My Daily Breakfast:

I have been eating identical breakfasts for the last two years, 90% of the time.  It is not possible to get these items while I am traveling, which accounts for the remaining 10% of the time.  My breakfast, as shown in the picture below, consists of two slices of Ezekiel bread toasted and smothered with almond butter, plus three cups of masala tea.

Carb Count:

Toast 15g X 2 = 30g

2 fl. Oz. milk in tea = 4g
2 Tbsp almond butter = 6g
Total = 40g

Ezekiel brand of bread is made from sprouted grains without first converting the grains into flour.  I don’t know how they do it but apparently they follow the method described in the Bible, Ezekiel 4:9.  The bread does taste different from the other breads you might be used to but soon the taste will grow on you.  More importantly, it gives you chewing satisfaction and fills up your stomach.  It comes with the added benefit of going to heaven.  There goes my dream of going to hell!  If you did nothing else but replaced all your daily grain consumption with this brand of bread, you will lose weight.  I guarantee it.  This bread is available in three or four varieties and is available at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Safeway, and possibly at other places too.  Almond butter is available at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods.

 

For those of you who are curious, here is my mother’s not-so-secret recipe of masala for tea.

Mix these ingredients in the following proportion by weight:
Ground cardamom:      1
Ground cinnamon:       2
Ground cloves:            2
Ground ginger:            5
Ground black pepper:   5
Total:                        15

I have found that the readymade tea masala or their individual ingredients acquired from Indian grocery stores are of poor quality.  I generally buy organic ingredients from Whole Foods and the tea masala turns out to be amazingly good.  We use up about a pound of tea masala every two months.

To make masala tea we use 90% water, 10% milk and a quarter tsp of masala mix.  We boil the liquid mix and add tea leaves towards the end when the liquid just starts boiling.  Boiling the tea for too long releases acids from the tea leaves and makes the tea taste bitter.  Adding more tea leaves instead of boiling it too much gives a better color to the final outcome and it tastes better too.  Any type of tea leaves can be used; Lipton’s or Tetley.  We like to use a brand called Wagh-Bakri.