10 Healthy Breakfast Recipes
10 Healthy Breakfast Recipes
Start your morning off right with these 10 healthy breakfast ideas!
Craving Mexican food but not the fat and calories that accompany your favorite dish? These breakfast burritos are the perfect alternative. Use egg whites instead of regular eggs to cut back on fat and cholesterol and flavor as desired with salsa
The Biggest Breakfast Mistake You're Probably Making
You know by now that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and that if you don’t put something in your stomach, it will be moaning at you by noon. But not all breakfasts were created equal. Even if you’re eating something seemingly healthy in the a.m.—avocado toast, a granola bar, a piece of fruit—it’s probably not giving you the boost you’ll need to face the day.
“No matter what meal it is, your plate should be half fruits and vegetables, a quarter whole grain, and a quarter protein,” says Krista Yoder Latortue, M.P.H., R.D. It’s the protein portion you’ve really got to pay attention to, though—and the one you’re likely forgetting.
The protein doesn’t just provide the fuel to help you leave the house. “If you just have carbs at breakfast, your metabolism is off for the whole day,” says Yoder Latortu. “How hungry you feel is based off two factors: how much you eat and what you eat. If you don’t eat protein at breakfast, you’re going into lunch feeling ravenous. When you’re ravenous, you make poorer choices.”
There's another reason skimping on protein at breakfast hurts you, too: Since your system can only utilize 30 grams at a time, if you don't have enough of this nutrient in the a.m., it can hard to be take in enough throughout the rest of the day. Most women need about 80 to 100 grams of protein a day, although the exact amount you should be getting depends on your weight and activity level, says Yoder Latortue.
You don't have to eat a hearty breakfast of steak and eggs to take in enough protein. “It could be eggs and cheese with fruit on the side,” says Yoder Latortue.
Keep in mind that your best bet is aiming to get all your protein needs from your food, not a powder. “The obvious sources are from animals, so chicken, beef, turkey, eggs, milk, cheese, yogurt,” says Yoder Latortue. But consider plant-based sources, too, like beans, nuts, and seeds. "Hummus is a great source, or tofu, or edamame,” says Yoder Latortue.
Every Wednesday at 3 p.m. EST, WomensHealthMag.com hosts a live broadcast on Periscope called "Snack Sesh" with fun new ideas for health-conscious snackers. Make sure to tune in live—you'll be able to ask us questions and make comments in real time—and in the meantime, here's a recap of the recipes we cooked up this week!
The post-workout snacks might just be our favorite about working out. (Ya know, aside from all of exercising's lifelong health benefits, that mid-workout endorphin-rush, and seeing our gym crush.)
We usually feel like we could eat a fridge-full of food after a good workout, but we know that what we eat after a good sweat session can either boost its benefits or cancel them out. So we try to go for post-exercise noms that make our taste buds happy and help our bodies recover.
RELATED: 7 POST-WORKOUT EATING MISTAKES YOU’RE PROBABLY MAKING
If the usual banana-and-peanut butter combo you eat after hitting the gym is starting to feel a little meh, we’ve got some major snack inspiration for you, straight from health and fitness junkie Aly Teich. The founder ofThe Sweat Life, a healthy lifestyle site, Aly loves a delicious and clean meal as much as she loves breaking a sweat. Yesterday on "Snack Sesh," she shared her go-to post-workout snacks (while we devoured them).
Are you ready to up your apres-sweat snack game?!
Aly’s first fave was a brown rice cake topped with tahini (that’s a spread made from sesame seeds), honey, and cinnamon. We loved the satisfying crispy-crunch of the rice cake, and a serving tahini—two tablespoons—has five grams of protein!
The second snack was super colorful. We dipped snap peas, cucumber slices, and baby carrots in mashed avocado with a pinch of salt andpepper mixed in. If you’ve never tried snap peas, they’re basically the candy of the vegetable world—so sweet! Love that all of the veggies Aly used here as dippers have a high water conent—so they help you rehydrate.
Aly loves coconut yogurt, which is a great alternative for anyone who'strying to avoid dairy. She topped the creamy-sweet coconut yogurtwith blueberries, raspberries, sliced almonds, and chia seeds. This snack is an absolute nutrient powerhouse, and it’s perfect for anyone with a sweet tooth.
RELATED: THE HEALTHY SNACK YOUR SWEET TOOTH WILL DIE FOR
Each of these snacks was really easy to throw together, which is something we can definitely appreciate when we’re in that I-want-to-eat-everything mode after a solid workout. So which one will you be making after your next trip to the gym?
We’d love to hear about your favorite snacks for after a workout, so tweet at us at @WomensHealthMag. And don’t forget to tune into "Snack Sesh" next week on Periscope!
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