In response to the original poster's statement: you do not *need* an enormous amount of protein to start your day. In fact, one does not require a large amount of protein per day at all. Rather, this is a gross exaggeration on the part of various "how to get fit" diet books. What you need to kick start your day is a lot of vitamins and micronutrients with some good sugars. To do this, I usually mix about 1/3 of a pineapple with 1/2 a mango in some orange juice, then embellish with a variety of other fruits or berries such as banana, cranberry, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, kiwi, or really any fruit that would taste good with the pineapple/mango base. The fruits are a good kick start (especially the banana and pineapple) because they are natural "feel good" fruits that contain a little bit of caffeine (*dramatically* less than in coffee, and far far less than even in green tea, but present and functional!). They will literally make you feel awake, aware, and alert. If you are a busy-body and don't get around to lunch often, it's important to add some healthy fats in with this shake either in the form of a splash of olive oil, or more ideally, a heaped tablespoon of coconut milk (preferably with no preservatives, but that's a rare find these days). Mix this all up in a blender until smooth (or you could eat it all raw, but that takes a long time and you're looking for a quick fix). "But what about protein?" Well, first of all, fruit has more protein per calorie than meat or beans do. That's because a lot of what's in a fruit is water or calorie-free minerals and the like. As such, your body is packing on fewer pounds per unit of protein it is extracting. Secondly, you don't WANT a bunch of *excess* protein, because this negatively impacts your overall health and has been linked with heart disease, early stage diabetes, and a variety of dermatological pathologies, most notably acne and cellulite. Moreover, you can add a raw egg yolk or two (be sure to mix the min with a fork rather than the blender as the friction with the blades is sufficient to cause heat denaturation of the fragile amino acids in an egg yolk) to your drink. Egg yolks are loaded with natural amino acids as well as good HEALTHY cholesterol (as opposed to 7-ketocholesterol). On days when I do not work out and have a light schedule, I have found that this one meal keeps me full for basically the full day without making me feel bloated or 'stuffed.' For a creamy alternative to coconut milk or olive oil, try peeling and pitting an avocado and sticking it in with all the other fruit. It sounds gross, probably, since avocados have such a thick texture on their own, but blended in with fruit it makes the whole smoothie taste like you added a shot of cream or ice cream to thicken it, and is one of the most pleasant add-ons to a recipe I've ever tried! In closing, let me say that I have drawn all this information from an authoritative source which is available online at www.freeacnebook.com. The first link on the page takes you directly to the book which is a few hundred pages of information about dermatopathologies and their link to diet as well as an explanation of why the diet this book recommends will work. It is well-researched, and cites all the major assertions the author makes. As a research biologist, I loved that this work cited its sources, since many diets are content to say "The FDA said so," and leave it at that! Finally, I have been on this diet for around 2/3 of a year and have lost 60 pounds (I'm convinced I would have lost more if I had been more overweight, but I'm now at an ideal weight for my height, build, age, etc.). More importantly, my level of energy has increased, my attention span (which was not bad to begin with) has improved, my IQ is measurably higher, and I feel more alert and oriented than I ever have in my life. I should note that when I was younger I was an athlete, and I feel more fit than I did as an NCAA division 1 rower. As such, I can't see any draw backs to this diet, as it has done nothing but make me healthier, happier, and keener. It's done the same for friends and family who have tried it. Up to you what you want to do with it, but either way I applaud you on your decision to eschew grains or dairy as they are addictive, noxious substances that cause you to eat 10% extra calories, resulting in obesity or chronic health conditions. Sincerely, Dave Stratton

You can definitely cut the recipes in half, but I used to multiply them when I made them at the restaurant where I used to work in San Francisco. I made a more or less regular bread dough with a small amount of sugar added, and after the first rise, I would roll the dough out into a long rectangle, add butter to two thirds of the rectangle, and the fold the dough over as in making a puff pastry, and then I followed the methods for making puff pastry in order to get many layers of butter and dough. Then I would roll the layered dough into a long rectangle (like Pioneer Woman) and add brown sugar, cinnamon, and chopped walnuts and roll the rectangle like Pioneer Woman and cut into rounds. Instead of putting these into one pan, I put them into muffin pans, so that they would make nice individual servings. I didn't bother to glaze mine, but that might have been a good idea, although I think they might have been too sweet if I did that. I added the walnuts because the restaurant always had barrels of walnuts (and other nuts), and so I thought I might as well use them. I think it is difficult to make a bad cinnamon roll. I worked graveyard at the restaurant (11 PM to 7 AM - later when I made yeast dough), and so my rolls were ready for breakfast when the restaurant opened. The restaurant was owned by a commune of hippies, and so the staff ate many of the rolls before customers had a chance to buy them. I could physically only make so many in one night, and I had to make three different recipes each night - generally of the coffee cake or dessert variety - something to have with coffee in the morning or afternoon. Lars

I go ahead and bake mine. Leave them in the pan (9 x 13, usually) and freeze. Christmas morning, I take them out of the freezer, leave the foil ON and pop into the oven at about 200-250 degrees. They thaw and warm while we dig into stockings and chat. Done in about 45-60 minutes (even quicker if you set them out on the counter the night before). You can also remove them from the pan and freeze in Tupperware or ziplocs. Put them in the fridge the night before, then on Christmas morning each person can just warm slightly in the micro or a tray in the oven. It's a splurge thing for me.........I melt a little more butter on top. Yum! Deanna

Here is what Cook's Illustrated Magazine had to say: "Since rolling out pie crust is job No. 1, we started there. A good rolling pin should spread this finicky, delicate dough easily and smoothly, without sticking or tearing. In the test kitchen, we’ve long preferred handle-free French rolling pins for flattening pie dough, since they give us a direct sense of the dough’s thickness and of how hard we are pressing down. Most of our tapered French models weighed less than the handled pins but had just enough heft for this task. One of our handled pins also worked well—at just under 2 pounds, it was slightly less maneuverable but didn’t leave us with cracked, crushed dough. Should a pin be straight or tapered? One tapered model left pie dough thick at the edges; others rolled evenly. We got out our measuring tape and discovered that the problematic pin started tapering from closer to its middle. So fat-bellied that it resembled a lozenge, it provided only 4 inches of straight, flat rolling surface. Considering that the bottom of a standard pie plate measures 7 inches across, pins that stay straight for at least 6 inches function best. As for handled pins, some simply spun in place instead of rolling over the parchment-covered cookie dough. Our go-to pin for this job turned out to be a 19-inch, handle-free straight dowel in slightly textured maple. At 1½ pounds, it was just weighty enough to lend us a hand but light enough to let us maneuver it easily. Another straight, handle-free dowel rolling pin initially looked perfect for the task, since it comes with attachable rings for rolling out cookie dough to a desired thickness. But with rings for only 1/16-, 1/4-, and 3/8-inch thicknesses, that function was limited—and at 13½ inches in length, it made our arms feel cramped when using it." Cook's Illustrated Winner - J.K. Adams 19" maple rolling dowel