The Breakfast Challenge

       A high-protein breakfast is strongly recommended as part of a holistic approach to treating ADHD.  That doesn't sound too hard right? It shouldn't be, but when you add to it a laundry list of food intolerances and allergies, it becomes quite the challenge!

       So what would you make for breakfast (high-protein) for someone who cannot have gluten (wheat, rye, barley and oats), corn, dairy, soy, or eggs?  Now you see my predicament!  A lot of people resort to eating leftovers from dinner for breakfast.  We usually use our leftovers for lunch or for another dinner, but it has been done on occasion at our house too.  The other trick I recently discovered was adding protein powder to your baked goods.  I use a vegetarian protein powder consisting of rice, hemp and pea protein.  For a lot of people with soy allergies the pea protein is also prohibited, but there are a lot of pure rice and hemp proteins out there. Some people use the powders in smoothies, but unfortunately the texture of these types of protein tend to be grainy which is a problem for a lot of us. Soaking the powder in warm water before adding to your smoothie helps with this, otherwise the texture is not a problem when using in baked goods.  To add protein powder to your favorite baked item just substitute part of the flour with equal amounts of protein powder.  Depending on whether you buy flavored or unflavored will determine how many things you can add it to.  I made the mistake of purchasing my first container in chocolate, but it has allowed for some creative snack ideas! = )

Here are some of the high-protein breakfast I have come up with so far:

• High-protein waffles with nut butter (I use a vanilla rice protein powder.)
• High-protein pancakes with nut butter (made in similar fashion to the waffles but with a thinner batter)
• High-protein Apple sauce muffins (also using vanilla rice protein powder)
• Peanut butter chocolate breakfast cookies (using chocolate vegetarian protein powder)
• Rice cakes, nut butter and apples slices (This is my quick go-to breakfast option.)
• GF Biscuits with nut butter and jam, served with fresh fruit (When I finish the protein powder I have, I plan on buying "unflavored" and adding it to the biscuits.)
• Sausage patties, fruit, and vegetable strips (bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers)
• Green smoothies made with fruit, kale, spinach, ginger root and a 1/4 scoop of the protein powder. (Somehow the mixture and soaking the powder helps hide the grainy texture better than just fruit and coconut milk.)
• High-protein Zucchini bread or any other "cake" type bread (the vanilla protein powder works fine in these)
• Mama's GF Chex mix- Rice chex, assorted nuts and seeds, dried cranberries, gf chocolate chips (I make this up with many different variations), served with apple slices or banana and a cup of coconut milk.  [I also use this mix for snacks a lot, especially when sending snacks to church, kids clubs or any other place my child needs to bring his/her own snack.]
• GF Rice Crispy squares made with nut butter, chocolate protein powder, chopped nuts/seeds, flax meal, and dried cranberries or raisins (I decrease the amount of marshmallows called for in order to lower the sugar content. I simply press down into a cake pan making them as compact as possible, then refrigerate. Keeping them refrigerated helps them stay together better even without a full bag of marshmallows.)

As you can see, some are higher in protein than others, but all of them are better than a simple bowl of cereal and milk.  I am fortunate that I can use a variety of nut and seed butters. I understand that many have allergies to nuts and this decreases the options even further. Sunflower seed butter is a great option for many who can't do peanut and/or almond butter, and can be found in most grocery stores now. 

      I would love to hear from you! What high-protein breakfast ideas have you come up with that are both kid and food-allergy friendly?  Here's to the culinary creativity that challenges like these inspire!!!

Ginger