Trying To Get Back on the Healthy Track With My Favorite Raw Breakfasts

I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Last week, I found myself in the Emergency Room at Medical City at 3 in the morning because of a severe migraine. I brushed it off all throughout the day and after finally taking some pain relievers and my head still feeling like it's about to explode, I finally gave in to the Mister's pleas of bringing me to the ER just to make sure it wasn't anything serious.

When I got there, my blood pressure was so low that they wanted me to stay for another hour so they could monitor me. :s After a couple of hours, the doctors let me go home but not before making me promise that I'd stay in bed for the next few days since apparently, the severe migraines and low blood pressure was, according to them, due to too much stress and lack of rest. Hmmm.

I admit that since getting back from my super restful retreat in Puerto Princesa, I've been subjected to day after day of work-related stress and pressures and other personal problems.

For the first week after getting back, I was so well-behaved: went to bed early every night, woke up early to do yoga and morning meditation, ate raw food for 2 out of my 3 daily meals, downed green smoothies as my energy drink, and I felt fantastic!

After that though, with increasing pressures and hundreds of errands & deadlines to meet, I slowly went back to skipping breakfast cause I just didn't have time.. being glued to my laptop & iPhone replying to queries & working through midnight.. skipping my morning yoga & meditation.. not having time to make my raw meals so I ended up eating cooked food.. and now, I'm back to feeling sluggish and just sickly! :s

So now, after a week of struggling to meet deadlines & rushing thru the week again, I'm determined to go back to that slower, healthier lifestyle.

I'm determined to make all-raw breakfasts everyday now for a good kickstart to the morning and since it inspires me to eat raw & healthy for the rest of the day. Here're a few of my favorite raw breakfast recipes that are easy to make and super yummy:

Fresh Mangoes & Bananas in Coconut Milk-Mango-Honey

(this was actually my very first attempt to a raw meal at home so I tried to replicate one of our breakfasts at Bahay Kalipay. But since I didn't have a lot of the other stuff that went in to the original version (like wheatgerm, avocadoes, goji berries, etc.), I decided to just make do with what I had at home and make a simpler version.

yummy fruit breakfast at Bahay Kalipay

Ingredients for the sauce:

mango

honey
coconut milk (don't use canned coconut milk! we made ours just by squeezing all the milk out from the grated coconut meat that you also get to use in the dish -- see? nothing wasted!)

Just blend everything together and adjust amounts of each ingredient to your liking (e.g. more honey if you want it sweeter). Set aside.

1 mango, sliced into cubes

1 banana, sliced

grated coconut meat

ground cashew nuts

Just put the mangoes and bananas in a bowl. Pour coconut milk-mango-honey mixture into the bowl and sprinkle grated coconut meat & ground cashew nuts on top.

Super easy to make and also super filling! Since my first try, I've experimented with it several times more and I now put ground flaxseeds or wheatgerm for more fiber/protein; I also use whatever nuts we have at home for variety.

You can also opt to put avocados, goji berries, or any of your favorite fruits! If you don't have coconut milk, you can also use almond milk or cashew nut milk -- it's still yummy! :)


my version with just mangoes, bananas, coconut
and crushed cashew nuts



Apple Ginger Almond & Cashew Nut & Flaxseed "Granola" in Almond Nut Milk & Honey

This one is actually my own version of a recipe I found here. Almonds are expensive here so I substituted cashew nuts for half of the amount of almonds that the recipe calls for. Turned out great!

1 apple, finely diced

1/4 cup almonds, soaked & chopped

1/4 cup cashew nut, soaked & chopped

1/4 inch piece of ginger

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp. ground flaxseed

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (original recipe calls for 1/4 only but i love cinnamon!! so i added a bit more. do as you please.)

So basically, you just put all this in a food processor until it's got a granola-like texure.

You may opt to add more stuff like goji berries, coconut meat, etc. But to me, it's perfect the way it is! :)

I just made a mixture of almond nut milk & honey and poured that into the bowl for a yummy raw cereal breakfast!!

For some, the taste of the ginger may be too strong so you can omit this if you're not a ginger fan or you can just put in a smaller piece and make sure it's finally chopped so you don't get nasty whole chunks of it in one bite!

Banana Cinnamon Almond Nut Milk & Wheatgerm Smoothie

This is a great quick breakfast for those days when you just don't have time to make a bowl of the other 2! The wheatgerm (you can also try flaxseed) makes it super filling, too. Even I'm surprised that it gets me through the morning until lunch without getting hungry.


making almond nut milk at home

1 banana

1 cup almond nut milk (better if it's homemade!)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp ground wheatgerm or flaxseed

Just put everything in a blender and you'll have a great glass of breakfast in the morning!

Enjoy! :-)