A Healthy and Hearty Breakfast Idea

Dear Fitness Coach,

I’m a guy who likes a hearty breakfast. My cholesterol came in at over 200 on my last physical. Since then, I’ve cut back on my high-cholesterol breakfasts. No more daily egg-and-sausage croissants at Dunkin’s. My wife wants to make me breakfast, but doesn’t know what to serve me. Do I have any alternative to Wheaties?

Hungry Hank

Dear Hungry Hank,

If you have a wife who wants to make you breakfast, have her do a little healthy baking once a week. A honey bran muffin at Dunkin’s is 480 calories with 13 grams of fat! However, with a little bit of restraint, your wife could bake you a muffin almost twice the size for almost half the calories. Here’s a tried-and-true recipe I’ve been using for years and have shared with all my friends. The reason the calorie count comes in at about 300 is because there’s 0 grams of fat and a limited amount of sugar. Just remember, real baker’s don’t have to use fat!

Ingredients:

One box of raisin bran cereal  - no sugar added

One box of Kashi GoLean or equivalent cereal – no sugar added

3 cups of King Authur’s or equivalent white whole wheat flour

6 egg whites

2 tablespoons of baking power

1 ½ cups of Splendor or equivalent baking sweetener

3 cups of water

I tablespoon of apple spice and/or cinnamon

I teaspoon of vanilla, butter, or other flavor

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 410 F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together thoroughly in a large bowl.
3. Add liquid ingredients and quickly mix and moisten the batter.
4. If batter is too thick to spoon, add a little more water.
5. Spray Texas-size muffin tins with butter-flavor spray.
6. Overfill the cups with batter.
7. Cook for 40 minutes.
8. Turn out after cooling for 5 to 10 minutes.

Should make 8 to 10 giant muffins. You can freeze or refrigerate.

Serve toasted and spread with a little margarine or jelly.

Enjoy a hearty breakfast!

Got a question for the fitness coach? E-mail her at eross@goldsgym.net.