Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Properly composed and balanced, it provides the body with many valuable nutrients essential for its proper functioning. In today's Magazine, we prove that healthy doesn't mean boring or tasteless we present 5 ideas for wholesome breakfasts that will tempt everyone with their taste and appearance.
Breakfast eat it like a king!
Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.
This old adage holds a great deal of wisdom. Breakfast is the first meal of the day that guarantees a solid dose of energy for at least the next 3-4 hours, gets your grey matter working, speeds up your metabolism, prevents hunger pangs and reaching for unhealthy snacks, and also ensures you stay in a good mood all day long. Breakfast should become your daily, tasty ritual. And although it's hard to find a spare moment amidst the morning rush, it's worth it, between showering and drying your hair, to pause for at least 15 minutes, sit at the table and, without doing anything else in the meantime eat a hearty and wholesome meal.
The most popular way to breakfast sandwiches
A sandwich is by far the most popular breakfast solution, characterised primarily by its simplicity and speed of preparation. If you don't manage to eat it at home, you can easily take it with you to work, school, or university. To prevent it from getting squashed in your backpack or handbag, equip yourself with a lunch box and sandwich box, which is the ideal place for transporting them. Remember, however, to compose it in such a way that it is not only delicious but also full of healthy additions. Check out how to prepare a wholesome sandwich so that it tempts with both its taste and appearance.
How to compose a healthy sandwich?
- Firstly, carbohydrates, meaning good quality bread. The best, because the healthiest, is wholemeal sourdough bread, whole grain, spelt, or pure grain bread, which is an excellent source of carbohydrates and contains large amounts of dietary fibre that has a beneficial effect on the digestive system. If you want to enjoy fresh, fragrant, and crispy bread for a long time, equip your kitchen with a bread bin, which is the best place to store bread and rolls.
- Secondly, protein excellent sources of protein for sandwiches include: cheese, eggs, good quality cold cuts, delicate fish such as mackerel or salmon, fish and vegetable pastes, as well as nuts and seeds.
- Thirdly, fat, which is essential for the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins. Therefore, remember that your sandwich should always contain a fatty addition, for example, real butter, for which an ideal place is a butter dish, protecting the butter from unfavourable external conditions and ensuring its freshness for a long time, as well as olive oil, rapeseed or linseed oil, peanut butter, or tahini paste.
- And fourthly, vegetables giving sandwiches an appetising look and enhancing the taste of other ingredients. Tomato, cucumber, lettuce, rocket, lamb's lettuce, spinach, kale, dill, chives, or perhaps onion, radish, or pepper? The choice is yours!
Remember to add fresh herbs to your sandwiches, which wonderfully enhance their flavour. Therefore, it is worth creating a herbal mini-garden in your home, so you always have them at your fingertips and can savour sandwiches seasoned with aromatic herbs every morning.
What to prepare a healthy sandwich with?
Below we present a handful of delicious sandwich inspirations. We are convinced that one of these suggestions will hit your taste buds and palate 
- With hard-boiled egg, tomato, and rocket start preparing the sandwich by boiling the eggs hard. To do this, pour water into a pot, salt it, add the eggs, and place it on the hob. When the water boils, set a timer for 8 minutes that's exactly how long hard-boiled eggs should cook. After this time, pour out the hot water from the pot and pour in cold water to stop the cooking process. Then assemble your sandwich: spread butter on the bread, add rocket, sliced hard-boiled eggs, tomato slices, and sprinkle with chives, pepper, and a pinch of salt.
- With fried egg, ham, and tomato to prepare this delicious and healthy sandwich, you'll certainly find a frying pan for eggs with a non-stick coating useful. Simply heat a little clarified butter in it, then crack an egg and wait until the egg white sets and the yolk remains runny. On a plate, arrange in order: bread, lettuce, ham, tomato, and the egg sprinkle with chives and freshly ground pepper.
- With cream cheese spread to prepare the cream cheese spread, mix cottage cheese, freshly squeezed garlic, natural yoghurt, a little tomato paste, and a few drops of olive oil. Spread the prepared mixture on bread. Red pepper and pickled cucumber will be an ideal addition to this spread. Yum!
- With white cheese, radishes, cucumber, garlic, dill, and fresh mint leaves.
- With Parma ham, tomato, mozzarella, olives, basil, and olive oil.
- With mackerel, lettuce, gherkins, and chives.
- With smoked salmon, lamb's lettuce, green olives, and Parmesan.
- With cream cheese of your favourite flavour, a thick slice of tomato, and chives.
Fresh bread every morning?
Count Sandwich...
Creamy, velvety, with various healthy additions porridge
Porridge, a dish made from oat flakes and milk or water, is an excellent way to enjoy a delicious, nutritious, and wholesome breakfast that will provide you with a solid dose of energy for a long time and many valuable nutrients for your body. Why should you eat porridge for breakfast? The benefits of consuming it stem from the richness of ingredients found in oat flakes.
Oats are a wealth of vitamin B6, which supports memory and concentration, vitamin B1 which counteracts fatigue, irritability, and excessive nervousness, as well as vitamin E, one of the most powerful antioxidants, slowing down the ageing process and protecting the body against the development of many diseases. But that's not all. Oat flakes also contain unsaturated fatty acids that support the cardiovascular system, as well as soluble fibre that effectively regulates metabolic processes. They are also a good source of easily digestible protein and minerals: magnesium, potassium, iron, selenium, calcium, and iodine.
As you can see, oat flakes are a real nutritional powerhouse. Furthermore, a serving of porridge is a very good source of digestible complex carbohydrates, making it an ideal choice for a healthy, delicious, and nutritious breakfast. We also love porridge because it can be prepared quickly and easily and served with a variety of additions, so it will taste different every morning!
How to cook delicious porridge? Below is a basic recipe.
The most important ingredient, of course, is the flakes. It's best to choose regular or rolled oats, which are made from whole oat grains, thus retaining valuable nutritional properties.
For porridge to be creamy yet light, it's best to cook it in a mixture of full-fat milk and water. The ratio of flakes to liquid should be 1 part flakes to 3 parts liquid. And finally cooking! Porridge will be soft and velvety if you soak the flakes in water the night before. All you need to do in the morning is add milk and bring it to a boil. This trick will make the flakes cook faster, and additionally, by increasing their volume, they will satisfy hunger for a long time. Cook the porridge until the flakes reach the desired softness and most of the liquid is absorbed, which will take approximately 10-12 minutes. While cooking, stir the porridge, preferably with a wooden spoon, pressing the flakes against the bottom and sides of the pot.
Note! Remember to add a pinch of salt to the cooked flakes! It is salt that brings out their unique, cereal flavour.
What to serve porridge with? Here are our tasty suggestions!
- With apple, raisins, and cinnamon add diced apple, a teaspoon of honey, and a tablespoon of raisins to the porridge, mix, and sprinkle the finished portion of healthy meal with cinnamon and a pinch of cardamom. If you love apple pie you must try this recipe as soon as possible!
- With jam and toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds mix a portion of flakes with a tablespoon of your favourite jam, and sprinkle the whole thing with sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds toasted in a dry pan.
- With plums add a few finely chopped damson plums and a handful of chopped walnuts to the cooked flakes. Combine all the ingredients, and sprinkle the finished porridge with almond flakes.
- With bananas this is a very simple, yet delicious version of porridge. Simply add sliced banana to the cooked flakes and heat the whole thing. After transferring to a bowl, you can add a tablespoon of raisins or cranberries for taste.
- With nuts add 2 tablespoons of peanut butter and a handful of chopped walnuts to the porridge sweetened with honey. We guarantee that the taste of nutty porridge will pleasantly surprise you.
- With cocoa, bananas, and walnuts while cooking the porridge, add a teaspoon of honey and two teaspoons of cocoa. After cooking, add sliced bananas and walnuts toasted in a dry pan to the portion of flakes. This is a real energy boost!
- With fruit purée simply blend your favourite fruits into a purée and add it to the porridge along with a handful of fresh fruits.
- With pineapple and kiwi add diced fresh pineapple and kiwi to the porridge, a tablespoon of coconut flakes, drizzle with lemon juice, and enjoy the taste of tropical fruits submerged in healthy porridge from early morning.
- With mango and mandarins add diced mango and mandarin segments to a bowl of porridge, and sprinkle the whole thing with coconut flakes and your favourite nuts.
- With pumpkin and carrot add a handful of grated carrot, a little pulp from baked pumpkin, a handful of raisins, toasted hazelnuts, a tablespoon of honey, and a little cinnamon to the cooked porridge. Porridge prepared this way is an excellent idea for an autumn breakfast.
Porridge is a recipe for beautiful complexion, a perfect figure, and excellent mental and physical fitness, so it should become a permanent fixture in your breakfast menu.
The English roots of porridge
Fluffy, soft, melting in your mouth pancakes
Is there anyone who can resist fluffy, fragrant, freshly fried pancakes? Pancakes are an ideal proposition for a tasty and filling breakfast that will give us plenty of energy to get things done. You can prepare them sweet or savoury, eat them hot or cold, with or without filling. Everyone will find a version for themselves. Stuffed with delicious and healthy additions, they are a great way to start the day perfectly.
What do we need to remember when making pancakes? What should we do to make the pancakes fry evenly, without sticking or burning, and to a beautiful golden colour? The guarantee of a delicious taste of the pancakes is a well-prepared batter, so below we present some universal tips that will ensure the pancakes you fry will delight with their taste.
- Before adding flour to the batter, sieve it through a fine-mesh sieve; this will make the pancakes more delicate.
- For preparing pancakes, it's worth using flour that won't weigh down the batter. Cake flour is an excellent choice.
- The addition of sparkling water to the batter will give the pancakes lightness and fluffiness.
- The pancake batter should be thoroughly mixed so that there are no lumps. However, it is not recommended to use a mixer, as the batter loses its fluffiness. What should you do to perfectly combine the ingredients for the pancakes? Clever kitchen gadgets come to the rescue, making daily meal preparation easier. One of these is a pancake shaker. Simply put all the ingredients into it, put on the lid, shake vigorously, and you're done. We guarantee that all ingredients will be perfectly combined! And thanks to a special opening, you can dispense the batter directly from the shaker onto the frying pan.
- Before frying, let the batter rest leave it for at least 30 minutes. Of course, this is not essential, after all, we know that every minute in the morning is worth its weight in gold, but on a lazy Saturday or Sunday, it's worth trying this trick. Thanks to the rest, the ingredients will bind well, the batter will achieve the ideal consistency, and the fried pancakes will melt in your mouth. Pay attention to the consistency of the batter, which, before pouring onto the pan, should resemble slightly thinned cream.
- The secret to good pancakes is the right frying pan! For frying pancakes, use pancake pans that streamline and facilitate their frying. A low, shallow frying pan with a non-stick coating is a guarantee of evenly fried pancakes without burning, and flipping the pancakes to the other side is a doddle!
- Fry pancakes with a small amount of fat. It's best to grease the frying pan with a little oil using a kitchen brush each time before pouring the batter. Clarified butter is also a good choice for frying pancakes. You can also fry the pancakes without fat just add a little oil or melted butter to the batter.
- When you notice that the edges are starting to lift from the pan and the batter is no longer liquid, you can flip the pancake over. A pancake spatula will certainly make this task easier. You now know useful tips regarding the batter and frying pancakes, so it's time to present a proven pancake batter recipe. Don't worry if the first pancake ends up in the bin that's normal!
Pancakes basic recipe
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups plain flour
- 1.5 cups milk
- 1 cup sparkling water
- a pinch of salt
Mix all ingredients thoroughly and let the batter rest for 30 minutes. After this time, heat a few drops of oil in a pancake pan and pour in an appropriate amount of batter. Flip the pancake over when the batter starts to pull away from the edges and the fried side of the pancake turns golden. The pancakes taste excellent on their own, but their flavour is perfectly enhanced by various additions. You can eat pancakes for breakfast in both sweet and savoury versions.
To get a delicious sweet breakfast, serve pancakes with...
- jam, conserve, or fresh fruit
- cottage cheese filling or natural yoghurt
- honey or maple syrup
- peanut butter
- fruit purée or sauce
Ancient pancakes
In a savoury version, you can serve pancakes with...
- paprika cheese spread, salami, rocket, and a handful of black olives
- garlic cheese spread, feta, ham, and lamb's lettuce
- cream cheese with horseradish and smoked salmon
- basil pesto, sun-dried tomatoes, and pine nuts
And although preparing pancakes requires some time and practice, it's worth making them to enjoy their wonderful taste and simply start the day right!
Colourful, appetising, and crunchy salads
Those who eat salads are beautiful and smooth! And we assure you, there's no exaggeration in that statement. The vegetables contained in this delicious dish are a source of many nutrients that perfectly affect the functioning of our body. Refreshing, easily digestible, and easy-to-prepare salads are a great way to have a healthy, nutritious, and energising breakfast. Chopped vegetables or fruits with delicious additions and drizzled with an exquisite dressing will ignite your taste buds and conquer many, even the most refined palates.
Below we present 3 recipes for exquisite healthy, colourful, and filling salads that will stimulate and give you strength for the rest of the day. The quantities of ingredients given in the recipes are sufficient to prepare two servings of salad.
Smoked salmon, avocado, and poached egg salad
Ingredients:
- 2 large handfuls of mixed lettuce
- 100g smoked salmon
- ripe avocado diced or sliced
- half a red onion
- lemon juice
- dill
- salt and pepper
- 2 eggs
- half a teaspoon of salt
- a teaspoon of white wine vinegar
Dressing ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons of olive oil
- a tablespoon of lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons of honey
- pepper and salt
Start the salad by preparing the poached egg. Pour water into a pot to a height of about 8-10 cm. Add salt and vinegar. Crack an egg into a small bowl. Once the water boils, carefully pour in the egg and cook for about 3 minutes until the egg white sets and the yolk remains runny. Remove it from the boiling water and do the same with the second egg. Preparing a poached egg will be quicker and easier if you get a set or moulds for poaching eggs. Prepare the dressing. In a bowl or a dressing shaker, mix honey, olive oil, and lemon juice, then add a pinch of salt and pepper. Rinse the mixed lettuce, pat dry, and arrange on plates, then drizzle with the prepared sauce. Place pieces of sliced salmon on the lettuce. Drizzle the diced avocado with lemon juice and add to the salad. Sprinkle the whole thing with thinly sliced red onion and season with salt and pepper. Top with the poached egg and sprinkle with dill.
Parma ham, rocket, and mozzarella salad
Ingredients:
- 2 handfuls of rocket
- 6 slices of Parma ham
- mini mozzarella balls
- a handful of green olives
- about 15 cherry tomatoes
Honey-mustard dressing ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons of honey
- 2 teaspoons of mustard
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- salt, pepper
Rinse the rocket, pat dry, and arrange on plates. On top, place slices of olives, mozzarella balls cut in half, and slices of Parma ham rolled up. On top, place halved cherry tomatoes and a few more rocket leaves. Prepare the honey-mustard sauce. Put all the necessary ingredients into a dressing shaker, shake vigorously, and it's done! Drizzle the salad with the prepared sauce.
Couscous, pomegranate, and goat cheese salad
Ingredients:
- 0.5 cup couscous
- 0.5 cup boiling broth
- 3 handfuls of rocket
- 5 tablespoons of pine nuts
- 0.5 pomegranate
- 15 red grapes
- 50g goat cheese
- 4 tablespoons of freshly grated Parmesan, one teaspoon each of chopped fresh basil and parsley
Honey dressing ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons of honey
- 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
- 6 tablespoons of olive oil
- a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Start preparing the salad with the sauce. Put all the ingredients into a dressing shaker, shake vigorously, and it's done! Pour boiling broth over the couscous, cover, and let it stand for about 10 minutes it should absorb the liquid and become fluffy. Add chopped herbs to the couscous, season with salt and pepper. Then add rinsed, dried, and torn into smaller pieces rocket to the couscous. Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan. Peel the pomegranate and extract the seeds. Halve the grapes and remove the seeds. Add the nuts, pomegranate, grapes, and crumbled goat cheese to the salad and mix. Drizzle the salad with honey dressing and sprinkle with Parmesan.
Even more salad ideas can be found in...
Fruity, nutty, or perhaps chocolatey? Homemade granola
Granola is a mixture of cereal flakes, dried fruit, and nuts baked with honey and fat, which makes it pleasantly crunchy when eaten and gives it a sweet glaze. Sounds delicious, right? Homemade granola is an excellent component of a healthy breakfast. Eaten with milk or natural yoghurt, it will wake you up in the morning and energise you for many hours!
Why is it worth eating granola for breakfast? Thanks to the large amount of cereal flakes, nuts, and dried fruit, this crunchy delight is a wealth of fibre, which provides a feeling of fullness for a long time, unsaturated fatty acids that beneficially affect the cardiovascular system, as well as many minerals and vitamins that positively affect the functioning of the entire body. You can prepare this delicious breakfast option in many ways, creating your favourite flavour combinations. You can add, for example, raisins, dried apricots, figs, dates, dried bananas, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, Brazil nuts, pistachios, or cashews, as well as cocoa, chocolate, coffee, or your favourite spices, such as cinnamon, vanilla, or cardamom. It's worth making a larger batch at once and storing it in a food container so you always have a delicious nutty-fruity mix at hand every morning.
Chocolate Granola
Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups of regular or rolled oats
- 1.5 cups of a mix of any nuts and seeds, e.g., walnuts, peanuts, cashews, and
- sunflower seeds
- 4 tablespoons of cocoa
- 4 tablespoons of oil
- 2/3 cup of liquid honey or maple/agave syrup
- a teaspoon of cinnamon
- 75g dark, milk, or white chocolate
In a bowl, combine the oat flakes, coarsely chopped nuts, seeds, cocoa, cinnamon, oil, and syrup or honey. Mix everything thoroughly. Spread on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake the prepared mixture for about 25 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 degrees Celsius, stirring every 5 minutes. Granola is ready when it is lightly browned. Do not bake it for too long, as it will become bitter and unpalatable.
Immediately after baking, the granola is soft. It only becomes crunchy once it has cooled. After cooling, mix the crunchy treat with chopped chocolate, and you're ready to devour it!
How to properly store granola?
Good morning!
