Breakfast Grain Bowls: Fuel Your Family for an Active Day

 Print

Whether you are heading to the mountains for a hike, enjoying some of our city’s bike pathways or being active in your neighbourhood, make sure to fuel your family’s active summer day with nutritious foods!

Just like we put fuel into our vehicles to help them run, our bodies need to be fueled with premium food for our summer activities.

If you are interested in new and delicious way to fuel your family’s active summer day, try a breakfast bowl! Breakfast bowls have become increasingly popular over the last few years as a way to switch it up from our usual breakfast fare of toast or cereal.

5 Parts to a breakfast grain bowl

Breakfast grain bowls provide a canvas in which to infuse flavour and nutrition to your diet (how you eat, not a restrictive “diet”). Include these 5 components in your breakfast bowl:

•   Whole grains – Whole grains provide the base of a breakfast grain bowl. Cook up a pot of oats, quinoa, barley, whole grain brown rice, buckwheat or other grains of your choice. Whole grains provide nourishing carbohydrates and other micronutrients to give us energy for an active day ahead.

•   Nuts and seeds – Nuts and seeds add in texture and crunch to a breakfast bowl. They also supply protein, healthful fats and long-lasting energy.

•   Fruits – Blueberries and other fruits in season provide a burst of natural sweetness to our breakfast bowl. They also add in antioxidants, fiber, vitamins and minerals, helping to keep our bodies healthy on the inside, while keeping our taste buds happy.

•   Milk – Milk can be added to provide additional creaminess to a breakfast bowl. You can also cook the whole grain in part water part milk to infused in additional nutrition including protein, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B12.

•   Spices – Spices can be added during the cooking of the whole grain, as well as during the heating stage of the breakfast bowl. Adding in spices that we associate with sweetness (such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cardamom) gives our taste buds the perception of sweetness while also adding in antioxidants!

Blueberry Breakfast Rice Bowl

This Blueberry Breakfast Rice Bowl, courtesy of the BC Blueberry Council, has a warm creaminess reminiscent of rice pudding, and is full of nutrition to fuel an active day.  Serve it in the morning to power your day ahead or enjoy as a nourishing snack.

As you will see, there are a variety of ingredients in this recipe including brown rice, seeds, spices and nuts. If these are ingredients you do not have on hand, consider visiting bulk bins to purchase quantitites needed for this recipe.

There are different stages during which you can add in the blueberries to this breakfast bowl. You can warm some of the blueberries after the rice is cooked. This may result in some of your rice turning blue. That certainly doesn’t both me – but if you have eaters who are sensitive to visual cues, it may be better to add them as a topping to the breakfast bowl.

To try this recipe for a Blueberry Breakfast Rice Bowl, click here.

Written by:

Kristyn Hall MSc, RD

Food, Nutrition & Culinary Coach, Registered Nutritionist and Calgary Dietitian, Energize Nutrition.