Healthy breakfast questions?

[alb3rt]

I am looking for a healthy yet very easy to make breakfast I could make in the morning. If you have any tips please leave them below. Also i was looking for a healthy smoothie (already made) I could buy at the grocery store, if you know of anything please leave a comment. Thanks.

[Rook]

I don't know about pre-made smoothies or anything like that, but a healthy breakfast that Her Majesty likes to prepare is a yogurt parfait like breakfast.

It's prepared by taking plain yogurt, you can get it fat free or low fat if you'd like, and putting a couple large spoonfuls in a bowl. How much really depends on how hungry you are. On top of the yogurt squeeze on some honey. Mix the honey in. Then on top crumble granola, or oats, fruit like sliced banana or berries, etc. and you've got a very healthy breakfast. What I love most about it is how modular it is. The fruits you use can change depending on seasons (and I bet Her Grace Mira could tell you even more extensively the health benefits if eating by the seasons) but you can change the amount of honey and granola and such to suit your taste without adversely effecting the health of the dish any. For instance I rarely put granola or oats in it, preferring to take a bowl of cereal for my grains, and just have the honey and banana.

If you're feeling really adventurous, though I'm not sure it's purely super health conscious, spread some Nutella on the banana...mmmm.

Health benefits:

Plain yogurt is great for you, if you truly get just plain yogurt, sometimes advertised as Greek Yogurt. If you look at the ingredients list and it says 'yogurt' you're good. Yoplait and other brands of flavored yogurts usually have loads of sugar and preservatives. The active enzymes in the yogurt aid in digestion and the natural dairy fats and proteins help keep you going through until lunch time. Again, it comes in low and non-fat, though I'm not a big fan of either of those.

The honey helps pick you up, but it's a complex sugar so it doesn't crash you like white sugar as well as having a dozen medicinal qualities that Her Grace Mira could tell you about better than I.

Depending on what you put on it, granola, oats, fruit, they are all good for you. Just don't buy fruit in a sugary syrup and expect it to be healthy, at least go for a frozen bag if you can't get fresh fruit.

[Mira O'Halloran]

It all depends on whether you want something carb rich or protien rich, or a mix.

Carbs - Juice, toast, muesli, oats, fruit, honey, tomatoes.

Protien - raw or soft boiled eggs, mushrooms, greek yoghurt, sausage, bacon.

Smoothies are fairly easy - milk or juice base, fruit and ice or yoghurt and a raw egg and some honey.

Sugar (white, raw and brown) is a no no - less then an hour later, sugar crash. that leaves you reliant on coffee and other stimulants, and you feel tired and run down (not to mention coffee is absolutely awful for your energy levels.) Also, corn sugar, high fructose syrup, glucose syrup, and all sweetners are worse then sugar.

[Rook]

Your Grace,

A terrible catch 22 is that refined white sugar is cheap and honey can be expensive. Also, where sugar is just pure sweet, honey has distinct flavor. Are there other healthy complex sugars such as honey that are affordable alternatives to honey for those who cannot buy honey or do not like the taste of honey?

[Mira O'Halloran]

Pure raw sugar or Stevia. On the list of three best things to use as sweetners, pure, ground stevia (no fillers or aspartame) is number 1, honey, 2, raw sugar, 3. Alternatively, forgo the sweetner. unsweetned greek yoghurt is realtively easy to get used to, and there is heaps of sugar in fruit.

For a better look in to the amount of sugar in fructose, scroll down to the chart on this link

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/03/13/richard-johnson-interview.aspx

And remember - juiced fruit is practically the same as highly refined white sugar because it lacks the fibre that's in the pulp which reduces the amount of sugar your body has to metabolize. the best way to have fruit is cut up (skin on) or blended.

[Queen Rachel]

Honey is my favorite, since I usually find stevia to be too sweet, and it can be hard to come by. Honey is pretty easy to find, and we usually buy local honey, which is supposed to help with allergies which is good, since I'm allergic to just about everything as it turns out. I do ALOT of yogurt breakfasts. As His Majesty said, it is nicely modular to suit your mood. We often do yogurt banana splits, or top it with fresh or frozen berries and honey.