Happy New Year from the GottaBe! Health team. We hope your batteries are recharged, and you are in good spirits. Many people worldwide make new year’s resolutions each year, and a significant proportion of resolutions are health-related. In fact, for the year 2022, the most popular resolutions were to live healthier (23% of people voted for this). Exercising more, eating healthier and losing weight are all common themes people choose, but on average only “9-12% of people keep their new year’s resolutions”. This is often because they set unrealistic goals for themselves, don’t track their progress, or forget about their resolutions.

We want to help you be your best, healthiest version this year. For many reasons, breakfast is often said to be the day’s most important meal. It “replenishes your supply of glucose to boost your energy levels and alertness while providing other essential nutrients required for good health”.  This blog will provide some healthy breakfast ideas to inspire you to kickstart your days with a nutritious and delicious meal.

Pancakes

Pancakes can be a healthy dessert or breakfast option, as long as you use the right ingredients. There are so many alternatives to this recipe. You can add sweet or savoury toppings depending on what you are craving in the morning.

Tip: Don’t overload your pancakes with sugary toppings. Browse our ‘butters and spreads’ section for sweet spreads that contain no added sugar!

With the Foods by Ann pancake mixes you can rustle up some healthy pancakes in no time!

Ingredients:

• 280ml Milk/plant milk

• 74kg coconut oil

• 2 eggs (skip if you are vegan)

Topping ideas: foods by Ann – Strawberry Spread, RL9 -Nut Chocolate Spread, fresh fruit greek yoghurt … the possibilities are endless!

Instructions:

1. You will need: 280 ml of a plant drink or milk, 74 g of coconut oil and 2 eggs (skip if you are vegan). 

2. Put the vegetable drink / milk in a bowl, 300 ml of boiling water and 30 g of coconut oil, optionally eggs, and blend gradually adding the flour mixture. 

3. Blend until you get a homogeneous, smooth mass, then set aside for about 8-10 minutes to thicken and deaerate. 

4. Grease the pan with a little coconut oil (remember about the edges) and heat it up on ½ of the burner. Remove the excess fat, the pan should only glow slightly. 

5. Stir the dough thoroughly (from the bottom), scoop about 3/4 of the ladle and pour it onto the hot pan. Spread the dough in a thin layer, using the bottom of the ladle or turning the pan. 

6. Fry until light brown, for about 2 minutes on one side and about 1.5 minutes on the other. 

7. Before frying each pancake, stir the dough and grease the pan if necessary. 

8. Put the fried pancakes on top of each other and cover to prevent them from drying out.

Smoothie Bowl

Perhaps your typical smoothie doesn’t fill you up enough. Smoothie bowls are a fun and easy way to enjoy smoothies and allow you to add extra toppings like nuts, seeds and chunks of fresh fruit, so it fills you up more. They also make for an Instagrammable breakfast 😉

Give our suggested recipe a try for your new favourite breakfast! The ingredients are just building blocks for you to make your first smoothie bowl, you can swap and change out our suggestions for new ingredients once you get inspired.

Ingredients:

• 1 heaped cup of frozen fruit of your choice (mixed berries, strawberries, avocado, mango)
• 1 ripe banana (sliced and frozen)
• 2-3 Tbsp light coconut or almond milk
• 1 scoop of vanilla protein powder or chocolate protein powder
• 1-2 Tsp Coconut mousse (optional)

Toppings (optional):

• 1 tbsp Shredded unsweetened desiccated coconut

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

• 1 tbsp hemp seeds

• 1 tbsp flax seeds

• foods by Ann nut and chocolate spread of your choice

• Granola or oatmeal

• Fruit

Instructions:

1. Add frozen berries and banana to a blender and blend until smooth with some lumps.
2. Add the plant-based milk, protein powder and coconut mousse and blend again, scraping down the sides as needed, until the mixture reaches a soft serve consistency.
3. Scoop into serving bowls and top with desired toppings.
4. Best eaten fresh, although leftovers keep in the freezer for 1-2 weeks.

Overnight Oats

Overnight oats are a brilliant option for those who need more time to make breakfast in the morning. Or maybe you are getting bored of making porridge or want to make a breakfast that requires less cleaning up. Your simply need a container to make the overnight oats in (we recommend a mason jar), a chopping board, knife and spoon to prepare the ingredients.

Ingredients:

• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon

• 50g porridge oats

• 1 tbsp chia seeds

• 2 tbsp natural yoghurt or greek yoghurt

• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

• 50g mixed berries

• drizzle of honey or maple syrup

• ½ tbsp nut butter or healthy sweet spread

• 1-2 tsp jam

Instructions:

1. The night before serving, stir the cinnamon and 100ml water (or milk) into your oats with a pinch of salt.
2. The next day, loosen it with a little more water (or milk) if needed. Top with yoghurt, berries, a drizzle of honey, nut butter, nuts seeds, jam, or more fruit. choose whichever toppings you like.
3. (Visit the link here for more recipe ideas).

Savoury/Sweet Toast

Spice up your usual toast with some new quick, and easy suggestions for you to enjoy for breakfast. Some mornings you may have a sweet tooth or fancy something more savoury. A variety of toast toppings will be explored below.

If you opt for a sweet toast, make sure to explore the foods by Ann website for low sugar options.

Sweet:

• Classic peanut butter and jam on toast.
• Ricotta and jam on toast with fresh mint (to garnish).
• Hazelnut and cocoa spread with fresh fruit (we recommend banana slices, and fresh raspberries or strawberries), sprinkled with your choice of nuts, seeds, desiccated coconut and chocolate shavings.
• Nut butter topped with sautéed cinnamon apples (just peel an apple and add to a pan with, 1 dessert spoon of butter, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 dessert spoon of brown sugar, lemon juice and a pinch of salt and warm on low heat).

Savoury:

Using the foods by Ann – Set of 3 vegetable spreads you can create a Greek, Indian or Italian inspired savoury toast. Enjoy hot or cold!

• Greek spread – Top with fresh salad, or roasted chickpeas, olives, halloumi or feta.
• Indian – Top with grilled chickpeas, fresh coriander, and fresh red onion, paneer or avocado.
• Italian – Top with sun-dried tomato, cold meats (salami, prosciutto, ham, pancetta etc.), fresh salad or cheese.