We've been talking healthy eating, but there's still a lot to cover.....why not start at the beginning....
What you eat for breakfast is not only important because it's your first fuel of the day, but it can also set the tone for how healthy (or unhealthy....) the rest of your day will go.
Chances are, if you eat a piece of chocolate cake for breakfast (been there), you won't make the best choices the rest of the day.
If you eat a bowl of sugary cereal first thing in the morning, it's guaranteed you'll be hungry again within an hour or so, and you'll be exhausted! The same goes for your kids, (who are at school and starving while they're taking their spelling test. )
We are pretty boring around here--during the week the kids eat oatmeal almost every morning. It's easy, healthy, filling, cheap, and we can add any kind of fruits and nuts to make it different.
My very favorite way to eat oatmeal though, is actually a little bit different......it's raw!
I like a little bit of texture instead of a hot bowl of mush. If you haven't tried this--please do! I love it and it's so easy to throw together. If you're in a hurry in the morning, you can get ready to go while you let the milk soak in.
Raw Oatmeal
rolled oats (not instant) + milk (enough to cover)--let this sit for a few minutes
drizzle of maple syrup or honey
sprinkle of ground flax
chopped almonds
whatever fruit you have around (this time banana + strawberries)
sometimes I add a teensy bit of unsweetened cocoa powder
Some other breakfasts we like are
-peanut butter toast
-avocado on toast
-scrambled eggs
-we don't eat a ton of cereal in the morning--we save it mostly for snacks or the weekend, but I do like a few of the Kashi brands and Cascadian Farms brands as well.
-we love yogurt
-I still make granola every now and then
-when we have waffles or pancakes for dinner, I double the batch so we can have extras for breakfast.
-sometimes I am so busy rushing around (I'm sure you know the feeling), and while the kids get their breakfast, I'm out the door with nothing. For times like these I love a good hearty granola bar--Odwalla bars are a long time favorite--they're tasty, filling, and aren't full of a bunch of fake stuff (bonus!)
My challenge for you this week,
is to try something new for breakfast!
Find something a little more substantial than your morning poptart. The closer we get to summer, the more fresh fruits there are available, and they pair perfectly with a healthy breakfast.
I would love to hear what YOU have for breakfast!
i'll be posting some of my favs on my facebook page
happy eating!
44 comments:
Hmm I love cold oatmeal, sometimes I make them in the evening with a little bit of yogurt also, and let them sit the night in the fridge, delicious on hot summer days!
I think it's great you teach your children good food choices, I wish my parents had done that, but lot of people don't know anything about food and health.
Oh and I love your blog by the way!
every morning for the past two years (minus a day here and there) i have had a green smoothie!
2 c water
2 handfuls spinach
1 c frozen berries/strawberries
1 banana
scoop maca powder
scoop flax
to make it sweeter (like my hubby likes) put in sweeter tropical fruit. or a squirt of agave. or a date or two! mmmm
i do love me a cherry poptart.
I also just discovered steel cut oats. You can cook them overnight in a tiny crockpot. 4c water 1c oats + 8hrs on Keep warm or 4-5 hrs on Low. Absolute yumminess.
I've just started making fruit smoothies (made a little easier on the purse by using some frozen fruit) and PBJ bagels/toast. Finding I have much more energy on a morning and my skin is looking healthier too :) Especially nice as I used to be pretty prone to spots...!
Bob and his Red Mill make a really great whole wheat pancake and waffle mix.
We are smoothie fiends. My favorite: frozen mangos, fresh strawberries, fresh banana, a few spoonfuls of yogurt, a few tablespoons ground flax seeds, a squeeze of honey, ice and milk.
I'm going to go try the raw oatmeal right now, if it doesn't work I'll text you to bring me a doughnut =)
I discovered chilled Swiss oatmeal last Fall in Chicago. Love it! I need to make it at home.
Yesterday I put wheatberries in the crockpot overnight, then added chopped dried apricots and cranberries. Perfectly filling breakfast!
I love raw oatmeal, too! Sometimes if I know I won't have time in the morning I'll make it the night before. It's a little softer, but still nice and chewy!
we eat a lot of the same stuff around here, minus the mushy oatmeal-i prefer it toasted in granola.
spinach smoothies
oatmeal egg white pancakes
bowl of fruit and a spoon of course!
wwtoast with nutella (my husbands fav)
yogurt with granola and fresh fruit
a bowl of berries with lemon juice and a splash of agave nectar.
being pregnant nothing sounded good, last week i opted for whole wheat bagels-only think that sounded good. but all the carbs and sitting around make me even more exhausted. today i had a handful of Kashi go lean crunch mixed with fruit and feel so much better.
my favorite and go-to breakast is:
about 1/2 cup raw oats, fruit (usually a couple strawberries, blueberries, and a couple blackberries), two large-ish spoonfulls of organic fat greek yogurt (chobani is my fave), a tiny drizzle of agave...topped with a coule nuts (almonds or walnuts). yum!
but i'm going to try it like you eat it, sheena. with milk instead of yogurt sometimes. sounds great!
.. don't think I could eat (drink) any green smoothie in the morn..! oatmeal is always good however you eat it...
i like an egg on toast or sometimes hot cereal of the grandma variety (it's called Dee's cereal) but it's expensive so i also like a 9-grain cereal from the bulk bins which is super cheap.
raw oatmeal, though? never tried it. sounds a little suspicious.
Those are all great breakfast options! I really need to be eating breakfast more, and more importantly, a good healthy breakfast.
This is coming from someone who just ate some Skittles. At 11 in the morning. Hey, they were right there, and I was right there....I need to throw them away so I won't be tempted any longer!
I am definitely going to try this! When I was a little kid I used to love raw oatmeal (I'd sneak handfuls of it out of the canister) but I always thought people would think I was kind of weird! So exciting to see there's a different way to eat it.
raw oatmeal - brilliant! I'll have to try that since typically find cooked rolled oats too mushy. That's actually why I opt for steel cut oats most of the time - they hold their structure better. One of my favorite breakfasts is steel cut oatmeal with a chopped up apple and lots of cinnamon sprinkled on top - the apple adds just enough sweetness and cinnamon is an antioxidant. (double bonus!) If I'm feeling extra-frivolous, I add raisins and/or almonds.
yum!
this morning i made french toast--something i haven't made in a few months! the best thing was that it was made with homemade molasses bread :)
i typically eat some toast + banana + yogurt
I have to let you know that I've been following your blog for awhile now, and I've been so inspired by it! I'm on my first week of my "lifestyle change" which includes training for a half marathon and eating much more healthy than I had been. So far I feel great, and am excited about getting rid of all the fake stuff in my cupboards and filling it with the real stuff. My kids aren't so sure about the change, but the nice thing is, they don't really have a choice! :) So please keep up these blogs. They are making me so excited to become a better, healthier person!
eating your raw oatmeal breakfast now. it may be lunch time, but it's still delightful!
I've only ever done the raw oatmeal with an overnight soak. Letting it soak while I do some of the morning routine is a revelation!
I can't wait for your lunch post. :D
oatmeal + pumpkin puree + pumpkin pie spice or agave + raisins + milk = heaven
I also like my oatmeal raw, but not for breakfast. An AMAZING post workout snack is mashed up banana with raw oatmeal and raisins or dark chocolate chips.
Thanks for the awesome post!
here i come with an i can't believe she actually eats that for breakfast comment. i'm not the biggest fan of breakfast food so believe it or not i've been known to have left over soup or meat & potatoes for breakfast. call me crazy if you want but dinner food is just so much better.
looooove raw oatmeal! mm. sometimes i open the jar of oats just to smell them. :) i do have to admit- there are times when i'm sad that i'll probably never have poptarts again. please tell me that they are NOT as good as i remember them (i'm sure they're not.)
sheena, i'd love to hear more about your morning routine sometime! in particular the part about waking kids up, getting ready for school, eating the breakfast... how do you like to squeeze it all in? are you in the kitchen "making" breakfast each morning? i'm totally interested in how real moms do real life stuff :)
My favorite breakfast is a baked sweet potato with toasted pecans and a side of steamed greens - it probably sounds kind of weird, but it is actually really wonderful! A medium sweet potato actually has more fiber than a bowl of oatmeal - plus lots of vitamins that oats don't! Buckwheat pancakes with peanut butter and banana slices is my favorite special breakfast treat :).
I grew up eating raw oatmeal for breakfast a lot. However, we would put apple juice on it, and then whatever nuts and fruits were laying around. I need to do that again. Thanks for the reminder!
Must. make. raw. oatmeal.
I need to go to sleep so I can wake up and eat that.
Question: Is there a difference between ground flax and milled flax?
My favorite (and most devoured) breakfasts are:
-Whole wheat toast with lean/low sodium turkey breast + sliced tomato + romaine lettuce
-a banana
-a glass of orange juice
-or-
Yogurt & granola, hard-boiled egg, glass of OJ
-or-
Bowl of Multigrain Cheerios, plain
Boiled egg or yogurt
Glass of OJ
And once the kids have eaten and they're busy playing and watching PBS carttons, I clean up. Then, I always follow-
up my breakfast with decaf tea or a homemade latte!
We are going to try your raw oatmeal recipe this weekend! Love your blog, btw!
Love your raw oatmeal variations and we'll have to try them--our 7 year old has been eating raw oatmeal for years and as we leave on trips, he asks us to bring a #10 can of oats to make sure he can still have it away from home. It's so healthy and cheap compared to most cold cereals especially when we buy it in 25# bags. Now if only I could get him hooked on green smoothies!
A toasted whole wheat bagel with hummus or dijon, sprouts or spinach, tomato, cucumber and avocado. So good, even at 7 a.m.
The classic scrambled egg on toast, with just a tiny bit of cheese melted on top...Heaven.
And sometimes I go for the Special K honey granola. It's my fave cereal these days. Especially with some fruit sprinkled on top.
I just finished eating your raw oatmeal with almond milk, almond slivers, banana, and a drizzle of agave nectar. I love oats, but have never had them raw. I think I will be doing it every morning! I'm already planning out a little oatmeal station in my kitchen, for extra ease in the mornings. I love how you said "what you eat for breakfast sets the tone for how healthy the rest of your day will go." I'm going to always remember that when selecting my breakfast! Thanks for the great post.
Such a great post! I truly believe the breakfast is the most important meal of the day!
We are kind of boring at my house. We have steel cut oats for breakfast every Monday-Friday. They are hearty and filling and SO easy to make. I bring water and a little salt to a boil, pour in the steel cut oats, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 30 minutes while I get ready for the day. We serve them with milk a little brown sugar and raisins or dried cherries. Very, yummy, heart healthy and economical way to feed your family for breakfast.
Love all of the things you listed for your breakfast ideas. We'll have to try some of those out for our weekend breakfasts, or they would make great lunch or snack ideas as well.
You're such an amazing photographer and love the photos you include with all of your posts. Have a wonderful Mother's day weekend!
we were in a rut and so we are trying a few new ideas for breakfast many of which will be found on my blog annies home @ http://shopannies.blogspot.com
I just tried raw oats + strawberries + almonds + milk. It made the perfect, guilt-free late night snack that may even help me sleep!
Oooh! Call me nosy, but I loved reading what eeryone is eating for breakfast - hehehe!
Every morning I eat 4 scrambled eggs whites, 1 avocado, and a huge heaping pile of wild blueberries....mmmm....other than the purple teeth and lips, I love it!
im loving this blog! you are so creative and so cute!
i dont know how to follow it on my dashboard?
AlphabetSoup Style come visit sometime!
love your healthy living posts. i have always meant to make raw grains in the morning but haven't, I always thought they had to soak overnight. once again you've inspired me.
as much as i would love to say that i am a morning person. i am most definitly NOT a morning person (unless morning person means waking up whenever i feel like it) so i'm usually in a bit of a rush to get out the door. i walk to school everyday so i usually grab an orange, apple or banana and a handful of almonds to eat as i walk. it's perfect for me!
Our local bakery makes the BEST fresh bagels, and we're hooked on them. We toast them and then load them up with a fried egg, avocado, and cheese. It's delicious and keeps us full all morning. It's also easy and quick to make and clean up, which is key for us! I'm also a huge oatmeal fan for the same reasons.
for me the most important meal of the day it has to be breakfast. I usually like to eat homemamde granola with cold milk, tea or coffee and if I´m feeling naughty a toast with jam.
However I´ve been challenging myself to indeed eat something different or new for breakfast. I´ve stopped drinking cofee and cow´s milk for a week, drinking green juices/smoothies and making my own oat or rice milk.
Not just proud of myself but feeling so good.
Next step will be trying your raw oatmeal.
I love eating hard boiled eggs for breakfast. With salt and pepper. Sometimes on toast. Yum. :)
Started making this raw oatmeal for breakfast a few weeks ago and it IS SO GOOD!!! I was a little skeptical at first and really didn't think I would like it, but I was so wrong. I've been sharing the 'recipe' to whomever will listen...lol. I've been making this several times a week now and it's especially good on hot summer days! Thanks for sharing it with us!
I do sometimes just munch on the soaked groats- they can be really sweet, yummy! I find that I personally shouldn’t eat too many raw oat groats because I have a hard time digesting them though. But, when I do eat em, I think they are good by themselves, sometimes it seems less is more with them, they have a yummy flavor.
Grow Lamps
Jeff and I just tried the raw oatmeal using coconut milk. It was absolutely divine. Jeff said, "This is way better than sugar cereal!"
Thanks for a great new, easy breakfast.
Post a Comment