My Latest Savory Breakfast Obsession

Well, you guys already know what my sweet & dessert-like breakfast obsession is: avo pudding, duh.

But I don’t eat the same thing every day — I have learned through lots of trial and error (#LOTS), that my body does best when I mix things up! Real food, whole ingredients, balanced meals, lots of variety, and lots of listening to my body.

What do I mean by “balanced meals,” you ask? Let me tell you! I like to stick to a combo of fat, fiber, protein, complex carbs & either fruit / leafy greens with every meal. Sometimes I DO enjoy a good protein bar or protein shake if I am not in the mood for a full-blown meal, but when I do feel like a meal… You’d better believe it has each of those staples in it.

The reason I do that is because I like to keep my blood sugar stabilized by eating foods that optimize my nutrition, keep me satiated, and give me energy and fuel for my day. I’ve come a LONG way from my juice cleanse obsession days, am I right?

Also, this meal is extra supa cool because it utilizes my ingredient of the year: PULSES.

I have been having so much fun playing around with using pulses in my cooking & baking lately, thanks to my partnership with USA Pulses as an International Year of Pulses Ambassador.

FYI: Pulses are all types of dry peas, lentils, chickpeas, and beans. Who knew? They are some of the easiest, most affordable and most commonplace ingredients to work with — and they make a delicious gluten-free flour alternative as well as a plant-based protein alternative. And in this recipe I used PEA PROTEIN to pack this breakfast full of as much protein as possible. (Like really though, because of the fluffy egg whites on top of it!)

I became obsessed with this meal for a few reasons. Very simple reasons, really. Ready?

1. It’s a GREAT alternative to oatmeal, because oats (even g-free) can be kinda hard for my tummy to digest sometimes.
2. It is chock full of protein, between the egg whites & the pea protein.
3. You can make it savory OR sweet. Will leave instructions for a sweet variation below.
4. It’s the perfect pre-workout or post-workout meal. It packs in the complex carbs, protein, fiber & keeps me super satiated.
5. I have still been dabbling around in the “IIFYM” lifestyle, and it is GREATTTT for helping me hit my carbs and protein when it comes to macronutrients!
6. I am the kinda person who likes to feel like I am eating VOLUME. The ground cauliflower and egg whites both bulk this baby up so there is lots and lots of yumminess in the bowl without a mill calories and without me feeling supa dupa full afterward.

ALSO, if you’re like “WTF is brown rice farina?” just check out this brand. It’s basically brown rice cereal. Brown rice meal, if you will. It’s full of the good stuff, and is super easy to digest on the tum-tum. And it’s delicious! I like to rotate brown rice farina with gluten-free oats and occasionally corn meal or polenta. ALL three are good in this dish, if you majorly prefer one over the other!

Savory Brown Rice Farina Recipe:

Ingredients:

1/4 cup brown rice farina

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup egg whites

1/2 cup ground cauliflower (about 1/5 of a head of cauliflower)

1 scoop pea protein (I like this brand a lot & will leave more options at bottom of post)

1 handful spinach or any type of leafy green

Optional: 2-3 tablespoons nutritional yeast

Method:

Grind cauliflower in a blender or heavy duty mixer. You will likely have to stick a spoon in and move it around quite a bit to get it ground all the way through, so be patient and keep blending while you begin steps 2 and 3!

Bring brown rice farina and water to a boil on the stovetop. It only takes about 3-4 minutes to boil all the way through, so keep your eye on it!

While the brown rice cereal is boiling, pour the egg whites into a non-stick pan (I grease mine with avocado oil — fave right now).

Once the brown rice is boiled, the egg white is cooked, and the cauliflower is ground — pour them into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Add in your scoop of pea protein and keep mixin’.

Then, top with shredded spinach and a heavy helping of nutritional yeast. I add a LOT of nutritional yeast, because it gives it a cheesy flavor that I am obsessed with! That is what makes this dish extra savory.

Optional: Top with a bit of sesame or olive oil, flax seeds, or tahini to take this bowl to the next level! I like it just as it is. 🙂

*SWEET Option: If you prefer sweet breakfasts or snacks, you can sub the spinach and nutritional yeast for 1 tablespoon peanut butter (or any nut butter you choose), a handful of blueberries, and some honey or agave! I LOVE this too. Sometimes I even add dairy-free chocolate chips or cacao nibs!

BTW, depending on the brand, the pea protein can be sweet. Make sure you choose a non-sweet variation (one without stevia or any other sweetener) if you’re making the savory version of this dish. Another fun pulse to add would be chickpeas!

Try this yumminess and let me know what you think! What do y’all think of the whole pulses thing? Isn’t it awesome how versatile they can be? And who knew what pulses were — bonus points if you knew before January of this year… Because that will mean you knew about it before I did!! XO

PS — all of my go-to brands for this recipe are below! A few diff types of pea protein too!