Blog
Five Real Food Breakfast Recipes
Breakfast was always my favourite meal of the day. Why? Because I had the same. thing. every. day. I knew exactly what it tasted like and so was never disappointed. No, I never got bored of it.
And what did I eat? Well, cereal. If I could have woken up with a spoonful of cereal in my mouth I would have. What kind of cereal, to be more precise? Rice Krispies and milk was my favourite for years – I even used to sprinkle sugar on top (I used to love drinking the sweet milk once I’d finished the cereal). Occasionally Coco Pops.
As a weight conscious teenager I turned to low fat Special K, with berries if I had some extra pennies in my pocket. I simply could not start my day without my regular breakfast. If, on the rare occasion, I had run out of cereal (this must have happened less than a handful of times: my cereal was my religion), this was not going to be a good day. It’s as if my happiness depended on it. In fact, I think it did.
Up until I few years ago I also used to eat cereal dinners when I came home from work and couldn’t be bothered to shop or cook. Healthy enough, right, it’s just cereal. Enter my journey and education into healthy eating… Commerical cereals are packed with sugar. That’s right, even Special K. Did you know that sugar is the second ingredient in Snap, Crackle, Pop? The fifth highest is high fructose corn syrup. And I added refined white sugar on top??! Boxed cereals are ‘food products‘, they are not food – the processing, additives blablabla mean this this is not real food.
Er…so what to eat for breakfast? Muesli, thanks but, nah (tastes just too darn healthy. aka boring). Porridge, no time to cook, the alarm goes off to allow me just the amount of time I need to get ready and get to work. And anyway, porridge, thanks but, nah (yes, I now love both muesli and porridge!).
We’ve all heard it a million times ‘don’t skip breakfast, it’s the most important meal of the day’. Here are 3 reasons why starting the day on healthy chow is important:
- Break – fast. Your body has, in effect, been in fasting mode throughout the night (you don’t eat whilst you sleep). You don’t dump your clothes on the floor when you’ve just cleaned up do you? So why would you burden your digestive system with junk when it’s just had a little clean out and repair session?
- It gives you energy first thing to get you going through the day. Start off on a bad foo
dt and you’ll be playing catch up all day trying to give your body the nutrients it needs. - You feed your body sweet stuff first thing, guess what…your body is going to crave sweet stuff for the rest of the day.
It’s not rocket science. Try it out. What you want is a nutrient packed, energy rich breakfast that will keep you going well into midday. This increases concentration and is far more likely to give you the vitamins and minerals you need. How to go about it? Here’s what I did:
- I didn’t like commerical muesli so I started making my own (see recipe below). Takes 5 minutes to make a whole batch and it’s delicious. Why? ‘Cos I made it (with belly luurve).
- I realised that I had to start making time for breakfast. Food is important. It affects our moods and overall health. I decided to prioritise it more (so what if it means going to bed a little earlier to have more time in the morning, sleep is good for us!)
- It meant eating REAL FOOD. Raw or cooked. Just real food. Not something out of a packet where you have to read the ingredients to figure out what it’s actually made of (reference above: in large part, sugar).
- I totally love breakfast and I’m going to make breakfasts that rock my bedsocks off! And I do. Dare I say it…my breakfasts today are even more exciting than they were a few years ago. Crazy life huh?!
5 ideas for healthy breakfast fare
- Muesli. Mix buckwheat, quinoa, millet, gluten-free oat flakes in a big mason jar (add rye flakes if you are not fussed about the gluten thing). Cut almonds, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds into it (with scissors). Add a few raisins. Cut (with scissors) a small amount of dried apricots into it. Keep the dried fruit to a minimum to keep the sugar content down (don’t want to re-create the morning cereal sugar rush). Top with almond/rice/quinoa/oat milk.
- Raw Loulou’s Apple Porridge. Soak 1/2 cup buckwheat overnight. Next morning: cut 2 small apples into quarters, blender them. Add the buckwheat (minus soaking water), 1 teaspoon cinnamon, small chunk peeled and finely chopped ginger, 1/4 cup almond/rice/quinoa/oat milk (not too much, don’t want it too soggy). Blender the lot just enough so it stays chunky. Top with goji berries and a few raisins.
- Eggs on gluten-free homemade bread. Boil 2 eggs or scramble eggs. Prepare 1-2 slices gluten-free (or whole-grain bread) with organic full fat butter, tahini or coconut oil. Prepare a small handful of baby spinach. Chop up an avocado. Place the spinach on the bread, then top with the egg and avo. Sprinkle a pinch of himalaya or sea salt, pepper, paprika. Drizzle with flaxseed or olive oil.
- Smoothie. Of your choice. For example: banana, almond, rice milk or water. Baby spinach, parsley, cinnamon, spirulina, MACA.
- Pancakes. Yippee! Gotta love ‘em!
* Eggs and banana: 1 banana+1 egg = 1 pancake. Need that again? 1 banana+1 egg = 1 pancake. Easy huh?
* Banana and gluten-free flour: 1 banana + flour + water to consistency.
Cook in either full fat organic butter, ghee or coconut oil. Top with your choice of maple syrup, raw honey, coconut oil, berries, cinnamon, a squeeze of lemon. (p.s. go easy on the maple and honey). 
Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!
