Are you a breakfast believer? Even if you don’t think breakfast is indeed the most important meal, there’s no denying that starting the day with a balanced meal has many health benefits.
Eating some combination of produce, protein and healthy fat within one hour of waking helps fire up your metabolism, boosts your mood, and improves concentration. It also keeps your blood sugar from skyrocketing and then plummeting—the way grabbing say, a granola bar to go with your coffee, will do. I know I feel better when I’ve eaten a proper breakfast. And I’ve also found that starting the day with a balanced breakfast usually leads to an entire day of healthy eating.
This doesn’t mean I’m never guilty of grabbing “just a little something” on my way out the door from time to time. Getting three kids off in the morning isn’t easy! To get in a good breakfast, even on busy weekdays, I’ve found two things to be extremely helpful:
- I plan a few breakfast options for the week and even prep some of my food ahead of time.
- I don’t limit breakfast to just “traditional” breakfast foods. This gives me many more options for what to eat.
So today I’m sharing one of my go-to, non-traditional breakfasts, plus how I prep the ingredients ahead of time to make it quick and easy to throw together.
Whether you struggle to find time for a proper meal on hectic mornings, or you’re just looking for a new healthy breakfast idea, give my Quinoa Breakfast Bowls a try. They’re delicious, nutritious, and will keep you energized and satisfied until lunch! And if eating veggies for breakfast freaks you out, this also makes an excellent lunch or dinner. 🙂
I got hooked on this dish this past summer when radishes and cucumbers were in season and part of my CSA box. I can still get good quality radishes and cucumbers at my co-op this time of year, so I’ve stuck with it. Cucumbers and radishes are so nutritious, and this dish is so good, I would hate to limit it to just one season of the year!
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Savory Quinoa Breakfast Bowl
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1 cup radishes (thinly sliced and cut in half)
- 1 cup seedless cucumber (thinly sliced and cut in half)
- 2 ounces feta cheese (freshly shredded/crumbled)
- 2 tablespoons green onions (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
- 4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons white balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Simply combine all prepared ingredients and enjoy!
Notes
We recommend organic ingredients whenever possible.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Breakfast
Quinoa Breakfast Bowls Preparation Tips:
- I like to cook a batch of quinoa to eat with various meals throughout the week, including my Quinoa Breakfast Bowls. I recently bought a rice cooker which has made cooking the quinoa a total breeze—although it’s pretty darn easy on the stovetop too. 🙂
- I also wash and chop up the cucumbers and radishes, shred/crumble the feta, and chop up the green onions.
- I place all the ingredients into glass storage dishes. For the cucumbers and radishes, I fill two 1-cup glass storage dishes with half of each of the vegetables. Then in the morning I simply grab one of the cucumber/radish dishes and dump the whole thing into my bowl.
- I like my quinoa warm, so I put 1/2 cup of it into the microwave for 30 seconds before adding it to the veggie bowl. This step is totally optional—cold quinoa works great too.
- I top my Quinoa Breakfast Bowl with the feta, pumpkin seeds, green onions, extra-virgin olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, and season it with a little bit of salt and pepper. Then I toss it all together and dig in!
Give it a try and let me know what you think! And feel free to get creative. There are tons of different toppings and vegetables that can make these Quinoa Breakfast Bowls delicious!
Kelly Harjes is a Certified Holistic Health Coach and founder of Appetite for Healthy Change™. Her mission is to inspire others to look and feel their best, feed their families well, and help improve our food system. To learn more about Kelly, please visit Our Team Page.
Kitchen Tips and Resources from Bruce:
- A rice cooker is a handy appliance, especially when you’re trying to do some advanced prep work in the kitchen. Here’s a link to Aroma’s directions for cooking quinoa in their rice cookers.
- Glass storage dishes are a kitchen essential when you’re trying to avoid chemicals (like BPA) that can leach out of plastic containers. These Anchor Hocking glass containers with True Seal Airtight Lids come in a variety of sizes and are dishwasher, freezer, microwave, and oven safe.
- As I’ve shared in other posts, cutting boards and knives are two kitchen essentials. I love these great, non-slip cutting boards and my Zwilling J.A. Henckels Twin Signature brand knives.
2 Responses
Thanks for the recipe Kelli. I’ve decided one of the changes I need to make is doing breakfast differently.
Good for you, Lillian! There’s no need to limit your options when it comes to the most important meal of the day. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the recipe – thanks for commenting!