Have you ever noticed how the choices we make at the start of the day set the tone for the rest of the day? If I wake up and grab a cookie off the counter I’m going to keep munching on junk the rest of the day. But if I eat a healthy breakfast I’m more likely to eat healthier the rest of the day. I like to keep things simple, so I have 3 different templates of what I eat for breakfast to help me easily start my day off right.
My three breakfast templates are smoothies, oatmeal and muesli. I generally eat smoothies when the weather is warm, oatmeal when it’s cold and muesli on the weekends to change things up. The key is to have a simple template for each so you can change up the taste to keep yourself from getting bored. I also prep each breakfast as much as possible at the beginning of the week so they’re easy to whip up in the morning.
Smoothies
Smoothies are a quick refreshing way to start your morning. Not to mention they’re a great way to get in a couple servings of fruit and sneak in some other healthy foods
Template
- 1 cup liquid
- 1 cup greens
- 1 ½ cup fruit
- Optional add-ins: nuts, seeds, beans, etc
My go-to breakfast smoothie that keeps me full for 3 hours is chocolate peanut butter banana. It has silken tofu in it, but don’t let that weird you out. When you blend up silken tofu you can’t even tell it’s there, but it’s what gives this smoothie sticking power.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie
- 4 oz silken tofu
- 1 cup nut milk
- 2 Tb cacao powder (personally, I prefer the taste of cacao over cocoa)
- 2 Tb unsweetened peanut butter
- 1 Tb ground flax
- 2 medjool dates, pitted
- 1 cup spinach
- ½ frozen banana
Blend all the ingredients up through the dates until smooth. Add spinach and blend. Add frozen banana and blend. Optionally, you can add ice and blend. It gets to be a frosty consistency.
To pre-prepare this smoothie, I add the ingredients up through the dates to 4 different jars and store them in the fridge. Then in the morning, I just grab a jar and blend it up, add spinach, blend, add banana and blend. Super easy, yummy, portable breakfast!
My blender blade fits onto mason jars, so I prep my smoothies in mason jars. Then when it’s all prepped, I screw on a drink lid and I’m good to go! All I have to clean is my blender blade.
Oatmeal
I personally prefer the taste of steel cut oats, but use whichever you prefer. I use this super simple method to prepare a batch of creamy steel cut oats that I learned from The Kitchn.
Make-ahead Creamy Steel Cut Oats (4 servings)
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup steel cut oats
Add the water to a 2 quart pan and bring to a boil. Stir in the oats and remove from the heat. Cover and leave overnight.
The next morning divide up the oatmeal into 4 portions. Each morning reheat and flavor as you wish!
I like to sweeten my oatmeal with date paste.
Date Paste
- 1 cup medjool dates, pitted
- 1 cup Boiling water
Cover the medjool dates with boiling water and let sit for at least 10 minutes. Blend together the dates and water in a food processor or with an immersion blender until the dates make a creamy paste.
This makes enough for me to use about ¼ cup of date paste in each serving of oatmeal.
My two favorite ways to flavor my oatmeal are cinnamon with dried fruit and nuts or Chocolate and fruit.
Cinnamon oatmeal
- 1 serving oatmeal
- Cinnamon to taste
- ¼ cup date paste
- 1 Tb ground flax
- ¼ cup dried fruit (I really like cranberries)
- ¼ cup nuts
Mix together all the ingredients except the dried fruit and nuts and reheat. Add the dried fruit and nuts and enjoy!
Chocolate oatmeal
- 1 serving oatmeal
- 1 Tb cacao powder
- ¼ cup date paste
- 1 Tb ground flax
- ½ cup fruit (berries are my favorite)
Mix together all the ingredients besides the fruit and reheat. Add the fruit and enjoy! I will often thaw out some frozen fruit in the fridge overnight to use. Costco’s mixed berry blend works really well.
Play around to find what flavor combinations you like!
Muesli
Muesli is a newer addition to my breakfast arsenal. I discovered it this year and it’s a perfect way to break up my weekday breakfasts so I don’t get sick of them. I follow this template from Feasting at Home.
Muesli template (4- 2/3 cup servings)
- 1 cup rolled oats (optionally toasted, I didn’t notice a difference in flavor)
- ¼ cup seeds (I use unsalted sunflower or pumpkin)
- ¼ cup nuts (I use whatever I have in my pantry)
- 1 Tb hemp hearts
- 1 Tb ground flax
- ½ cup unsweetened coconut flakes
- ½ cup dried fruit (optional, sometimes I skip it to add fresh fruit later)
Toast the nuts and seeds. Mix all the ingredients together in an airtight container.
I eat the muesli with some nut milk I sweetened with date paste and often top with fruit. You can also heat up muesli, but I can’t tell you best way to do that because I prefer mine cold.
And that’s it! Smoothies, oatmeal and muesli. They’re each really healthy and super adaptable so you never get sick of them! Plus you can pre-prepare them the night before so they’re easy to whip together in the morning.
The decisions you make in the morning set the tone for the rest of your day. Set yourself up for success by making it easy to make healthy choices first thing in the morning.