As the saying goes,breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This means that you need to make time for it because you need to start your day off right. Eating breakfast helps jumpstart your metabolism, as it shows your body that there’s no need to hoard any stores of energy. It also provides you with balanced blood sugar levels, as well as the energy that you need to get your day started.
So, what’s the main issue that many people have with breakfast? It takes time that they may not have when they’re rushing out the door to go to work. Thankfully, there’s a solution to this problem: meal prepping.
Why Meal Prep?
One of the best things about meal prepping is the fact that it saves you time. Yes, it does take a bit of time in order to get everything set up, but the actual savings is worth it, especially when you can run out the door in the morning with your breakfast in hand or reach for an already set up container right after you emerge from the shower.
On top of that, meal prepping yourbreakfast ensures that you start out the day on the right (read: healthy) foot. Your breakfast is right there, and if you don’t eat it, it will go to waste. This keeps you on track and eating properly. Your blood sugar, digestive system, and brain will thank you!
How to Meal Prep for Breakfast
Now that you know the importance of meal prepping your breakfast, it’s time to go over some suggestions for how to get everything set up. In order to make meal prepping more fun and less of a chore, you can do the following:
Plan Your Meals Ahead of Time
It helps to have a plan and follow it. This means coming up with meals ahead of time and then getting everything that you need in order to create them. Otherwise, you may end up cutting your meal prepping short when you realize that you’re out of an important ingredient, like cheese or a certain kind of fruit. Also, by planning out your meals in advance, you can make sure that you follow a particular diet or manage your macros accordingly.
Set Aside a Day for Meal Prepping
Once you have your meals planned out, it’s time to set aside time for meal prepping. Many people choose to do this on the weekends when they don’t have to go to work and have plenty of free time. By deciding to meal prep on a certain day of the week, it’s easy to get into the habit of constantly doing it. Over time, it will become routine, and you’ll actually look forward to meal prepping. As it becomes a habit, instead of yet another thing on your to-do list, you’ll find time to do it every week.
Keep Your Meals Simple
Simple meals are best when you’re first getting into meal prepping. This is very easy when you’re putting together breakfast foods, as they are automatically simple to begin with.
Think of it this way – what are some of the most commonbreakfast foods? Something bread-like, such as toast, English muffins, bagels, or croissants, as well as warmed options like pancakes and waffles, plus fruit, and then some eggs and either ham, bacon, or sausage for the protein component. All of these things are very simple to not only meal prep but also plan out in advance for the week.
On top of keeping your breakfasts simple, it also helps to choose a couple of meals for the week and prep them. For example, instead of setting up a different breakfast every day of the week, pick two and then alternate them each day. This allows you to set up your breakfasts in advance without having to chop up a bunch of different fruits or create and freeze things like whole-grain pancakes, waffles, and breads. You can get more done at once because half of those meals have the same components.
Portability Is Key
In order to ensure that you’re eating those prepped breakfasts each day, you need to make sure that they are portable. This way, when you’re running out the day a little later than usual, you can take your breakfast with you on the go. Otherwise, you might decide that it’s too complicated and you lack the time to prepare whatever it is that you have scheduled for breakfast, and then leave it behind as you head to a fast-food restaurant.
Stick with placing your prepped meals in portable containers and mason jars, all of which are easy to take with you on the go!
Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas
Now that you have some suggestions for a smoothbreakfast meal prepping experience, it’s time to go over a few recipes. Rather than suggest specific recipes, we’ve broken them into several popular groups and brought up a few ideas to help you customize them into your own meals.
Smoothies
While smoothies might require a little bit of work in the morning (such as placing all of the ingredients in a blender and turning it on), you can make them the night before and just place them in the refrigerator, so all you need to do is grab the cup or jar and a straw. Keep in mind that you really shouldn’t make smoothies more than a day or two in advance, so they are something that you’ll need to blend the night before, but you can set up the ingredients for each day in advance.
If you’re looking for a healthy smoothie, add some fruit, vegetables, and low-fat yogurt to your ingredient list. Have fun mixing up the different types of berries and melons, as well as kale, spinach, and celery, so you end up with something a little different each day. Plus, a scoop of protein powder added to the mix rounds out your food groups. Delicious!
Bento Boxes
Bento boxes are those cool little plastic or ceramic containers that come with pre-divided sections and perfectly fitting lids. They make it easy to separate out the various parts of your breakfast.
Consider filling one section with sliced fresh fruit, while pre-cooked sausage or bacon, a scrambled egg or two, and some cheese can fit into the other sections. You can set up each bento box several days ahead of time and keep them in a ready-to-go section of your refrigerator. Since there are so many different options for bento box ingredients, feel free to have fun mixing and matching them until you find your favorite combination.
Overnight Oats
Overnight oats have become popular because you can set them up the night before and reach for them in the morning. Yes, this is one of those meal prep options that you really can’t do the week or several days before you plan to eat them because it messes up the texture of the oats. Instead, you need to set it up the evening before you plan to eat them. (However, you can measure out the ingredients far in advance so that all you need to do is combine them and then place them in the refrigerator.)
These oats, which are traditional oatmeal or other grains, such as quinoa, sit overnight in a liquid, like milk, so that they’re ready to go in the morning. By choosing them instead of instant oatmeal, you’re getting a healthier breakfast, as well as one less thing to do in the morning. Add some fruit to your container of oats and milk, and then place it all in a plastic lidded container or mason jar.
In the morning, stir them to make sure that everything is properly combined, and then eat them. It’s that easy – and you can customize your mix-ins and add things like brown sugar ahead of time as well.
Wrapping Things Up
Meal prepping your breakfasts is a good idea. Not only is breakfast an important meal, as it helps you start your day off properly, but it also is the meal that’s most likely to be skipped due to time constraints. By setting them up ahead of time and prepping the ingredients to the point that all you need to do is grab your breakfast and go, you’re more likely to eat breakfast.
On top of that, meal prepping breakfast also keeps you on track as far as your diet is concerned, and it makes it one less thing that you need to do every morning. Anything that helps you get out the door easier in the morning is a win in our book!
Sources:
21 Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas You'll LOVE | sweetpeasandsaffron.com
25 Healthy Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas For Busy Mornings | Gathering Dreams
15 Breakfast Meal Prep Ideas for Busy Mornings! | The Girl on Bloor