I am back again with another instalment of one of my most popular blog posts ever – how I stay organized! If you missed the first post, you can check that out HERE.
In this post, I am going to talk a bit about my most hated chore of the week – MEAL PREP and PLANNING. I dived into this briefly in my last post.
In this post I am going to give you some tangible, solid suggestions to make your breakfast and snack situation a bit easier.
For us, our mornings usually start at 5:45 am with my very first alarm. I begrudgingly get out of bed and get showered/dressed before my husband (usually.. although this is changing recently). Now, this time in the mornings is incredibly sacred because my daughter can sometimes wake up as early as 6:30 am. She can smell us getting ready.. and once she is up, everything takes twice as long. So in the past, this was leading to skipped breakfasts for my husband and I and usually no snacks to take with us.
So here is how I fixed this in the past year: I focused on healthy breakfast and snack options to keep us going.
Below are some quick breakfast ideas that work for our family and that may work for you too if you need some quick fixes!
Breakfast Miracles
I started drinking smoothies. This was a life saver for me… until I realized that I didn’t have time in the mornings to grab things from the fridge and chop them up. Or maybe I am lazy – lets go with the latter, shall we?
Welcome smoothie bags!
(I did not figure this out on my own. My friend Sumo suggested this to me and I was instantly hooked!)
Now, once every two weeks, I buy a big box of pre-washed spinach from the grocery store, bag it up in snack sized ziplock bags and add in whatever other goodies I want and throw it all in the freezer. In the mornings, I simply grab a bag, dump it into the blender and add homemade protein powder (check that out HERE) and my breakfast smoothie is ready! And this breakfast usually keeps me full until lunch – I am telling you, this protein powder is amazeballs!
My daughter has also recently become a smoothie stealer.. so I now make a little extra and leave some for her if she is asleep or she will share mine with me if she is awake. She calls them “moooo” and demands a “mooo” when she wakes up haha!
Now my husband is NOT into smoothies.. so I still had to figure out a breakfast for him that I could prep before hand (preferably on the weekend) and he could take on the go.
Welcome my second ally: OVER NIGHT OATS. Prep them in mason jars on the weekend (1/2 cup oats, 2 tablespoons protein powder, nuts etc of choice), and simply top off with maple syrup and milk the night before. I cant even tell you how amazing this feels in the morning.. win win!
next.. lunches. lunches have always been pretty easy for us because we simply take whatever is left over the night before – my husband is not particular about this at all so my only tip would be to meal prep in such a way for your dinners that you have left overs that everyone can enjoy!
Healthy Snacks for Adults
Okay last way I handle week days is by pre planning snacks – no they are not just for kids 😉 adults love snacking, and if there are no healthy alternatives around, both my hubby and I end up loading up on carbs and chips (and spending more money than we can afford) on ridiculous snacks. So I pre plan even these on the weekend. I know Im a little crazy.. but it saves so much time in the week!!
One of my personal favourite snacks are these healthy carrot muffins (recipe from The Minimalist Baker) that can be modified to meet any dietary restrictions! I usually skip the carrots since I never have them in the house. I use real eggs instead of flax eggs and add my home made protein powder instead. I also use regular flour or whole wheat flour instead of GF flour. These are great on the go and for avoiding that snack temptation while you drive through Starbucks.. Like today when they offered I buy a chocolate chip muffin with my Tea. Heck NO sister… I am covered with this snack.
Also they freeze well! So you can make a big batch, pop them in the freezer and take them out the night before. HOORAY!
Another great and easy snack is… GRANOLA! I use thisrecipe and it is SO easy to make a big batch, leave in an air tight container and take it for a quick healthy afternoon treat. And you can totally add chocolate chips if you are into that for your 3 pm snack 😉 I usually make a batch every month and we rotate through the above snacks rather than reverting to store bought snacks.. But i did crave this week and bought real cookies. I may or may not have eaten them all this weekend. So do whatever works for you!!
These are my go to snacks and breakfast ideas.
You can go the more traditional route that is fruit and so forth. And we do that too – but we find ourselves getting bored of fruit (especially me), so I need some new ideas once in a while that are healthy and guilt free, but also make me enjoy breakfast and snacks.
I hope you found this post useful and helpful! Whats your favourite on the go breakfast or snack? Let me know in the comments below!
Great ideas! I am totally going to try your protein powder recipe.
I like having hard boiled eggs in the fridge. They are so versatile. You can have then for breakfast, snack or you can add it your salad.
Wonderful ideas! I need to try making those overnight oats…
Great ideas! I am totally going to try your protein powder recipe.
I like having hard boiled eggs in the fridge. They are so versatile. You can have then for breakfast, snack or you can add it your salad.