These Healthy Breakfast Treats Will Make You Happy to Be Awake!

If you are like me, you wake up early in the morning and stumble all over for the first few hours trying to wake up. The last thing you want to think about is breakfast, but your stomach has other thoughts, and lets out embarrassing roars if you don't listen to what it is thinking. As a compromise, you probably throw a frozen waffle in the toaster, or grab a breakfast bar on the way out the door (and does that doorjamb always have to jump out and hit you as you leave?). Well, here are some ways to jazz up your breakfast and make your tummy happy without ever having to fully wake up (although you may want to be fully awake just to experience these tastes fully!).

The first secret to a good breakfast is something steamy and comforting that you can cuddle in your poor, not-quite-functioning hands. Usually, a cup of coffee or tea is the easiest way to get this. However, making them is a bit more than most of us are capable of first thing in the morning. My suggestion would be an automatic coffee maker for coffee drinkers. Make the coffee the night before, including putting out a cup with the right amount of cream and sugar (if you like your coffee with these) right next to the coffeepot. For tea drinkers, this is a bit harder, as there are no automatic tea makers that I have found capable of making good tea. I have settled for an electric kettle. It heats water in less than five minutes, and you can filll it and put your cup (with a tea bag or loose tea in it) right next to it the night before you need it. Then, all you have to do is stumble out to the kitchen and hit the heat button on the kettle. Easy!

The next thing you need is the healthy breakfast itself. This is a little trickier but, with a bit of advance preperation, can be accomplished. You don't even need to settle for frozen waffles every morning! The possiblilities are endless if you prepare the night before. I like yogurt, which is simple in and of itself, but doesn't keep me full until lunchtime. So, the night before I want my quick breakfast, I chop some frut into a bowl (bananans and peaches are my favorites, but any fruit will work) and mix it with a cup of yougurt. Then it is all ready to eat int he morning! If you like a bit of crunch, you can also add granola or even cereal to the top of your fruit and yogurt first thing in the morning.

Not a yogurt and fruit person? How about a boiled egg and toast? You can boil the egg the night before and leave it in the refrigerator for breakfast. Toast is also a wonderfully versitile breakfast food all by itself. It can be covered with cheese (shredded or cut the night before, of course), or spread with either peanut butter or cream cheese and jelly or fruit. Yum!

Mornings are a difficult time of day for most of us, but with a little bit of advanced preperation, breakfast can be a nice meal for even the grouchiest non-morning person!