Cheap Healthy Breakfast

 As I keep mentioning quite a few times on this blog post, Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is the first meal after not eating for more than at least 10 hours of consuming food. So the first meal (breakfast) should be substantial and nutritious. The meal I am about to show you is not anything exotic, however it is easily accessible, plus it is easy to make also, so a win win meal for me. I usually have this at weekends as I can spend more time preparing and eating this. Other days in the week I tend to have porridge, more details on this is in my previous post here: porridge  

Back to my cheap breakfast topic the meal is beans on toast, yes you have read that correctly. The total cost for this meal is no more than £2 per meal, but it is a filling and nutritious meal to have. Let us start with the bread first of all, which is toasted, ideally it is best to have seeded/ granary bread as this has more fibre than the other breads out there. Of course, there are other types of bread but I always go for seeded/ granary. The bread that I eat on a regular basis is Hovis seed sensations. You can actually see the seeds on the bread when it is taken out of the packaging, I think I can see pumpkin seeds on the bread picture below, but of course I might be wrong. The seeds also contain Fibre and B vitamins which is great for assisting with the production of red blood cells, metabolising processes in the body.  As mentioned before Fibre is fantastic for cholesterol reduction and regulation of the bowel. You do not have to purchase seed sensations, any bread will do but do try to go for the item that contains seeds on there. If you do not like seeds or are conscious of prices of food at the moment, then the next item I would go for is best of both. This is a food item that contains a little bit of Fibre in the white bread. This is great option if you like white bread, but the benefit is that the taste is not affected and there is an added benefit of the fibre in there. 

The second item is the beans. I love beans alot , and have this in chilli meals, spaghetti bolognaise as well as jacket potato. Beans has the following nutritional benefits:

• Fibre
• Low in saturated fat
• Folate
• Potassium
• Great for the planet

Low in saturated Fat: Excess amounts of saturated fat can cause clogging of the arteries, which can make it hard for blood to travel around the body. Certain foods can raise "bad cholesterol" which causes this issue called atherosclerosis. Ideally, we should be consuming these meals in small doses, and have more foods that help improve our blood flow, reducing the chances of having this deadly disease. Beans are low in saturated fat which is great as this reduces the chances of the bad cholesterol in the body. 

Folate: This is part of the B12 family, which helps in the production of DNA and cell production. This is especially important for women that are pregnant, and are encouraged to increase folate, even taking this as a form of a supplement. Increased amounts of folate helps to reduce the chances of the baby having spinal befidia and other birth defects. 

Potassium: This mineral is important for the regulation of blood pressure, by reducing the amount of salt in the body (this is why it is also important to reduce our salt content, to ease off the pressure for Potassium to do their job properly) They also help for the muscles to contract properly, and finally helps with the reduction of bone loss as we age later on in life. 

Great for the planet: I mention this part because of the ongoing issue with climate change, which is a topic that will not be going away anytime soon. Beans and bread does not come from a source of an animal, so it is definitely kinder to the planet. Finally, this is great for vegetarians, and vegans so this meal is great for everybody, and can be enjoyed either for breakfast or as a snack. 

The great part about this meal is that this can be adapted or changed depending on how hungry we are. If I am in the mood I will add more vegetables to this, in particular tomatoes and mushrooms, sometimes I also add three slices of vegan bacon to this. Tomatoes are great for Vitamin C, which supports with the immune system. Mushrooms are great for Vitamin D, which supports with bone function and production. The vegan bacon was just a deluxe item and there was no need for this to be in there really. It was on offer which is the reason I purchased the product. The total cost for this with the bacon, mushrooms and tomatoes was £4. The positive part for this was that the mushrooms, tomatoes and bacon can be re used for another meal I can make (like an omelette for example) 

My breakfast meal choices are all based on my mood and how I feel at the time, no matter what I choose I make sure that it is nutritious and cost effective.