breakfast.

breakfast really is the most important meal for the day. i truly believe that most people do not eat enough for breakfast (if at all) and they don't realize how incredibly unbalanced their breakfast truly is. regularly commercialized items like cereal and poptarts or bagels are extremely HIGH in simple carbohydrates and LOW in protein, sugar and fiber.

granted, many products including froot loops have added fiber so they can say that they deliver "10%" of your daily value of fiber, etc. BUT this is added fiber and it is in no way as good for your body as the real deal which is found naturally in whole foods.

my breakfast...

this is a picture of my quaker quick oats after i devour them.

my oatmeal starts looking something like this.

most mornings i make a concoction using a few simple ingredients. most of the products on the market are not exactly to my liking nutritionally... they have too much sugar, too much sodium, etc. so i make my own delicious chocolate oatmeal (see recipe below).

Chocolate Oatmeal Recipe:

1/3 cup oatmeal
1 tbs cocoa
1 tbs ground flax
1 tbs wheat germ
dash of stevia
1/2 scoop chocolate protein powder (i use body fortress at walmart)

Directions:
1. combine oats with 1/2-3/4 cup water (i never measure...)
2. microwave 45 seconds, stir, repeat
3. stir in the listed ingredients
4. DEVOUR

it may sound strange, but i have had a few people try this and really like it. a friend of mine said it reminds her of the no-bake chocolate oatmeal cookies her mom makes. it is really good and you can leave out some of the ingredients... for example, this can be made with only cocoa and sugar if you don't like stevia, etc. the flax seed and wheat germ have their own nutritional value with omega-3's and added fiber, b vitamins, etc. but they are also optional.

here's a breakdown for my breakfast from my CalorieKing desktop food diary.

here's the calorie breakdown... from my food diary.

You can see it's pretty balanced with 26% protein, 46% carbs, and 26% fat.

most people say they don't have time but my oatmeal literally takes about 3 minutes to throw together and it is INCREDIBLY delicious, and filling. the added protein helps me make it to my next meal/snack. since i eat at 5am everyday, it takes a lot for me to make it to 9am.

sometimes i like to mix it up and i will have something different. the other day i threw together an omelet for me and the hubby with some stuff from the fridge.

tomato, onion, red pepper.

1 egg, 1 serving egg beaters egg whites, 1/4 cup milk

spinach

heat in pan on low-medium heat w/nonstick olive oil spray.

top with cheese of your choice, i like Athenos Feta. YUM.

with my omelet i would normally have a smaller version of my chocolate oatmeal, maybe without the protein since i get protein in the eggs. or, like we did last weekend, i would make a delicious smoothie. perhaps i will make my next entry about smoothies... they are so easy and delicious. another great, fast option for breakfast.

what are your breakfast ideas?