Breakfast Ideas

I've had a few readers ask me about healthy breakfast ideas, so I wanted to do a special post specifically geared towards breakfast. They aren't all super-quick but will hopefully give you some new ideas for healthy, fresh breakfasts. If you have your own favorite breakfasts, please share them in the comments :)

Breakfast Fritatta
Heat oven to broil. Heat a stainless steel, oven-proof skillet over med heat. Add a generous amount of healthy fat such as olive oil or coconut oil or butter from grass-fed cows. Add veggies of choice and saute until just tender (I really like onions, red bell peppers and spinach, or whatever leftover veggies are sitting in the fridge). In a medium bowl, scramble up about 5-6 eggs with a splash of milk. Pour eggs over veggies, season w/salt and pepper, and gently push a spatula through until the eggs just start to set. Add some cheese on top (I love fresh chevre). Transfer to oven and broil until eggs are set and cheese is melted and just starting to brown. Cut into wedges (like pizza) and serve hot or at room temp. Fritattas are also eaten cold in Italy for lunch, so I hear.

Easy Huevos Rancheros
Saute up some onions and garlic in a medium saucepan. Add cooked pinto or black beans w/some of the cooking liquid and heat through. Mash w/potato masher. Meanwhile, fry eggs in butter in a skillet. Set eggs aside and heat up corn tortillas in the same skillet. Place tortilla on plate, top w/mashed beans, then egg, then top w/salsa and/or hot sauce.

Buckwheat Blueberry Pancakes
Mix together:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup buckwheat flour
1 Tbs agave nectar or maple syrup
4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
3 eggs
1 Tbs healthy oil (grapeseed oil or melted coconut oil)
1/2 cup applesauce
Fold in about 1/2 cup blueberries and 1/4 cup chopped nuts of preference

Spoon about 1/8 cup per pancake on greased griddle and cook until bubbly, flip and cook another few seconds, just until starting to brown and set. Serve with applesauce and honey or real maple syrup. Makes about 20 pancakes.

Pumpkin Griddle Cakes
1 cup fine yellow cornmeal (organic is best to avoid GMOs)
1 Tbs coconut sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup water
1 large egg, beaten
2 Tbs melted butter or bacon fat

Mix cornmeal, sugar, salt and baking soda in large bowl. Add pumpkin puree, water and egg and mix well. Stir in melted butter or bacon fat. Heat and grease griddle or heavy skillet until very hot and drop heaping tablespoon-fulls of batter onto it, frying until lightly browned, turning once. Serve w/applesauce or maple syrup, and the bacon that you fried to get the bacon fat :)

Homemade Muesli (this is a good alternative to boxed cold cereal)
The night before, soak 1 cup thick-cut rolled oats (not quick-cooking) in about 3/4 cup whole milk and soak overnight in fridge. In the morning, spoon into serving bowls and add plain whole yogurt and various chopped fruits or berries and nuts. If you're not used to eating plain yogurt, you may want to add a dash of honey or maple syrup, and start to cut back on it little by little until you are accustomed to eating plain yogurt. I have also noticed a HUGE difference in taste and tartness between various brands of plain yogurt. Also, I highly recommend going with full-fat (whole milk) plain yogurt. Not only does it taste better, but you actually want the fat in there because our bodies need fat (as opposed to popular belief), it helps you stay full longer, and it lowers the glycemic index of your meal (meaning it helps slow the absorption of the sugar into your bloodstream).

Other things we do a lot are smoothies, breakfast burritos, eggs with bacon (uncured, nitrate-free) and sprouted-grain toast (would you believe that I found a sprouted-grain bread at Costco!), plain yogurt topped w/homemade granola and fruit and steel-cut oats (soaked the night before and cooked w/diced apples). Be sure to share your breakfast favorites in the comments!

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.