Easy & Healthy Breakfast Ideas For Busy Moms
By Kayley George, RDN, LD
Even though it is constantly referred to as “the most important meal of the day,” breakfast is always forgotten, skipped, shortchanged, or shortcut. It’s the meal we have the least amount of time for, the meal least likely to be shared with others, and the meal that’s easy to skip if you’re not feeling hungry in the morning.
This is especially for busy moms, feeding your family a healthy and balanced meal early in the morning, as they are rushing to start their day, can almost feel hopeless. However, starting your family’s day on the right foot with healthy nutrition is not an impossibility; with the tricks and tools we will discuss below, you can make sure your family gets fed that “most important meal of the day” and even you will eat breakfast as a busy mom too.
Why Is It Important To Eat Breakfast Even as a Busy Mom?
Why is breakfast considered “the most important meal of the day?” After several hours of sleep, in which your body is repairing and rebuilding itself, breakfast is a necessary way to jumpstart your energy and replenish your body’s nutrient stores. The term breakfast literally comes from the term “breaking the fast”.
As we sleep, our bodies are not getting any nutrition (fasting) because they are working hard to reorganize and restore for the day ahead. It’s almost as if we took a long and productive road trip as we slept, a road trip in which our cells were repaired, our hormones were restored, our muscles and tissues were rebuilt, and our brain was strengthened.
When we wake up, our nutrient stores are depleted and our body is in need of serious fuel to keep us going through the day. Skipping breakfast is like continuing that road trip on an empty gas tank.
It's going to leave you with no energy and no fuel to keep moving forward. In the same way that a car would break down on a drive with no gas, your body will break down if it is not able to “break the fast” and recharge itself with food. That’s why it's important that busy moms and their family have breakfast and make sure breakfast is balanced, nutritious, and filling.
What Is a Healthy Breakfast?
Now that we’ve established that breakfast is a necessity, let’s break down what actually constitutes a nutritious and balanced breakfast. Since breakfast is the first thing you’re putting into your body it's important that breakfast be full of nutrient-dense foods that will give you clean and sustained energy to start your day.
Fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, healthy fats, and fibrous whole grain carbohydrates are the gold standard of food and the best way to start your day.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are your body’s fuel source, so it's important that they be present in your breakfast, when your body needs energy the most. A good rule of thumb is to have around 1/2 cup of carbohydrates, which constitutes about 1/4 of your breakfast plate and clocks in at around 30 to 45g max per meal.
Make sure your carbohydrates are good quality, aka fibrous, whole grain, and not overly processed. Some good examples of excellent carbs for breakfast include whole grain starch products (bread, English muffin, waffles), oatmeal (steel-cut or regular), quinoa, potatoes (sweet and white), and whole grain cereal.
Fats
Fats are very important for breakfast because they maximize your body’s nutrient absorption. After a long night of working hard, your body is tired and needs an extra boost to absorb all the nutrition from the foods you’re eating.
Fats provide that boost, as well as protein and flavor. It’s a good rule of thumb that you keep your fat portions to two or three tablespoons per meal, equivalent to 1/4 of a cup or 10 to 20g.
While things like butter and lard help cook your meals they also add a lot of calories with very little substance. Try to lean into the fats that you can chew rather than fats that just add flavor. Some examples of stellar breakfast fats include avocado, nuts or nut butter, eggs (yolks are the fat), chia or hemp seeds, and cheese.
Protein
Protein is the building block macronutrient, meaning that it works very hard all night to repair your body’s tissues and muscles. That means that by morning your body’s protein stores are heavily depleted and it's important to replenish those stores as soon as possible.
A good rule of thumb for protein portion sizes is about 20-30g at breakfast. Look for proteins that are on the leaner side, meaning that they have lower fat content. Some examples of awesome protein choices for breakfast include eggs (egg whites are the protein), turkey products (turkey bacon or sausage), non-fat Greek yogurt or cottage cheese, tofu, and protein products, like protein powder or protein bars.
Is it Possible For Busy Moms to Make A Healthy Breakfast in Five Minutes?
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but it also is the most shortchanged. Sleep schedules, multiple family members running around the household at once, and the stress of preparing for the day means that there isn’t a whole lot of time for breakfast prep.
However, breakfast doesn’t need to be a long, slaved over meal! It is absolutely possible for breakfast to come together in mere minutes, fueling yourself and your family without taking up too much time. Follow the meal suggestions and tips and tricks below and ensure that you as a busy mom, and your family start on the right foot with a quick and easy breakfast.
Easy & Healthy Breakfasts for Working and Busy Moms On The Go
Let’s start by discussing some breakfast ideas for busy moms. The breakfasts below are quick to prepare, but also healthy to give you and your family to get through the day.
Smoothies
Smoothies are an amazing breakfast that can be prepped ahead of time. Since produce freezes well, it can live in proportioned bags in your freezer for months on end.
Chopping the produce ahead of time and portioning it into bags makes your life way easier in the morning. Get a lot of freezer bags, cut a bunch of fruits and veggies of choice, put them into each freezer bag, and store for future use.
In the morning, grab a smoothie bag, dump it into your blender, add other fixings of choice (milks, powders, nut butters), and press blend.
Egg Bakes
Egg bakes or bites are an amazing breakfast that can be baked in huge batches and split into multiple portions, making them ready to be grabbed by your family in the morning.
Egg bakes are highly customizable; choose the veggies, meat, and cheese of your choice, mix with eggs (or egg whites), stick in a large casserole pan, and bake. Egg bakes can produce lots of servings that can be frozen if not used in time.
Overnight Oats
Overnight oats are an amazing resource that “cook” themselves overnight! Oats absorb whatever liquid they are mixed with, which means that prepping oats the night before means you wake up to a yummy and healthy treat in the morning.
It’s very easy to prep a large batch of overnight oats at once. Simply grab a bunch of mason jars, fill them with 1/3 cup of oats, liquid of choice (dairy or non-dairy milk or water or both!), chia seeds (help absorption and add texture and nutrition), and other fixings of choice (like nut butter, shaved nuts, fruit, protein powder).
Dump all the ingredients in at once, set them in the fridge, and in the morning you’ll have single servings of oatmeal to serve your family.
Breakfast Burritos
Similar to overnight oats, breakfast burritos are an amazing proportioned meal that can keep for a long time (especially when frozen), while delivering your family a ton of nutrition.
Prep a large batch of eggs, meat of choice, veggies of choice, and cheese, and get to work rolling a big batch of burritos. Place them in a freezer safe bag and/or in your fridge for easy grab and go!
Healthy Breakfast Tips For Busy Moms
Now that you have some breakfast ideas for busy moms, let’s go over some really helpful tips to make sure breakfast happens each day. With the tips below you can plan ahead and prepare breakfast when you have time.
Tip #1: Component Meals
Component meals are the assembling of a balanced meal with little to no prep and/or cooking. The different “components” that make up a balanced meal are fat, carbs, produce, and protein.
There are tons of ready-made, easy to make, or even simply grabbable items for each component category; all you have to do is throw them together and go! Making use of pre-made packaged, frozen, canned, or pantry items and easy to grab produce means that your family can get a complete and balanced meal without you having to slave over an oven or cut a single vegetable.
Below are examples of healthy breakfast component meals that can simply be grabbed and handed over in the morning with little to no prep. Bonus points if you lay out these meals the night before to ensure easy transport for your family as they run out the door.
Component meal #1: slice of whole wheat toast (carb), two tablespoons nut butter (fat), non-fat Greek yogurt (protein), fruit of choice
Component meal #2: protein bar (protein and carb), proportioned bag of nuts (fat), fruit of choice
Component meal #3: turkey jerky (protein), whole wheat English muffin (carb), two tablespoons hummus (fat), cut vegetables
Component meal #4: whole wheat toast (carb), half small avocado (fat and protein), sprinkle of chia and hemp seeds (fat and protein), cut veggies
Component meal #5: two hardboiled eggs (fat and protein), whole wheat crackers (carb), cut veggies
Component meal #6: microwave oatmeal (carb), protein powder mixed in (protein), two tablespoons nut butter (fat), fruit
Component meal #7: vegan meal replacement bar (protein and fat), two tablespoons nut butter, banana
Component meal #8: two brown rice cakes (carb), two tablespoons cream cheese (fat and protein), three ounces smoked salmon (protein), cut veggies
Component meal #9: frozen breakfast burrito (fat, carb, protein), cut veggies
Component meal #10: coconut yogurt (fat and protein), protein powder (protein), shaved nuts and chia seeds (fat), fruit of choice
Tip #2: Batch Meals and Easy Meal Prep
Batch meals are an amazing resource for any meal of the day, but especially come in handy around breakfast. Batch meals are meals that can be prepped ahead in a large batch, meaning one cooking session that results in multiple servings.
The multiple servings can live in your fridge throughout the week, ready to be taken as your family runs out the door, or can even be frozen if you want to make large batches or your family doesn’t use up all the portions at once. All the easy breakfast ideas listed above are some examples of healthy breakfast batch meals that will fuel your family while requiring very little cooking time on your end.
Tip #3: Make Your Groceries Work For You
Another way to make breakfast easier is to make sure you have the right ingredients available. Rather than making breakfast an intensive cooking ordeal, having the right type of ingredients can ensure that your family gets fed healthy and nutritious meals without you having to stress or break a sweat.
Frozen meals are excellent to have in your freezer, both for hectic mornings or days when groceries run low. Your grocery store’s frozen foods section absolutely has a breakfast section, take a look and see what meals your family might like.
Scour your grocery store’s prepared foods section to see what dips, spreads, proteins, or precut veggies can make your life easier in meal prep. Canned items can live in your pantry forever and help when groceries run low.
Finally, pantry staples, like protein bars, meat jerkies, protein powders, meal replacement bars, proportioned nuts, and no-sugar added dried fruits can add to those component meals we discussed earlier.
When Should Busy Moms Prep Breakfast?
Because mornings are such a hectic time, this is generally not the best time to actually prep breakfast. It’s best to do breakfast prep at least the night before.
Prepping for breakfast can be as simple as throwing together your family’s component meals in a special place in the fridge the night before and leaving a sticky note to designate which family member gets what. That way, the next morning all you or your family has to do is open the fridge, find which meal goes to which member, and go on their merry way.
For busy moms that want to do meal prep and batch meals, designate one hour at the start of the week (Sunday night is perfect for this) to cook a couple of large recipes that can be portioned out in the coming days. Personally, I put on an episode of SVU, cook one or two batch meals, and by the time Olivia Benson has caught the perp I have several meals to feed my family for the next week.
Should Busy Working Moms Eat Breakfast That Are Trying To Lose Weight?
Let me scream this from the rooftops: eating breakfast HELPS WITH WEIGHT LOSS! These days, trends like intermittent fasting have made breakfast seem like the enemy of your physique goals.
However, multiple studies have found a correlation between skipping breakfast and weight GAIN rather than loss. Likely this is because skipping breakfast leaves you hungry and irritable and open to making more indulgent food choices in the evening. Emotional eating is linked to skipping breakfast and generally the food eaten from skipping breakfast is more calories than the actual skipped breakfast would have been.
So, in the long run, skipping breakfast never truly cuts out the calories like you think it would. Instead, reach for a balanced breakfast of carbs, fat, protein, and produce and aim to eat every three to four hours throughout the day. This balanced way of eating is linked to weight loss, sustained energy, and all-around better nutrition.
Figuring out how to eat a healthy breakfast as a busy or working mom is tough! Hopefully you can use the easy breakfast tips here to eat a fulfilling, healthy breakfast everyday (or most days).
To conclude, while serving breakfast to your family as a busy mom may seem like a daunting task, in reality it is very doable and necessary for the health and wellness of your family and yourself. Hacks, like batch meals, component meals, and smart grocery shopping will make your life easier while ensuring that your family still gets nutritious meals to start their day right.
And since eating breakfast is linked to weight loss, if you have physique goals for this coming summer its important to make sure that you’re getting a balanced breakfast to start your day. So don’t skip breakfast, it’s the most important meal of the day!
If you are still looking for help planning your meals from a registered dietitian, book a discovery call with me (Kayley) today!
Published on Jul 1, 2021 at 11:46 am