Coffee, Chicory, and Bulletproof Recipe

Unless you are into Intermittent Fasting, Keto, Paleo, or any eating regimen included Bulletproof Coffee, you might want to skip this post. But if you are curious about chicory, you might want to hang around.

First, let talk Bullet Proof Coffee:

I am curious what any of the rest of you think of using MCT oil in your coffee? I've posted about my experience with it, but I don't know if everyone feels it makes a difference in their diet.  The kind I am using is great but... that price tag is a little scary.

For now, I am still using the MCT (because I have some left) in my BPC and I have gotten back into using chicory also. I don't know that I will be re-purchasing the oil again anytime soon.

This is my recipe for Morning B.P. Coffee:

• 3 tablespoons dark roast coffee (had to order Yuban it online, but it's worth it) brewed with 2.5 cups of water (because I like my coffee strong). Recently, I'm adding chicory but I'll get to that later.
• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil. I keep a small amount in a sealed container on the counter so that it's softened for use.
• 1 Tablespoon of MCT oil
• About 2.5 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream
• Either 2 packets of Monkfruit Golden or 1.5 tablespoons of Monkfruit Classic White
• Sometimes, I use a couple tablespoons of coconut milk or coconut cream.

After I add everything to the coffee, I hit it with the stick blender until it's a little frothy. I happen to have an excellent thermos-type mug that keeps my coffee hot for hours. Thanks to my niece for sending such a useful Mother's Day gift.

It's a "Kanteen" and
you can get one with other wraps

I usually go through 2 mugs of my coffee in a  day. If I'm sick from my meds, I will even do 3 because the ingredients make up for the food I don't eat those couple of days. It's a really filling, satisfying drink. Adding the coconut milk or cream is perfect when I need something extra in my stomach.

Now, this is the golden variety of the monk fruit sweetener that I have fallen in love with:

I guess it's supposed to mimic brown sugar the way the white variety mimics table sugar. It does have a somewhat richer flavor but it's not anything like actual brown sugar. I love me some brown sugar in my coffee, but this will have to do for now.

There are benefits to black coffee that you can look up online. Chicory root also has benefits you might not have heard of - and I am not saying that these are proven benefits, but just things I have heard of from others including my family that chicory might have an effect on:

• Lowering blood sugar
• As a laxative (my mother told me about this years ago)
• To help increase or decrease appetite.
• To help lower blood pressure
• As a caffeine-free substitute for coffee

When I was young, my mother made chicory root tea to help ease my constipation but I didn't like the taste to drink enough of the tea. As an adult, I can say that, if I ingest enough chicory, I get mild laxative benefits. (By the way, I have heard of chicory root being used as a sweetener.)

I used to get chicory from the health food bulk bins at Carrs Safeway in Anchorage and loved the smell and taste when added to coffee. I ran out of the last of my very old supply and ordered this from Amazon. I was not pleased. The product smelled and tasted rank and stale.

There are quite a few coffees that have chicory added- or even java substitutes that made solely of chicory. I prefer just adding chicory to my own choice of coffees. Thanks to social media photos I have taken and captioned with a mention of chicory, I have been offered a couple of chicory coffees to try.

This is French Market Chicory Coffee. It is very reasonably priced. This one is about $5 for a 12-ounce can at Walmart (but is not available at my local Walmart so it has to be ordered from their online store). I will be doing a full review later, but this is what the coffee looks like:

 I expected the chicory to have that nice, dark color (along with the scent of coffee, but this is what I got:

As you can see, the color is not very deep. The smell is very stale and unpleasant. There was zero coffee-scent to it. I will not be using the brand again. The brand I used in Anchorage was as dark as the French Market coffee.

So, obviously, there are some things to consider when choosing a chicory:

• It should be organic and fresh (read lots of reviews)
• Origin should be USA (because I think there are flavor variations by country of origin)
• Use a seller who offers a freshness or other satisfaction guarantee

Anyway, I would love to hear about anyone else using BPC and/or chicory. Do you have a special recipe and do you feel that it helps you in any way? Also, if you know of a good brand of chicory root (fresh and affordable), do let me know.

Peace
--Free

Bulletproof Coffee & Egg Fasting (UPDATE)

***UPDATE*** So... I was supposed to be starting the fast yesterday. Guess what? Had a baby shower to attend. Ended up being at the party for over 4 hours. We had a really good time, and I barely ate anything (and skipped the cake, thank you very much), but I missed almost all my egg meals. Starting the fast over today.

Okay, folks. I'm really excited about the results that I'm seeing on this low-carb regimen. Here is what my weight loss numbers look like since I got the hang of this:

August 1st to 9th - down 4lbs
August 9th to 13th - down another 2lbs
So... 6 pounds in 13 days. Not including the couple pounds lost and re-gained somewhere in that time.

I slid off the wagon on the 10th thru today so I'm not sure how I went down another 2lbs in that time frame! I'm not just climbing back on, but jumping back on the wagon with an egg fast. I hope to do the fast for 4 to 5 days, but y'all know me. I might give up before then. However, I started off well this morning.

There are several places online that discuss/describe egg fasting- like here,  here, and here  (Kaylah's video) - and I have come up with the following for mine:

• A minimum of 6 & a maximum of 10 eggs per day - boiled, scrambled, sunnyside, or however.
• With each egg eaten, also have 1 Tbls of healthy fat (unsalted butter, organic coconut oil, etc) - OR 1oz of full-fat cheese.
• 6oz of full-fat cheese should be eaten each day - either with the eggs or solo. (If you need too break the no food3 hours before bed rule, make sure to save a bit of that cheese to snack on.)
• You can have up to 1 can of diet soda per day. (I prefer having 2 cans of mineral water with a squirt of flavored water enhancer.)
• Very helpful if you can avoid low carb sweeteners, fiber, hot sauce (man!), fresh herbs, condiments - or at least keep the total to under 5g per day. I think this is for carb restriction (?)
• Try to increase potassium, magnesium, and Vitamin C during meals. (I take a multi-vitamin and use a magnesium oil spray.)

Some meal ideas that were given are:

• Egg yolks with sugar-free mayo
• Eggs scrambled in coconut oil
• Eggs devilled with cheese
• Boiled egg with warm with butter (this is my favorite because it's easiest)

I love eggs, but eating so many a day for so many days in a row... Boring! Still, I'm going to look at this like a challenge.

The part of this diet that I like (and that I think I added) is to nurse a "bulletproof coffee" all day. When I give the recipe I found for this coffee you will see why I don't think it's something I could (or should) do on a regular basis. It's perfect for the eggs fast days though because I'm avoiding most other beverages than water. Here's the recipe I cobbled from more than one source, including this one:

• 2 cups black, unflavored coffee
• 2 Tbls unsalted butter (I don't have the recommended "grass fed" type. I don't think.)
• 2 Tbls Organic Coconut Oil (or something called MCT)
• 1 Tbls heavy cream (if you want)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/8 tsp cinnamon (I use Ceylon cinnamon)
• Emulsify all this in a blender (I use a stick blender)

I add a 1/2 tsp of cacao powder and half a packet of Truvia. Because, me.

Let me tell you, I thought that this sounded SO gross. I do like a little bit of coconut oil in my coffee, but butter? Ugh, right? Well, it's not bad. Matter of fact, one of the reasons I don't use coconut oil more often in my coffee is that I have to be in the mood for the oily taste. Now I know the magic of emulsification. I don't feel any of the oil in my mouth. At all. The vanilla and cacao powder really deepen the flavor to the point that I could do without the sweetener. If I wanted to. Ha!

So that is the egg fast plan I'm attempting. Of course, I'm not a medical (or any other type of health) professional, so I'm only sharing my experiences with you - not advice.

mine looks similar

By the way, I found an article about reasons not to drink bulletproof coffee. Wikipedia helps me understand the concept of  bulletproof or "brain fuel" coffee. By the way, in some cases, I should be typing Bulletproof Coffee. This stuff has become a brand, an industry, and a pretty trendy thing.

I will be checking in to show how the weight is going. It's going to go up or down. Let's hope or down!

Peace

--Free

Postscript:

I got all the information about the fasts and the coffee from too many sources to cite, but I credit I Breathe, I'm Hungry for a super cool blog name and the starting point for most of the information I have. Also, Healthdaddy  and Authority Nutrition are a couple of my go-to sources.