Food is one of the main aspects for me while traveling. Maybe it’s because I deal with a few allergies or as with each year, I give more importance to health. Though I love eating outside whenever I travel, I start craving for home-made food after a while. Moreover, eating healthy while traveling is important.
One eternity back, when I went abroad for the first time, I had a general idea about cooking learned from my grandma in childhood. I’m not a fan of cooking myself, thus I have quite a practical approach. Anything that is simple, tasty and made under 30 minutes works for me.
In this post, I covered quick healthy breakfast ideas anyone can make as you can’t survive eating boiled eggs whole life (or you can, haven’t checked :)). For a few recipes, you will need a stove, a pan, and a bowl. They are available in hostels or Airbnb type of accommodation as a rule. Now, if you are wondering what to make for breakfast, here is the short menu for your convenience:
- Fresh (don’t require a stove)
- Boiled (require a pot and a stove)
- Fried (require a pan and a stove)
- Sandwich-type (don’t require a stove)
Fresh – quick and easy breakfast ideas
My go-to option when I’m terribly late. You will find plenty varieties of cornflakes in the supermarket: chocolate, with fillings, mix, with dry fruit, you name it. I always buy simple plain cornflakes without any additions. I believe that’s a plus point to health. Instead, I do all add-ons myself.
How I make it: half of the bowl of cornflakes/muesli – add milk or yogurt to cover them up. Depending on the country and season I add fruits accordingly. For instance, raisins, cashews, banana, apple, mango, berries, etc. Except citric fruits – somehow I didn’t find them nice in a combo with dairy products. Choose the mix according to your taste. If you need to make cornflakes sweeter, I suggest a spoon of honey over sugar.
If you have a grater available at the place you stay, here is another simple recipe of a snack/desert: 1 medium carrot, 1 apple, raisins and 1 tbsp sour cream. Cut carrot and apple on the grater. Add dry fruits and sour cream. It will take 5 minutes to make it, nevertheless, it’s a great combo of vitamins.
Nutritious and healthy fast food breakfast!
Cottage cheese is one of my favorite products and it is among the healthy breakfast options. Unfortunately, it’s not available in some countries I’ve visited. If you are the lucky one to get it in your dairy options, go ahead! I normally mix a small bowl of cottage cheese, 2 teaspoons of sour cream. Then you can add either honey, jam or fresh fruits.
Fast, tasty and simple breakfast!
Boiled breakfast options
Before you scroll through everything including “porridge”, please give it a chance. I also started liking it long after my childhood despite my mother’s efforts to promote healthy breakfast meals. For making porridge, you need a pot and a stove. Here are a few varieties:
Semolina – 1 glass of milk, 7 tbsp semolina, 1 tsp sugar. Add milk and wait till it becomes warm. Then start adding semolina while constantly stirring it. Once it starts boiling, lower down the gas/temperature and add sugar. Keep stirring for 5 more minutes. Ready! To be honest, I cook this porridge once in few months only when I get nostalgic about childhood when parents used to make it quite often.
Oatmeal – water/milk 400gms, oats 100gms, 1tsp sugar. Warm up water or milk, add oats and stir till they become soft and consistent. Add sugar. Ready! Normally it takes 15 min to make it.
Pumpkin porridge – pumpkin 400gms, 1/2 liter milk, 1/2 glass rice, some raisins, sugar – 2 tsp, vanilla sugar. Clean and cut the pumpkin into small cubes and add water to cover 2/3 of it. Boil till pumpkin becomes soft and then smash it to make porridge.
Add sugar, vanilla sugar and milk into the smashed pumpkin. Boil the whole mixture, add rice and raisins. Cook 15 minutes till rice becomes soft. Overall, this is a relatively time-consuming dish from the whole list as it takes around 30 mins to make it, but it’s tasty!
Sweet rice – 200gms round rice, 1/2 liter milk, 1 tbsp sugar. Add 1 glass of water and rice and put it on medium fire till rice soaks in the water. Stir often so the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom. When rice will start boiling, add 1 glass of milk.
When milk starts boiling make the minimum fire and keep stirring from time to time. Once porridge starts becoming thicker, start adding remaining milk in small portions so there is no big difference in the temperature of the porridge. Once the rice becomes soft porridge is ready! It takes overall around 15-20 minutes. When I made it for my Indian friends, they told it’s Kheer – an Indian desert. I find kheer more sophisticated in taste – maybe because of the dry fruits and spices there.
In your plate, you can add dry fruits and seasonal fruits. Some people also add butter in the cooked porridge.
Fried – healthy breakfast ideas with eggs
Well, I’m not exactly sure if they are French, but this is how my flat mates call them. Basically, you need toast bread, though any sliced bread will do. In a bowl, beat 2 eggs, and add water – ¼ of egg quantity. Add 1/8 of tablespoon salt, spices according to your taste. Dip the bread from both sides in the egg mixture and put it in the frying pan with 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Fry on the medium fire for 2-3 min from each side!
Let me start with ingredients, then I will tell what you can do with them. You can make plain options, but I recommend adding vegetables. You need 1 capsicum, 3 medium tomatoes, 1 medium onion, 2-3 eggs (for 2 people).
Cut the capsicum in small cubes and fry it for 3-5 minutes. Then add onions, cut into small cubes into the frying pan. Fry the mixture for 2 more minutes. Add chopped tomatoes, salt and spices according to your flavor. Fry the mix for 5 more minutes. Further on can happen 3 scenarios:
- You can add eggs above the vegetable mix. If you like a liquid yolk, leave under the cover for 3-5 minutes. For hard yolk, leave it for 7-10 minutes.
- Beat the eggs in the bowl. Whisk the eggs until they are consistent. Season the mix with salt and spices. Pour it into the vegetable mix. Cover it up and fry on a small fire. Wait for 10-15 minutes. It becomes vegetable omelet.
- Beat the eggs in the bowl. Whisk the eggs until they are consistent. Season it with salt and spices. Pour into the vegetable mix and mix all together in the frying pan. Here you have scrambled eggs with vegetables. Time: 10-15 minutes.
Please do only one of the three options at a time (I wouldn’t mention it if I haven’t received this question). In all 3 cases, you can add dill or other seasonal greenery at the end.
Ingredients: 1 glass of milk, 1 glass of flour, 2 eggs, 4 tsp sugar, 2 apples, oil – 50 ml. Some people add 1 tsp baking soda to make them fluffy.
Mix eggs, sugar, milk, and baking soda. Add flour in the mixture and apples (either cut on a grater or in small cubes with a knife).
Warm up the frying pan, add a thin layer of oil. Make small pancakes, by putting a 1 tablespoon of the ingredient mixture on the pan. Normally, there come 4-5 pancakes on 1 pan, depending on its size. Fry from each side for 2-3 minutes till the golden color. Ready! You can eat pancakes with jam or honey according to your preference. It’s quite a healthy filling breakfast.
Toasted – breakfast on the go
Honestly to say I’m not a fan of sandwiches, but I have to admit it’s a super-fast option of the breakfast on the go. That’s one of the reasons they are one of the top choices for road trip food.
To make a healthy breakfast sandwich, I use 3 ingredients as a base: cheese, salad leaves, sliced tomato. You may also add meat(ham), olives, onions, cucumbers. I recommend pitas over sliced bread as you can comfortable put everything between two layers. For the wrap, you will need lavash (flat bread), where you add vegetables, cheese, ham, and wrap it.
You can also make sweet toasts with Nutella, bananas and other fruits, but this post is about healthy recipes, that’s why we will not discuss such options :P.
Above are my top easy and healthy breakfast recipes I make most of the days. They always come in the combo with tea/coffee/juice/any other drink of choice and happy morning mood!
If you are at the beginning stage and just wondering what you can cook from the ingredients currently present in your fridge and kitchen, I recommend amazing application – SuperCook. You can just tick whatever you already have and the app will come up with suggestions what to cook for breakfast out of that! Simple 🙂
I could add a few more baking and blender dish ideas under 20 minutes, however, the purpose of this post was to share simple and fast recipes that can be made with minimum equipment and effort.
What about you? What do you eat for breakfast?
If you know any other easy and quick breakfast ideas that are nutritious and not sophisticated to master for anyone, drop a suggestion. Share your secrets of eating healthy on the road. I will be happy to update this list!