Good Morning Breakfast Salad

Before paleo life, when I was on a standard Finnish diet I had every morning pretty much the same breakfast (like probably a lot of other Finns if they didn’t eat oat meal): A slice of dark sour rye bread with butter, a slice of cheese and sliced cucumbers or tomatoes with some herb salt (Herbamare). If someone had told me that I would one day give up that habit and eat soup or even a salad for breakfast, I would have probably laughed politely and thought: Never.

Leaving grains and dairy has changed my thoughts about breakfasts completely. Any food can be a breakfast food now. I mean I tend to lean towards bacon and breakfast patties with veggies and fruit but occasionally I eat also soups and salads. Soup is actually a common breakfast food in Japan so it just feels strange here in the West.

I have been meaning to post this recipe for a while now. We have an AIP breakfast cook book coming out on January 1st (stay tuned!) so I thought I should finally post this breakfast recipe too. It is not in the book but it is delicious and should be shared!

One day few weeks ago when I came back from my early morning Crossfit workout I craved something fresh but also warm. I used leftover romaine lettuce from the fridge and picked some lettuce and cress from the garden and made this salad. I had some leftover dairy free ranch dressing left and it paired well with the salad, see the recipe below.

Making the salad was a nice meditative activity and morning sun in the garden felt good and I watched for a while the bees pollinate my spaghetti squash flowers.

Good Morning Salad

A few strips of bacon (I buy sugar free bacon from US Wellness Meats)
Half a package of mushrooms
Lettuce
Cress
One mango
One avocado
Olives
a Persian cucumber

For ranch dressing, add the following ingredients together in a jar with a lid. Shake the jar to mix the dressing.

1 cup of coconut kefir
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp garlic powder
salt to taste
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped

1.  Fry the bacon with the mushrooms in a cast iron pan.
2.  Tear lettuces in pieces.
3.  Chop cucumbers, mango and avocado. Remove pits from olives and slice them.
4.  Pile the ingredients on a plate, the warm mushrooms and bacon on top. Serve with the dressing.

Don't forget to check back in on January 1st (subscribe to posts to get the email!) when the new breakfast cook book comes out! This book rocks!