Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day. It’s especially important for students before they start their day.
Registered holistic nutrition consultant Wendy McCallum says a little planning goes a long way when it comes to a healthy breakfast.
“Breakfast is one of those meals if you plan for it, it can be super easy and it can reduce the likelihood of you ever having to skip it,” McCallum says.
McCallum uses a ‘breakfast bucket’ as an easy way to incorporate vegetables into her first meal of the day.
“It might be things like zucchini or chopped up onions or leftover greens or broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, those types of things,” says McCallum. “When I’m not using the entire vegetable for a recipe, I just put the rest of it in the breakfast bucket.”
In the morning, she simply cooks the vegetables in olive oil to eat alongside her eggs.
For registered dietitian Krista Leck Merner, being prepared means having easy to grab breakfast foods on hand.
“Muffins are something that I always have batch cooked,” she says. “A great whole grain muffin with some fruit or vegetables hidden in there, maybe some nuts if there’s no allergy concerns can make a well balanced on the go meal, but can be kept in the freezer individually wrapped.”
Leck Merner also keeps convenient ‘smoothie bags’ in the fridge.
“So in the morning you can just grab a bag of some random fruits and vegetables that maybe needed to be used up, add your liquid and you blend away and you’ve got a really easy smoothie to transport, as well,” Leck Merner tells CTV News.
McCallum says baked oatmeal is an option that can be made ahead of time, frozen in pre-cut portions and enjoyed warm or cold. Her favourite make ahead healthy breakfast is overnight oats.
“You put an oat, flaked oat or a steel cut oak and some other stuff to make it taste good like vanilla and maybe a little bit of sweetener and then you let it sit overnight in milk or a milk alternative and add your fruit in the morning,” says McCallum.
Leck Merner says a balanced breakfast should contain at least three of the four food groups. A bowl of cereal with milk and fresh fruit can check off those boxes, but not all cereals are created equal.
“Fiber helps keep us full so I always like to see at least four grams of fiber when you’re looking at the nutrition label on your cereals, and then you also want to see sugar in the single digits,” she says.
“You want to look for whole grains in that cereal,” adds McCallum. “So if you see whole wheat, whole rye, whole barley, whole oats, then you know it’s probably a whole grain based cereal.”
At the end of the day, Leck Merner says not to overthink it.
“If you find an option that works for you and your family that balances those food groups, is something that your kids enjoy so that there’s not a fight to start everyday, then that’s a great choice to use daily.”
