Phase ONE breakfast issues.....please help !!!
 

Ok, so here is my dilema……I am on phase ONE, I am not normally a breakfast eater, and I have very little time in the morning to worry about cooking breakfast. I usually pack up my food for the day, the night before, so I am looking for something easy, that can be made up ahead of time. Once I get to phase TWO, I can start eating the SB meal bars for my breakfast during the week, but on the weekends, I really need some help.

Any suggestions ????

What I did was pick up some Lite'N'Fit snack size yogurt cups. I know we aren't supposed to do the fruit flavors during P1, but I can't stand plain yogurt, and, like you, don't have a lot of time in the mornings. The yogurt has 40 cals, 0 fat, and is sweetened with Splenda.

They were (and are still) perfect for me. I'll either grab one and eat it when I'm getting ready, or if I'm really short on time, I'll just throw it in my lunch, and eat it at work.

For me, it's just the right size at 4oz. because I'm lactose intolerant, and any more dairy would not be a good thing - at least for my co-workers. :o

I've also eaten celery and hummus for breakfast when I forget to pick up more yogurt, or even lf string cheese.

I'm pretty boring when it comes to creative breakfasts - this is the 1st time in close to 20 years that I've eaten breakfast more than two or three times a month, so I'm not a huge help - sorry.

Hula, check out the South Beach Recipes Thread under Breakfast Ph1. There are tons of good recipes that appeal to everyone. I used to really enjoy the Vegetable Quiche Cups to Go. They freeze well, and they reheat really well too.

I also liked Jalapeno Cheese Pie.

If you get sick of eggs, I hear the Protein Packed Breakfast Cheesecake is good as well.

I seem to remember enjoying the Bean Muffins posted by pearshape.

There are all kinds of things you can make ahead! Good luck to you.

The cheese cakes are really good! Hard boiled eggs done ahead of time Maybe with some grape tomatoes and or a string cheese with tomatoes
one of the things I liked (not actually breakfasty) is CHili you could do a vegan burger with some RF cheese
Another make ahead thing is Egg salad on celery. if you have a shaker you could get some protien powder and shake it with your coffee? just to have something in your system
There are a lot of possibilities!
Kierie

another question on this note -- do you think I could freeze cooked eggs? I was thinking of cooking up a few simple cheese omelets, then freezing them, and heating them up in the mornings with some veggies. Anyone know if this works (ps if I don't hear from you, then I'll let you know how it goes for me tomorrow!)

Give it a try and let us know how it works. I know that hard boiled egg white turns to rubber when frozen but an omelet might work the same as the quiche cups do. You could also get some protein powder, a carton of egg whites, some sf syrup and make a smoothie.

I've tried freezing eggs - I don't like them :(

I do have a microwave omelet cooker though. I will either use egg substitute or just crack a few eggs, pop them into the omelet maker, with my pre-cut toppings, then 2 minutes in the microwave. That's just enough time for me to either get the hairspray into my hair, or to get my coffee ready. If I'm in a hurry, then I've got some egg substitute at work, another omelet cooker and some cheese at work.

I don't use it too often, because I'm not a huge egg fan... Until l I read your post about making omlets and freezing them I actually forgot I had one here at work. I guess the fake eggs need to be tossed! LOL

Thanks for the ideas. I'm not a big cook, so most of the recipies for stuff, don't really work for me. What I've been doing is buying an Egg McMuffin @ McDonalds and eating just the canadian bacon and egg, then eating some cheese with it. I know it's not the best, but it's worked so far.

Oh, and I forgot to mention.......I don't drink decaffinated coffee. I LOVE chai tea, but can't have it now. And I'll eat items with splenda, but I don't like the taste in drinks, so I just drink water or V-8 juice. I know.....I'm picky

The cheesecake is good - I just made that for the first time this weekend. This week I'm out of the house every day early, so I boiled some eggs, and precooked a pkg of turkey bacon so I can grab that with a V-8. Lately I've been loving BLT wraps - bacon , sliced tomato, sliced avocado, wrapped in a lettuce leaf - easy to eat in the car like a burrito.

Hula, I know egg and canadian bacon are cool on SBD, but from Mickey D's??? SBD is about heart-healthy eating, not just dropping weight. Here's the NI on one without the biscuit or muffin from McDonald's website:

200 cal (not bad)
14 g fat (yeow)
6 g sat fat (double yeow)
245 cholesterol (82% of your daily on a 2000 calorie diet)
660 mg sodium (holy cow)

Don't want to bring you down or anything, but that's kind of a heart-attack on a plate. I wouldn't eat that once a month let alone often.

Take a look at some of the recipes. There are several to look at. Most of them are really easy. It doesn't take long to make some of the recipes, and most of them will last you a week if you take an hour out of an evening to prepare them so you don't have to go nuts at the store buying tons of ingredients. Just see how many servings they make and figure up how many batches/recipes you'll need to make for the week. It's really hard to stick to SBD if you won't cook anything, I will say that much.

Doesn't hurt to give it a shot, right?

Yeah, that's what I'm figuring out. I don't cook--if I stayed home and didn't work, I probably would do better at this, but with my work & home schedule, I just don't have the time. The doctor does NOT want me eating ANY soy products, which is difficult because everything I am looking at that's low-fat or fat free has SOME sort of soy in it. AND, I am chemically intollerant to ANY type of artificial sweetener. I really take a chance when I do have something with Splenda (even though it's made from "real" sugar), cause it still makes me ILL.

I really don't know if this is the right diet for me. I feel like such a failure :(

If you are eating on the run, during the weekend or whenever you have some time, boil a few eggs and keep them in the fridge and also cook up a batch of turkey bacon in the microwave to keep in the fridge. I've even seen preboiled eggs in the grocery store. You could also keep a pack of spinich in the fridge and make a spinch salad with the eggs and bacon and that would be a quick fast breakfast without much time involved.

I have never been a breakfast eater and very often eat leftovers from the night before for breakfast, but most of that is not portable. I would avoid anything from McDonald's like the plague...just the grease alone floating in the air there might cause a clogged artery!

Don't feel like a failure, it is a process to see what and how it works for you. Just think outside the box, everyone thinks that breakfast means, cereal, toast or the usual breaky stuff. But you can have anything, even left overs from supper the night before. Take some time if you have it and go through all the recipies and see what you like and what you can freeze, or make and leave in the fridge for a few days at a time. Once you get to ph 2 my fav breakfast is a banana w peanut butter. I just slice the banana and then put my pb on eat and eat it. You can do the same with apple slices and grab a v8 drink. Remember just think outside the box. Take care.

A slice of lean ham or turkey and a slice of LF cheese, wrapped around a celery stick makes a great portable breakfast.

hulamom,
I can relate to your being busy, as can lots of others on this forum. I've got 3 kids, a full time job, and a husband who travels for a living. Some of the recipes and things are time consuming, but there are lots of quick things too. When I do cook, I always cook extra for leftovers or for another meal. The crockpot is also a big help. It's very easy to stir fry some veggies and chicken, shrimp, or fish for a quick dinner. I made the Mediterranean chicken last night in under 30 minutes. You can buy frozen veggies, prechopped veggies, bagged salad. Weezle's refried bean soup was ready in a flash. I'm going to be at a conference all afternoon, so when I get home I plan to throw together a salad of shrimp, hardboiled egg, sliced avocado and lettuce and tomato (Cat's idea). Sometimes I buy a couple of big pkgs of chicken breast and grill it all over the weekend, then use it through the week for quick lunches and dinners. When you have some time, browse through the recipes and see what appeals - you'll find some things that work for you, and you'll feel so much better for eating fresh foods.

Hula You CAN do this, it just takes planning and preparation. Like Schmoodle said, there are lots of us on the boards who work fulltime and have families. The leftovers for lunch work great as well as taking an hour or two on a Sunday afternoon to get yourself ready for the week.

We are all a work in progress and are constantly finding out what works and doesn't work. You just have to decide for yourself how badly you do want it, and you will make it fall into place for yourself. :hug:

Hulamom,

I agree, it's not easy sometimes. I love to cook, but I don't have the time. I live 45 min away (on a good day) from work, so I'm usually gone for close to 10 hours a day. Then to come home and make dinner - it's such a HUGE PITA sometimes.

What I've found that works for me. On the weekends - or after work even - I'll roast a turkey breast. I will do this in the crock pot most times. Then just take 30 min to slice it up, and pick it off the bone. This will give me more than enough meat for the week. I'll make hot turkey sandwiches for DH - although he's getting sick of them now. Grab a few slices for breakfast sometimes, or a quick 1/2 sandwich for breakfast even.

I'll also throw together chili over the weekend, and even though it's really too hot to eat something that heavy right now, I'll eat a little, and freeze the rest.

I agree 110% with Schmoodle the crock pot is a godsend. I've got 2, 1 huge one that I can cook a whole turkey breast in, and a normal sized one that's great for soups. If you've got a big freezer, I'd suggest that you pull out the crock pot, make a big pot of something, portion it out, and pop it in the freezer. If you have 2 crock pots, or can borrow an extra one. You'd be surprised how much food you can cook in just 1 hours of prep/clean up time. Just set it, and walk away. 4-8 hours later, you've got enough food to feed a small army!

Good luck!

Iammare That is a brilliant idea with the two crockpots going at the same time!! I need a plan as I never do quite as well on SBD once school starts. Hmmm..... great idea!

See, Hula, just keep telling yourself... work in progress... work in progress.... I noticed on your signature that you are planning to get pregnant. This would be a great time to get all of the healthy SBD ways of eating planted firmly before you have kids. Not that all of our children have the healthy palate that Barb's son, Brian, have- but they are steps in the right direction of creating healthy eaters. :)

Thanks for the compliment, Kiko, but Brian even had high triglyceride levels at his 10 year old checkup so I've started being more careful about what he eats that I don't cook. Last night he was turning up his nose at the fish I fixed but I told him he had to try it and if he didn't like it, I'd get him something else to go with the rest of his dinner. He did and he loved it!

I use the crockpot a LOT! I've got four lunches of chili in the freezer now from making the Wendy's chili (recipe in soup section) in the crockpot this weekend. I also make the Broccoli Cheese soup and freeze that.

I really do feel this is a tough plan if you aren't willing to cook but there are lots of things that are fast and not too hard. The South Beach Quick & Easy cookbook has lots of fast ideas. The Taste of Summer one also has a lot of fast stuff.

You could do ham and cheese rollups for breakfast. Or even canadian bacon and cheese. My microwave has a breakfast setting to make scrambled eggs and I fix those in a small glass cup when I am in phase 1 and then top it with cheese. Easy and fast. I also like deviled eggs. I used to bring that to work as a snack for phase 1.

Thanks everyone......you are right.....I just need to think "outside" the box, and try to be as flexible as possible. I'm not craving the carbs right now.....it's the sugar that's killing me. That, and the fact that I can't have any fruit......that makes not having sugar even worse.....at least with fruit, it's something "sweet" and healthy.....not like candy or anything.

Trying to stay positive......:dizzy:

You can totally do this Hula! And if you feel like you're going to burst if you don't have a piece of fruit or something with sugar, hop on the boards and vent! It's part of what we're all here for. :D

I work from home five days a week from 8:30am-10:30am, so I make Zucchini Frittatas, Salmon Stuffed Egg White Omelet Wraps,

When I do have to be out of the house early I have made Zucchini Shredded into Egg with a little Garlic Powder and microwaved in the container when I get up. I then eat it with a few cherry tomatoes. You can eat this cold too, it's yummy and can be prepared the night before.

Or make up a breakfast pack on a paper bag with some mixed veggies, cheese and a boiled egg with paprika salt.

Breakfast idea
 

I'm preparing to start the SBD next week and I've been "practicing" making omelets. So far the easiest breakfast idea I've found is the Ziploc Omelet. I've copied the recipe below from an e-mail sent to me by a co-worker, I'm not sure whose idea it was originally, but it's really easy, even for a non-cook. If you can boil water, you can make these. It takes less than 15 minutes and doesn't require any supervision. I usually throw it on, set the timer and go take a shower, dry my hair, etc. The total additional time to my routine might be 10 minutes.

I haven't tried freezing them, but I have left them in the fridge to be reheated later in the day with no nasty effects, so you could make them the night before.


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Ziploc Omelet

Have guests write their name on a quart-size Ziploc freezer bag with permanent marker.

Crack 2 lg or xlg eggs (I've used 3 with no problems) into the bag shake to combine them.

Put out a variety of ingredients such as: cheeses, ham, onion, green pepper, tomato, or other veggies, etc.

Each guest adds prepared ingredients of choice to their bag and shake. Make sure to get the air out of the bag and zip it up.

Place the bags into rolling, boiling water for exactly 13 minutes. You can usually cook 6-8 omelets in a large pot. For more, make another pot of boiling water.

Open the bags and the omelet will roll out easily. Be prepared for everyone to be amazed.

Dixie - This is what we call in Cub/Boy Scouts "Breakfast in a Bag". It tastes so good on a cool morning when you are waking up after camping out. There is a trick though to the amount of air in the bag. If you take too much out, it may end up on the bottom and melt the bag. Also, if the person adds too much cheese it will take longer to cook. We usually recommend they only add a little cheese and then add more after the egg is cooked. It is really good on a whole wheat tortilla when you are in phase 2.