Now if there was one meal I love above all others it has to be, without a doubt, breakfast. It’s always been about breakfast, and nowadays I seldom go very long without having a good and healthy meal at the start of my day. This hasn’t always been the case, however, as I used to gorge at this time. Being my favourite meal, I would often eat very sugary cereals and chase them down with a danish or two and a mug of tea. Of course this still sounds very appealing to me (I’m only human after all) but I haven’t done that for a long time. Here are a few ideas to get you started on the right track.
1. Scrambled eggs.
This is an easy pick for me as I have these every single morning. For those of you who have seen earlier posts on my blog, you will know that I pair these with another entry on this list on a daily basis. Great ideas to add flavour to this dish is cooking them with spinach, feta cheese and tomato, or adding siracha and salsa to them.
2. Oatmeal.
My second breakfast staple, and another that I have every morning, are my oats. Stick to plain oats here and none of that instant rubbish (that stuff tends to be packed full of sugar anyway) and mix with either water, skimmed or semi-skimmed milk. For flavour you can add vanilla essence, cinnamon, fruit, peanut butter, nuts or a combination.
4. Greek yogurt with fruit.
A great and refreshing choice for a first meal is greek style yogurt. Zero or low fat, preferably. This is packed with protein and my go-to in the UK is a brand called Fage (I’ve also heard Chobani is a good brand in America, but aside from that I’m not sure). Just keep an eye on the nutrition and you’ll be fine. Sweeten the yogurt with a variety of berries and nuts (I like walnuts and almonds) and, if you’re really struggling, maybe a touch of honey. But be aware that honey should be dropped if you’re having this regularly, as I’m sure you’ll begin to see where all that sugar is going.
5. Omelette.
Cook these in much the same way you would your scrambled eggs, tinkering about with the recipe until you find one that works for you. You can add tomatoes, feta, cheddar, spinach, chilli, red peppers, onions, chives, even chop up some chicken sausages or something. Have fun with this one.
6. Healthy fry-up.
This one you won’t find on all the health sites – at least I don’t think you will. To me, it seems that with only a few minor tweaks an incredibly unhealthy breakfast can be made healthy. For instance, scramble those eggs (done properly, see my recipe and avoid butter) instead of frying them and replace pork sausages with chicken. Bacon rashers should probably go as well, on account of all that delicious fat, and replace them with turkey rashers instead. Maybe not quite as tasty but a helluva lot leaner. Any fried bread, black pudding, hash browns and baked beans (I know, this last is often defended but these too can be high in sugar) should also go. Try mixing some soya beans in with those reduced-salt baked ones, replace the fried bread with toasted brown and the hash browns with a baked potato. There are plenty of opportuities here to cook up something really tasty.
If all said and done, you still like your cereal too much, try and make a few smart decisions. Avoid those packed with sugar and, more often than not, the plainer the better. Special K, bran flakes, shredded wheat and weetabix seem to be your best bet in this department, sweetened with fruit rather than sugar or syrups.
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