5 Easy To Make, Healthy Breakfast Ideas

The meal I've found that most people struggle with, when trying to eat healthily, is breakfast!  And historically, that's me included. 
A major obstacle is time - rushing around to get ready for work, get the kids to school and so on doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare breakfast, so reaching for the cereal or the toaster is a lot easier. And most people end up having just sugar/carbs for their breakfast, with no protein and no good fat, which immediately pushes their blood glucose levels sky high, before the day has even started, meaning a likely energy crash mid-morning, and that starving feeling...

This post will hopefully give you some new ideas of quick, delicious alternative and healthy options:

1. Avocado Toast
This is a fantastically nutritious breakfast and very easy to make. All you need is:
1/2 large avocado (or 1 small)
1/2 lemon, squeezed
1/2 tomato, finely chopped
1 spring onion (optional)
Few sprigs of coriander, finely chopped
Pinch of dried chilli powder (or a little fresh chopped chilli if you prefer)
Drizzle of olive oil
2 pieces of spelt, rye or wholegrain bread, toasted

Method: Mash the avocado, add the lemon juice, coriander, chilli and olive oil and mix thoroughly. Stir in the tomato and spring onion. Spoon over the toasted bread and...devour! 
Absolutely delicious, full of healthy fats which will keep you full for longer, and not a hint of sugar in sight! 

2. Breakfast Smoothie
I actually have one of these pretty much every morning, plus one pre-workout. There's obviously so many different ingredients you can include, the list is endless, but here's one that I often make - it's full of healthy fats and protein, and not too high in (natural) sugar. And best of all, it's so quick to make. You can even prepare the ingredients the night before, leave in the fridge ready to blend when you get up. 
All you need is:

Large handful of spinach (washed)
Half a cup of blueberries (or blackberries/cherries/raspberries)
Half a banana
150 mls coconut milk (or another milk of your choice such as almond or oat)
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon flax seeds
1 medjool date (this is optional, it makes it much sweeter. I prefer not to use this but some will need the sweetness at first)
1 tablespoon protein powder (this again is optional, I tend to add this when I'm using it as a pre-workout drink. 

You can use any type of protein powder. Make sure you use a very high quality powder one though. I use a whey powder by Pulsin, which is organic and made from milk from hormone free, grass fed cows. 

Method: Load all of the ingredients into your blender (I use a nutribullet as it's the easiest to load and clean, literally takes 30 seconds!), and blend... that's it! 

Once you've made this one a few times, you can mix up the ingredients to add some variety. Why not use kale instead of spinach one day? Or raspberries instead of blueberries? And instead of banana, you could use a 1/4 avocado, which makes it extremely creamy. 

A little tip, put the chia and flax in last thing before you blend; if you put it in first and then add the milk, the seeds tend to stick to the bottom and don't blend. 

3. Chia Breakfast Pudding
This is another fantastic time-saving breakfast as you can make it the night before. Packed with healthy fats, carbs and protein, I'm yet to find someone that doesn't like it. This is one simple recipe, but  again, you can mix up the ingredients to add some variety in flavour and nutrients. For this one, you'll need:

1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tsp organic, raw honey (it needs to be raw as this means it has not been heated to high temperatures)
1/2 a banana
handful blueberries
1 cup coconut/almond/oat milk

Method: Mix all the ingredients, bar the chia and fruit, in a jug and stir thoroughly with a fork. Now add the chia and keep stirring for a few minutes (this is key as otherwise the chia will glue together). Finally add the fruit, and gently stir. Pour the mixture into separate small dessert bowls, put in the fridge and leave overnight. In the morning you'll have delicious bowls of goodness ready to eat! 

4. Nut Butter & Banana on Toast
This is a great alternative to jam or Marmite on toast, and packs a great protein and good fat punch first thing. Doesn't really need a recipe, just make sure you choose a sugar free nut butter and try to avoid peanut butter. Meridian make some delicious butters such as almond and cashew, with nothing but healthy nuts in them. If you find it's a bit too 'gloopy' to eat on its own, try spreading some mashed banana on top. 
 
5. Oat & Banana Pancakes
Ok, so these are ever so slightly naughty if you put the honey on, but they are a great weekend treat, and because they're made with oats instead of wheat flour, they are full of fibre and have a fairly low Glycaemic load (meaning they don't massively affect your blood glucose levels). I've tried this recipe with other flours such as rice and spelt flour, but the texture of the pancakes was weird and not very nice. This oat version recipe that I discovered is as close to normal flour pancakes that I've found yet. 
You can make them even healthier too by adding some chia seeds or protein powder to the mixture). For around 8 pancakes you'll need: 

1 cup oats 
3 bananas
2 eggs
Coconut oil/olive oil
1 tbsp ground chia powder (optional)
1 tbsp protein powder (optional)
2 cups blueberries
Raw honey

Method: Put the oats, 2 bananas, eggs (and chia and protein powder if you decide to use them) into a blender - a Nutribullet is fantastic for this - and blend until it's a smooth pancake mixture. Leave to stand whilst you heat a frying pan over a low heat. Wipe the pan with a small amount of coconut oil (or olive oil). Pour a small amount of mixture into the pan in small circles (to make small pancakes), cook for a few minutes until you can slide a spatula underneath, then turn and cook for around a minute on the other side. 
Put them on a plate, add sliced banana, blueberries (or other berries if you prefer). Drizzle with a little honey or maple syrup and voilà - a 'health-ier' version of a pancake!

I'd love to hear your recipes for healthy breakfast ideas too! 

Vee x

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