Today we’re going to talk about some more easy breakfasts, on-the-go foods, and snacky foods. Especially for us moms who are always going somewhere in a rush, it’s great to have something done that you can just grab. This is building on the previous episode, episode 133, which was about easy breakfast items and grab-and-go foods for moms, with high protein and high fiber. Have a look for that one first!
Here’s a little formula that helps me because otherwise I’ll just grab something that’s not a complete meal. Even if it’s a snack, it’s good to have protein plus fiber plus healthy fat – so not just a muffin or piece of fruit on its own. You want fiber and good carbs in there, so could be the fruit, and also a bit of protein and healthy fat. Here are some good combos.
There are apple sandwiches. This is apple slices with peanut or almond butter, or if you’re looking for something with low oxalates, then macadamia butter is very yummy. Sprinkle on some hemp seeds. You can squeeze some lemon juice over the apple slices the night before to stop them from browning, and then the next day, sprinkle on the hemp seeds, and add some cinnamon and a little sea salt. It’s very yummy! Alternatively, you can slice the apple, squeeze the lemon juice over, and have a separate container with nut butter, hemp seeds, cinnamon, et cetera. Or you could sprinkle the cinnamon and sea salt over the apples in advance.
You could also make some frozen yogurt berry bark using Greek yogurt, berries, chopped nuts, and seeds. Put them on a baking sheet and freeze them in a thin layer. Then break it into pieces and keep it frozen. You can sprinkle on some of whatever sweetener you like to use if you want to. My latest discovery is monk fruit allulose – allulose is a very good low glycemic sugar, and of course monk fruit is too. You can add the yogurt first, and then sprinkle on your sweetener if you want some, mixing it gently. Then add your berries, chopped nuts, and/or seeds. Pumpkin seeds and hemp seeds are high in protein. Then you can freeze your bark and break it up, and take a bit with you in a container.
There are peanut butter date bites – which you can also make with any other nut butter stuffed inside a date. Slice the side open and stick some nut butter in there, and then roll it in coconut, or even some crushed nuts and a tiny pinch of salt. Put those in the fridge for when you want to take them with you. They’re good little finger food bites.
Then there are banana rolls. Take a whole banana that you’ve peeled, and wrap it in a thin tortilla, a gluten-free tortilla if you want. Spread peanut butter or any nut butter – macadamia butter, almond butter, etc – spread it on the inside of the tortilla, and then put the banana in the middle and roll it. Then you can slice it into little rounds. It’s surprisingly good cold, so just put it in the fridge overnight.
You could try breakfast cookie bites. You need oats, mashed banana, nut butter, flax seeds, cinnamon, and maybe even some dark chocolate chips. Mash two ripe bananas – overripe is even better, and add one and a half cups of oats, about half a cup of nut butter, about two tablespoons of hemp or your flax seeds, and a teaspoon of ground cinnamon. You can add a little bit of sweetener if you want to, about a teaspoon, and then chocolate chips if you’d like.
Mix them up until you have a sticky dough with a good consistency. If it’s too runny, add more oats, and then let it rest for a couple of minutes. You can also add some chia seeds to help thicken it up, but make sure you let them soak for a while. Leave the dough to rest after everything’s mixed as well, and then put it on your baking sheet in teaspoons. Flatten each mound gently with a fork – just don’t make them too flat – and then bake it for about 10 minutes at about 350 Fahrenheit; 180 Celsius. Take a look at them, and if they’re starting to turn a light golden on the edges, then cool them down and enjoy them.
You can make a different kind of stuffed dates with cheese. Again, cut open the dates and add almond butter or any nut butter, plus a little feta or cheddar. The sweet and salty combination is surprisingly good, and surprisingly filling as well. The nut butter helps the cheese or the feta to stay inside. Keep those in a container in the fridge.
Those are all great options to prepare the night before. Here are some more ideas. Let’s think about adult-type Lunchables. There are cheese cubes, cucumber slices, grapes, whole grain crackers or gluten-free seed crackers, various kinds of nuts or seeds, and then cold meat – turkey slices, chicken slices, or salami. No cooking required! Prep several boxes with these things. Maybe you can use lunchboxes with different sections to put things into.
There are mini cottage cheese cups. To make this one, take some cottage cheese, and if you like, you can whip in a bit of seasoning. I like to use a seasoning salt that’s a blend of herbs and salt. You could also add some spices in there, and maybe some onion powder. Make your cottage cheese sound good. Then put in a separate compartment nearby cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrot sticks, seed crackers, or anything for scooping. Again, you’ll prepare the cottage cheese the night before, and maybe keep the crackers out in a different container. You can add all the other dipping items the night before as well.
If you’re at home, you can do avocado toast. Use seeded toast, or sourdough or whatever bread you like. Spread it with avocado, and sprinkle on some salt. You can also add either feta or cottage cheese, and mix it in. You can cut it into strips to eat from a container on your way, but that’s definitely easier at home.
You could also use hummus. Put it in a little container in the fridge. Even if you’re at home, it’s still helpful to prepare the night before, and be able to just grab a snack. We’re usually so busy that we definitely don’t want to do it at the time, so it’s good to have it ready in advance. You can put hummus in a cup or a container with a lid, and then add some cucumber and carrot sticks. Those last the best if you put them in a jar in the fridge with water. Then just take out some to take with you into a container, or pour the water out the jar and take the whole thing with you for dipping in your hummus.
You can also use pita or naan bread pieces for this. It’s really nice if you tear them up and bake them in the oven with olive oil and salt, or you can just keep them as they are to dip with. Again, seed crackers are also good for this. You can also take a few olives and a bit of cheese, and that’s a good on-the-go meal to have in your bag.
Then there are chicken and avocado roll-ups. Flat deli chicken works well, or you can use just any pieces of chicken. Take your favorite kind of wrap, whether it’s whole grain or gluten-free, and then you add slices of chicken, avocado, and some kind of cheese or cream cheese. You can add something like spinach or lettuce, and a bit of mustard or mayonnaise. Then roll it up and slice it into pinwheels, and it makes easy finger food. Again, you can make it the night before and keep it in the fridge.
Sweet potato bites work best at home. First, roast some sweet potatoes chopped quite small. You can put them in a dish with a lid, and then they steam a bit as well. Add a little olive oil and salt. Roast the sweet potato in advance, and then the next morning sprinkle some feta and pumpkin seeds on top, and add a bit of avocado. You can even roast the pumpkin seeds.
Another thing I love to roast with sweet potato is edamame. I don’t like them to be too hard, so I generally put them in with the sweet potato, with olive oil and salt, put the lid on, and then bake them for about 20 minutes. Then they’re usually a good consistency. You can definitely have those on the go. These kinds of things could go in a lunchbox with compartments – perhaps not the sweet potato bites, but the feta, pumpkin seeds, and the edamame work well, along with whatever else you like. You can mix and match some of these options. If you have containers in the fridge with some of these things, like dates, the nut balls we spoke about last time, or any of the things that you bake, then you can just grab a few of each to make up your lunchbox or your breakfast-out box.
Something else that saves time is to make smoothies and then freeze them as cubes in a soup cube tray. You can blend yogurt or coconut cream with berries. Add spinach, nut butter, or whatever you like to have in your smoothies. Then in the morning, grab one of the cubes and put it in your blender with a bit of your favorite kind of milk or water, and blend it up. It’s easy and ready to go. Alternatively, you can just put the ingredients in a bag in the freezer, and blend those up at the time. You’ll probably need to take them out of the freezer about ten minutes in advance to help them soften a bit before you blend it.
You can do something similar with frozen banana and yogurt. Blend banana with Greek yogurt and nut butter. The banana brings sweetness, and the yogurt and nut butter bring the protein and fat. Then you can freeze that in silicone molds, and it’s like a breakfast ice cream. It’s amazing! Then you can take one part out, pop it in a container, take it with you with a spoon, and have it as it softens.
Then there are mini breakfast quesadillas. Again, take your favorite kind of tortillas, and cover one with grated cheese, cooked beans, and something like spinach, avocado, or feta. Then toast it nicely and cut it into triangles. You can refrigerate those or store them in the freezer, and then briefly reheat them in the air fryer, in the oven, or even in a pan. That helps them to be crispy on the outside. Put those in a container to go or just eat them at home.
Mix and match is always great, but it gets a bit boring if we don’t have enough ideas. Sometimes I put a list on the fridge of ideas for each category. Then you can have a grab box, and the container that you like to use. Again, you can prepare it the night before. Choose a protein or two, like cheese, some Greek yogurt in a container, some chicken, some cottage cheese, or even some pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds that you can sprinkle onto something later.
Your fruit could be berries, sliced apples, sliced pears, or sliced kiwi. Then to add some crunch, you could add pumpkin seeds, or any nuts or seeds, or something like seed crackers. Then there could be a fun thing like a peanut butter date bite or a piece of dark chocolate. You also need a good carb like one of your oat bites, or a mini pita or quesadilla. Prepare all that in advance, and then grab the box in the morning.
Here are a bunch of quick and easy things that you can have at home or on the go – peanut butter stuffed dates with sea salt, like we mentioned; apple wedges and nut butter; or roasted chickpeas baked with olive oil, paprika, cumin, and salt. After you bake them, cool them down in the fridge. Those are delicious! There are healthy chips. You could do an edamame snack pack, like I mentioned, cheese cubes with nuts like almonds or cashews, or seed crackers with hummus. You can make homemade trail mix with nuts, seeds like pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, and chocolate chips.
Parmesan crisps are great also for a crunchy snack. You can pre-make them by just grating parmesan onto a baking tray, and baking that until they’re crunchy. Tuna and avocado lettuce wraps can be a little messy. You make them using a big lettuce leaf and tuna salad made as you enjoy it – with mayo or with just water and salt to thin it down a little bit. Put the tuna onto the lettuce slice, and then add some avocado and roll it up, or put it in a little container like that to pick up and bite.
Obviously, berries like strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries are a great addition to a lunchbox. They’re also good to eat at home. You can always pre-wash them and cut off the stems, and then have them in a box in the fridge – either a mixed box or individual boxes – that you can take some out of every few days.
What I try to do is make something every day or two to add to my stash of items, and continue to use things. I’m always remaking whatever runs out, so there’s always something that I need. It does require a little bit of checking to make sure you’re using up things before they get old, but a lot of things can be stored in the freezer, like the nut bars, the nut balls, the oat balls, and that kind of snack.
Quickly, here are a few more unusual ones. If you freeze Greek yogurt in little dots on baking paper, those are great, like little mouthfuls of Greek yogurt, and again. You can sweeten it before you freeze it if you want to. You can add cinnamon to your pumpkin seeds. Sprinkle it on with maybe a bit of salt, and then toast those or roast them on an oven tray. They’re amazingly crunchy and delicious.
You can make mini sweet potato wedges – just slice them and have some kind of dip that you enjoy with them. You can make cucumber sandwiches – between two cucumber slices, put cream cheese and smoked chicken or piece of sliced turkey. Mini salad skewers are fun. Put a baby tomato, a wedge of cucumber, some feta, and a de-pipped olive on a skewer. Those are easy to eat with one hand while you’re doing something. You could also try caprese skewers with a cherry tomato, a piece of mozzarella or a mozzarella ball, a basil leaf, and then repeat.
Of course, you can add any baked goods if you have time to do a bit of baking. You can make some kind of muffins or mini muffins, little cheesecakes using Greek yogurt or cottage cheese as the main ingredient. You can make apple pie slices, banana bread, or chocolate brownies. There are many healthy recipes for these things that use zucchini and things like that. There’s also healthy carrot cake.
Whatever kind of things you enjoy, have them in the freezer chopped up and ready to grab to add to your at-home meal or your meal out. A good place to start is to make a list of the kinds of things you enjoy, maybe in the categories of what you have to make bake, things you have to make – like the no-bake nut bars, and all the different little items that need a little bit of preparation the night before, but don’t need much cooking.
I hope that this has inspired you with some ideas. I’m sure you can think of some more, especially things that you particularly enjoy. Take some time to plan, and then have fun, and I hope it’s all delicious. I’d love to hear what you do!
