Breakfast!! The most important meal of the day!

Who doesn't need a few breakfast ideas? Good gravy if I don't have anything planned it's a granola bar.  That is about as boring as you can get! Started my first week of exercising with my new fabulous accountability partners on Friday (You know who you are!) and I wanted to have a snack for us after especially one that the kids would eat.  I think it often helps keep your blood sugar stabilized throughout the day to eat frequent little meals so these ideas make a perfect mid morning snack or 2nd breakfast or if you are a Hobbit "Elevensies".  First:

 Fruit and Yogurt Parfait

This is not rocket science.  My husband loves these.  My kids love these.  McDonald's has them on the dollar menu.  You can mix and match a million different fruit and yogurt combos (again I can't stress enough how much kids like choosing and building their own food). One 3 pt yoplait yogurt and 2 pts worth of granola (differ by brand, check your label), beautiful pick me up for 5 pts! You may remember a very popular PB&J parfait we made here.

Next up: Egg Mugs

Mediterranean Egg Mug

This is Hungry Girl's specialty here is her Greek Mug. There are more ideas to be found here and there and everywhere.  Make your own! I bet my husband would go crazy for a Mexican one with chorizo and salsa. Here is how mine went.

Chopped 3 baby bella mushrooms, handful of cherry tomatoes, handful of green onion chopped and a handful of black olives.  Spray big coffee mug with cooking spray, toss in veges and microwave one minute.  Now Hungry Girl uses Egg Beater liquid on these 1/2 cup = 2 eggs.  I am not opposed to Egg Beaters, I just didn't have any! 2 eggs in, you also want to add any seasonings to go with your flavor here, I added a dash of garlic salt and a dash of italian seasoning, stir up to scramble with your veges.  Microwave 45 sec to 1 min.  Add cheese and stir.  I added 1-2 Tbsp feta.  Microwave another 45 sec to 1 min.  Perfect Mediterranean Egg Scramble, no dirty pan, 2.5 min, 5-6 pts.  This would be really fun if you had overnight guests.  Set out a variety of toppings and let everyone build there own egg scramble and get some big huge mugs easy and quick.  Only warning I would give, especially for kids.  These are really hot! I scalded my tongue on a moist tomato steaming hot from the bottom of the cup. There was a lot of stirring to release the heat and a lot of blowing on the spoon involved.  No burn injuries please.

One last breakfast recommendation!

Protein Shakes

I take my magic bullet and I even make it right in the cup piece so after I blend... I am ready to go.  I add a scoop of this

and a scoop of this

1 cup of milk and then if I want a combo flavor with the chocolate I may add one of these

I can say enough about these shakes.  7 pts but the whey keeps your blood sugar stabilized ALL day, you hardly ever feel hungry so you snack a lot less.  Sometimes I will even make one for my kids.  They feel like they are getting away with having a chocolate milk shake for breakfast but they are getting their fruit, their milk, healthy protein and more concentration power especially the little ones in school! Another tip is keep a bag of flaxseed in your freezer, add a tbsp to your parfaits or protein shakes, you won't notice but the health benefits are limitless!

So no more breakfast skipping and I will also try not to keep going to that dreaded granola bar fall back so often, not with these much more satisfying and delicious (and simple!) choices.  Eat a good breakfast everyone!