Whether you’re an interior decorator, wedding planner, stay-at-home parent, or standard-issue office drone, breakfast is a critical part of your day. Get it right, and you’ll be able to tackle the morning’s activities energetically. Mess it up, and you’ll be left snacking or running out of energy. Breakfast doesn’t need to be a big feast, but it has to be packed with the right stuff to get your day off to a good start. And breakfast – more than any other meal – can be quick and tasty without too much effort.
It’s surprisingly easy for designers, photographers, and others to create healthy breakfasts with minimal effort. Great breakfast ideas and a few smart choices each morning will give you a big boost with surprisingly little time and effort.
Granola with Fresh Fruit
A staple of many healthy breakfasts, granola is a quick breakfast staple if you’ve got the granola ready-to-go. Then just slice up some fruit, and you’re ready to eat. You can choose fruit to suit your mood or just throw in a cornucopia for a big punch of vitamins and minerals to go with the protein and carbs in organic granola foods. Strawberries and kiwis add a fresh, sweet taste and lots of vitamin A, vitamin C, and potassium. Mangoes and pineapples pack a tropical tastebud explosion and are full of vitamins as well as antioxidant beta-carotene.
Homemade Avocado on Toast
Even though not everyone understands the wonders of avocado toast, nobody can argue with the health benefits of spreading a smooth, ripe avocado on a piece of toasted, wholesome bread. It provides you with fiber, potassium, Vitamins E, C, B-6, and tons of carbs. Sprinkle salt and a little cayenne, paprika, or black pepper on top to give it more zing.
Boiled Eggs
Boiled eggs are easy to grab and are packed full of nutrients. One egg gives you few calories but a lot of high-quality protein and a wide range of vitamins, minerals, and disease-fighting nutrients. They’re a great addition to fruit salad, a slice of toast, or any other breakfast dish. They’re also fast to prepare as long as you’ve done a little preparation. Eggs can be boiled half a dozen at a time and refrigerate easily, and you can either chow them down cold or warm them up in a cup of hot water for about a minute before spreading or slicing.
Breakfast Sandwich
If you’re grabbing something to eat as you hurry out the door, a breakfast sandwich will still get you fed. Simply grab a few pieces of bread, a sliced bagel, or a croissant, and stuff them full of cream cheese, fruit, jam, peanut or almond butter, chocolate, or whatever else you have around to get a burst of various vitamins, nutrients, protein, and carbs.
Leftover Vegetables
An often-overlooked breakfast option, vegetables offer great nutrition. They’re chock full of all kinds of vitamins, fiber, and minerals such as folate and magnesium. If you have any vegetables, especially potatoes, corn, zucchini, onions, or peppers leftover from the night before, just sauté them in a bit of oil or butter (or even just grill them in a nonstick pan) and eat them with ketchup or salsa. If you have extra time, you can throw in some stock or tomato sauce and top with scrambled or boiled eggs.
Muesli
A favorite breakfast food in Europe, muesli is a combination of nuts, rolled grains, seeds, dried fruit, and seasonings like cinnamon. It’s effortless to make. Just combine the ingredients, add milk or a milk substitute if desired, and it’s ready to eat! There are so many combinations to try out to constantly mix things up to keep your muesli interesting.
Smoothie
The ultimate in portable breakfasts are blended fruit smoothies. Add bananas or coconut milk for a creamy base, then spice things up with strawberries, blueberries, mango, pineapple, apricot, grapefruit, cherries, papaya, pomegranate, or lemon juice. You can even get a bit wild and slip in some nuts, grains, wheatgrass, spices, and herbs for extra flavor.
