5 Easy Breakfasts That Are Filling & Fueling!

We have always been of the school that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

Breakfast helps kickstart your digestive system, provides brain fuel for your workouts/work day ahead, and can promote further healthy eating habits throughout the day.

Eating breakfast is also important because it helps to regulate hunger hormones. With a healthy night’s sleep, our bodies are fasting for a minimum of 7-8 hours (especially if your last bite was a couple of hours before bedtime). This means that when we wake up in the morning, our bodies are looking for more fuel to take on the day. While you might not be hungry right when you wake up, eating something within 1-2 hours of waking helps to regulate the hunger hormones leptin and ghrelin, and prevent one from overpowering the other throughout the rest of the day.

Ghrelin is a hormone released from the gut that signals hunger when your stomach is empty. Leptin is its opposite—leptin gets released from the brain when you are full and signals you to stop eating. When you go too long without eating, ghrelin levels spike, so that on the next eating opportunity you feel so hungry that you may over eat. Ghrelin spikes that lead to over eating lead to glucose spikes, which affect the hormones responsible for glucose control (insulin and glucagon). In essence, eating breakfast can help prevent this from happening, and can help keep your hunger at healthy levels throughout the day.

When thinking about what to eat for breakfast, we want to think about the 3 most important components that go into any meal: protein, fiber, and healthy fat. Protein and healthy fat help us to feel full and nourished, while the fiber helps stimulate the gut. Fiber foods are also high in vitamins and minerals to provide our bodies with the best nutrition. As a general rule, filling ½ your plate with veggies (fiber), ¼ with protein, and ¼ with starch helps promote healthy eating habits and hunger levels. While it’s ideal to consume veggies at breakfast time, it may not always be feasible or enjoyable. At the same time, for many of us breakfast may be a challenging meal due to lack of time to prepare it. Therefore, we’ve got 5 examples of easy, filling, and fueling breakfasts to provide some inspiration.

High Fiber Overnight Oats

½ cup rolled oats

1 tbsp chia seeds

¾ cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk

Berries & 1 tbsp peanut butter for topping

Add rolled oats, chia seeds, and almond milk to a container or bowl before bed, and have your overnight oats ready first thing! Mix in peanut butter and berries when ready to eat. This meal is perfect for a grab-and-go morning. It’s full of fiber and complex carbs from the oats, more fiber and omega-3s from the chia seeds, protein and healthy fat from the nut butter, and sweetness and nutrients from the berries.

Upgraded Avocado Toast

2 eggs, scrambled

1 handful spinach

⅓ - ½ avocado, smashed

1 slice high fiber bread (Dave’s Killer Bread, Bread Alone) or 1 rice cake

Everything bagel seasoning/hot sauce

The upgrade in this classic breakfast comes from the spinach: scramble eggs with 1 handful of spinach and season to your liking. Toast the bread and add smashed avocado and everything bagel seasoning/hot sauce on top, then top with the eggs. Adding spinach to this meal helps to add the veggie value of fiber, vitamins and minerals. This is another meal full of protein from the eggs, healthy fat and fiber from the avocado, and complex carbs from the bread/rice cake. You can upgrade your avocado toast by adding any additional veggies you like!

Best Bowl of Cereal

½ - 1 cup whole grain mini wheat cereal or whole grain flakes (like Nature’s Path Heritage Flakes)

½ cup berries

½ sliced banana

1 tbsp peanut butter

1 tbsp chia or hemp seeds

Splash of milk if desired

Improve your usual bowl of cereal by adding ingredients with fiber and protein to help keep you full. First, choose a whole grain cereal with no added sugar to help maintain blood sugar balance. Then add sweetness with fruit—berries are a great choice because they’re high in fiber, antioxidants, vitamins and minerals for low calories, while bananas are a great source of those heartier, satisfying complex carbs. Add peanut butter and chia or hemp seeds for healthy fat and fiber and enjoy!

Balanced Yogurt Bowl

6oz plain Greek yogurt (you can also use 6oz plain cottage cheese)

½ cup berries, cherries, or sliced oranges

1 tbsp chia or hemp seeds

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tbsp granola (Purely Elizabeth, Coconola are great brands)

1 tbsp nut butter

Yogurt and cottage cheese are great options for breakfast. They’re filled with protein to keep you full, and calcium for bone maintenance. They’re also full of probiotics for a healthy gut. If you like dairy options, try consuming yogurt 1-2 times per week to benefit your gut. Females, choose full fat yogurt options, as these promote healthy menstruation and female reproductive health. Top your yogurt with all of the mix-ins that add that extra fiber/protein punch!

Quick Egg Bites

6-12 eggs

Veggies of your choice (diced onions, bell peppers, broccoli, spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc.)

Olive oil or avocado oil spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a muffin tin with olive oil or avocado oil spray. Crack an egg into each space, then top with diced veggies. Use a small fork to mix the veggies into the egg. Bake for 6-10 minutes or until the egg is cooked through. Allow to cool, then remove from the pan and refrigerate for up to a week or freeze for 2 weeks. Alternatively, you can use a 9 x 13 pan or glass baking dish and add all eggs and toppings together, making sure to mix before adding to the oven. When the eggs are done cooking, remove and allow to cool before cutting into squares. This makes the perfect protein-filled grab-and-go savory breakfast!

Let us know what you think of these breakfast options!

By Jessica Kaplan