Take the chocolate breakfast challenge

Original Medium Post HERE

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For your immune system, health, and happiness

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Chocolate breakfast — with some of the ingredients. (This is not a formal endorsement of any specific companies’ products).

One of our community joy pillars is fitness: exercise and eating well.

This is not a recipe blog — but this week only, I am sharing my favorite recipe. No cutting, chopping or cooking required.

It has been my daily breakfast for ~ two years. For some (including those in my office with whom I eat it over morning meetings), it is controversial: an acquired taste, and not everyone loves the look of it, but I love it.

I challenge you to try this for a few batches and get the balance right for your taste.[1] You might want to start with a smaller portion; there’s a lot of fiber in some ingredients — so give yourself a chance to get used to it.

If you have it for a few weeks, there’s a good chance you’ll be hooked. And if you’re one of the first 1,000 people to try it, you get a free subscription to this blog!

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Why it works

It features several superfoods that promote physical and mental health. One example: spirulina boosts the immune system, as demonstrated by a body of mainstream peer-reviewed research (even helping fight COVID-19), and provides other health benefits.[2]

Over the two years I have been eating this, I have had fewer colds, and my colds have been milder and briefer. Where I used to usually have 2 or so colds that lasted a week each winter[3], and featured uncomfortable coughing, sore throat, stuffiness, etc., in these two years, I have had only a few single days with a runny nose.

(Please note: this blog does not provide medical advice. More info in footnote below[4])

I set out to avoid the unnecessarily flowery lifestory narrative so popular in online recipes before you could scroll down to the recipe. I have failed a little bit — but to avoid further failure, here it is . . .

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Chocolate breakfast

Prep time: 15–20 minutes, and overnight refrigerating. Should provide at least a week of ample breakfasts

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Ingredients[5]

Use all unsweetened ingredients if possible.

I don’t list specific amounts for most ingredients — I describe how to add them below, and recommend adjusting amounts to taste.

· At least 1.5 quarts or liters of coconut almond milk (unsweetened)

· 24 oz bag steel cut oats

· Maca powder

· Cacao powder (unsweetened)

· Ground cinnamon

· Ground nutmeg

· Ground allspice

· Ground cayenne pepper

· SunButter (unsweetened, unsalted)

· Up to 32 oz plain probiotic yoghurt (unsweetened)

· Hemp hearts (shelled hemp seeds)

· Milled flax seed

· Chia seeds

· Spirulina powder

· Acai powder (optional)

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For serving:

· Your fruit selection to mix in: I like mandarins and mixed berries, or banana and raisins.

· My children prefer maple syrup. Honey could work too. (But for many adults, added sweetener shouldn’t be needed)

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Steps:

Gather a large mixing bowl, a large spoon, and another spoon or two.

Pour in ~a third of the coconut almond milk.

Pour in ~ half the bag of steel cut oats.

Layer on a thin, but full, layer of maca powder.

Layer on a 1/3–½ inch layer of unsweetened cacao powder (it takes a good amount to make the overall flavor chocolatey and give an overall chocolatey color — which I’ve been told looks better).

Layer on a full, but thin, covering of cinnamon, a thinner covering of nutmeg, a thinner covering of allspice, and a thinner (perhaps not complete) covering of cayenne pepper.

Spread several ample tablespoons of unsweetened SunButter across the top. Then add a layer of spoonfuls of probiotic yogurt (perhaps half the container) and enough coconut almond milk to come up to the level of the top.

Next up is another thinner layer of steel cut oats — not quite the rest of the bag.

Add a full layer of hemp seeds (only a few seeds in thickness). Add a similar layer of chia and a similar layer of milled flax. Add a thinner, but complete, layer of spirulina. Add a thin layer of acai powder.

Finish with a layer of yogurt (as much as the rest of the container). Pour enough coconut almond milk to reach the top of the mixture.

I stir through slowly with a large spoon (slowly to not overflow the bowl). Start by trying to mix in excess coconut almond milk. Mix around the sides. Then stir down the sides of the bowl, all the way to the bottom and all around the bowl, to mix all ingredient layers. (Perhaps a mixer would be quicker — if I had a bigger bowl and wasn’t concerned about overflowing)

Break up lumps using two spoons. Distribute all ingredients as evenly as possible. Add additional coconut almond milk to bring it to kind of a pudding consistency. If it isn’t a chocolatey color, add more cacao.

Refrigerate overnight.

Add more coconut almond milk the next day, and stir again. Taste and add more cacao if needed for flavor.

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Serve with fruit. For a very hearty serving, fill about half a cereal bowl. Try with mandarins, raspberries and blueberries; or with bananas and raisins. Most adults shouldn’t need any additional sweetener.

(But alternatively, you can serve with maple syrup and/or honey.)

Stay joyful, East Boston.

Closeup of some ingredients mixed before the cacao is fully mixed in

Please share, subscribe, and join our movement by emailing me or supporting East Boston Social Centers. Look out each week for our posts about boosting joy the only way we can: in community.

[1] For example, for my children, I have removed the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and cayenne, and substituted rolled oats for the steel cut oats. There’s a lot of flexibility here.

[2] The immunity-boosting properties could be harmful to people with some autoimmune disorders. Like with any supplementation or food, please do your research to ensure it is right for you.

[3] Though I didn’t really like to admit it.

[4] DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG DOES NOT PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE. The information, including but not limited to, the text and images herein are for informational purposes only. No material on this site is intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this blog.

[5] Please note: not all major supermarkets will carry all the ingredients listed here. I tend to buy some online. Also, because of some toxins and heavy metals unfortunately being present throughout our food chain, I recommend reviewing lists to select brands of spirulina, cacao, flax, and other ingredients with low levels of toxins.