Breakfast Ideas for the Time Challenged
The other day one of my most entertaining friends sent me a photo of her breakfast. Yes, kind of a weird thing to text to someone first thing in the morning but considering my profession it made sense. Here is her masterpiece:
While looking at the above photo, I – in my crabby and unshowered state – stood in the middle of my not-clean house and realized that while Mr. Milk had already had about 2 gallons of breakfast I had broken my own rule of eating something containing protein and/or fat (yes, even if it’s just a piece of cheese or a handful of olives hastily grabbed out of the fridge with one arm while holding a small, drooling human with the other) within an hour of waking to get your metabolism going for the day. Rather than remedy this by eating something healthy immediately, I decided to reply to her text with the following snarkily-composed photo of what I was eating for breakfast .
Don’t ask me why those items were in my house to begin with (and I promise I didn’t actually eat, drink, or smoke them for breakfast), but all joking aside I am sure that at one point in most of our lives we’ve sacrificed a healthy breakfast in the name of not having time. So, here is my quick list of quick breakfast ideas! Please feel free to expand on this list with your favorites by posting them in the comments section. Alternatively, please also feel free to post the most nutritionally devoid breakfast you ever ate because that makes for entertaining reading for me 
Quick ideas that take 5 minutes or less to prepare:
- Hard boiled eggs, peeled the night before
- Smoked salmon and cream cheese (or butter) on a thin slice of bagel or a piece of sprouted or gluten-free toast
- Smoothie made with coconut milk or whole milk organic yogurt, coconut oil, frozen berries, and some banana, mango, pineapple or papaya for added enzymes
- Whole milk organic cottage cheese with fruit that was prepared the night before (see my friend’s photo for artistic placement of fruit)
- Fried egg sandwich on sprouted or gluten-free toast (melt butter in a pan, put toast in toaster, crack eggs into pan, put lid on pan, run around house looking for car keys and by the time you find them the eggs and toast will be done)
- Fried eggs (prepared as above) with sliced tomato (grain-free alternative but not friendly to eat in the car)
- Soaked oatmeal with assorted raw nuts and seeds and a little honey (soak rolled oats overnight in water in the pan you will use for cooking, in the morning drain this water and add new; soaked oats cook as quickly as “quick oats” and are much easier to digest which makes them a better choice if you like to include some grain in your diet)
- Warm soup in a thermos (this was one of my favorite breakfasts on cold winter days in Iowa…haven’t yet tried it here in Hawaii)
- Handful of raw nuts
And my baby’s awake from his nap…so the list stops here! Don’t forget to add your favorites to the comments section so others (including me!) can benefit from what you’ve figured out.
15 comments
I have found a quick healthy breakfast that has been working for me. I have discovered many uses for red quinoa. I cook a batch of it in my rice cooker, which takes 20 min. Each morning I have between alternating free range scrambled eggs, and oatmeal. Oatmeal and scrambled eggs takes about 5 min. to cook. I’ll add 1 cup of red quinoa to the eggs after scrambled and 1 cup quinoa to my oatmeal. They are both very delicous and quick to make.
I am a cubile working mom who has to be out of the house at 6:30 everymorning. Needless to say there are many days I don’t get breakfast. After lots of thinking about what I could keep in the drawer of my desk at work that would fit the bill I came up with rice cake(s) topped with peanut butter and honey. The great thing is that I get my protein and the ingredients don’t go bad!!
Well, here are some of the most nutritionally-deficient breakfasts I have ever eaten (or my daughters):
1. cold 14 day-old pizza (quite good actually).
2. salad dressing (Zoe my daughter had this the other day – hopefully my wife Marjorie won’t read this)
3. coffee, chips and salsa
4. coffee and doritos
5. coffee (and lots of it)
The best breakfast I’ve had recently was homemade keifer (made from organic milk, our own raw pastured eggs, banana), oatmeal with a green, nutritional powder spread over the top, and lots of happy family love.
Love your blog posts! Keep up the good work!
I would say the worst thing I ever ate for breakfast was a platter of cookies when I was probably around 12. I was staying with my grandparents for a couple of weeks and I baked a ton cookies the night before and then for some reason they let me eat them for breakfast. I didn’t eat just a couple, I remember eating a lot of them, not the whole platter, but a lot. The thought of it now makes me nauseous. I think I will stick to my whole grain, high fiber cereal with organic rice milk.
I love the ideas. I now have a 17 day old baby girl that definitely takes priority over the nourishment of my own body, especially in the morning when she poops, needs to eat RIGHT NOW, the falls asleep and poops again, wakes up hungry because she fell asleep during her feeding, oh and then poops again. By the time I get some food I usually feel like I’m going to pass out. I’ll get the hang of this taking care of mommy and baby thing.
Berry smoothie! 1.25 cups Almond milk, 1 serving whey-based protein powder, 1Tbsp tahini, 1-1.5 cups frozen berries (blueberry, strawberry, sweet cherry, raspberry). Whip it all up in the Vitamix and I’m off an running
OR . . . two hard-boiled eggs and a huge pile of lightly steamed broccoli with flax oil, garlic powder, and a splash of fresh lemon.
OR . . . 1 cup whole fat greek yogurt, 1 grated apple, 1 grated carrot, a small handful of chopped walnuts and a healthy dash of cinnamon.
AND . . . Hiya Jess. *waving*
nut-butter toast!
all-natural peanut, almond, or sunflower butter on sprouted whole grain toast — superfast!
ps: I hadn’t thought of soaking my oatmeal the night before — good idea…
My favorite, favorite nutrient-deficient (I think it actually sucks nutrients out of me) breakfast is a custard bismark and coffee with cream.
Quick breakfast WITH nutrients: Vanilla Cultural Revolution yogurt with a dab of jam and couple of tablespoons of granola. Also a shout out to Marty – anyone who eats vegetables for breakfast is some kind of hero in my book. I’ve never done that and don’t know if I ever will, but it seems so noble.
Wow, some of those not-good breakfasts are truly disgusting
. My current favorite is Swiss chard sauteed in ghee with a couple of eggs from our own chickens. Side of sauerkraut. Kombucha with superfood and chia seeds. Maybe a little milk from our goats. Top it off with cod liver oil/vit. D and we’re good to go! YUM (okay so the fermented cod liver oil isn’t so tasty but everything else is wonderful!).
I am jealous! Wish we had goats and chickens too. I have to confess that when I eat fermented cod liver oil I just take a spoonful of the cinnamon flavored kind and wash it down with something to drink because I am not man enough to pour it over food and stretch out the torture. I am impressed that you are able to do this
Hi to you too! Thanks for reading!
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