Nutrition & Recipes
3 Ways to Meal Prep Breakfast in Just 20 Minutes
Jul
With just a few ingredients and 20 minutes you can have breakfast meal prepped for the week. And on those mornings when it doesn’t look like you’ll make it out the door on time, that’s magic!
Breakfast is one of the best meals to plan and prepare ahead of time. You’ll get to sleep in a bit longer and you know you’ll have a filling and delicious meal to start the day with all week long. And it doesn’t take long to make sure you are prepared.
Each of these meal prep breakfast ideas uses 5 ingredients or less (not including kitchen staples like salt, pepper and olive oil). With just 20 minutes, you can set yourself up for healthy breakfast success all week long!
The Benefits of Meal Prep
Meal prep is one of those things that you hear about so much that your eyes glaze over when the subject comes up. But pay a little attention because there are so many benefits to meal prep!
- Manage portion sizes (and calories) with little effort.
It’s too easy these days to over do it on portion sizes. Restaurants super size everything and eyeballing that 1 cup dump of cereal is never accurate. When you prepare your own food and measure out your ingredients you’re better able to control how much you eat, the quality of the ingredients you put in your body and ultimately, the pace you set for your weight loss and other fitness goals. - Save time.
It takes time in the morning to figure out what you want and then prep breakfast. And it definitely takes time to wait in a drive thru! Meal prep gives you that time back when you need it the most! - Save money.
Even if you’re not buying a fancy-pants coffee concoction on the reg, grabbing breakfast on the go every single day subtly lightens the wallet. Healthy eating gets a bad rap for being expensive but that’s actually not true – especially with breakfast. Oats, frozen fruit, eggs. These are all ingredients that you can buy in bulk to save money on, and they are all super healthy!
On top of the calories, time and money you’ll save, when you meal prep breakfast you get the added benefit of a less stressful morning and a better relationship with food. You get to make conscious decisions ahead of time to fill your plate with healthy ingredients – no post-drive thru guilt, no grabbing whatever is in front of you because it’s easy, no messy car filled with muffin crumbs.
3 Ways to Meal Prep Breakfast in Just 20 Minutes
The best recipes for meal prep keep it simple, keep it quick, and keep it healthy.
Baked Tomato, Canadian Bacon and Parmesan Egg Muffins
I love the nutty note Parmesan gives these egg muffins, especially paired with the smoky, bacony flavor of smoked paprika. You can swap in any of your favorite veggies here too – but this is a simple and delicious combo!
Ingredients:
- Non-stick cooking spray
- 1.5 cups cherry tomatoes, diced
- 4 slices Canadian bacon, diced
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 8 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- salt and pepper
Make it:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray cups of a muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray or line with muffin liners. Divide the tomatoes, Canadian bacon and Parmesan cheese between the cups.
In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, paprika, salt and pepper. Pour evenly until the prepared muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes until the eggs are set.
Allow the egg muffins to cool completely before dividing into daily portions.
Eat with: 1 medium orange and a small side salad of dressed arugula.
Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats
I used to be a non-believer of overnight oats. But I tried a few different recipes and realized what the real turn off for me was chia seeds, not the oats themselves! Check out this article for more overnight oat (and baked oat, and stove top oats recipes).
Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups vanilla Greek yogurt
- 2-2.5 cups unsweetened almond milk
- 2 cups pumpkin puree
- 1-2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Make it:
In a large bowl combine yogurt, almond milk, and pumpkin puree until combined. Stir in oats and spices. Pour into 5 glass jars or containers and refrigerate overnight.
Tropical Green Smoothie Packs
This tropical green smoothie – packed with sweet fruit and nutrients- is by far my favorite recipe. Making freezer packs turns an otherwise messy process into a easy, quick meal prep breakfast!
Ingredients:
- 5 cups kale leaves, chopped
- 2-3 large bananas, sliced and frozen
- 3 cups frozen tropical fruit blend
- 5 scoops vanilla protein powder
- 5 cups unsweetened almond milk
Make it:
Divide kale, bananas and tropical fruit blend into 5 resealable sandwich baggies. Store in the freezer.
In the morning, add 1 bag, 1 scoop of protein powder and 1 cup of almond milk to a high powered blender and blend until smooth.
