West Coast Breakfast Bowl

I have to admit that I have a bit of an obsession with breakfast bowls. Unless you live under a rock, you’ve seen this new food trend splashed everywhere online, and I am hooked.

It all started off with a green smoothie addiction. I try to eat healthy, but I’m not the biggest fan of salads. Blend them up with some fruit and coconut water though, and I’m all about it! When your smoothie is chock full of kale, and you don’t have a professional blender, it tends to be slightly chewy. It has never bothered me, but it did make me think twice when I first came across breakfast bowls. This was the perfect home for my slightly chewy smoothie!

We’ve reached that point in the summer when there is a ridiculous overabundance of local fruit, and we are gorging ourselves on the freshness of it all before fall sets in and it fades away. A quick trip to the local grocery store was the inspiration for this West Coast Breakfast Bowl. I came away with local raspberries, blueberries, peaches and even local yogurt! I thought a container of Olympic Natural Yogurt – made in Delta B.C. with 100% natural ingredients and fresh milk from cows who live close to their dairies – would be the perfect base for my breakfast bowl.

Interested in making your own West Coast Breakfast Bowl? Give this recipe a try:

West Coast Breakfast Bowl

Ingredients

Olympic Natural Yogurt – any flavour (I chose plain)

2 kale leaves

1 avocado

1/2 cup coconut water

1/2 banana, chopped

1/2 peach, sliced

Handful of raspberries

Handful of blueberries

1 tablespoon of flax or bran

1 tablespoon of chia seeds

2 tablespoons of walnuts

1 tablespoon of honey (optional)

Directions

Tear kale leaves from stem. Discard stem and combine leaves, avocado and coconut water in a blender. Blend until smooth.
Pour blended mix into one side of a bowl, and fill the other half of the bowl with Olympic Natural Plain Yogurt.
Top your base with your choice of fruits, seeds and nuts. For my West Coast bowl, I chose blueberries, raspberries and peaches, along with banana, bran, chia seeds and walnuts.
*Optional*. If you choose a plain yogurt for your base, I recommend drizzling a spoonful of honey as a finishing touch to your bowl for just the right amount of sweetness. If you’ve chosen a flavoured yogurt, this step is not necessary.
Enjoy!

Why a West Coast Breakfast Bowl you ask? Well, growing up in small town Ontario as I did, moving west was a bit of a culture shock. The entire lifestyle is set up to promote healthy living, both in food and activity. People walk and cycle everywhere. There are mountains to climb, oceans to swim in, forests to play in and islands to explore. People take their health seriously, and you can’t help but get swept along in the healthy current.

It took me a while to adjust, but by the time my girls came along, it was evident that the West Coast Spirit had sunk in as I watched my then 2 year old hike up Quarry Rock or run outside to play barefoot in the rain. Their food choices also reflect the culture of healthy living they’re surrounded by, as they prefer to munch on seaweed and gobble up fish. Olympic products are another favourite snack, and the fact that they’re made locally, with 100% natural ingredients, plus contain no gelatins, gluten or preservatives makes them a big win in my books! You can check out their full line of dairy products for yourself right here. If you are a Yogurt Aficionado like my munchkins are, be sure to check out more amazing Olympic recipes here.

You don’t have to live on the West Coast to embrace the healthy, easy-paced, barefoot lifestyle. Just whip yourself up a breakfast bowl, sit back and taste the West Coast in every bite!

Disclaimer: Although this post has been generously sponsored by Olympic, the opinions and language are my own.