Tag Archives: breakfast

Sip a Rainbow Smoothie to Deliciously Tackle Your Daily Fruit and Vegetable Serving Needs

How many fruits and vegetables have you had today? How about the kids? If you’re like most Americans, the CDC says it’s not enough. Sure, it can feel like a challenge to get more fresh plant-based foods on to your plate, but it’s absolutely worth trying. Nothing good ever came from a beige plate of food. That’s why every plate should look like a rainbow.

rainbow smoothie ingredients

We’ve got a pretty healthy, simple, and delicious way to fix this fruit and veggie problem, at least a part of it. You and the kids are going to love our Rainbow Smoothie because it’s as tasty as it is fun.

judah rainbow smoothie

The premise is really pretty simple – select one fruit or vegetable from each color family. Combine these with yogurt in a blender, and voila, you’ve got as much as seven servings of fruits and vegetables in one cup. If your kids haven’t met Roy G. Biv, now is a great time, especially when they can relate it to food.

ROYGBIV represents the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. Now, that last arc of the rainbow gets a little tricky, but plenty of options exist. You can reference this chart. Stick it to the refrigerator and let the kids familiarize themselves with each food item, or they could even use it as a Rainbow Smoothie menu. (more…)

Posted on July 22, 2023 by Natalie K

Carrot Cake Pancakes Wake Up Summertime Breakfasts

You guys, we took two of the best things ever and put them together. We think, by definition, that makes these carrot cake pancakes we developed exclusively for Grimmway Farms the best thing ever. Even the biggest skeptics in our test kitchen were sold on the rich, decadent dessert-like breakfast we’d cooked up.

carrot cake pancakes

Breakfast is, without a doubt, our favorite meal at DietsInReview.com. It should, frankly, be everyone’s favorite meal. We think we have more fun with it than most, as we show off in our Baker’s Dozen eCookbook, featuring 13 healthier breakfast and brunch recipes. And the pancake is our pièce de résistance.

carrot cake pancake ingredients

Of course we used Grimmway Farms baby carrots to make these bad boys. Are there even other carrots out there? We grated them the easiest way there is to grate a baby carrot – running them through the food processor. We also minced a fresh pineapple to add sweetness to our pancakes because, unless you look really close, you won’t realize there isn’t any added sugar in this recipe! (more…)

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Natalie K

Make Frozen Waffles at Home with this Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Waffles Recipe

Waking up to pancakes, French toast, or waffles in my house is a staple of the weekend. My soon-to-be three-year-old daughter asks to make pancakes most mornings of the week and every day I have to sadly decline. I make up for it by giving her a frozen waffle so we can all eat and get out the door. But she knows when it’s Saturday and she expects bowls full of batter and big drizzly pours of honey.

Cinnamon Apple Oat Waffles

I would alternate between the Van’s or Earth’s Best frozen waffles. They’re both organic, whole grain, have a few bites of blueberries, and taste really good. They both also run almost four dollars for six waffles. Lately I’ve been trying to make more of our own bread and homemade salad dressing to save money and ensure we’re eating the best quality food. I figured the waffles would fit right in there andI was right. (more…)

Posted on April 15, 2024 by Natalie K

Breakfast Proteins Fill You Up, Suppress Appetite

In this fast paced age of instant gratification, young people are skipping breakfast in favor of checking their Instagram while they scramble to get to school or work on time. A new University of Missouri study aimed to quantify the nutritional benefits of the most important meal of the day. Moms in Missouri rejoiced, students were ecstatic for the free grub, and the results were just shy of major significance.

Twenty obese college girls were fed a breakfast high in protein (sausage and eggs), a normal protein breakfast (cereal), or no breakfast at all. Participants were given coolers full of unhealthy snacks to measure their appetite later in the day. While that may have been a misstep by the scientists considering Cheetos and Little Debbies are awfully tempting to any starving college student, the breakfast protein experiment did yield minor results. Researchers found that the more protein consumed during breakfast led to higher appetite satiety and decreased hunger later in the day. (more…)

Posted on April 2, 2024 by Patrick

Our Favorite Easter Brunch Recipes for a Fresh and Inspired Holiday Meal

If the weather won’t do its part to prove it is spring, then the calendar will have to do. Easter is the official go for launch for this sunny season and everyone is ready to shake their cabin fever. As you join friends and family this weekend to celebrate the holiday, add a few healthy dishes to your brunch spread. You’ve no doubt got the eggs covered, so let us cover everything else!

Our Baker’s Dozen eCookbook has 13 fresh breakfast and brunch recipes that are healthier than your average pancake or strip of bacon. From sweet potato hashbrowns and a sunny side up breakfast sandwich to blood orange mimosas and apple doughnuts, your mornings will never taste better. It’s all the inspiration you need to celebrate Easter morning. Download yours for 99 cents!

Apple Cinnamon Streusel Doughnuts

This moist whole grain doughnut is baked with sauteed apples and cinnamon right on top. It’s like dessert for breakfast or breakfast for dessert. Either way, it’s a wonderful way to start your holiday morning.

Melon Ball Soup

It doesn’t get much simpler than a two-ingredient recipe. Chilled cantaloupe and watermelon are pureed and topped with your choice of garnishments like cilantro, mint, or feta cheese for a delightfully surprising brunch appetizer. (more…)

Posted on March 27, 2024 by Natalie K

Meyer Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes Are a Sweet Twist on Citrus

As a kid I was known as a pancake devourer. As an adult I’ve been deemed the “pancake queen.” Devourer, queen – either way you put it you can tell I love a stack of warm, fluffy pancakes in the morning just as much (or more) than the next girl. So, when I recently caught wind that there was a type of lemon I’d never tried – Meyer lemons – I couldn’t wait to create a new pancake recipe utilizing them as the star ingredient.

Meyer lemons get their name from Frank M. Meyer who worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the early 1900s and brought the fruit back to the U.S. from China where they were cultivated. They are still tart but lack any harsh acidity, and taste slightly sweeter than a regular lemon. (more…)

Posted on February 25, 2024 by Dana

Pepsi’s New Mountain Dew Kickstart is Not a Healthy Breakfast Choice

Just when you thought you’d seen it all, Pepsi tries to sell us on Mountain Dew for breakfast.

PepsiCo announced Monday it will be releasing a new “breakfast” drink. Mountain Dew Kickstart is a Mountain Dew-flavored fruit juice drink that will be available in two flavors: Energizing Orange Citrus and Fruit Punch, according to USA Today.

  • Mountain Dew’s vice president of marketing, Greg Lyons, explained Kickstart was born out of consumer demand. “Our consumers told us they are looking for an alternative to traditional morning beverages – one that tastes great, includes real fruit juice and has just the right amount of kick to help them start their days.” (more…)
Posted on February 12, 2024 by Dana

Test Your Cereal Smarts to Buy a Better Breakfast

By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., Best Life lead nutritionist

I’ll admit it—I’ve given unsolicited advice to total strangers in the cereal aisle, but only when they look truly bewildered. It’s my nutritionist’s instinct, what can I say? Believe it or not, choosing a healthy cereal is not as complicated as you might think, especially when you follow a few simple steps.


Start with the ingredient list. Check to make sure all grains are whole. Examples of whole grains: barley, brown rice, oats, quinoa, triticale, whole rye, whole wheat, and anything else with “whole” in front of it. For more on what is and isn’t a whole grain, click here. I’d avoid sucralose (Splenda), acesulfame K, aspartame (Nutrasweet), and any other artificial sweetener—you don’t need these in a cereal. (more…)

Posted on January 30, 2024 by BestLifeDiet

The Weight Loss Tip that Keeps Foreigners Thin

By Janis Jibrin, M.S., R.D., TheBestLife.com lead nutritionist

As a trim, chic couple passes me on the street, I hear snatches of their conversation—in French. The other night at a restaurant, I heard Italian coming from a nearby table of three generations: healthy children, parents and grandparents. Living in Washington, D.C., with all the embassies and international organizations, I wind up hearing many different languages. When I recognize one, I do a quick—and surreptitious—assessment of the speaker’s body weight. My amateur research findings, corroborated by legitimate studies, are that in most other countries, people are at healthier weights than Americans. For instance, our obesity rate is 3.5 times that of France’s.

I’ve pumped my international friends—all of whom are at a healthy body weight—for their secrets. No matter where they come from, there is one strategy they all share: They respect the concept of mealtimes. They eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, with little to no snacking in between. (more…)

Posted on January 24, 2024 by BestLifeDiet

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Pancakes Will Wake up the Weekend

My daughter and I make pancakes on Saturday or Sunday every weekend. We usually do this in our pajamas and we always make a disaster zone out of the kitchen. It’s delicious bonding time that I wouldn’t trade for anything. Except maybe chocolate. But with these pancakes, absolutely no sacrifices are made.

The two of us love chocolate, strawberries, and pancakes so it seemed that marrying these ingredients would be an exciting way to get out of our standard blueberry pancake rut. We were pleasantly surprised. She enjoyed dropping her favorite fruit in to the batter and I enjoyed indulging in something at breakfast that beat just about any dessert I’d had recently.

In this recipe, you get to have a rich, satisfying serving of chocolate without overdoing it, all the while filling up on a whole grain pancake loaded with fresh, juicy strawberries. (more…)

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Natalie K

Kami Rivera Got Hooked on Title Boxing and Lost 120 Pounds in One Year

Kami Rivera’s biggest contributors to weight gain were a poor diet and neglecting exercise. These unhealthy habits snowballed in her late 20s and led her to weigh nearly 250 pounds. In 2024, things grew worse as a heart condition required Kami to have surgery. As a result she felt sidelined from any attempts to get healthy. Looking back she admits she leaned on that event for a long time as a crutch. She’d gotten into such a rut that she began believing her problems would be solved by doing nothing at all.

But in October 2024, things began to improve as Kami started eating better. And 2024 brought a New Year’s resolution to get more active. Her activity of choice? Title Boxing.

“I tried to think of a million excuses for why I didn’t want to do it, but I live right across the street from the [Title] studio,” she said. “I was able to hang for the first class, then I started going twice a week. Eventually each class got easier and easier and I was going about five times a week and maybe six if I could squeeze in a Sunday.”

Unlike ever before Kami was working focused on getting in shape and gaining both knowledge and inspiration from her boxing classes. Though she’d had a treadmill, total gym and weight bench at her home for a long time, she realized she’d just never found the motivation to use them. With boxing it was different. (more…)

Posted on January 3, 2024 by Dana