You’ve heard it said time and time again that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eating a healthy breakfast helps kick-start your metabolism, but if you’re like me, getting up super early to rush to work, making breakfast can be tough and eating out usually does not involve healthy items. What’s a girl to do? Thanks to my daughter for her suggestions on meal prep in order to eat healthy. That has me sharing with you today two easy prep breakfast items that are truly healthy and tasty as well! Plus you can mix them up to add whatever fruit you happen to love. I usually eat mine with strawberries and/or blueberries which are both excellent sources of vitamins and fiber.

Overnight Oats

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk (or substitute other nut milk, soy milk or milk of your choice)
1 cup rolled oats (Not steel cut as these are too tough)
1 tbsp honey (or sweetener of your choice, like agave syrup or raw sugar)

Directions

Combine all ingredients in a container and let sit for at least 6 hours, but preferable overnight. In the morning top with fruit of your choice, nuts, cinnamon, or any topping of your choice. You can also mix this up by adding some yogurt to the oats or cocoa powder, peanut butter, you name it. You can also toss some chia seeds in there as well for extra protein. It’s very versatile!

Chia Seed Pudding

Your first question may be “What are chia seeds?” Chia seeds are what some are calling a “superfood.” They are a plant seed packed with fiber, anti-oxidants, protein and more. For more info, please see https://www.webmd.com/diet/features/truth-about-chia#1. Besides using them in this pudding, you can also add them to salads, etc. for some extra nutrition.

Ingredients

1 cup unsweetened Almond Milk (or substitute other nut milk, soy milk or milk of your choice)
1/4 cup chia seeds
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Mix liquid ingredients and then add chia seeds and mix. Place in a container and refrigerate, preferably overnight. The seeds tend to clump on the bottom of the container so shake after an hour or so. Like the rolled oats, you can mix in a number of other ingredients or change out part of the almond milk with coconut milk, etc. It’s all up to your own personal preferences. If you don’t like the feel of the seeds (kind of like poppy seeds), then zap everything in a blender before allowing to set overnight.

Original Chia Seed Image by Milada Vigerova from Pixabay

Overnight Oats Image by Depositphotos

Like always I’m working on eating healthier and losing weight. One of the things I’ve been trying to focus on is eating a healthy breakfast since studies show that helps in balancing your blood sugar levels and recharges your metabolism.

One breakfast item I’ve always loved is oatmeal, but if you’re like me and running around in the morning, you oftentimes forget to get it ready to take to work, which is were I usually eat breakfast since I get into the office early. I resolved to do better by packing the oatmeal at night and for good measure, adding in my unsweetened vanilla almond milk (saving those animal fats for cheese!).

Making the overnight oats made sure I wasn’t forgetting them, but I got to wondering if there was any benefit to them versus hot oatmeal. Voila, apparently there is! Not cooking the oats allows for the absorption of more nutrients, the overnight oats can be creamier, and they swell more which means the same dry amount will be larger in volume. That will lead to feeling more full. All pluses. For more on the benefits of overnight oats, check out:

http://www.eatthis.com/health-benefits-overnight-oats/
https://drhealthbenefits.com/food-bevarages/food/health-benefits-of-overnight-oats
http://www.bistromd.com/articles/why-you-should-be-making-overnight-oats

Add some fruit or even some chia seeds for extra anti-oxidants and protein!