I’m going to go ahead and start this post with complete and total honesty (per the usual, duh)— but I gotta tell you, this *body cleansing* recipe wont be a household favorite for a lot of people. I dont think so anyway. For me, I put together the things I thought could work best to help my life and to hopefully make this taste good. Well, it wasn’t that bad (I’m really selling you on this right) and/but I knew it was really good for me, so this became an instant win.
And after a bit of time— well luckily, I started really craving this (sort of weird) morning taste! And after a month of eating this meal every morning? I noticed I had a lot more energy, my gut was working a lot better, my pms seemed less aggressive, and I felt overall better! This is probably/mostly due to the spirulina, but still, this or some variation of this meal will be a staple in my life now.

So what’s all in this seaweed green crazy bowl? So many healthy things! Unfortunately this is probably not one of the meals you can look at the ingredients and think, “Oh I have this stuff! Let me make today!” but there are a few things you should totally consider adding! Maybe check out the post, learn about each thing– and see what things (if not all!) you might like to add to your morning routine and go from there!
steel cut oats!

like my otherΒ oatmeal go to breakfast, this recipe starts with a base of steel cut oats. We make big batch once or twice a week to reheat in the morning as needed. I talked a lot more about steel cut oats in my last post, but a quick recap: steel cut oats are a prebiotic. Prebiotics are necessary for healthy gut digestion! Basically it feeds all the good bacteria keeping everything moving. Try to buy a GF kind when possible– and ALWAYS buy organic! I absolutely recommend soaking your oats in water (1 to 4) for 12 to 48 hours before cooking! Keeping in a warm place helps the fermentation process. This step helps break down the physic-acid making the oats much easier to digest. Be sure to drain the water, rinse well, and start with a fresh batch of water when cooking!

spirulina!

the superfood of superfoods. I added spirulina to my smoothies way back in the day when I managed a health food store– it was always on hand and easy to dump on in the blender. My days of smoothie and spirulina stopped after that and haven’t come back until recently, but I’m SO happy I brought it back into my life. Yeah, it’s super weird tasting (for me and most I’ve talked to anyway), but the benefits are crazy! It really helps give your immune system an extra boost. It’s got a bit of protein (hooray!) and super dense in tons of other nutrients like, iron, b vitamins, potassium, selenium, calcium, and on and on and on.

But one of my favorite things about spirulina is it’s detox effects (due to the chlorophyll)! It really helps to clean out the body/blood of excessive toxins. The only trouble with this is that, like with any detox, it can make you feel rather sick at first so you have to start slow. No one likes a healing crisis, but getting through the initial crumminess of any detox is absolutely worth it.

If you haven’t bought the detox e-book yet, there’s a whole section on the effects of detoxing and how to ease them πŸ™‚ If you absolutely hate the taste, you can also buy it in capsule/tablet form. But for me, like I said, the taste is starting to grow on me! Also, I’d rather take anything in powder form since I know my gut and body will have an easier time processing it πŸ™‚ I personally buy this brand, but I’m sure there are plenty of good ones!

slippery elm!

I used to just add this to my water to drink throughout the day, but I found it just as easy to add the scoop to my breakfast. Slippery elm is an herb harvested from the bark of (you guessed it) an elm tree. It aids with cough by coating a sore through and helps with IBS, gerd, or other stomach annoyances by coating the gut. really, it’s just a super easy powdered herb to add to your everyday life.

protein powder

well, I still don’t love the idea of protein powders– I much rather have more natural forms of protein, but I still do use it daily to give myself an extra boost since the c. diff disaster. For this recipe, I use the vanilla flavored variety. I always by a grain free, sugar free, soy free option. And again, always organic. I usually buyΒ this brand because it has added enzymes (also needed for digestion) and probiotics blended in.

bee pollen

not vegan, depending on who you ask. If you’re okay with bee products, I recommend trying it as a topping for this recipe (or any of your oatmeal recipes). I also recommend getting some from your local bee farmer– for a few reasons. One, like honey, having a local variety will help reduce seasonal allergy symptoms. And two, chances are your local farmer is going to be a whole lot more loving to his few bee hives. If you cant find a farmer, you can of course always order some online. I would personally probably buy one of these two brands: one and two.

papaya!

last but not least, papaya! I think at this point, it’s pretty common knowledge that the enzymes in papaya make this fruit a wonderful digestive aid. In general its best to eat fruit on an empty stomach (fruit ferments a hell of a lot faster than other foods). But this is true especially with papaya since you’ll find it helps aid in your digestion if you have it pre-meal. For me, I just like to top it on my first meal of the day– two birds one stone, right? side note: the first of our papayas started growing this week on our trees! eeeee! can’t wait! It’s sort of silly how hard it is to find organic papaya here– even though it grows in every other backyard!

papaya seeds are great to fight parasites— but I wouldn’t recommend em for eating otherwise πŸ˜‰ scoop em out!


You’ll need:
-1 1/2 cups prepared steel cut oats
-1/2 – 1 scoop your favorite non dairy vanilla protein powder (to taste)
-1 heaping teaspoon slippery elm powder
-1 to 1 teaspoons spirulina powder (to taste)*
-almond milk, water, or your other favorite non dairy milk
bee pollen for topping
-few slices or cubes of papaya for topping
optional: a few tablespoon coconut milk yogurt, dried shredded coconut, kiwi, or your other favorite tropical fruits!

How to:
-add steel cut oatsΒ + a bit of milk (or water) to a small saucepan and heat. how much milk or water? well, thats sort of up to you! Alex likes his oatmeal THICK while, I like mine more of a thinner consistency. However you like it is fine, but keep in mind, it’ll thicken up A LOT when adding the powders!
-turn off heat and transfer to serving bowl
-mix in slippery elm, protein powder, and spirulina, adding more milk if necessary. You can add in a few tablespoons of coconut yogurt here, if you’d like!
-top with papaya, bee pollen, and whatever other yummy toppings you’d like!
-ENJOY!

*as mentioned, spirulina has a lot of detoxing properties! if you haven’t detoxed recently, have been eating a diet high in processed foods, or maybe just in general to be safe, start adding it your life slowly. It can give you about 3 days to a week of healing crisis symptoms (flu-like, pimples, tiredness, etc) and thats no fun. But as mentioned, this happens in any natural detox, it’s a good sign! You’re healing— keep going!

ps. check mirror after eating and before leaving your house. You don’t want to scare your friends or co-workers with green lips or tongue πŸ˜‰

I hope everyone who celebrates had an amazing week! Ours was low key and pretty good πŸ˜‰ I definitely ate a few more foods that I could have avoided and I’ll assume you guys did too— this recipe would be great way to reboot now! Why wait for the first of the year? πŸ™‚

And this.Β She likes *helping*— it’s pretty awesome.Β Happy monday, friends.

11 Comments

  1. I had cdif in November. We haven to the same resort in Mexico for the last 20 years the third week of January. Tickets are bought. Should I go?

  2. This is really great info. I have Crohn's Disease and I totally manage it through diet, exercise and supplements. That being said, I get nervous in trying new things (even things that are widely considered to be healthy) because so many healthy things DESTROY me. This is the first I've heard about Slippery Elm. You mention it's good for IBS….I'm assuming it might help with Crohn's too? Do you have any idea from your health food store days? I'm having a tiny flare right now so I'm trying to incorporate as many beneficial foods as possible.

    • I totality understand the trying new things fear! I'm with you on that 100% Eating new foods often gives me anxiety now because I dont know if it'll sit well or it'll knock me out for three days. I'm currently on my third day of feeling terrible from something I ate this past week— and I'm not even sure what it was that threw my stomach around. I'm not a doctor (obviously) but slippery elm is supposed to be good for crohns! Like I mentioned, it helps coat your inside— so it helps calm the fire, basically. I would def. do some research and see if you think it would be beneficial for you πŸ™‚ Also, side note: I'm SO happy to hear about you managing your crohns through natural health— I feel like I just dont see enough people doing it– but it's been studied time and time again how auto-immune issues are totally manageable with the right lifestyle and diet. I'd love to hear more about your daily routine! and the diet you follow— gaps diet? AIP? vegan grain free? I feel like I've looked into all the options— and I know we're all SO different, but I love to learn about what works for other people!

  3. How do you reheat the oats? Making in big batches sounds like a great idea to save on time. We don't own a microwave. It all sounds really good, I love Papaya!

    • stove top! small sauce pan— and if needed, a bit of milk or water to loosen it up! happy to see more people who don't use a microwave πŸ™‚

  4. I LOVE PAPAYA. YUM. I don't know that I'll be trying this, but if I ever get gut issues I will certainly do it!

    By the way … I began taking B-vitamins, a stress relief formula, this fall, and it has helped my anxiety/depression AND has completely cured my insane PMS symptoms. Amazing.

    • listen. I need you to skip the tacos for one day and try this, okay?

      I think the same goes the spirulina, it's PACKED with b vitamins (and the kombucha too) which I think is why it's helped me feel much better πŸ™‚

  5. I didn't know that about papaya, that's interesting, I'll look at it in a new light now. I'm not quite clear on why its good for the oats to be steel cut – to make them more easily digestible maybe? I'd be interested to know. Glad you've had a good week. CJ xx

    • its' true! even the green papaya (like in asian salads and such) are super good for digestive enzymes! πŸ™‚ pineapple too πŸ˜‰

      To be completely honest, I'm not sure what it is about the steel cut vs. the instant that makes them better— all I know is that there have been far more studies done on the steel cut vs/ other types of oats and all the studies have shown the positive affects πŸ™‚

  6. Well you've certainly given me an interesting ingredients list to explore. So funny that you managed a health food store! I know it's not exactly the Oh Dear Drea style, but I would love to see a post on all the various roles you've done in your life and maybe what you've learned from then.

    • haha! Ive had so many random jobs! My friend job was at Subway (eat fresh) haha. Maybe one day! I haven't done a flashback type post in for-ev-errrr!