Instead of going for packets of powdered oats and flavorings (mostly from sugar), it\u2019s much better to go with the more minimally-processed steel cut oats and add your own extras.<\/strong><\/p>\nThe biggest headache most people have with steel-cut oats is the increased time it takes to prepare. It can take up to 45 minutes to cook in a pot, but there\u2019s a cool hack you can use to reduce this.<\/p>\n
In the evening, add 1 cup oats to 2 cups milk (or water) in a bowl and let sit in the fridge overnight. In the morning, just heat up the bowl of oatmeal and you\u2019re ready to go! (If you’re in a hurry, you can also eat it cold.)<\/p>\n
Dried fruit and nuts are a great quick way to add more flavor and variety to your oatmeal, as is a tiny bit of vanilla extract. Butter or cream is a wonderful addition as well. You can even (gasp!) use a little bit of maple syrup, as long as you can show some restraint.<\/p>\n
3. Plain Yogurt with Fresh Berries<\/h2>\n
Yogurt and berries is yet another common healthy breakfast that is done incorrectly 99% of the time.<\/p>\n
Most people just grab the fruit-and-yogurt packs from the supermarket and call it good enough. Like most pre-prepared food, yogurt has WAY too much added sugar.<\/p>\n
The only real way around this is to get your own plain<\/em> yogurt and add the berries yourself<\/strong>. I like to get the big tubs to save on money.<\/p>\nLook very closely to make sure you are getting full-fat yogurt with no added sweetener.<\/em> Of the hundreds of types of yogurt available at the store, you\u2019ll be lucky if you find two that aren\u2019t labeled \u201clow fat\u201d or \u201cnon fat.\u201d<\/p>\nAlso, be sure not to buy vanilla yogurt, as simple as it may sound. It is also usually loaded with added sugar. Add some real vanilla extract yourself if that\u2019s your thang.<\/p>\n
Like with cereal above, don\u2019t feel shy to substitute frozen berries for fresh. (Fresh just tastes better, IMHO.)<\/p>\n
4. Bacon, Eggs, and Fruit<\/h2>\n
Here\u2019s the most \u201cadvanced\u201d weekday breakfast I suggest, even though it takes much less extra time than you\u2019d imagine.<\/p>\n
Bacon and eggs is a classic minimalist breakfast. And if you stick with a simple egg prep such as sunnyside up or over easy, it can be remarkably quick to whip up.<\/strong><\/p>\nI like to start the bacon frying first, as that\u2019s usually what takes the most time to cook. While this is going, I\u2019ll cut up some fresh fruit (grapefruit and strawberries are some of my faves), then cook up the eggs.<\/p>\n
Sure, it\u2019s not as gussied-up as the omelettes and home fries you can throw together on the weekends, but this high-protein, high-flavor healthy breakfast (yeah, I said it!) is one of the best ways you can start the day.<\/p>\n
5. Last Night\u2019s Leftovers<\/h2>\n
Most of the problems with the way our culture does breakfast comes from the stubborn insistence that it use foods that we don\u2019t eat for any other meals.<\/p>\n
Lunch and dinner are, for the most part, interchangeable. You can eat the same thing at noon and at 7 pm without violating any social customs.<\/p>\n
But breakfast\u2019s a whole \u2019nother story.<\/em><\/p>\nBreakfast foods range from pastries drowned in sugar (bad), cereal grains swimming in milk (better), to meat and eggs (best). But you\u2019d rarely eat an Irish stew or pork chop with asparagus for breakfast, even if they\u2019re ready to eat in the fridge.<\/em><\/p>\nI know it\u2019s a bit of a mental hurdle, but try eating yesterday\u2019s leftovers for breakfast sometime.<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter a while, you\u2019ll get used to it. And you won\u2019t be as tempted by that cereal that turns your skim milk neon colors ever again.<\/p>\n
6. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.<\/h2>\n
All through my life until a couple of years ago, I forced<\/em> myself to eat breakfast every morning.<\/p>\nI was never hungry, but I bought into all the hype that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and I would be doing myself great harm if I skipped it.<\/p>\n
Well, I\u2019ve been skipping breakfast most mornings for a couple of years now, and guess what? I have gotten into great shape without the hit to my health I was told I would take.<\/em><\/p>\nDon\u2019t get me wrong. Skipping breakfast isn\u2019t for everyone. In fact, it probably isn\u2019t for most people.<\/strong><\/p>\nThat\u2019s why I gave you healthy options rather than completely jumping on the breakfast-skipping bandwagon.<\/p>\n
But give it a shot for a week or two and see how it goes.<\/strong> If you can make it until lunch without getting so hungry that it gets in the way of what you are doing, you may want to consider giving it the ol\u2019 heave-ho altogether.<\/p>\nSkipping breakfast isn\u2019t just a healthy option (when done right), but it is probably the easiest approach most of us can take towards breakfast with our busy lifestyles.<\/strong><\/p>\nIs breakfast truly the most important meal of the day? I\u2019d say it depends on how your body works. What I can<\/em> say is that the way most people do breakfast is actually doing more harm than good<\/em>.<\/p>\nThis is primarily the result of our busy lifestyles and inability to sit down for a meal of quality food in the morning. But that doesn\u2019t mean you should give up all hope.<\/p>\n
One (or more) of these six options is bound to work for you and help get every morning started off on the right foot.<\/p>\n
What do you usually do for breakfast during the week?<\/em><\/p>\nPhoto<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breakfast is the most difficult meal to get right. It is usually the most unhealthy meal we eat each day, chock full of sugar and refined grains, devoid of real food such as meat and fresh produce. Most of us have to get our asses out the door at the break of dawn and don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2406"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2411,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2406\/revisions\/2411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/theguycancook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/955926145_e26d0991a8-e1336108411305.jpg\" "\\"Eggiweggs\\"")
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