What you eat for breakfast can have a big impact on your energy levels and your concentration throughout the day, so it’s an important meal to get right. When it comes to breakfast, the food possibilities are endless, so how do we choose food that is quick, easy and healthy at the same time?
Firstly, let’s look at a couple of popular foods people may have for breakfast: toast with butter/jam/vegemite and breakfast cereals.
These are hugely popular and very easy and fast, BUT they are not at all healthy. Plain wheat bread will cause blood sugar spikes and will not sustain you throughout the morning and most breakfast cereal is full of sugar and additives and is so overly processed it has very little nutritional value. The only reason they are so popular is because advertising has told us they are.
Kids going to school need to have a healthy breakfast so they have enough energy to get through the day and to help them to concentrate and focus in class.
Here are 2 things that I believe form part of a healthy breakfast.
1. Good quality fats
There are so many reasons why it’s important to eat quality fats, but here are just a few:
- Help utilize fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K
- Helps build hormones and brain cells.
- Helps slow down food absorption and make us feel fuller longer.
- Good brain function
Sources of healthy fats include: avocado, nuts, oily fish (salmon, tuna and mackerel), chia seeds, full fat organic yogurt or cheese and eggs
2. Protein
The brain, muscles, and our skin are made up of protein. Protein helps keep our brain healthy and alert.
Some good sources of protein include: wild caught fish, organic free range chicken, grass-fed meat, eggs, pulses and legumes.
5 Top Tips for a Healthy Breakfast
- Choose some protein and some healthy fats.
- Make time to prepare breakfast. If you feel you don’t have time, get up 15 minutes earlier (it’s definitely worth it).
- Step out of the traditional breakfast ideals and start thinking differently. Breakfast can be anything, including left over dinner.
- Stop buying packaged breakfast cereal.
- Choose good quality bread (see my post on bread).
What to Eat
Here are 13 ideas for a nourishing breakfast.
- Sourdough spelt toast, topped with: avocado, basil and tomato; or cheese tomato and avocado; or cheese with salmon or chicken; or peanut butter and banana
- Plain organic oats, either cooked into porridge or soaked with yogurt for a Bircher style, homemade granola or muesli. If you don’t have time to make your own, I’ve listed my favourite store-bought ones down the page. Healthy Toppings: yogurt, chopped nuts, seeds, berries or chopped fruit, coconut chips.
- Eggs: Boiled, fried, scrambled, omelette, French toast or a frittata. I make a big frittata, slice it up ready to go, then either eat it cold or heated up for a few days.
- Leftover cooked meat.
- Breakfast smoothie: banana, fruit, green leafy vegetables, nuts or whatever you like, blended.
- Chia pudding: soaked chia seeds, topped with yogurt, fruit, nuts, muesli.
- Fresh fruit and yogurt.
- Grilled cheese on wholegrain sourdough toast.
- Healthy Banana pancakes: 1 mashed banana, 2 eggs, cinnamon, 1 Tablespoon of either buckwheat/rice/millet/quinoa flour, mix together, cook, YUM!
- Leftover dinner warmed up (one of my favourites especially if it’s Indian)
- A continental breakfast of bread, cheese, cold meat, butter.
- Spelt wrap filled with avocado, chicken and cheese (or filling of choice) and grilled in a sandwich press. Can be made the night before and pressed in the morning.
- Beans on toast. I make up my own healthy version of “baked beans” in the slow cooker and it lasts all week. You can even freeze them in portions.
As you can see there are so many different things to eat for breakfast. My suggestion to keep it simple is to choose your three favourites and rotate them during the week. (My husband doesn’t want to make any decisions in the morning, so he has an omelette every day. He is so used to making it, it takes him minutes to prepare.) It will become a lot easier once you get in the flow of only a few choices.
Make it easy for yourself by being prepared the night before. My friend and I both have a breakfast roster and it’s stuck up on the wall so the kids (and I) know what we are having for breakfast that day. It’s especially important if you have kids that might leave early for school some days and don’t have as much time.
My favourites are egg based breakfasts because they are super healthy and easy to prepare. French toast is extra easy if you make it in a sandwich press.
Shop Swap
I looked at every muesli and granola I could find in my local supermarkets and these are the shop swaps I can recommend if you want some cereal.
- Carman’s Muesli – it comes in a variety of flavours and is delicious with natural yoghurt.
- Macro Organic Muesli – available from Woolworths.
- Macro Organic Oats – available from Woolworths.
To sum it all up:
- Include some protein and healthy fat for breakfast
- Swap cereal for oats or homemade muesli/granola
- Choose good quality ingredients
- Choose up to 3 items and rotate them
- Make it simple for yourself and keep trying, you will see a difference.
Now I would love to hear from you! What do you have for breakfast, and do you have any questions about what to eat for breakfast? Leave me a comment below or join the Shop Swap community on Facebook.
Want to know more about how to gain more energy, lose weight or just feel better? Then come and join in the conversation in my private Facebook group. We are all about Food, Mindset, Connection and Support. We are waiting to welcome you!
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Happy swapping