milk-type product to avoid possible sugar) Nut milk is easily made at home:

Soak raw Almonds overnight in water and blend 1 cup almonds to 1 quart water until smooth and milk-like. This will be quite rich and you can adjust the richness by using fewer almonds or adding more water. Will keep about 3 days if refrigerated.

Raw Cashews usually blend up without pre-soaking—the same ratio of nuts to water is followed.

Rich cashew milk: (Cashew creme) can be used as a desert topping—just add honey to taste. A ¼ teaspoon of vanilla or other flavor can be used if desired.

2/3 cup almonds
1/3 cup coconut
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup water (added to desired consistency)

Combine almonds and coconut in blender. Whiz until fine. Add salt, vanilla and water. Whiz 1-2 minutes. Strain if desired. Chill.

1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup almonds, blanched
1 quart water
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Liquefy all ingredients. Strain if desired. Chill.

Rice Milk: a cup of cooked brown rice to 1 quart water with the addition of a pinch of salt and a spoonful of honey makes another milk substitute.

Oat Milk is done the same way using cooked oat cereal. Oat milk can be used to give creamy taste to cream soups and deserts.

Sweet Almond Milk
1 Cup almonds, soaked
6 Cups distilled water
3-4 dates, pitted

Soak almonds overnight & rinse. Blend half the almonds, half the dates and 3 cups of the distilled water. Repeat with remaining ingredients. Pour through a fine strainer to remove the pulp. If being used for an infant, strain through cheese cloth also. Serve at room temperature. Refrigerate any remaining portion. (For plain almond milk, just leave out the dates.)

Creamy Banana Milk
1 Qt. distilled water
1/2 - 1 Cup sunflower seeds, soaked overnight
1/2 ripe banana
3 T raisins or 4-5 dates

Place all ingredients in blender and blend for 2 minutes. For a thicker milk, add more banana.

Try topping with sugar-free applesauce or other blended fruit. A ripe banana blended in soy or nut milk makes a delicious drink or cereal topping.

Dried apricots soaked overnight in water and blended into a syrup are another topping option.

Chopped dates or raisins with a few raw seeds or nuts makes a delightful change sprinkled on your cereal. Try chopped almonds, sunflower seed, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, filberts or brazil nuts, pecans or fresh walnuts.

They may be old fashioned, but hot cereals have been mankind’s staple for centuries, and deserve rediscovery.

Basic types are; Rolled Oats or Oatmeal—either quick or large flake (I prefer the heartier texture of the large flakes and cooking time isn’t too much more)

Other Rolled grains can be found at bulk food stores and health food stores such as rolled barley, wheat, rye, or triticale.

Red River Cereal: a tasty mix of wheat, rye and flax seed.

Corn meal: the famous and delicious corn-meal mush.

Brown rice makes a good hot cereal also. Try chopping the rice in a coffee mill then cook for ‘Creme of Rice’ cereal.

Most cereals are cooked 1 cup grain to 3 cups water. This can be halved of course, ½ cup grain to 1 1/2 cups water. The grain can be added to cold water and slowly brought to a boil stirring frequently then cover and let sit a few minutes before serving.

Or add cereal slowly to pot of boiling water, stirring vigorously with a fork or whisk to prevent lumps then bring back to boil, turn off heat and cover to stand for a few minutes—this is a bit faster than the former method.

For those who ‘rush off’ in the morning, a crock-pot slow-cooker is a great thing. Place your grain and such into it and add 3 cups water to each cup of grain and leave on low overnight. Hot and ready to eat in the morning!

No crock-pot? Use a wide-mouth Thermos. Add 1 cup grain to 3 cups boiling water, mixing carefully. Put the hot grain mix into a Thermos and close it up—can be wrapped in a towel for added insulation overnight and when opened in the morning is cooked and ready to eat.

The cold cereal toppings can all be used and fruit and nuts can be added to the cereal when cooking. Here are a few ideas to get you started experimenting on your own.

Add 1-2 tablespoons chopped dates and ¼ cup unsweetened shredded or flaked coconut.

Add ¼ cup raisins and a few pecan pieces

Add ¼ cup chopped dried apricots and a few chopped almonds

Other items:

Currants; figs or prunes, chopped; dried pineapple; papaya, or mango bits;

Sunflower seeds; Sesame seeds; hazelnuts; walnuts.

Sliced fruit or berries; sliced bananas; or applesauce are all lovely on hot cereal.

Good quality, whole grain toast, whole wheat Pitas, or whole grain crisp-bread served with a raw fruit salad sprinkled with chopped nuts and/or seeds.

Try a couple slices of extra-firm Tofu sautéed in a bit of vegetarian bouillon and served with whole wheat toast or panned hashed potatoes.

Even reheated leftovers often make a tasty and hearty breakfast alternative.

1 pound tofu
1 1/2 teaspoons onion powder
1/8 teaspoon turmeric (for color)
Sea Salt to taste
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

Crumble tofu into skillet. Stir in seasonings. Cook 5 minutes on medium heat. Variation: Add chopped bell peppers, onions, and/or mushrooms.

This is a handy, super nutrition start for your day. You select some raw fruit—for example, 2-3 apples, 1-2 oranges, 1 ripe banana. Peel the oranges and remove seeds if they are present. Peel banana, wash apples and quarter and core them- place in your blender or VITA-MIX.

Add 1 tablespoon whole flax seed, and one of sesame and or sunflowers seeds, all raw. Add teaspoon spirulina powder, and/or barley green, green magma, green kamut or other green super-food powder. Add 1 tablespoon of a herbal bulk formula.

Add 1 cup water, hot or cold (depending how you like your breakfast)

Whiz at high speed on your vita-mix or blender until smooth—pour into tall glasses and drink—it will be thick like a smoothie, and delicious! It will send you and your family into the day with super nutrition, live food nutrition that your body can absorb easily, instead of heavy, fatty foods or refined cereals that take more energy out of the body then they put in! The great thing is it takes only minutes! Them rinse your machine a couple seconds under the tap and head off to work.

The variations you can do on this drink keep it from becoming boring. Frozen or fresh fruits of any kind can be used. It is best not to use any sugar, the raw fruits are sweet enough. Frozen berries, sometimes can use a touch of honey, a few raisins or a date or two. Nicely ripened bananas (with freckles) are usually sweet enough to counteract even sour berries.

The herbal bulk, green powder, and raw seeds are the backbone of this super breakfast.

Multivitamin-In-A-Cup Smoothie

Makes 3 servings.

This smoothie will supply most of the vitamins and amino acids you'll need for a day.

1 cup soymilk
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 apple, cored and diced
3 frozen bananas
8 frozen peach halves (or use fresh peaches or canned in fruit juice)
1 cup fresh pineapple, diced
1 mango, peeled and diced (in season)
2 tablespoons wheat germ
1 tablespoon lecithin granules
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon green magma, barley green or spirulina

Blend all ingredients together. Drink up and enjoy!

Strawberry/Banana Shake

1 1/2 cups soy or rice milk
3/4 cups frozen strawberries, unsweetened
1 1/2 frozen bananas
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
maple syrup (to taste) (or honey)

Whiz all ingredients in a blender. Serve immediately. Shake should be fairly thick.

More Breakfast ideas:

Apple Breakfast Bars

1 1/2 cups quick rolled oats
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
2/3 cup dates, chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup orange juice
1 1/2 cups raw apples, shredded

Combine all ingredients. Let stand 10 minutes. Press mixture into 8" x 8" baking dish. Bake at 375° until lightly browned, about 25 minutes. Loosen with spatula, and cut into bars while warm. Serve hot for breakfast.

Apple Burritos

8 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1/2 cup softened dates, mashed or coarsely blended
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 teaspoon maple flavoring
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cook apples in 1 cup water. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well. Roll in whole wheat tortillas and place in baking dish with glaze on top and bottom. (See Glaze recipe below.) Bake 30-40 minutes at 350°

Glaze

2 cups apple juice concentrate
2 heaping tablespoons cornstarch

Cook on high heat until it reaches a glaze consistency, stirring constantly with a whisk.

Apple Oats Casserole

2 cups rolled oats
1 cup raisins
1 or more cups unsweetened coconut
2 small apples, grated
2 or more cups soy or nut milk
1/2 cup slivered almonds

*Measurements may vary depending on size of casserole dish.

In an 8" x 8" baking dish, sprinkle 1/3 of the oats on the bottom of dish. Next, layer 1/2 of the raisins, 1/2 of the coconut, another 1/3 of the oats, and all of the apples. Pour on 1/2 of the milk. Continue by adding the rest of the raisins, oats and coconut. Top with the almonds. Pour on the rest of the milk. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes. Top with Apricot Delicious.

1 16 ounce can apricots or peaches (or fresh)
1 16 ounce can unsweetened crushed pineapple
1 or more cups unsweetened coconut
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Drain juice from fruit. Mix 1/4 cup juice with cornstarch. Add remaining juice and cook until thickened, stirring constantly with whisk. Add fruit and heat. Pour over Apple Oats Casserole before serving.

Banana Pecan Crêpes

2 cups water
3/4 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups rice flour
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In a blender, liquefy cashews in 1 cup water. Add rest of ingredients and remaining 1 cup water and liquefy thoroughly. Let batter stand about 10 minutes. Whiz batter each time you make a crêpe. Using a crêpe pan or small non-stick skillet, heat on medium-high. Spray or brush pan lightly withoil. Coat pan with a thin layer of batter. Cook 2-3 minutes and flip over.

Crêpe Filling

5-6 Bananas, sliced (or fruit of your choice)
3/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 - 1/2 cup pure maple syrup

Pour some syrup in pan on medium heat. Add pecans. Cook a few minutes. Add bananas. Cook a few minutes more. Fill a crêpe with 1/3 cup filling, and roll it up. Top with syrup and pecans.

Banana Sauce

3 ripe bananas
1/2 cup apple juice
1 cup crushed pineapple, unsweetened with juice

Combine all ingredients. Whiz until smooth. Delicious over waffles, pancakes, crêpes or cereal.

Banana Breakfast Delight

1/2 cup cashews
8 dates, chopped
1/2 cup water
2 large bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 - 2 cups cooked brown rice, millet or oats

Blend first 5 ingredients until smooth. Pour over raisins and grain of your choice, stir to mix. Heat in 350° oven until heated through.

Blueberry Topping

2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
3 tablespoons tapioca
2 cups blueberries

Bring pineapple juice and tapioca to a boil. Cook until clear. Stir in blueberries (mashed or left whole), and reheat. Serve over waffles, pancakes, toast.

Delicious Millet

1 cup millet
1 cup brown rice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
6 1/2 cups water
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup dates, chopped or pieces
1 cup almonds, chopped

Mix all ingredients in a casserole dish. Cover, and bake for 1 - 1 1/2 hours at 350°.

Festive Fruit Salad

1 whole fresh pineapple, chunked or
2 8-ounce cans pineapple chunks
4 medium bananas, sliced
3 large oranges, peeled and chopped
8 ounces frozen berries, unsweetened (your choice)
1 cup coconut, unsweetened
2 large kiwi, peeled, sliced and chopped
1 bunch grapes (your choice)

Combine and mix gently. Chill.

French Toast

1 cup soy or rice milk
1 cup cashews
3/4 cup dates
2 tablespoons egg replacer
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

In a blender combine milk, cashews, and dates. Blend until smooth. While still blending add the rest of ingredients. Pour into a pie or cake pan. Dip bread on both sides and brown in a lightly oiled skillet. Top with pure maple syrup or your favorite fruit topping. Extra batter may be refrigerated and used later.

Fruit Topping

2 cups pineapple juice
8 dates (optional)
3 - 4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups unsweetened strawberries, peaches or other fruit (unsweetened frozen fruit is all right)

Blend first 3 ingredients. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cool just a little, but before it thickens too much, stir in fruit. This may be refrigerated until the next day. You may also use blueberries with grape juice or apple juice with apples.

Granola

12 cups rolled oats
2 cups wheat germ or bran
1 cup cashew pieces
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup date pieces
1 cup dried pineapple
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup water
1 cup honey
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix all dry ingredients together well. Mix water, honey, and oil in blender. Add to dry ingredients. Mix well. Bake at 250° for 1 1/2 hours in shallow pans, stirring every 1/2 hour.

Grapple Fruit Spread

1 cup concord grape juice
7 dates
1 cup dried apples
1/4 - 3/4 teaspoon orange and/or lemon rind, grated

Soak apples for several hours in grape juice or until soft enough to blend. Blend with dates and rind until smooth.

Indian Corn Meal

1 cup coarse corn meal
4 cups cold water
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups apples, chopped
1/4 cup raisins or dates

Stir corn meal into cold water. Cook 15 minutes and add other ingredients. Pour into baking dish and bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Melon Melba

1 pkg. frozen unsweetened raspberries, thawed
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
3 cups cantaloupe balls or chunks
1 tablespoon slivered almonds

The night before, stir cornstarch into berries and cook to thicken slightly. Stir in flavoring. Cover and refrigerate. Prepare melon balls if you have the time, otherwise cut into chunks. Put in serving bowls, cover and refrigerate. When ready to serve, spoon raspberries over melon and top with almonds.

Millet Cereal

1 cup millet
4 cups water
1/2 cup coconut
1 cup apples, chopped
1 cup raisins

Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients except raisins. Cook raisins in 1/2 cup water for 5 minutes. Pour into millet mixture. Keep on low heat for 45 minutes.

9 Grain Cereal

2 cups water
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup 9 grain cereal
1/4 cup dates, chopped or pieces
1/3 shredded coconut
1/4 cup raisins

Bring water to a boil. Add all ingredients and stir to combine. Reduce heat and cover. Cook about 7 minutes. Top with slivered almonds and bananas.

Old Fashioned Bread Pudding

6 cups 1-inch bread cubes
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup apples, chopped or applesauce
4 cups soy, rice or nut milk

Mix all ingredients gently in a bowl. Pour into 8" x 8" lightly oiled baking dish and bake at 350° for 45 minutes.

Smoothie

1 cup pineapple/coconut juice
1/2 cup apple or orange juice
2 frozen bananas
1/2 cups frozen strawberries

Pour juices into blender. Add fruit and blend well. Enjoy!

Special Oatmeal

4 1/4 cups water
1 3/4 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup wheat germ
8 dates, chopped
1/2 cup apples, chopped
1 banana

Sprinkle oats in boiling water. Add dates, apples and wheat germ. Cook until done. Slice banana on top.

 A good quality blender. It is such an asset for preparing fresh and raw foods and greatly improving the quality of your diet. Here are a few of the things it can do for you:

ICE-CREAM! If you have children, one of the hard things is weaning them off that horrible chemical & disease germ soup that is now sold as ice-cream. Here are some ideas—Deep-freeze ripe bananas. You can often get a large amount on sale when they are ripe and you can freeze them in single use amounts.

You can place a cup of soy milk in your  blender, and drop in the frozen bananas until you have a delicious ‘ice cream’. Serve immediately, of course. You can add any frozen berries or carob powder to make different flavors. You can also freeze fruit juice or vanilla or carob soy milk in ice cube trays and then whiz them into ice-cream or sherbet on your Vita mix.

Creme soups and healthy sauces are easy as well.

It is a good way to get small children or elderly folk eating more raw fruit as when they are whizzed into juice or sauce, there's no problem with chewing and they get the benefit of the fresh, raw fruit!

Raw apple-sauce is a snap also—don’t even peel them, just wash, core and whiz into sauce. A little spice or honey can be added if desired. Dates, figs or prunes can be whizzed into syrups for sugarless toppings.

Remember with raw foods—make only what you can use immediately.

 Vegetables should be juiced in a juicer, you don’t get the benefits of raw vegetable juice if you do it on Vita-Mix. Fruit is OK this way though, as with fruit, it is better to have the total fiber content to prevent possible hypoglycemic reactions.

A GOOD JUICER:

If you have a health problem, especially if it is a serious one, or if you just want to keep yourself and family healthy—buy a good juicer!

Fresh, raw vegetable juices are a powerful way to put your body on track for better health. There are many books available about using fresh, raw juices for health, and they contain many helpful hints.

(See Norman Walker’s book: ‘Fresh Vegetable and Fruit Juices’)

We will look at a couple simple ideas:

Combine carrot with a small amount of celery and raw tomato—delicious and nutritious.

Carrot alone is a great favorite.

Apples make delicious fresh, raw juice. If you put through a bit of fresh ginger root or raw lemon with them, the juice won’t turn brown as fast.

For a cool summer treat try watermelon juice or any melon juice for that matter—real refreshment!

Remember all raw juices must be drunk immediately for they oxidize quickly. They can be frozen to keep them for a while—but fresh is best.

A Juicer, if at all possible, should be one that squeezes the juice from the pulp,  NOT a centrifugal style machine. Some good ones are, ‘Green Power’, ‘Champion’, and of course the elite, ‘Norwalk’.

If however, all you can afford is a centrifugal juicer, go ahead anyway, any raw juice is better than none! Just be even surer to use it freshly made.

Canned or bottled commercial juices are not all that good for the body, especially if they contain sugar. Read labels and avoid any ‘fruit drinks’ for these you are paying your good money for colored, artificially flavored, sugar water!

Avoid sugar sweetened juices and especially all products containing aspartame /Nutri-sweet and flavor products like Kool-aid, Crystal-Lite, Tang and such. Don’t trick your body with counterfeits–Give it real nutrition or plain water. These artificial flavoring products are definitely harmful to the health, especially children.

Some frozen juices are not too bad but none can hold a candle to your own fresh, raw juice!

For oranges and citrus juicing, get an electric citrus juicer, Braun sells a nice one, very inexpensive. Your own fresh squeezed orange juice is worth the bother, for sure and it is free of the irritating peel oils found in all commercial juice. It is also fresh and raw not cooked, dehydrated, reconstituted, manipulated and so on.