My awesome friend hooked us up with 10 lbs of freshly picked, raw almonds this week! 

Almonds are a great addition to every diet.  Here is what we tried for breakfast:  Almond Crusted French Toast!  Yum-yum.  I put a handful of almonds in a plastic bag and hit it with a hammer to crush them.

Then I mixed up some french toast with eggs, a splash of 1% milk, almond extract, cinnamon, and a whole cup of crushed almonds.

Then cooked them up.  The kids ate them quickly and I felt good about getting them some extra nutrients before they went to school.  Specifically, Almonds are great for

• Magnesium
• vitamin E
• The good fat in almonds helps to reduce heart disease (helps to decrease the bad cholesterol, without decreasing the good (HDL) cholesterol.
• Also a good source of potassium which helps to regulate blood pressure.

You may be thinking you don’t have to worry about your kids and their heart disease risk, BUT you do!! Number one, kids ARE starting to get heart disease and high cholesterol. And number two, you are developing taste preferences that they will keep throughout their lives (the taste for healthy food that is).

Other good things to do with almonds:

1. Snack on them! (1 ounce of almonds-about 22 of them) can cost as little as $0.21 per serving. Which just about allows them to make my snacking budget.  (I’ll just give them 15 almonds and it will come under budget).
2. Make Cinnamon coated almonds!!  We call them Christmas Almonds and they make great neighbor gifts for Christmas time. Always a big hit.
3. Crush and add them to your granola bars, or granola.
4. Add to salads, or this sweet apple one.
5. Add to muffins, cookies, or breads.

If you used to read my blog in the mornings, and find I haven’t been posting till afternoon or evenings, It has been intentional!  I have 2 precious hours in the morning that I try and pack everything into.  Between 5-7am I was writing a blog post, reading my scriptures, exercising, reading the newspaper (which I love to do) etc.  My problem was, I would open my laptop and before I knew it, it was time to wake the kids up.  Once I start reading emails and writing for my blog, sometimes I can’t stop and it threw off my whole day.  Now I will not allow myself to open the computer till after the kids go to school.  And you know what,  I have my mornings back!!! I just wish I started this a lot sooner.

We are leaving on vacation Sunday, so naturally I wanted to use up the eggs, bread, milk, etc.  French Toast seemed like a natural choice.  My prior french toast post was about adding flax seeds to the mix, but let’s look at the cinnamon:

Holy Cow! Cinnamon is a powerhouse!  As I always say, ask yourself, “how many nutrients does that food have per calorie.”  Well, per calorie, spices and herbs have a lot of nutrients.  Only 6 calories per teaspoon, the antioxidants and phytochemicals of cinnamon have been shown to lower blood sugar in people with type 2 diabetes.  Its anti-inflammatory properties prevent clumping of blood platelets.  It also contains calcium, manganese, fiber, and iron.One thing to max out your cinnamon on your french toast, sprinkle the cinnamon after putting the bread on your pan, not in the mix. 

Happy 4th of July!!! Add some blueberries and strawberries to your french toast today as well.