Busy Bee Breakfast
What does a busy bee eat for breakfast?
I believe breakfast is important... but not very. Sure, it gives you energy to start the day, but you have plenty of energy stored in your body, and if you're not hungry (I am often not during breakfast times) at 5/6/7 AM, then you shouldn't eat.
If you're hungry, then you should eat, even if it's just a little snack. I'm not going to advocate healthy smoothies or all that jazz. Who, in a busy life, has time to prepare all the ingredients, wait for the blender or the pan to fry it, and try to drink/eat it while getting ready? (Plus, meal prep doesn't really work for smoothies, because you want fresh food in it.)
What should you do then?
A warm meal. This has been one of my staples for breakfast for years. I never was big on oatmeal (I only enjoy it occasionally) and while I tried smoothies, eggs, omlettes, and everything else those healthy eating websites recommend, it hasn't worked.
If I eat oatmeal, I'm hungry again in an hour. If I drink a smoothie, I don't even feel satiated afterwards. And I dislike eggs.
A lot of you might be shocked - Why the heck would you eat a warm meal in the morning?! But look at Asia. A lot of Asian countries do hot, savory food for breakfast. Japan? Miso soup, tofu, fish, vegetables. China? Rice, Youtiao (a donut-like bread-stick without sugar) with spicy/savoury dip, vegetables, congee (porridge of leftover dinner, with rice and vegetables, sometimes meat). Malaysia? Rice with vegetables, fermented egg, rice flour rolls filled with savory ingredientsm, and so on and so forth.
The upside of this (in addition to Asian food being tasty)? It's incredibly healthy. It's healthier than oats with milk, healthier than egg with cheese and bacon, and healthier than most breads (if you're buying bread at the store, it's likely to be toast and have a lot of sugar, and even at the bakery it's no longer what it used to be). Plus, if you do the warm meal in the morning right, it will help you lose weight.
How can you do it right?
Meal prep, that's how.
While Asian food for breakfast is GREAT, and TASTY, it's also time consuming to make it. I've seen the videos. The Japanese mom gets up at 5:00 so that the meals are ready by 7:00 AM.
Ain't nobody got time for that!
But you do have time to meal prep on a Sunday. You do have time to freeze your food. (And if you don't, well, that's an issue, but we'll work around it with a few simple recipes in the next few posts.)
The gist of a healthy breakfast Busy Bee Health style is this:
- vegetables
- tofu (or fish, or meat)
optional:
- starches like sweet potato/regular potato
Here is a recipe to make a quick sweet potato vegetable stir fry. This should be prepared in your weekend meal-prep session.
All you have to do in the mornings (or even already when you make it) is add your fish or tofu (I personally don't recommend meat because it's too heavy and a lot of energy will go into digesting it rather than make you feel alert). Then you put it in the microwave. And voila!
The recipe is simple:
- gather vegetables you like (and even if you don't like broccoli, it's healthy). Make a large batch.
- stir fry vegetables with oil+onion
- at the same time fry (or cook, or however you like it) fish or tofu
- distribute vegetables over 4-5 meal prep boxes. Add fish or tofu.
- done
Here's how this works out nutrition wise:
Vegetables: a lot of fibres, some carbohydrates, a lot of vitamins CHECK
Fish/tofu: protein, unsaturated fats (in fish) CHECK
These are the basics. I personally don't need carbohydrates in every meal, but if you like them, there is always an option to pre-cook rice and put it together with the lot, or simply eat a slice of GOOD bread (like pumpernickel: a lot of fibres, complex carbohydrates) to it.
I'll update with a full 'recipe' soon.
WriteBot.
I believe breakfast is important... but not very. Sure, it gives you energy to start the day, but you have plenty of energy stored in your body, and if you're not hungry (I am often not during breakfast times) at 5/6/7 AM, then you shouldn't eat.
If you're hungry, then you should eat, even if it's just a little snack. I'm not going to advocate healthy smoothies or all that jazz. Who, in a busy life, has time to prepare all the ingredients, wait for the blender or the pan to fry it, and try to drink/eat it while getting ready? (Plus, meal prep doesn't really work for smoothies, because you want fresh food in it.)
What should you do then?
A warm meal. This has been one of my staples for breakfast for years. I never was big on oatmeal (I only enjoy it occasionally) and while I tried smoothies, eggs, omlettes, and everything else those healthy eating websites recommend, it hasn't worked.
If I eat oatmeal, I'm hungry again in an hour. If I drink a smoothie, I don't even feel satiated afterwards. And I dislike eggs.
A lot of you might be shocked - Why the heck would you eat a warm meal in the morning?! But look at Asia. A lot of Asian countries do hot, savory food for breakfast. Japan? Miso soup, tofu, fish, vegetables. China? Rice, Youtiao (a donut-like bread-stick without sugar) with spicy/savoury dip, vegetables, congee (porridge of leftover dinner, with rice and vegetables, sometimes meat). Malaysia? Rice with vegetables, fermented egg, rice flour rolls filled with savory ingredientsm, and so on and so forth.
The upside of this (in addition to Asian food being tasty)? It's incredibly healthy. It's healthier than oats with milk, healthier than egg with cheese and bacon, and healthier than most breads (if you're buying bread at the store, it's likely to be toast and have a lot of sugar, and even at the bakery it's no longer what it used to be). Plus, if you do the warm meal in the morning right, it will help you lose weight.
How can you do it right?
Meal prep, that's how.
While Asian food for breakfast is GREAT, and TASTY, it's also time consuming to make it. I've seen the videos. The Japanese mom gets up at 5:00 so that the meals are ready by 7:00 AM.
Ain't nobody got time for that!
But you do have time to meal prep on a Sunday. You do have time to freeze your food. (And if you don't, well, that's an issue, but we'll work around it with a few simple recipes in the next few posts.)
The gist of a healthy breakfast Busy Bee Health style is this:
- vegetables
- tofu (or fish, or meat)
optional:
- starches like sweet potato/regular potato
Here is a recipe to make a quick sweet potato vegetable stir fry. This should be prepared in your weekend meal-prep session.
All you have to do in the mornings (or even already when you make it) is add your fish or tofu (I personally don't recommend meat because it's too heavy and a lot of energy will go into digesting it rather than make you feel alert). Then you put it in the microwave. And voila!
The recipe is simple:
- gather vegetables you like (and even if you don't like broccoli, it's healthy). Make a large batch.
- stir fry vegetables with oil+onion
- at the same time fry (or cook, or however you like it) fish or tofu
- distribute vegetables over 4-5 meal prep boxes. Add fish or tofu.
- done
Here's how this works out nutrition wise:
Vegetables: a lot of fibres, some carbohydrates, a lot of vitamins CHECK
Fish/tofu: protein, unsaturated fats (in fish) CHECK
These are the basics. I personally don't need carbohydrates in every meal, but if you like them, there is always an option to pre-cook rice and put it together with the lot, or simply eat a slice of GOOD bread (like pumpernickel: a lot of fibres, complex carbohydrates) to it.
I'll update with a full 'recipe' soon.
WriteBot.
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