Restricted Diet Favorites: Breakfast

I have received tons of questions over the years about my favorite food products and menu ideas for a restrictive diet. We’ve seen just about everything in our house so I have a wide variety of options for pretty much every food restriction you could think of. I had an anaphylactic reaction to corn for nearly a year, I’ve had to give up gluten, dairy, soy, eggs and nuts for 8 months and just dairy and gluten for another 8 months. O dipped his toe in the vegan pool for close to a year and has been fully vegan for the past year. Oshiolema is gluten, nut and dairy intolerant and it seems so far like Keogena is following in his footsteps. 

Since O and I started dating, we’ve randomly chosen to give up foods for a period of time just to get our body in the best place it could be. When O was still playing in the NFL, he’d give up sweets for months at a time. He went three months without eggs, we both gave up gluten for months at a time, we’d both give up all added sugar- so on and so forth. I love looking back on that time and realizing the Lord was preparing us for a time to come. 

Fast forward to now, where while as of a few days ago Keogena’s tummy seems to be able to tolerate me having a bit of dairy and gluten here and there, Oshiolema and I will remain gluten and dairy free (it’s how my body feels best) And O is vegan (he eats gluten and we both eat nuts). 

Today I’ll be sharing about our favorite breakfast products and what breakfast looks like in our house. As a family, we really try to limit sugar as much as possible. We don’t let Oshiolema have sweets or baked goods weekly and try to make them a very special occasion and preferably I’ll make them myself. We used to have vegan pancakes every week but we just went about two months without them and realize they’re much more of an indulgence than we need weekly. 

Every day we (Oshiolema and I) rotate about 4 meals for breakfast: 1. eggs fried hard, chicken sausage/pork sausage/bacon 2. oatmeal with all the fixings 3. cereal and/or coconut yogurt and fruit or 4. breakfast tacos with eggs, sausage and hot sauce in a corn tortilla.

Since doing Whole30 we haven’t returned to having things like cereal or gluten free breads and bagels for breakfast. We have a smoothie every single morning and will have eggs and a meat just about every day as well. For O, he gets an enormous portion of that smoothie and that plus a handful of nuts is what he has for breakfast each day.  I put three scoops of grain free pea protein in his. Sometimes i’ll make hash browns or a sweet potato hash to go with it and Oshiolema will always have a big bowl of berries. 

All of these options are gluten, dairy, egg and soy free (clockwise from left to right) 

Cherrybrook KitchenPancake Mix: when I was nursing Oshiolema and he couldn’t tolerate all.the.things, this was my go to for pancakes. I desperately missed my buttermilk cornmeal pancakes and yes-these are certainly more bland but hey are fluffy and delicious. Most importantly, they are free of just about everything. 

Stoneground Flakes: This was a cereal we often gave Oshiolema for breakfast with sliced bananas, raisins and blueberries inside. 

Coconut Yogurt: I personally am not a huge fan of alternative yogurts but Oshiolema loves this one. If I give it to him for desert, i’ll drizzle some honey in it but if he just has it for breakfast i’ll dump it out and add a good amount of fruit to it. 

Kite Hill Almond Yogurt: O really enjoys this yogurt just plain, as is. 

Alexia Hashbrowns: During Whole 30 when breakfast became really predictable, I started making these hash browns to accompany our eggs and sausage. These are delicious cooked in a bit of olive oil and the seasoning on them is perfect. If you don’t want to peel and chop potatoes to make a hash, this is a great shortcut. 

Tempt Hemp Milk: While nursing Oshiolema and not being able to have nuts, we exclusively used Rice Dream rice milk. It is pretty much water, to be honest. Sweet O decided he’d join me just for support for about 4 months of my extremely restricted diet and he became sick of Rice Dream about ten seconds into it. We discovered Hemp Milk and he’s been using it for his cereals ever since. I also use this to make my own buttermilk for any recipe that calls for it by mixing one cup of it with one tbs. of vinegar. This brand is our favorite and we prefer it much more than the more well known brand for sure.

Bobs Red Mill Gluten Gree Rolled Oats: We’re not an enormous oatmeal family but these are our go-to just to ensure there are no traces of gluten in them. These are also perfect blended up to make oat flour for pancakes and muffins and such. 

Earth Balance “Butter”: LIFESAVER. Absolute lifesaver. I again discovered this when I had to avoid all things good in the world and this butter works as a substitute in just about any baking recipe. I’ve turned my whole family on to it- its just as perfect spread on bagels as it is binding vegan cookies. We couldn’t do life without it. (I buy the pink version rather than the yellow because it’s soy free and I avoid soy for my boys as much as possible.)

Applegate Chicken & Sage Sausage: Such a great life hack. They’re clean and quick and so delicious chopped up for breakfast tacos or accompanying our morning eggs. 

Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Baking Flour: Again, this is another lifesaver. I rotate this flour and another if I’m baking or making pancakes, wafles or bread for Oshiolema or myself. We're big Bob's Red Mill fans.

Chocolate 'Koala Crisp' Cereal: This satisfied every sugar and chocolate craving when I had the most restrictive diet. I often had it for dessert. 

One Degree Rice Crisp Cereal: This is another one of Oshiolema’s breakfast cereals. I also made rice crip bars with these and they’re an exact substitute with no junk. 

Please let me know if you have any questions, this journey can be challenging and isolating and so many people just don't get it but we are called to decide how we are being led to feed our families. Food isn't the same as it used to be and our bodies often have a hard time tolerating the things snuck in it. I'll be sharing some favorite tried and true recipes as well!