On my travels, I think I’m asked at every turn, by journalists or at public talks I give, what I eat for breakfast. I think it’s mostly because much of the planet can’t fathom a breakfast without sugar. The first thing I flag: drop the idea that breakfast should be sweet. Until the 1950s, when breakfast cereal was invented as a cure for sex addiction (seriously!), it was savoury.
So how do I do said savoury breakfast?
1. I start with veggies or fruit.
Want to know what all the healthy people I meet do? They jam-pack 2–3 serves into their first meal. I call it front-loading. The key to great health is to get as much nutrition into you and your family’s gullets as possible. I aim for 6–9 serves of veggies and two serves of fruit most days and use breakfast as a great vehicle for this.
2. I add protein. Not too much.
3. I add fat. Saturated.
This is important. Why? Because essential vitamins (A, E, K and D) can only be absorbed when eaten with fat. And we need said vitamins to effectively digest protein.
4. I generally eat the whole thing heated.
A hot breakfast works for a reason…it gets you grounded and is easier on the digestion. Obviously, at the height of summer, cool breakfasts are best.
What does it look like?
It might be spinach or kale that I heat in a pan with a handful of peas or par-cooked ’n’ frozen broccoli. An egg tossed through the lot, with a handful of feta to goob it all together.
It might be some avocado wedges wrapped in a lettuce leaf with a big dollop of miso spread along the length.
It might be leftover soup with an egg poached in it.
It might be a “thickie”, such as my Zucchini Bread Thickie from my book, Simplicious.
It might be One-Pan Bubble + Squeak Pancake (last night’s dinner leftovers, vegetable odds and ends) with an egg tossed through it.
It might be a few gelatin squares with some rockmelon wedges. Check out these Bulletproof Coffee Squares!
It might be a tuna, purple cabbage and blue cheese toastie (on sourdough) – aka the stinkiest toastie you’ll ever eat.
It might be a slice of a Whole Asparagus and Parsley Loaf with avocado.
You can find all of these breakfast recipes in the new I Quit Sugar Healthy Breakfast Cookbook.
PS: You’ll find we use gelatin powder in some of our recipes. I’ve also produced my own Gut Lovin’ Gelatin (mostly because I wanted to eat the most sustainable, healthy, clean version I could!) which is now available Australia-wide from the IQS online store.
How do you build your savoury breakfast?
