….Breakfast

Breakfast – The most important meal of the day (so they say)

Who likes breakfast? Or let me rather ask, what do you like for breakfast? My first answer would be coffee (ok, then again my answer to pretty much anything is coffee). As you know by now, I am not a big breakfast fan, but I still appreciate a good breakfast. Hubby on the other hand enjoys breakfast and would rather eat breakfast and skip lunch.

People tend to think that a LCHF breakfast can only be bacon, eggs and some sort of fried veg – how boring?! Ok, I will admit, since starting our LCHF journey we are eat more eggs, but why wont you enjoy such a versatile food source. But lets face it, eating bacon and eggs for a week is enough.

Growing up in South Africa, I had a very typical breakfast everyday – cereal, yogurt, oats, fruit and on very rare occasions (like on holiday), we had bacon and eggs. In high school I did enjoy toast with peanut butter or some days marmite as my breakfast. Thinking back on this, I know now why I always felt so tired during first break (and hungry). During my ‘varisty years I seldom had breakfast, just because I never really enjoyed eating very early in the mornings. I also mainly eat protein and veggies, so it seemed that I stayed fuller for longer.

 

 

Hubby loves fried eggs (believe it or not, I can never get them perfect). A few year back (before LCHF), he would get these egg binges where he would eat 6 fried eggs at once. Needless to say, his mom always told him how unhealthy it was and how he will suffer from cholesterol (if we only knew). Even back then, we actually seldom eat breakfast.

So you must be wondering considering that I am not a breakfast fan, why am I dedicating an entire post to breakfast? Don’t get me wrong – I really enjoy breakfast dates (anytime after 10:00 am) especially indulging on eggs benedict with mushrooms (instead of the English muffins) and added avocado and bacon.  I have learned to appreciate a good breakfast. If you have a good breakfast, you have great energy all day, no cravings and no need for mindless snacking. The last two weeks we tried to have breakfast everyday. Mainly eggs (boiled or scrabbled), with bacon and fried veggies, but we also had chicken livers (twice this week) and left overs.

My other favourite breakfast, apart from poached eggs, will be chia porridge – I absolutely love them. You can play around with so many different flavours. We mainly use coconut milk with a combination of cinnamon and berries, and sometimes we will even add a bit of cacao, just to keep things interesting. The down fall – its not that great at keeping me full for very long. We use to enjoy smoothies for breakfast, but since switching over to LCHF, we haven’t had a smoothie. Many people still enjoy their breakfast smoothies with spinach, avo and apple (or whatever combination they like), but as we try and exclude dairy and in general eat whole food, we gave up on replacing a meal with a “drink”.

Another great breakfast option to me will be bone broth. Its light and easy and you can have it on the go. Bone broth might not count as a complete meal, but with all the health benefits (see my post on …..Bone broth), its the perfect way to start your morning, especially if you are not really hungry.

Another great option for breakfast will be left overs (as you know, we also love …. Left overs). Some people don’t enjoy eating them, but we tend to enjoy them, especially over weekends. Friday nights will be our typical braai night and I cant wait to eat the left overs on Saturday mornings.

We do find it hard to find a perfect breakfast option for Little M. Over weekend she tend to eat protein for breakfast (chicken), but during the week, we struggle as she eats breakfast at crèche. At least they are very accommodating and allow her to eat her own food. She also enjoys gluten free (not completely LCHF) pancakes over weekends so we allow her those small treats. If you have any breakfast ideas that’s LCHF and dairy, egg, nut, sugar, tomato, beef and pork free, please let me know.

I tried to make a summary document to show you how exciting breakfast can be – and not only with “egg” options. Please share and let us know what you prefer to eat for breakfast, or do you share my feelings toward eating early mornings.