Quick Breakfast for Energy: Cottage Cheese Bowl

This is a fantastic, and surprisingly delicious, breakfast dish which provides you with a lot of energy to get going right away in the morning. I recently saw this while watching an episode of Dr. Oz about increasing energy, and while it seemed odd to eat this for breakfast, I decided to try it and fell in love with it.

This tip was a Cottage Cheese, Cinnamon, and Walnut breakfast dish. It’s great for the busy professional because it’s super fast to make, and also you can eat it quickly. It’s also very high in protein and has some nice alpha-linolenic acid (ALA – a type of Omega-3 fatty acid) from the walnuts.

Note: I’ve also come up with some customizations and tips at the end for the wide variety of people, and explain why a person might consider that modification.

Ingredients & Directions

per the Dr. Oz show:

• 1 cup of cottage cheese
• 1 handful of walnuts
• dash of cinnamon
• sprinkle of salt

Put in a dish, mix, then eat Easy-peasy.

My Modifications:

These are my modifications to this recipe because each person has slightly different dietary needs, and they are often different during the different times of the year.

• about 1 cup of 4% Milkfat Cottage Cheese
• 1 handful of walnuts (slightly chopped is nice, though the Walnut Halves are fine also)
• about 1/8 tsp of Cinnamon (in the cooler months), (or) Cardamom (in the warmer months)
• optional: sprinkle of salt (cooler months), (or) organic cane sugar (warmer months), (or) a drizzle of Maple Syrup (spring or fall)
• optional: dash of turmeric and small crack of black pepper

Notes about the modifications

• 4% Milkfat Cottage Cheese. Whole fat foods are actually very good for most people, especially those trying to lose weight. Healthy fats help to keep the metabolism strong and healthy, helps remove fat-soluble toxins from the body, and is supportive of the nervous system. Fats and Oils are the Water element in Ayurveda, and hence are pacifying to Vata issues, which can become very common for a busy, on-the-go person. Additionally, Cottage Cheese is actually OK for Kapha-type individuals, and is neutral for all the doshas, and easy to digest (digestion actually takes a lot of energy, so an easily digestible food helps keep some energy).
• Cinnamon or Cardamom. Cinnamon (Twak) is heating/warming according to Ayurveda, and great for people in the Vata or Kapha doshas, or when we are in those seasons (cool or cold, windy, and/or rainy). It is supportive for digestion and additionally, Cinnamon has been suggested in clinical studies to be beneficial for those with blood sugar issues. Cardamom (Elā) is the flip side in many regards to Cinnamon. Small Cardamom (the variety normally found in the US) is actually considered slightly cold and is then less aggravating for Pitta (heat). Cardamom is also good for digestion, helps detoxify caffeine from coffee, and should be used more in the summer (hot) months. Both Cinnamon and Cardamom are good for helping to reduce mucus.
• Salt, Cane Sugar, or Maple Syrup. This is partially based on personal preference, but also keeping in mind who you are, and what is going on with the season. Rock Salt (heating) is pacifying for Vata people, Cane Sugar (sweet and cool, build ojas – the sap of life) is pacifying for both Vata and Pitta (nice in summer), and Maple Syrup is another option. Ask your body “Which, if any, will be a contribution to me in this food?”. One, all, or none may be a contribution to who you are that day. Note – normally you want to avoid sugars/sweets with a meal as they are harder to digest, though some people say they help to get the digestive juices flowing, and hence are best to eat at the beginning of the meal.
• Turmeric & Black Pepper. Turmeric helps with the digestion of the Cottage Cheese (beyond it’s other massive and numerous benefits). Turmeric, while being warming for the digestive system, is cooling once it starts to travel out of the digestive system into the deeper tissues. The black pepper (Maricha, meaning sun due to its large amounts of solar energy) helps make the turmeric up to 2,000 times more bioavailable in the system. Black pepper also helps with digestion and burns out āma (simplistically, undigested food stuck in the intestines that becomes toxic to the system, but that’s a very oversimplified view).