What I Eat for Breakfast on the AIP

I get asked this question very frequently, especially from people who worry about finding time to prepare an egg-free, nut-free meal in the morning.  The foods that we are used to associating with breakfast tend to be fairly quick to prepare.  Many Paleo enthusiasts eat eggs and veggies as a breakfast staple, with the occasional nut-based treat like pancakes or muffins.  These are off limits for me and my body really needs protein in the morning. 

My staple breakfast protein is sausage, usually homemade.  I mix seasonings with ground pasture pork, ground grass-fed beef, or ground grass-fed beef heart (which I grind myself in a food processor), form patties (typically about 6oz each) and then bake in the oven at 400F for 18-20 minutes (less work than minding a pan on the stovetop).  I don’t have a lot of time to prepare breakfast in the mornings, so I make 5-6 patties at once and reheat the leftovers on subsequent mornings.  I often even make and cook my sausage in the evening (while I’m making supper and in the kitchen anyway) to make my mornings easier.  I also keep some nightshade-free grass-fed beef/pastured pork farmer’s sausage that I buy from a local farmer in my freezer for mornings where I forgot to make homemade sausage.  I occasionally also enjoy kipper for breakfast, but find this more time consuming to eat (because of all those little bones) so I reserve it for morning where I have more time.

My most common breakfast veggie is homemade sauerkraut (it’s fast and tastes great with sausage).  I also enjoy leftover vegetables from supper the night before, raw spinach or kale, and homemade vegetable juices (which I also make in advance to save time in the morning).  My two favorite vegetable juice combinations are 1) beet, carrot, kale and lemon; and 2) cucumber, lemon, kale, and a little bit of apple (often made into a smoothie with fresh spinach).  I find the sugar content of the juices can hit me fairly quickly (without the fiber to slow down the glucose absorption) so I keep my glasses small and typically don’t eat fruit on the same mornings I have vegetable juice. 

It’s taken a while to get used to these foods as breakfast foods; but now, I really enjoy my breakfast.  Here are four recent breakfasts. 

 Beef heart sausage patty, red cabbage sauerkraut, raw kale, half an orange, and a cup of tea.

Sausage from my local farmer, spinach braised in the sausage fat, sauerkraut, beet veggie juice, and a cup of tea.

Beef sausage patty, red cabbage sauerkraut, cucumber juice made into a smoothie with spinach, and a cup of tea.

 Kipper, leftover cauliflower rice, leftover sweet potato greens, and a cup of tea.