Little rushed in the morning, are we? Who has time to make a low cost healthy breakfast, what with getting the kids ready, taking the dog out to rinse the fire hydrant and filling in a few more brightly coloured school permission forms?

You do.

That stop for the greasy breakfast sandwich isn’t helping your health or your waistline (look down ;-)). At about $10 a day the cost doesn’t seem like a big deal. Until you realize that you buy a breakfast most days. Over 21 work days, that slurps an extra $210 or so from your bank account monthly. Invested at 7%, that could be worth more than $36,000 to you over 10 years.

Low Cost Healthy Breakfast

OK, so how do you get a great breakfast that can be made in under a minute, packs great nutritional value and costs a fraction of one from a fast food haven?

The Ingredients

At Costco, load up on a big bag of frozen fruit and an oversized tub of protein powder. You can get both vegan and whey-based, the former is preferred. On your regular grocery run, nab a pack of ground flax seed, a bunch of bananas, a carton of almond milk and some baby spinach.

The Prep

For prep, peel the bananas and keep them in a freezer bag in, well, the freezer. Keep the spinach in your fridge. That’s it for prep. The bananas will last indefinitely and the spinach will last a couple of weeks. The flax seed keeps a long time. Get a big enough package and you may retire with it.

Game Day

In the morning, start the timer. Pour 200 ml of almond milk in your blender, a frozen banana, a tablespoon of ground flax seed (don’t worry you won’t taste it), a scoop of protein powder, a handful of spinach (don’t worry you won’t taste it either) and a cup of your frozen berries. Optionally, toss in half an avocado for extra creaminess. (you may taste it a bit). Blend for 10 seconds. Stop the timer. I am thinking less than a minute. How does it taste? Awesome. If you are really tight on time you can finish it on the way to work.

Nutrition wise, the spinach and flax seeds provide a basket of vitamins, minerals, protein and fibre. The protein powder keeps your hunger at bay while the berries add Vitamin C, folate and potassium. Much healthier than the store-bought muffins, sausage and eggwich, or pastry you were going to grab along the way.

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