Breakfast ideas
I am currently enjoying a bowl of cereal with strawberries, grapes and nectarine pieces in it. It is delicious and awesome. ^_^
Now, we all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there's a lot of reasons behind that, and I'm not really qualified to say them with any great authority, so we'll just have to agree that it's important.
A lot of us have trouble eating breakfast. This could be because we find it hard to eat in the mornings (often causes by anxiety or tension), or we eat junkfood, or just drink coffee. Others find they don't have the time, others find they just aren't hungry. Another thing is that a lot of breakfast foods available can be boring, or else stupidly bad for you.
So here's some ideas on different breakfastables that might work for some of you;
Now, we all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there's a lot of reasons behind that, and I'm not really qualified to say them with any great authority, so we'll just have to agree that it's important.
A lot of us have trouble eating breakfast. This could be because we find it hard to eat in the mornings (often causes by anxiety or tension), or we eat junkfood, or just drink coffee. Others find they don't have the time, others find they just aren't hungry. Another thing is that a lot of breakfast foods available can be boring, or else stupidly bad for you.
So here's some ideas on different breakfastables that might work for some of you;
- If you have a hard time eating a big meal in the mornings, try having just something small, for example a piece of fruit or toast, and then pack something you can snack on throughout the morning - such as rice crackers and dip, fruit salad, or cold pasta.
- Muesli (untoasted) tastes great and it comes in so many different varieties. There's nothing to stop you going nuts at your local supermarket's bulk section and making your own, you could add in a few little treats as well, for example a few chocolate chips, or some cashew nuts as well as the usual bran and sultanas.
- Unconventional as it may be, something like last night's leftovers isn't a bad idea either, a stirfry dish for example will be packed with veggies, still taste great and the rice will give you ongoing energy through the day.
- Eggs on toast are a great start to the day, just make sure they're free range. Try mixing a little garlic and a few herbs into some butter and spreading it sparingly over the toast. Eggs are best poached or soft boiled, frying brings out all the bad stuff in the oil or butter.
- English muffins or fruit muffins, or cinnamon and fruit toast can be a great way to spice up your morning breakfast. Just go easy on the butter.
- Try rice crackers and a dip of some sort, there's some great stuff out there - don't be put off by the names. Babaganoush, hummus (in all flavours), pestos, mixed dips (ricotta, cashew nut and capsicum is great), yoghurt based dips, garlic dips. Experiment with a few and see what you like.
- Don't discount beans as a great source of energy. If you find them a little boring on their own, add chopped onion, a dash of milk or greek yoghurt, some red kidney beans (or mixed beans), a little garlic and some herbs, serve on toast.
- Fruit salad is great for breakfast, however there are some hurdles. A lot of fruits have a bit of acid in them and that doesn't work well for some people. If this is the case for you, have a piece of toast or some cereal as well. Canned fruit is cheap, but I wouldn't recommend it personally, though that's purely preference on my part. I would recommend checking out the nutritional values on the can, as they may or may not be as good as fresh fruit. Try out different fruits, and use the ones you like to disguise others, for example I use a base of apple pieces, which I don't mind, but it's much nicer with banana and pineapple added in, or strawberries, or grapes, or watermelon, or nectarines or pears. There's heaps of options and you could try a sauce of some kind, maybe a berry sauce or a little bit of ice cream.
- Smoothies are a great way to get lots of fruit into your day, try out all different kinds of mixes, ice, ice cream, milk and plain greek yoghurt make great bases or you could just go with straight fruit. Almost any fruit will go well in a smoothie, so experiment a little. It's also a good way to hide the taste of powders and suchlike, if you have any supplements you take or mixes for weight loss or for training.
- Plain old toast can be a bit boring, but there's more you can put on it than you'd think. For example a curry sauce from last night goes well on toast, and so does hummus and other dips. Banana or tomato on toast is really nice too. You could try wholemeal bread, or rye bread too.
- You could also give baking a go and try out something like bran and banana muffins, or bran abd blueberry, just make sure the recipe doesn't call for too much nasty stuff like sugar or butter.
- If you turn to breakfast bars and 'complete meals' in a bar type stuff, just make sure you take a really good look at the goodness in it. You want something with lots of fibre and other good stuff, but low sugar, low fat and low sodium. Ideally it should contain real fruit and other ingredients such as whole grains and nuts.
- Soup is good to try, homemade is best, but if you choose a canned one, make sure it's made with lots of real ingredients. Vegetable soup is the best to go with, simply for it's nutritional value, but tomato, onion and other types are good too. Have with crusty bread if you can. It's also great to take in a thermos and have over a couple of hours.
- Chop up some veggies, such as carrots and celery and try them with a vinegarette drizzled over them or maybe hummus.