I am not sure how things go in your house but in mine, the mornings can be rushed and pressurised. Things that need to get done can end up dropping off the list, including breakfast, unless we are all up on time and organised. Breakfast can often be a bit of a minefield with my children preferring different foods and one is ravenous in the mornings and wants to eat as soon as they wake and the other can’t stomach much for the first hour or two after waking but is not fun to be around if they don't have something.
There are a few things I do to ensure we have a successful morning.
1) Plan ahead
In order to make sure everyone is properly fuelled for the day I have to have a plan. I plan all of our meals a week in advance and shop to fulfil that menu. This saves me time in the moment, money and headspace so we are not having to make food choices when we are half asleep, hungry and under pressure.
2) Prep the night before
I lay out the things that I need (that don’t need refrigerating) the night before. This helps me to stick to the plan and it prevents me from having to check the plan in the morning. I just walk into the kitchen and start making whatever has been laid out. This also helps my kids, as they are old enough to cook for us now, so if they see the pan with the eggs sitting next to it they know how to get the scrambled eggs started. We work together to get the job done.
3) Always stock the basics
There are things we always have in the house, like frozen berries, gluten free muesli, plant milk, nuts and seeds and fresh fruit. That way if everything goes totally haywire or we aren’t organised from the night before or for some reason there is no plan (or all the frozen fruit has been eaten by my hungry teens during the week and they have neglected to tell me to add it to the shopping list and the plan was to have smoothies) we have something we can grab on the go.
I use weekends to try new recipes or to have something more adventurous for breakfast and the weekdays are all about military precision in order to get out of the house in time properly fuelled.
Here are some examples of what we eat for breakfast when time is tight:
Smoothies
Smoothies are great as they are plant food full and can be made protein rich. They can be put in a travel cup to on the journey to school, take just a few minutes to prepare and they are delicious.
I don’t usually pre-portion the fruit and veg etc for the smoothies but you certainly could. This would make it really simple for other members of the family to make them as well.
Some favourites in our house are:
Banana, frozen pineapple, spinach, flax or chia (or protein powder), coconut yogurt and ice or water (depending on whether the banana is frozen or not). Like a breakfast pina colada.
Cacao, banana, oatmeal, almond butter and almond milk. Yes, people -- chocolate for breakfast.
Kale, apple, pear, lemon, parsley and/or cilantro, cold green tea, ice and seeds (this is my personal favourite)
Orange, apple, yogurt and cashews with ice.
Overnight Oats
We call these ‘breakfast parfaits’ in our house. I layer in a jar, one for each of us, gluten free muesli, ground flax, a little plant milk, cinnamon, yogurt (coconut yogurt for me) and frozen raspberries. I drizzle the top with just a little maple syrup and pop them in the fridge overnight. In the morning the raspberries are melted and soft and the whole lot can be mixed together. Yummy!
Another family favourite is the following recipe for steel cut overnight oats.
Chia Steel-Cut Overnight Oats
4 servings
1 cup gluten free steel-cut oats
1 1/2 cups plant milk of your choice
2 tablespoons chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon raw honey (optional)
Optional toppings:
fresh berries
coconut flakes
chopped nuts
raisins or other dried fruit
stewed apple
yogurt
kefir
additional plant milk
ground flax
Directions:
In a medium bowl combine oats, milk, chia seeds, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and honey (if using). Stir well to combine.
Cover and refrigerate overnight. You can pre-portion it now but I usually portion it in the morning and add toppings at the same time.
When ready to eat take out of the refrigerator (you can bring it to room temperature first if you like) and add your favourite toppings.
Eggs
It only takes a few minutes to scramble a few eggs — I throw in a handful of greens to up our veg intake — or you can boil eggs on the weekend to last the week. I love a cold boiled egg on a slice of toasted and buttered gluten free seeded loaf with salt and black pepper. Delicious!
Healthy Cereals
By healthy I mean ones that do not have added sugar or other processed ingredients. It is simple to make your own granola and store it in a sealed container in the cupboard as you would any other cereal. We use gluten free muesli and sugar free, gluten free granolas in our house.
If you have a Thermomix (or a high powered blender or food processor) it is simple to make a really tasty and gluten free raw ‘bircher muesli’ with one apple, a handful of almonds and a tablespoon of both ground flax and desiccated coconut. It literally takes 3 seconds in the Thermomix and then one minute for the Thermomix to clean itself. I usually have it with a dollop of coconut yogurt. It is a firm favourite.
Yogurt
We are yogurt eaters in this house! Each one of us loves yogurt with berries we have it for breakfast (with ground seeds and a sprinkle of granola) or for dessert (with crumbled meringue or a drizzle of maple syrup).
My daughter loves granola, yogurt and banana whereas my son prefers yogurt, stewed apple and a sprinkle of granola and my favourite is coconut yogurt, berries, stewed apple, ground seeds and a drizzle of almond butter. So, we mix it up, but we use it a lot.
Pre-prepped Frozen Breakfasts
If you are a planner and a weekend preparer then you know what I mean.
There is all manner of things you can make ahead and store in the freezer to pull out the morning of or even the night before for your breakfast. That is a whole other blog post but think hearty muffins, breakfast ‘bars’, breakfast burritos, etc.
Leftovers
I am a fan of doing the work once and reaping the rewards multiple times hence why I love leftovers. Leftover potato becomes hash browns to serve with your scrambled eggs or to whip up a quick breakfast hash. Leftover guacamole (yay right! There is no such thing in this house! But if there were…) is delicious on toast with a slice of smoked salmon. Leftover stewed apple or sautéed banana from last night’s dessert make a delicious addition to your morning porridge (although your porridge will take longer than 5 minutes so best save that for a day when you have a bit more time).
Even leftover dinners make a nourishing and delicious breakfast, you just need to get your head around eating different types of food for breakfast.
I hope that gives you some ideas for quick, easy and healthy weekday breakfasts. Do you have any that you use a lot that I have not mentioned? I would love to hear them if you do, we are always looking for new ideas — variety is the spice of life after all.
To wellness!
April
