For 40+ years I had breakfast with only fruits and a little fruit juice. You might think that is boring, but as the seasons change, the fruit choice changes as well. Because we only eat twice a day since 2019, I wanted to change my breakfast to eat varied enough.
Searching “Healthy breakfast recipes” didn’t at first offer me the kind of breakfasts I was looking for. But determination always pays off as you know, so now I have added 2 breakfasts to the one I had. And I am still looking for variations.
Why is it so hard for me to decide on other breakfasts? Well, as I have described earlier I was raised on bread and sweets. Maybe, if I try really hard, I could eat an American or English breakfast, but at the moment the thought alone gives me the creeps. As I am sure that Anglo Saxons will shiver at the thought of eating just bread. Or fruits. 🙂
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Table of contents
Lifestyle choices
Last year I took an online course about living a healthy lifestyle, aimed at preventing as many diseases as possible. Unfortunately, the course is in Dutch. I am so enthusiastic, that I want to share it with the whole world. It’s such a pity you don’t all speak Dutch.
Half of what was taught was already an element of my daily habits. New was, nutritionally:
- eat more vegetables, at least 500 gr a day;
- don’t sip your water all day long, but drink 1 to 3 glasses of water all at once a couple of times;
- don’t eat in the same pattern every day.
Resulting in my search for healthy breakfast recipes to my liking. At the moment I have the 3 I describe here. Not exactly the same every time of course, otherwise it would again be a pattern.
Related: Grow your own Fruits and Vegetables Sustainably and Tasty
1. The one I am used to
Only fruits and a little glass of fruit juice. Just a little glass, because we shouldn’t drink – or at least as little as possible – during meals.
In this case banana, apple, pear, kiwi, blueberries, nectarine, apricot, cherries, Medjool date, dried apricot, and plum.
When I first visited Spain as a 12-year old all we could buy at the market were tomatoes, lettuce, and watermelons. Nowadays the choice is huge. I am so glad about that.
And although it took us some effort to find ecological stores when we just lived here, this choice is only organic produce.
We eat about 7 to 8 different pieces of fruit! Part of my family is struggling with diabetes. For them, this would be a really bad choice. Diabetics can eat some fruit, but since fruits contain a lot of carbs and sugar, it shouldn’t be more than 2 pieces a day.
2. Green smoothie
500 gr vegetables a day! How on earth could I manage that when I only have breakfast and lunch? As far as lunch is concerned, vegetable soup as a starter and different vegetables for the main course do the trick. For breakfast, a smoothie with vegetables adds up.
In this one there is celery, chicory, avocado, spirulina powder, 3 different YourSuper powders, banana, kiwi, pear, and almond milk. Some berries for decoration, food for the eye. 🙂
Until now the taste of a vegetables-only smoothie is too much for me, that’s why I add a bit of fruit as well. Some people use ice cubes instead of almond milk, but in my opinion, eating or drinking too cold is not good for your body.
Related: What is the Best Time for Supplements, Water and Food?
3. Coconut yogurt with nuts, seeds and dried fruit
It took me a while to understand where to find nuts in the Spanish stores. They call it fruta seca, meaning dried fruit. In the Netherlands nuts and dried fruits are regarded as two totally different things, hence the confusion.
Nowadays this is one of my favorite choices. It is packed with healthy nutrients and delicious. The other day I wrote an article about seeds: Best Seeds to Eat for your Daily Dose of Healthy Supplements in which I elaborate on the benefits.
The one in the picture consists of almond nuts, cashew nuts, raisins, dried apricots, kiwi, peach, fig, chia seeds, goji berries, blueberries, another 3 YourSuper* powders, and coconut yogurt. Yummy.
* I am a huge fan of these powders. You can read here why: Review of Your Super – Superfood in a Cardboard Can?
How do you determine what to choose?
In the course of time, I have gathered information about what to eat when I have a deficiency of something. For example, I have had an iron deficiency for years. Dried apricots contain a lot of iron and they are delicious as a snack.
My motto is “Food as medication”, yet sometimes food works against you. Tom is at risk of gout, so he needs to avoid purine. Purine is a substance that is present in among other things seafood, red meat, and beer.
We both get eczema easily, so we don’t eat dairy. It is important to know how your body responds to food and drinks. And with what to replace it when you leave something out of your diet.
Where to find the healthy stuff you want?
When we just arrived in Spain – not for a holiday, but to live here – Tom googled a lot on ‘ecological markets’. The vendors there are usually so enthusiastic about their products that they love talking about them. And are happy to share tips and addresses. The latter came in handy for us of course.
Local ecological shops are often small, making them hard to find at times. Again, when you ask around in for instance a herb shop you will get information. I prefer little shops, but sometimes they don’t have enough choice. Most supermarkets have ecological products.
Both small shops and supermarkets have products wrapped in plastic, even ecological goods. Because we want to be as zero-waste as possible, we usually put in an extra effort to look around. It is one of the main reasons why I prefer the shops over the supermarkets as they have a lot ‘in bulk’ so you can fill your own glass jar, paper bag or cotton net.
And a lot can be found in webshops. For instance organic coconut oil in a glass jar. Which by the way does also wonders for my eczema. Not eating it, but rubbing it on the affected spots. I am also enthusiastic about Your Super, as mentioned above. They have superfood powders, that come in cardboard cylinders. The only drawback is the plastic sealing cap. (As my mum would say: You can’t have it all).
What do you think?
Do you have a favorite breakfast? As I am still on the lookout for variations and healthy breakfast recipes, please share it in the comment box. Thanks!
Typically, my breakfast consists of a smoothie made with protein powder, greens in powder form, frozen organic strawberries and blueberries, with an oatmeal powder and collegen powder, all mixed in a blender with water. They are tasty.
Sometimes we mix it up with a tradition breakfast, but not often.
Being in the USA it is easy to find the ingredients and Amazon is great for the powder supplements that I use. I am not good however on avoiding the plastic packaging. Need to work on that.
Your choices of breakfast are very interesting as well, and may have to try them sometime.
Sounds like a great breakfast, Annette, thanks. I miss having a lot of healthy choice over here at times. We were so poiled, having a big ecological supermarket in Holland. But in a few years time, things will have changed here as well, I expect. 🙂
And if I have inspired one person to watch the plastic usage I am happy!! xxx
500 gr of veggies per day? Wow, I love veggies and I eat them every day, but I am not a 100% sure if I get to 500 gr.
I speak Dutch by the way, so I could take the course 😉 haha.
I have tried coconut yogurt and it is really delicious, either plain or with fruits, like mango or berries. A berry smoothie is also great in the mornings.
Sometimes I have peanut butter and banana sandwiches for breakfast, but I also love to have fruit salad in the morning, preferably with mangos, bananas, and citrus fruits.
If you’re interested, Christine, have a look here oersterk.nu. A ton of information you will probably love too. And if you take vegetables at 2 meals a day, you’re easily getting to 500 gr. It sounds more than it is in reality, at least, in my experience. 🙂
I am bit like yourself when it comes to breakfast. I used to have a glass of water, a bowl of mixed fruit and a date.
Then I got bored and wanted to try something different. So, I landed on chia seeds which I would have with some pre-soaked nuts and couple of tbs of greek style yogurt (preferably organic). I had this for a while, and now I am onto bran flakes with a pinch of cinnamon powder and a tbs of ground flax seeds and goats milk (i’m intolerant to cow’s milk). Let’s see how far I go with this.
I love your green smoothie idea. I might try that next.
Thanks
That’s so great, Habib, yes, sounds almost like me 😀
Except for the flakes and milk.
I keep reminding myself I should buy flax seed or oil one of these days and I keep forgetting it. :-0 Must put it on a list, that will help!
Haha. Love the video of the kids trying different breakfasts from around the world…. Not sure why the kids in Brazil get a coffee with their breakfast?
The information you got from the Dutch healthy lifestyle course is interesting. “Don’t sip water throughout the day, but drink larger quantities less often.” I guess this is to give our digestive system a rest, so it’s not constantly working on something, even if it is only water?
Eat more vegetables and vary our eating times are both good pieces of advice I can relate to.
I typically only eat twice a day, within an eight-hour window, and even with this, tend to eat smaller meals than most people I know.
Breakfast is often whole-grain cereals, with fruit, natural yoghurt, and fresh juice. I avoid milk here, but do sometimes indulge in a couple of lattes during the day when I visit cafes with my laptop 🙂
I love your eating choices…. sounds great! And of course, have to agree that food is great medicine. It’s such a shame that most of the food production these days is controlled by big business as they are only in it for the profits and couldn’t care less about the quality of the products or the environment that they exploit.
You guessed right, Andrew, about the large quantities of water. The idea is “eating is inflammatory”. Which is part of the digestive system, so nothing to worry about, yet something to take into account. That’s why he also states that high cholesterol is a sign of something being wrong. And not only a result of eating habits. And he puts more emphasis on the sign it’s time to change, than on the result itself.
It’s amazing, isn’t it, the less we eat, the less we need. Tom and I don’t eat a lot either. Especially if we compare ourselves with the 5-times-eating Spaniards. Unfortunately, we’re not allowed to order one menu for both of us. We have to order a menu each. And we wouldn’t mind paying the price for 2 menus and still get one because €10 or even €12 for a 3- or 4-course menu is a pittance. But they don’t want to hear of it. I often say, just give me half. No chance either. I hate to throw food away, but it doesn’t sink in. Yet.
I agree with you about food production. We think organic produce should be the norm and the poisoning industry should pay for the certificates. Until now, it’s the other way around. Let’s keep our hopes up. Things will change eventually, it’s inevitable. 🙂
My favorite breakfast is homemade burgher meat, some pumpkin, and of course my coffee with cream. I also love a small bowl of mixed fruits with this in the mornings. This is just great for my blood sugar.
Hi Josephine, I love it that your breakfast is totally different from mine. Can I conclude from your link to a website about diabetes that you have diabetes yourself? Because in that case, I am wondering. From my family members, I understood that someone with diabetes better does not eat fruit, but I might have misunderstood of course.
It is always funny, whenever we are in a hotel, to see the different ways people have breakfast. I think it is so interesting to notice all these differences. I must not think to eat sausages or sauerkraut for breakfast, yet, many people do. But then again, I must not think to eat sausages at all, breakfast or not, LOL.
Take care and thank you for your addition.