What's for Breakfast?
I’ve always struggled with reaching and maintaining a healthy weight, part of which is eating a healthy breakfast. Lately, I’ve been trying to find something that is healthy, but also something that I can meal prep, and sustainably eat over a long time frame. Checking all of those boxes has been a surprisingly difficult endeavor.
At first, I started with overnight oats. They tasted pretty good, and they were surprisingly customizable. Change up what fruits or spices you add, and it creates an entirely new dish. After a while, though, I started to get tired of them. Fruit gets mushy pretty quickly after you cut it, so I could prep the oats themselves about a week in advance, but I had to add the other stuff in each morning. Plus, they were a little higher in carbs than I wanted to consume for breakfast, so I started to look for some other alternative.
A friend posted on Facebook that she mixed protein powder with a pumpkin spice latte k cup, in an attempt to meet her protein goal for the day, and said that it was pretty good. Huh, protein powder and coffee, that’s not a combination I would’ve considered trying. We had some protein powder up in the cabinet that I picked up from Costco on sale at some point, but rarely drank because I don’t really care for the flavor of the powder. Perhaps the strong flavor of coffee would mask the protein powder and make something actually palatable.
A large k cup of Pacific Bold dark roast, a splash of vanilla creamer, and a scoop of protein powder was honestly pretty good. It had a slightly grainy texture, but nothing I couldn’t get over if it meant I had a healthier breakfast. The flavor was better with iced coffee, rather than hot, but I like iced coffee anyway. I played around with ratios, and started brewing a full pot on Sunday night to divide across several mason jars for the week. With the coffee already cooled, I could just throw in a scoop of protein powder and creamer, shake it up, and pour it over ice each morning.
With the high protein content, I could pretty consistently make it all the way to lunch without getting hungry. However, I didn’t really feel satiated. Sure, I wasn’t hungry, but I could also tell that I hadn’t actually eaten anything. I quickly got tired of the same liquid breakfast every morning, so I started investigating more solid options.
What could I do for breakfast that is solid so I’m actually eating something, healthy enough that I’m not blowing out my calories first thing in the morning, and I could meal prep for at least a few days in advance? I started with eggs, since they’re super cheap, high in protein, and save pretty well.
But eggs alone isn’t enough. I needed some fiber. Spinach is good, and I could scramble it in with the eggs for a sort of emulsion. Even with the spinach, though, the mixture didn’t seem quite where I wanted it. It could do with a little more texture. Plus, the flavor was boring unless I wanted to add a ton of spices.
It occurred to me that we had some deer sausage in our chest freezer. Since my wife doesn’t care for eggs and probably wouldn’t be eating any of my experimental breakfast, there wasn’t any harm in adding something else she wouldn’t eat. I cooked the deer sausage and added it into my preliminary attempt at breakfast. Mark 1 of my sausage scramble was surprisingly good.
I tweaked the recipe a bit. Instead of deer sausage, my second attempt had turkey sausage. Not only is it healthier, but I also don’t have a consistent supply of deer sausage. I’ll just throw that in as a rare treat when my hunting friends throw some deer meat my way. Also, I started with the sausage in the pan, and added the spinach and eggs in later, to make the whole dish more cohesive.
With a pound of turkey sausage, a 12 ounce package of spinach, and 8 eggs, I could make a large batch and portion it out into 4 containers. When I added everything to MyFitnessPal, it came out to be 390 calories, 4 grams of carbs (3 of which are fiber), 22 grams of fat, and 39 grams of protein. Plenty of protein and fiber to keep me full, with less than 400 calories so I can still keep to a fairly low calorie intake for the rest of the day. I was happy with the outcome.
I’ve done this breakfast for a few weeks now, and it still works for me. I’ll add some blue cheese crumbles when we have them for some extra flavor. I considered maybe adding some quinoa in for more healthy carbs, and stretch the mixture a little further. The dish is certainly adaptable, and changing it up every now and then should prevent me from getting tired of it as easily.
Maybe I’ll stick with the sausage scramble for a while longer. Maybe I’ll switch it up and go back to overnight oats. Either way, I’m going to eat breakfast, and I need to be able to prepare it ahead of time so I can grab a serving and go. If you have a breakfast routine that you’d like to share, hit me up. I love food, and I’m always interested in trying new things. If you make some adjustments to one of my options, let me know how it worked for you. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
At first, I started with overnight oats. They tasted pretty good, and they were surprisingly customizable. Change up what fruits or spices you add, and it creates an entirely new dish. After a while, though, I started to get tired of them. Fruit gets mushy pretty quickly after you cut it, so I could prep the oats themselves about a week in advance, but I had to add the other stuff in each morning. Plus, they were a little higher in carbs than I wanted to consume for breakfast, so I started to look for some other alternative.
A friend posted on Facebook that she mixed protein powder with a pumpkin spice latte k cup, in an attempt to meet her protein goal for the day, and said that it was pretty good. Huh, protein powder and coffee, that’s not a combination I would’ve considered trying. We had some protein powder up in the cabinet that I picked up from Costco on sale at some point, but rarely drank because I don’t really care for the flavor of the powder. Perhaps the strong flavor of coffee would mask the protein powder and make something actually palatable.
A large k cup of Pacific Bold dark roast, a splash of vanilla creamer, and a scoop of protein powder was honestly pretty good. It had a slightly grainy texture, but nothing I couldn’t get over if it meant I had a healthier breakfast. The flavor was better with iced coffee, rather than hot, but I like iced coffee anyway. I played around with ratios, and started brewing a full pot on Sunday night to divide across several mason jars for the week. With the coffee already cooled, I could just throw in a scoop of protein powder and creamer, shake it up, and pour it over ice each morning.
With the high protein content, I could pretty consistently make it all the way to lunch without getting hungry. However, I didn’t really feel satiated. Sure, I wasn’t hungry, but I could also tell that I hadn’t actually eaten anything. I quickly got tired of the same liquid breakfast every morning, so I started investigating more solid options.
What could I do for breakfast that is solid so I’m actually eating something, healthy enough that I’m not blowing out my calories first thing in the morning, and I could meal prep for at least a few days in advance? I started with eggs, since they’re super cheap, high in protein, and save pretty well.
But eggs alone isn’t enough. I needed some fiber. Spinach is good, and I could scramble it in with the eggs for a sort of emulsion. Even with the spinach, though, the mixture didn’t seem quite where I wanted it. It could do with a little more texture. Plus, the flavor was boring unless I wanted to add a ton of spices.
It occurred to me that we had some deer sausage in our chest freezer. Since my wife doesn’t care for eggs and probably wouldn’t be eating any of my experimental breakfast, there wasn’t any harm in adding something else she wouldn’t eat. I cooked the deer sausage and added it into my preliminary attempt at breakfast. Mark 1 of my sausage scramble was surprisingly good.
With a pound of turkey sausage, a 12 ounce package of spinach, and 8 eggs, I could make a large batch and portion it out into 4 containers. When I added everything to MyFitnessPal, it came out to be 390 calories, 4 grams of carbs (3 of which are fiber), 22 grams of fat, and 39 grams of protein. Plenty of protein and fiber to keep me full, with less than 400 calories so I can still keep to a fairly low calorie intake for the rest of the day. I was happy with the outcome.
I’ve done this breakfast for a few weeks now, and it still works for me. I’ll add some blue cheese crumbles when we have them for some extra flavor. I considered maybe adding some quinoa in for more healthy carbs, and stretch the mixture a little further. The dish is certainly adaptable, and changing it up every now and then should prevent me from getting tired of it as easily.
Maybe I’ll stick with the sausage scramble for a while longer. Maybe I’ll switch it up and go back to overnight oats. Either way, I’m going to eat breakfast, and I need to be able to prepare it ahead of time so I can grab a serving and go. If you have a breakfast routine that you’d like to share, hit me up. I love food, and I’m always interested in trying new things. If you make some adjustments to one of my options, let me know how it worked for you. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day.
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