Healthy Morning Tips for Nutritious Breakfast
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“Energize your body with Nutrishots, to be a hotshot”.
This quote emphasizes the importance of having a nutritionally balanced breakfast to manage your entire day.
Being active, energetic and coping up with the schedules makes your day fruitful. But all these factors depend on what, how and when you eat your breakfast.
The term “Breakfast” refers to breaking your fast of the prior night. Therefore, having healthy and nutritious breakfast is more important in planning your meals further and to provide energy for your planned activities.
So, grab some healthy breakfast tips on the go!
1. Build breakfast into your routine.
Design a healthy eating plan with family members based on preferences and select nutrient-dense foods rather than energy-dense.
For Example: Replace Naan/Kulcha with Jowar/Bajra/Ragi roti.
2. Never skip your breakfast. Are you in a hurry?
- Grab some fistful of nuts with a glass of milk + munch on fresh veggies
- Boiled eggs + toasted multigrain bread
- Whole fruits/Cut fruits + Ragi malt
3. Eat local, seasonal and natural foods.
It provides the necessary nutrients according to the seasons and body requirements.
4. Choose a variety of food to provide enough nutrients
- For example:
- Wheat dosa/ Ragi dosa/ Pesarattu/ vegetable dosa with dal chutney and sambar
- Broken wheat upma/ poha added with vegetables, lime or sprouts with raita
- Millets Pongal/ khichidi
Incorporate whole-grain foods and millets; Lean protein (eggs, nuts, pulses & legumes); Low-fat dairy products; Fruits and vegetables in your meals.
5. Change the way you prepare food for your breakfast.
Choose healthy cooking methods like sautéing, steaming, dry roasting, stir fry and boiling for better nutrient retention.
6. Focus on what you eat and watch your portion size.
7. Stay hydrated.
Replace soft drinks / carbonated beverages with coconut water, buttermilk, lime-mint juice, hot soups, etc.
8. Home cooked meals
Home-cooked meals are better for a healthy lifestyle because you can control your ingredients added and create a peaceful and enjoyable setting that allows you to focus on the meal and your accompaniments. Mindful Eating!
However, preparing breakfast in the bustle of the busy mornings can be a real sore point for most people. Lack of time often makes them revert to the same old dishes everyday or opting for packed cereals.
Here are a few recipes for your energized mornings! Just for you, our expert has tailor-made two recipes to make your breakfast meals easier, delicious and nutritious.
Breakfast Popups:
Almond-Dates power shake
PREP TIME: 3 MINUTES / COOK TIME: 3 MINUTES
SERVINGS: 2 - 4
You don’t need fancy protein powders or expensive ingredients to make a power shake at home. An energy booster with protein and iron to begin your day sportively.
Ingredients:-
- 2 cups skim milk
- 12 pitted dates
- 1 banana
- ¼ cup raw almonds
Method: -
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat the milk.
- In a blender, blend the milk, dates, banana, and almonds until smooth.
- Pour into glass and serve.
- Dates provide natural sweetness to the shake.
Serving Tip: You can make this shake more nutritious by adding variety of cut fruits as toppings. You can even add flaxseeds or pumpkin seeds instead of almonds to the shake which adds fibre and omega 3 fats to your diet.
Millets vermicelli pulao
PREP TIME: 15 MINUTES / COOK TIME: 15 MINUTES
SERVINGS: 2-3
Ingredients:
- 1/2kg Millets sevai/Ragi/Bajra/Jowar sevai/vermicelli
- 250grms Paneer (cubed)
- 1no Onion (chopped)
- 2nos Tomatoes (chopped)
- 1tsp Ginger garlic paste
- 2nos Green chilly
- 1tsp Red chilli powder
- 1/2tsp Garam masala powder
- 1/4tsp Turmeric powder
- 2nos Whole spices (bay leaves, cloves, cardamom &cinnamon stick)
- Oil
- Salt
- To Roast & Grind:1tbsp Coriander seeds and 1 tsp Cumin seeds
Method:
- Soak and steam cook the millets sevai as per instructions given in the pack.
- Heat enough oil in a large shallow pan, add mustard seeds and fry the whole spices, curry leaves.
- Add chopped onions, green chillies, ginger garlic paste and sauté until the onions turn translucent.
- Then add chopped tomatoes and cook until it turns mushy.
- Now add the red chilli powder, garam masala powder, turmeric powder and cook for few minutes.
- Add the cubed paneer, stir for few minutes until the oil get separated.
- Immediately add the cooked sevai, grounded powder and toss gently until everything gets well mixed.
- Enjoy it warm with any sort of chutney or raita.
Serving Tip: You can add chopped veggies or sprouts to the vermicelli as an alternative for paneer to make it more nutritious and healthier as it provides fibre, proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Nutri Glimpse!
Find options that suit your tastes and preferences. Try to choose food from at least three of the five food groups to round out a healthy breakfast.
If variety is the spice of life, it’s also a great way to spice up your eating habits.
Explore right, think before you bite!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Indu Vaishnavi R, Dietician