Best Breakfast Ideas For The New Mom

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Healthy Chocolate Milk
Homemade Granola

Transcript

You’re listening to The Love & Lettuce Podcast, episode number 18. Today I want to give you some of the best breakfast ideas for the new mom. And just so you know, when I say new mom, I actually mean mamas who have just had a baby (whether it’s their first or fifth), all the way up to when the kids go to school. Those are the moms that I work with. I call them new and newISH mamas. Can’t wait to give you all the ideas.

Hey, this is Laura Lima, holistic nutritionist and founder of New Mama Nation and host of The Love & Lettuce Podcast.

I am here to help mamas know what to eat to give them energy and help them feel fantastic so they can better enjoy life with their littles. And remember, this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and does not replace medical advice from your healthcare provider, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. As always, please consult your healthcare provider to find out what is right for you. With that said, let’s get to the show!

Before I dive into today’s topic, I wanted to let you know about my natural mamahood community over on Facebook. It’s called the New Mama Nation Community, and you can find it by searching for “new mama nation” under “groups” on Facebook, of course, and just request to join. I will accept you mama, oh yes, I will. It’s a free Facebook group where I post nutrition information and tips, recipes, polls, and other fun stuff. Other members post as well, and we answer one another’s questions, we support each other… it’s just all around a fun and supportive group to be a part of, and a must if you’re a new or newish mama, if I do say so myself… and I do. So come and join us over on Facebook at the New Mama Nation Community.

What is a good breakfast?

So you might be wondering what constitutes a best breakfast, or even a good one. Here are some great breakfast ideas. What I look for is a good amount of protein and fat, and not too many carbs. Now, I don’t typically count each of these, so I’m not going to give you numbers today really. Except for if I’m buying protein powder, in which case I do look for at least 20 grams of protein per serving, if not closer to 25 grams.

But when I’m putting my meals together, honestly, I just make sure that I choose foods that are sources of protein and fat, and not super high sources of carbs. I will get into specific examples next because I know that’s easy to say and be, but like, okay, and then what Laura? So I will definitely give you some examples, and I will also tell you those foods to have less often. I’m not saying avoid altogether but to enjoy less often, simply because they won’t provide long-lasting satisfaction and fuel.

And as moms with littles, whether you have one newborn, maybe you have a newborn and a toddler, maybe you have twins, maybe you have two toddlers…

whatever you have, mama, you need long-lasting satisfaction and fuel.

I can say that without a doubt. And I find such a huge difference when I’m eating the right foods and when I’m eating the wrong foods.

I feel when I’m eating the right foods, this sense of hmm, I actually feel satisfied from my food. I’m not feeling like, I need to eat those cookies in the pantry! I’m not feeling like I need to go search for something else, that I have to go have that granola bar just to get me through the morning. So physically, I’m feeling more satisfied, but mentally as well, I’m feeling so much better. I feel like hmm, my mood is not like swinging if you will; it’s really stable and calm and a lot happier.

And truly, this is the difference that food makes. So this is why I’m so passionate to tell you (to not tell you because, you know, it’s your decision), but to tell you the foods that you can eat, that you can choose to eat, that are going to make you feel so much better… and to let you know about the foods that you might already be eating that are not going to give you the feelings that you ultimately want.

Because if I were to guess, I would guess that you would want to feel happy during your day, that you’d want to have long-lasting energy, that you wouldn’t want to have these ups and downs in your mood, that you’d want to feel fueled and energized. That’s my guess… and I’m pretty sure I’m correct.

So this is why I want to give you some healthy breakfast options today. And I want to keep telling you all the healthy food options, and to give you ideas on how to make them and how to incorporate them into your diet. This is what I’m all about, because oh my goodness, we are busy mamas. We need fuel; it makes all the difference.

What about breakfast variety?

Now, when it comes to switching things up in our meals, I honestly find that you could go either way. So if you’re really into a certain breakfast, for example, then keep it going, girl. Don’t feel that you need to have variety, unless you want to, of course. We get variety in our different meals of the day, and in our snacks, if we eat them, which, as a new mom, I’m guessing you do. 

Now at the same time, if you want variety in your breakfast, then feel free to switch things up on the daily. It’s really whatever makes the most sense for you here. The main thing is that you’re choosing the foods that are going to lift you up, give you energy, and fuel you for your day.

Breakfast Ideas

So I’m going to run through the list next, which is in no particular order. Hopefully you find something in here that you’re already having often and/or that you’re excited to incorporate.

Eggs

So my first one is eggs. Eggs all ways. It could be a frittata that you make in advance or the morning of that breakfast. And what I love about a frittata is that you can have it hot right away and you can have it cold. So if you’re on the go and you just need to feed yourself and your toddler, for example, you can both grab a piece out of the fridge and get on your way. But if you would rather have it warmed up, my friend, you can do that too. Really quickly.

So I love frittatas for that reason. And I also love them because any leftover veggies that you have in your fridge, put them in. I do like to sauté them first to make sure they’re nice and soft before they go in. But I mean, they are already cooked so you could technically just throw them right in with the rest of the eggs. And if you put milk in or cream or whatever mixture, throw it all in there. Pop it in the oven. Ah-ma-zing. So I love frittatas for that reason.

Now, you could also have eggs in an omelet form. Similar in that you can add vegetables, you can have it plain, salt and pepper is always my go-to, and sometimes garlic powder and onion powder. Like, delicious, fast. Throw some cheese inside it, like feta cheese or raw cheddar if you have that or regular cheddar. Oh my goodness, delicious.

For breakfast, you can have your eggs fried. Have them boiled. You can even have them (now hear me out, okay?)… you can have raw egg yolks in a smoothie.

I know, I know how gross that sounds to you probably, or many of you, because it used to sound gross to me. But we’re not talking about the whole egg; we’re only talking about the yolk. The yolk is okay to have raw if, ideally, it’s from a pastured (so not pasteurized; pastured), so grass-fed hen. If it’s a grass-fed source, it is likely a more local small, perhaps family-owned farm. And it’s a healthier version for sure than a factory farmed egg, 100%.

So if you’re going to have the raw yolk, I would really suggest that you get the pastured eggs, even just have an extra egg carton in your fridge of pastured eggs, because they are more expensive (unless you have a local farm that you go to, which is amazing because they’re usually cheaper and pastured). But this way, you can keep those ones aside for when you want to have the raw yolks and you can use your regular eggs, if you want to have other ones that are not pastured/grass-fed for all the other things when you cook your eggs.

So the other thing about egg yolks.

They are so nutritious and my goodness when you have them raw, you are not destroying, if you will, any of the nutrients. You’re not oxidizing anything so you’re truly getting the straight-up nutrients that are in that yolk. So that’s why I love the egg yolks, and I mean, it’s fast.

So you could virtually put egg yolks raw into any current smoothie recipe, and I can almost promise you that you will not be able to tell that they’re there. I actually have a chocolate milk smoothie recipe, if you can believe it, that incorporates raw egg yolks, and it’s delicious. There’s actually a YouTube video on that blog post, so you can watch me making it. There is an ingredient called Mineral Matrix that was in the original recipe, and you’ll see that I’ve updated the blog post to say that I can’t source that ingredient anymore, so I’ve kind of changed it up a little bit. But anyways, delicious, and it’ll give you a really good introduction into using raw egg yolks, if you feel comfortable with that. And I just, I love it. I’m excited for you to try it.

But again, you can also add the raw yolks to your current breakfast smoothie.

Therefore upping the nutrition factor by a ton. And what the chocolate milk recipe calls for (my recipe anyways) is three yolks. You can start with one if you’d like, you can do two, but the magic number for me is three.

Okay, I felt like that needed a long aside, a long explanation for obvious reasons, because people just aren’t used to that. Now you can also, as a side note, put raw egg yolks into your oatmeal. So I will talk about oatmeal toward the end, but that is another option, just FYI. And then it’s kind of like you’re sort of cooking it because it’s hot. Anyways, we’ll get there.

Breakfast Ideas cont: Smoothies

So speaking of putting yolks into smoothies, let’s just talk about smoothies in general. Those are a great source of protein, and fat. And they don’t have to be a huge source of carbs; it all depends on what you put in them. So my typical smoothie recipe will be protein powder, because it’s fast. Now, yeah, is it better to get protein from actual food that has not been processed into a protein powder? Yes. But the protein powders that I like to use are typically from grass-fed cows. I like to use whey protein powder because it’s a good source of protein, and it’s typically got a good amount of protein per serving. Again, 20 to 25 grams per serving is what I’m looking for.

So I do use protein powder, the base is usually water, unless I happen to have almond milk or oat milk on hand, and if I want to use that, I will, but honestly it’s usually water… cheapest, easiest. And then I will add some kind of fat. So I’ve got my protein, and the fat that I add is usually coconut oil liquid. Now, you can put in the solid coconut oil, but depending on your blender and how cold the rest of your ingredients are, i.e. frozen berries that you might add, you might find that using the solid coconut oil gives you little tiny chunks of coconut oil in your smoothie.

Now you might not mind that, I don’t mind that because I like coconut and I like the taste of it. But if you don’t, then what I would suggest is heating it up on the stove just a little bit to melt it first, and then put it in your smoothie and blend. It’s an extra step for sure, but if you only have solid coconut oil, that’s what I would do.

But there’s an even better way, my friend. If you just buy the liquid coconut oil, you will save yourself having to worry about any of that.

So liquid coconut oil you can buy; it might just be called coconut oil. But it also could be called MCT oil. That’s the more common name of it in the store. So look for MCT oil; that will be your liquid coconut oil. Awesome smoothie ingredient.

Now I’ve got protein powder, I’ve got my oil (and by the way, you can also use flax oil instead of the coconut oil, you can go back and forth, just make it different, right?) As far as the flavour and fibre, because fibre I didn’t even talk about but it’s also very important for digestion and I mean, overall body function.

We need protein, we need fat, we need fibre. So the fibre that I would add to my smoothie is usually in the form of the fruit. The best fruit that I like to use is frozen berries. And yes, I like I like them to be frozen because it gives the smoothie that smoothie consistency, and that cold milkshake kind of consistency. So I really love frozen berries for that reason.

And my favourite thing to do, actually, is to have half a cup of frozen berries plus a frozen banana for breakfast.

So good. It just gives me that flavour that I’m looking for, and the sweetness is, like, definitely sweet enough with that. Some people find it too sweet with a banana, so you can even do half a banana, or just the berries. Like, it really is up to you. But just make sure that overall, your smoothie has the protein, the fat, and then the fibre.

Now we can talk about additions all day but I won’t get into that today. But as an example, you could throw in some spinach, or you could do a kale leaf or two, you could do hemp hearts, you could put plain full-fat yogurt, you could put chia seeds, either ground or whole. You could do so many different things in your smoothie. And something else I often add is a scoop of either almond butter or natural peanut butter. Love it, it adds more protein and fat and fibre, and it gives more flavour. Hello! So your smoothies, like, really have fun with them. Look up recipes. I have some recipes on my instagram @laurannlima. And, you know, smoothies can be an absolutely great breakfast, especially for a busy mama. Am I right?

Leftovers for breakfast

Okay, so moving right along. Leftovers, my friend, leftovers for breakfast I love. Now I’m kind of weird, I guess you could say, well, people have called me weird, because I like cold leftovers, depending on what it is. But usually I don’t even need to heat leftovers up in order for me to enjoy them. So that makes it really fast for me, just like the frittata; take it out of the fridge and boom, I’ve got my breakfast ready to go. But if it’s something that I would rather have heated up, I will heat it up either in the toaster oven or quickly on the stove.

And I love it, like, leftovers are so fast, obviously. So easy. And then you’re almost guaranteed to get protein because usually you’re having dinner leftovers, and we usually look for protein for dinner, most of us, typically. And you’re just, I mean, you’re getting something different because you don’t have those same foods every day necessarily. So this is one that I find people don’t often think of but yeah, leftovers!

Yogurt

Here is another option for you for breakfast: Plain, full-fat yogurt with berries and hemp hearts, done. If you do Greek yogurt, even better, because now you’re adding in more protein. The addition of the hemp hearts, AKA hemp seeds, is adding protein, is adding fat, is adding fibre, and vitamins and minerals. Hemp hearts are awesome, and they do taste good, kind of nutty. So they add a little bit of a flavour to your yogurt, and nutrition for sure.

Now, you notice I said plain yogurt because we really do want to avoid the sugar for breakfast that is undoubtedly in the flavoured yogurt. I have yet to find a flavoured yogurt that is sweetened not with sugar. I have seen a couple in the past, but I don’t even think they’re around anymore. If it is a flavoured yogurt, you can bet it has added sugar, and we just don’t need that, especially in the morning, especially when we’ve gone through this fast overnight, and now we’re breaking the fast with sugar, it’s just going to bring our blood sugar level, like, skyrocketing up, which brings it right back down, which leads to cravings. And it leads to mood swings, and the cravings we get are typically for a lot of sugar or high carb foods, like, no, thank you!

And the great thing is that, yeah, you’re having plain yogurt, but you can sweeten it yourself.

You can use maple syrup or honey because yes, these are sources of sugar but they are more natural, and ideally, you don’t use a ton. And I find you don’t really need a ton in order to get it sweet enough. And if you don’t want any sugar at all, you can use stevia. I love using stevia to sweeten tea, to sweeten coffee and smoothies if needed if you’re not using fruit, and in this case, yogurt. So there you go.

Now you can even add to your yogurt, homemade granola. Because homemade granola is so much better than store bought. Because you control the ingredients, just like anything, and honestly, it does not take long to make. And once you’ve made it, you have it in a container on your counter, and now you have it for the week. Or maybe you have it for five days; it depends how many are in your family and how much you eat of it, but like to have it on hand for at least a few days. Amazing. You can have it on its own, and you can add it to your yogurt in this case. So good.

Toast

Here’s another option, or a breakfast add-on option, if you will: Toast. Yeah, we’ve got to talk about toast. So yes, you can have toast, absolutely, but there are better kinds to have. What I typically tend to avoid, and suggest avoiding, is white bread. Nobody’s surprised to hear that. It tends to be inflammatory, really, really high carb, meaning blood sugar fluctuations like crazy, and a lot of the time, hard to digest. So, white bread, try to avoid that one as much as you can. 

Now, something that people are more surprised about is also whole wheat bread. Same idea. In fact, whole wheat bread has been shown sometimes to have even more of a blood sugar impact than white bread. I don’t know; it’s crazy. So whole wheat bread is not much different typically than white bread.

So I would suggest to avoid white and avoid whole wheat for breakfast.

You’re like, okay, so what do I have, Laura? Cool. What is left? Well, there are lots of things left. First off, let’s talk about the process. Sprouted and sourdough, those are my two favourites. So they’re processed in a different way to make them easier to digest. And especially sourdough, it’s been fermented, and that just improves the nutrition of the bread.

Now, as far as what kind of bread to get, I do like rye bread. I do like sourdough rye. So now we’re adding things on here. Sourdough rye is my favourite. And if you are local to Hamilton, Ontario, then you might find a company called Grainfields. They have a sourdough rye that I love. My favourite. Keep it in the freezer. There are not many ingredients in it at all. It’s fermented properly in the traditional way. I love it.

Also, if you are local to around the Hamilton area, there’s a company called De La Terre, and it is so good. They have the sourdough loaves. Oh my goodness, delicious. So even if you get the regular sourdough loaf, they use the wheat grain. They do have other grains besides wheat that they use, but even if you get their regular, so like, the herb & cheese, or the potato and olive oil, they’re typically using wheat bread, but it’s been fermented so it’s a little bit easier to digest. 

There’s so many factors and layers when it comes to bread, so I don’t want you to be confused.

But if you look for sourdough, awesome, if you look for sprouted, awesome, and if you can find a different grain besides wheat, even awesomer, if you will. I love rye and also spelt. Spelt is great too. But there are many kinds.

It also matters when it comes to bread, what you put with it. So, eggs and/or avocado are the best, I would say. And I also like, okay, as a side note, I do like using a thick slice of tomato with my eggs and my avocado and cheese and whatever for my breakfast instead of toast. So if I’m going to have an alternative to toast, I use a nice thick slice of tomato. But if I’m having toast, I make sure I have it with something that’s higher in protein and fat. So definitely eggs are up there. If you’ve ever heard of avocado toast, AKA avo toast, love it. Now you’re adding the avocado to it.

You can even put a sprinkle of hemp hearts on top of that to add even more protein and good fat. You can also put some boiled egg, so if you slice up your boiled egg, you put that on top of your avocado, delicious… or you have your fried egg and your avocado. Like, you see? The options are really endless, the variety can be endless, but I hope that I’m giving you some ideas to be like, oh, hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. Okay, cool. I’ll do that next.

Now, you can do peanut butter, you can do almond butter. Those are sources of protein, yes. I would still say make sure you’re getting some other kind of protein as well. Maybe you’re putting some hemp hearts on top of that, or maybe you’re having an egg on the side, or maybe you’re having half a smoothie with that. So we can combine these different breakfast ideas to get a good amount of protein and fat.

Oatmeal

So let’s talk about oatmeal next because oatmeal is another one that is common. Now I will suggest to avoid your typical instant oatmeal because it is refined, usually high in sugar and high carb in general (because oatmeal is a carb) and then you’re adding the refined sugar to it, making it even higher. So is that gonna last you an energy? No, likely it’s not.

But, is there a better type of oats you can have, which is more time consuming than instant oatmeal but still not awful? Yes… steel cut oats! Steel cut oats are a lot better for you, a lot less refined than your typical oatmeal. So there you go, try steel cut oats, see what you think.

Quinoa

Now, you can also use quinoa. I don’t know if you’ve heard about quinoa; you probably have because it’s been known for a long time now in the mainstream, I would say. But quinoa is also a great option, and it’s delicious. So you boil it just like you would rice. And so it’s like two to one, water to quinoa. And you can add anything to it that might add to your oatmeal, or even that you might add to your yogurt.

So you could have your quinoa or your steel cut oats and you sweeten it with either honey, maple syrup, or stevia. You can add berries, you can add hemp hearts. And I mean, you could add nuts and seeds… the list goes on. But this is just another idea for a good, long-lasting, delicious breakfast. 

What breakfasts should I have less often?

I wanted to give you a big list, like here’s a big list of things that you can eat from freely. Now let’s talk about the foods that we want to eat less often. Okay, my three-year-old daughter has just joined me, named Ellie, so you might hear her voice in the background. I’ve asked her to be super quiet for these last few minutes, but if you hear her, that is what you’re hearing.

Cereal

So let’s talk about those breakfasts that we have less often, ideally. Cereal. You might be wondering about cereal and how you haven’t heard it on my other list. Well, it’s because all the cereal that I’ve looked at thus far, it doesn’t have enough protein. It’s not fueling enough. Now, is there a cereal that you can add, for example, hemp hearts to? Yes, absolutely. Is there better-for-you cereal? Yes. But I still find that the cereal that I look for and that I find does not have enough protein, and has too much sugar in it. So it’s just not sustaining. Like, can you have it sometimes? Sure. Is it better to have it with a smoothie on the side or with an egg on the side or adding hemp hearts to it? Yes. So there you go.

Look for the better kinds of cereal, you know, you’re not going to go for, like, Captain Crunch. Ideally, you’re going to go with maybe a granola cereal that is lower in carbs. I mean, yeah, so let’s just leave at that.

Flavoured Yogurt

Now the next one to have less often is flavoured yogurt with sugary granola, or just flavoured yogurt in general. I’ve already talked about this one because it is just so high in sugar if you get the flavoured one. So flavoured yogurt in general just has so much sugar and a lot of the time if we buy this like from Starbucks, or often like the grocery store, or if you do it at home, a lot of times I will see granola with it. Well, that granola is loaded with sugar. So it’s just like sugar on top of sugar.

And I know it’s delicious, believe me. I like these tastes too, of course I do! But do I like how they make me feel? No. Do they give me long-lasting energy? They do not. So this is why it’s on our list to have, sure, sometimes, but less often. And if you can do it yourself with a plain full-fat Greek yogurt, with your own granola, if you want to have granola on it, amazing. 

White & Whole Wheat Toast

The next one I’ve already mentioned, and that is white or whole wheat toast. This includes though, bagels, English muffins, pita, tortilla… all the bread products, because there are so many. And the more that we have them, the more we can have an effect from them. So blood sugar issues, digestive issues, and inflammatory issues in general, whether or not we feel the inflammation, for sure it can be happening in our bodies, which can cause all sorts of symptoms and all sorts of issues.

So let’s try to avoid those as much as we can. Again, as much as we can. Not 100%; I live an 80/20 lifestyle when it comes to well, most things, but when it comes to my foods. So 80% of the time, I am eating the best-for-you foods, and 20% of the time, I am allowing those indulgences, those treats. So that’s where the English muffins will come in. Because yes, do I like an English muffin sometimes? Heck yes I do. What do I put on it? Peanut butter and honey. Yes, that’s from my childhood, and you will not tell me to never have that again. But will I have it every day? No. Will I have it often? No. I definitely go through my phases of wanting it, but no, because ultimately it doesn’t give me that long-lasting fuel that I need as a mama.

Typical Granola Bars

The last one to avoid as much as you can is your typical granola bar. Yes, there are protein bars, and I talked about in my episode on the snacks, the must-have snacks for your nightstand, a couple episodes ago, I talked about some of the bars that I like. So I like Larabar, I like Love Good Fats bars, there’s a few other ones. And those are better because they’re higher in protein and typically lower in carbs. But your typical (I said that word a lot today, but whatever)… your typical granola bar has a lot of sugar. Usually it’s also wheat-based, and so it’s just not, it’s just not giving us the nutrition that we need. And it tastes good in the moment, but it doesn’t give us that long-lasting fuel that we really, truly need.

Bottom Line

So there you have it! I hope you’re excited to switch over breakfast a bit and provide your body with even more fuel than it’s used to, and I can’t wait for you to see how you feel when you do. The food that we eat truly makes all the difference in how we feel, both mentally and physically. And as a new mom, or a mom of littles, how we feel makes all the difference in how our day goes too, does it not?! Either way, we’re going to be super busy, jumping from place to place, doing all the things, getting it done, so why not help ourselves feel happier, calmer, and more energized while doing all of that?

If you want more tips like this, as well as recipes and just a good place to get supported as a new or newish mom, then come join my free natural mamahood community over on Facebook. Just search for “new mama nation” under “groups”, request to join, and I will gladly let you right on in.

Have a great day, mama, and I will talk to you here next week… and hopefully sooner in my Facebook group. Ellie, did you want to say bye? Bye. There’s Ellie saying bye. See you later, guys!

Thanks for listening to the Love & Lettuce Podcast. To find out how to work with me and for more great info, check out newmamanation.com. This is Laura! Until next time, love and lettuce.