What is a nutritious, filling, and easy to eat breakfast for really early in the morning?
What is a nutritious, filling, and easy to eat breakfast for really early in the morning?
Preferably something that has little to no preparation required.
Oatmeal and yoghurt.
You can switch it up with fruits, nuts, syrups (like maple) etc.My goto is:
Oatmeal, plain yoghurt (3.5%) or greek (10%), passion fruit, apple, maple syrup (if I like it sweet).This will certainly fill you, has lots of vitamins and depending on how much and what you do is easy to eat.
Overnight oats. Look up recipes, but you mix stuff together the night before and just eat it with a spoon out of the jar the next day. For optimizing the morning routine, nothing is simpler.
Oatmeal. You can customize it to what you need and your tastes. It just needs liquid for the oats and whatever additions you want to do. I use chia seeds and flax seeds for protein & fiber, and add frozen fruit and vanilla soy milk. Microwave and enjoy.
Peanut butter, dried fruit, honey, fresh fruit, etc. are all good choices
When I got a new job I found that they had hard boiled eggs and bananas in their kitchen, so I began eating one banana and two boiled eggs for breakfast. That's the only lifestyle change I made. About a year later I noticed I had lost a bunch of weight, but I was puzzled as to why, and eventually remembered that one change. I looked it up and found some site online claiming that it is one of the healthiest breakfasts you can eat.
A serving each of full fat Greek yogurt, peanut butter, and chocolate protein powder all mixed up. It forms a mousse and is yummy. Takes a minute to make and a couple minutes to eat, lots of protein and fat so it keeps you going way longer than it should. I mix the PB into the yogurt first then mix in the protein, that helps it mix better.
I commute via boat. My standard is instant oatmeal w/ dried fruit in a mason jar with lid and a coozie.
I buy the oatmeal and dried fruit in bulk and prep a weeks worth at a time. The whole process takes less than 5 mins. While I'm getting ready for work I boil water and then pour it in just before leaving. By the time I load up on the boat it's cool enough to eat.
A bottle of Soylent contains 400 calories. It contains exactly 20% of each RDA-recognized vitamin, about 30 grams of carbs, a healthy balance of fats, and protein. Preparation is shaking the bottle for about three seconds, and peeling off a little foil seal.
Used to be you couldn’t drink it fast without getting digestion issues but now they’ve added enzymes to help digest the oats, so you can chug that bottle without issue.
A little more expensive than groceries you prepare, but cheaper than any buyable prepared breakfast you’d get from a coffee shop, diner, convenience store, or fast food joint.
Fil (fermented/soured milk) and musli in my opinion cannot be beaten. Get bowl, open fridge to get fil, pour fil into bowl, get muesli, add that and you are done. Pretty unprocessed, plenty of fiber and (depending on variety) lots of good bacteria. Cleaning up is also quick, water and a few swirls with the brush. Making coffee takes longer than chomping down on a bowl of fil and muesli.
Bircher muesli, it's basically oats soaked in milk overnight. Can be prepared weeks in advance (in dry form) and takes seconds to prepare the night before.
NO PREP: A couple slices of smoked salmon. A few cherry tomatoes. Another fruit of your choice (apple, orange, berries, etc.)
Substitute similar things for variety: Smoked mackrel, whitefish, trout, or herring. Vegetables like cauliflower, broccoli or snap peas instead of cherry tomatoes. Fish not your thing (too bad cause it's VERY healthy) then eat sliced meats. Leaner is healthier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_fish
ANOTHER LOW PREP OPTION: Charcuterie board. Make it in a big glass storage container and keep it in the fridge so all you have to do is take it out. Graze. Put it back. These can have almost endless foods on them, but choose wisely. No candy, Nancy! Eat some nuts.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Charcuterie+board&t=ffab&ia=recipes
For years I ate cereal with milk and was still hungry. Stop being a bitch and putting sugar on your sugar and eat real food.
Minimum prep: peanut butter toast with banana slices.
Little prep: fried eggs with toast and preserves.
Both are super easy to make and only take like 5-10 mins. It will take longer for the coffee or tea to brew.
Overnight oats. There's a ton of different ways to prep it for however you want it and whatever your nutritional needs are.
Müesli
Scoop of protein powder, banana, handful of peanuts, shake of cocoa powder, 1/3rd cup oats, handful of berries, and coffee in a blender.
My standard breakfast (for years) is: 1 hard boiled egg, a large spoonful of cottage cheese, and some fruit (usually a small banana or a mandarin orange). Assuming you hard boiled the eggs in advance, the prep time is however long it takes you to peel an egg.
Do you find you have no appetite in the morning?
I have this problem and find that Greek yogurt cups and black tea help.
Alternatively, the "BRAT" diet is meant for someone with a queasy stomach from being ill but also works in this case: Banana, Rice, Applesauce, Toast.
When I am running late I often make scrambled egg burritos. Warm a burrito tortilla over the stove flame, then scramble eggs with cheese and seasoning. I like egg whites, pepper, and cajun seasoning.
Can cook on a high flame if stirring constantly. Roll it up and run. It takes 3-4 minutes. Usually grab an apple and banana to go with it.
Granola with yogurt.
I get a fairly low-sugar granola, or make my own (see 'food wishes - granola' on YT) and portion it into tupperware containers, 1/2 cup each. Then I put on 1/2 cup greek yogurt (the real kind, not the sugar-loaded kind) and freeze like 10 of them at a time. In the morning, i take one, add 1/2 cup oat milk, maybe some extra dry or frozen fruit, and by the time i get to work, its defrosted but still cold, mushy but still crunchy. Should be relatively low in bad sugars and pretty tasty.
Way too many comments for me to reply to but thanks all for the suggestions!
Hardboiled eggs are pretty minimal actual work, but take time. I can't eat much really early, but those I can.
Sorry, I only have the filling, easy to eat, and no prep parts to give you. I'm no health expert, just a lazy Lemming.
Normally my daily routine is a bowl of Cereal with milk. I have a banana sometimes with it. Zero prep.
If I need to count on having energy for the whole day, it's an over easy egg on buttered toast with margarine and black pepper. Some prep required.
My unhealthy "dinner for a week" meal is a pack of Costco hotdog buns and sausages that I cook two at a time whenever I want and slap mustard on it. That's 8 or so meals for just over $20.
I could cook more and better stuff but I'm just too lazy to do the prep, the cooking and the cleanup, but I'm also too cheap to do takeout more than once a week.
A bowl of frozen fruit (blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cherries) + a banana and milk. The milk partially thaws the berries after around 10 minutes.
As breakfast is the most dangerous meal of the day, the sugar from berries is bound to their fiber which makes them low on the glycemic index and don't spike your insulin level as high as the refined carbs a lot or people eat for breakfast such as cereals and grains.
Oat meal
Been doin 2 bananas with jar of peanuts. Bite of banana, pour in a few peanuts, eat together.
Oatmeal and one or two hard boiled eggs. It will satisfy your hunger so you don’t over eat and very healthy.
Steel-cut oatmeal is super-easy, set-and-forget (1 cup water, 1/4 steel-cut oats, pinch of salt, Bring water to boil, stir in oats, salt, lower to bare simmer, uncovered 30 minutes, flavor as desired, eat).
But that can get boring. For something a little more exciting, super-nutritious, and almost zero-prep, do a sort of Norwegian-style open-face cracker (no, you don't need "the tubes", but if you can find them, knock yourself out). For this I take a tin of fish (usually smoked salmon or trout, but sardines, mackerel, or even tuna would work fine), a piece of cracking toast or a Scandy flatbread cracker (Wasa, knekkebrod), and some kind of "schmear" (a thin spread of cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, or - my favorite - Trader Joe's Everything But the Bagel Yogurt Dip/Spread). I can get all these ingredients both cheaply and well-made at Trader Joe's (TJ Smoked Salmon in a tin, TJ Norwegian seeded flatbread, and the aforementioned dip). For a little additional oomph toss on tomato or cucumber slices.
I open a can of sardines and slice open an avocado. Healthy fats and protein, low carb!
I like to make oats in the microwave and mix in peanut butter and banana slices
Miso soup is my go-to breakfast. You can get dashi powder and miso paste, then just heat water in the kettle and combine. I love that it’s warm and flavorful, but actually a pretty light breakfast (which I prefer).
Unless there are dinner leftovers, I usually eat a corn farofa filled with two scrambled eggs, half onion, and a carrot. It's 10min cooking if you plan in advance (grate the carrot and chop the onion), really filling, and... well, you got two vegs and a grain and a source of protein, I'd say that it's nutritious.
So much prep going on in these comments.
Half a bowl of Shreddies, half of Swiss Muesli, milk. Tea if you have time, juice if not.
Cottage cheese with granola. Similar to yogurt but I think cottage cheese is more palatable. The low fat version (often 1% or 2% instead of whole/ full fat) doesn't have as strong a taste to me and is covered pretty easily by granola if you don't like the flavor of cottage cheese. I also recommend store brand for the same reason—the taste is less strong, it seem, than name brand. For example, I think Daisy cottage cheese tastes a lot like their sour cream and just doesn't work as well as whatever store brand is available (and often cheaper) right next to it.
Sometimes I add a little jam or something too, which is also good
Diet Coke.
Microwave oatmeal but with so much water that it's drinkable. Have a pint of that and your body will thank you tremendously.
Chia seed pudding is super simple to do. Put 3-4 tablespoons of chia and one cup of liquid (e.g. milk) in a jar, throw it in the fridge and let it sit overnight. Add some fruit to it in the morning if you want flavor. It is basically flavorless if you don't.
I always have a bowl of full-fat Greek yogurt with a spoonful of almond butter, a sprinkle of cinnamon, some collagen powder, and a little bit of maple syrup. Easy to scarf down in a hurry and keeps me satisfied for a few hours.
Bread, butter, cheese and cold cuts.
I make steel cut oats in a rice cooker with a timer, so I can put the oats and water in the night before. I've pre-mixed the spices, peanut powder, flax powder. I throw nuts and raisins in when I mix it all together in the morning. For spices it's cocoa, tiny bit of cloves, tiny bit of cinnamon, tiny bit of ginger, pinch of salt.
Breakfast burritos: Scramble up some eggs and whatever you've got, toss it on a tortilla, throw some cheese and salsa on and you've got a hearty, easily transported meal that's relatively easy to make.
Oatmeal: Make your oats, toss in nuts, berries, whatever: Yum!
Sausages: I just stick them on a baking sheet, bake for 10 minutes at 400F, flip, 10 more minutes, and they're good to go. Save even more time by precooking them, storing them in the fridge, and microwaving them on the fly. Add some toast and guac, maybe a piece of fruit, and you've got some decent nutrition.
Breakfast shakes: Lots of nutrients and little to no prep time. Not super filling but enough to get you through at least the first few hours of the day.
I make pork and vege wontons and freeze them in the deep freeze in packets. When I don't want to eat in the morning, I put a packet in the steamer and have a shower. When I get out on the shower alarm, I have hot cooked dumplings to eat. It is good even at 430AM.
But if you want no prep, not even the ease of a steamer, then stewed fruit from the fridge or a can, mixed with yoghurt and some nuts (or nut flour) and a handful of dry uncooked rolled oats. It takes zero time, and is good quality, and can change with the seasons.
I dunno about nutritious, but I sometimes like baking oat cookies and having them for breakfast, super easy to eat and honestly probably as bad for me as regular cereal. Do want to try and make them "healthy" though
I was hoping to find some cool ideas in this thread, but 🤮.
Egg on toast. Takes just a minute or two to fry/scramble an egg and frankly you don't have to watch it like a hawk the whole time so you can make your coffee or whatever while it's frying. Throw a slice or two of cheese on top while the egg is still hot
Avocados toast is pretty easy. Toast some bread. Mash on some avocado. Sprinkle with garlic salt or everything seasoning. Delicious and healthy!
I'm cheap, and I also have barely any time for breakfast in the morning, and my wife likes it when I make her breakfast but she leaves for work an hour after me.
So this is what I do, and have done for almost three years straight now.
You get yourself some
Some
And a big bag of shredded cheese, your choice
First thing I do when I walk into the kitchen is start the toaster oven, getting it hot. Then I take a chicken patty out of the freezer and break it in half on the edge of the counter while it's still in the bag. Then I take a half sheet paper towel, and fold it in half, because I hate doing dishes. I put both halves of the chicken patty on it, pop it in the microwave for one minute, 30 seconds per half if I'm only doing one. Then while that's going, I slap two tortillas on the counter, sprinkle a healthy dose of cheese on them and spread it out evenly. By the time I'm done, so is the chicken, so I put each half on one side of each tortilla. Next comes the flavor. You can sprinkle a little garlic salt and pepper, or a dash of worcestershire, or my favorite was a dab of Chick-fil-A sauce under the patty. Then, slide it onto the rack in the piping hot toaster oven. Then I walk away to go start getting ready for work, just a simple task like finding socks or something, then I come back a minute or two later and the cheese is nice and bubbly, the tortilla is browning on the edges, it's just about ready to pull out. Then I pull them out, fold them in half, put mine on my water bottle to cool, and hers goes back into the toaster oven, but it's a fancy oven so I set the temp to 160f so it's nice and hot when she gets up, but doesn't keep cooking too much.
The whole process takes less than 10 minutes, maybe even 5 minutes if I'm really on my game in the morning.
The whole thing costs like 50 cents, and is plenty filling for me. It's probably not the healthiest option, but.. 🤷♂️
Why don't I use something more breakfasty, like sausage? Because I can't find it as cheap as the chicken. Funny enough, I actually started this whole process during COVID, with frozen precooked sausage patties. We got a bag of them with one of our low income commodity boxes, and couldn't figure out what to do with them. So I started doing this. Then when the bag ran dry, I transitioned to chicken. Not as good, but still good, and like I said, I'm cheap lol.
Hope this helps!
Smoked salmon in scrambled eggs, 1/3 avocado, a slice of toasted gluten-free bread, a few leaves of baby kale or spinach, orange juice (preferably freshly squeezed), and as many fruits you want, chopped into a plain yogurt. That's the ultimate breakfast for me. I like it so much, that I often have it for lunch or dinner too.
I would never touch oatmeal, because I'm celiac: three Canadian research papers have found that even GF oats are actually contaminated in the field, and even if not, oats contain the avenin protein that is chemically too close to gluten, and so many immune systems mistake it for it, and react badly. My gluten-free bread mentioned above would have only rice flour, potato flour/starch, and tapioca starch, but no other grain apart from rice (I react to all other grains).
Cum
Frozen pancakes (1 min in microwave per package of 3) and a whey protein shake. This is the pinnacle of efficient and delicious nutrition. Everyone else's advice is misguided and wrong. Nobody has time for all that bullshit. You're welcome.
Option bonus: banana
2 tbsp Peanut butter + 1 tsp cocoa powder + one tsp sugar + 300 ml milk
Or sunny side up eggs with spices and half a cheese slice per egg (put one slice between two of them)
Can also have a bowl of oats besides if need more fulfilling stomach, is light on GI scale and has lots of fiber
