Dietitian Designed Brunch

Brunch.

The word millennials hear and immediately jump out of bed for…mid morning that is.

As a millennial, I am well versed in all things Brunch. When I think brunch, I think loaded french toast, chicken and waffles, and towers of pancakes. YUMMMM. I also think about sleeping in, stuffing myself with all of the above, and then going straight back to bed because FOOD COMA.

If you’re on a fitness journey, sometimes you may start thinking about how you’re going to out train Sunday Brunch starting that Monday. Newsflash: In case you didn’t already know, you can’t out train a bad diet, and you shouldn’t restrict yourself in order to save all of your calories for that morning – That won’t do you any good at all, and you’ll likely end up binging quite a lot of food.

If you’ve read my previous post, “Get Your (Nutrition) Facts Straight,” then you know I’ve got a balanced brunch prepared by a dietitian (the amazing Suzi) for you! This brunch will NOT leave you feeling sluggish the rest of the day, and you’ll not only be getting loads of micronutrients with some healthy calories, but you’ll actually feel fulfilled! It’s amazing how much you can actually eat when you give yourself more nutritious foods.

About the Recipe

Vegetable Frittata

Please note: this meal contains eggs and dairy.

This frittata is a great way to include veggies in your breakfast! Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable that has a ton of good micronutrients. (Micronutrients being the vitamins and minerals kicking butt within your system to make sure things are working properly!)

Eggs are rad because they are a complete protein that has a PDCAA (protein digestibility corrected amino acid) score of 1 (1 being highest score). This basically means your body absorbs 100% of the protein. — That is a high quality source of protein right there! If you’re training, this is especially important for muscle growth and recovery.

Preparation – It’s That Easy!

Start by heating the oil in a pan. Cook the mushrooms and broccoli until they’re slightly tender. Remove from heat and set them aside .

Using same pan as you had for your veggies, go ahead and heat it to a medium setting.

In a bowl, whisk eggs and whites together and pour them into the heated pan. As the eggs start to cook/solidify (about half way) add your prepared mushrooms and broccoli as well as your onions. Note: You can opt to cook your onions prior with your broccoli, just be aware that they cook much faster and may disintegrate if cooked too long!

Reduce heat to medium-low. Once the eggs are mostly cooked, sprinkle in the cheese (arguably the most important ingredient…because cheese.)

Turn off heat and serve in slices!

We recommend serving your frittata with a fresh fruit salad, which is what we did to add some more yummy substance to this meal.

Pancake Party

Ok, so we went all out for this at-home-brunch because we freaking love food. Yes, this is exactly what our plates looked like and probably went back for a few extra bites. If you want to be calorie conscious, maybe you’re tracking to meet a goal or just making sure you’re not overeating, here’s some more info:

We added fresh blueberries to our Kodiak Cakes Pancakes.

Woahhh, you can eat Kodiak Cakes in a healthy breakfast? But it’s pre-packaged?

Lol, yes. We’re not trying to make to suffer. Some things to note: Pre-packaged pancake mixes have quite a lot of sodium. If this is something that is particularly important to you, please make sure you read the boxes and prepare according to your needs. (As you should be doing anyway!)

For this serving of food, Suzi only used 1 cup of mix and it yielded several pancakes. We each had two small pancakes, about 1/3 or 1/4 the cup of mix. This is important to state because 1 cup of Kodiak Cake pancake mix is 380 cals. Just something to keep in mind as it’s easy to just go ham and eat everything.

Now, these are pretty dang dense pancakes…

If you’re a pancake snob and don’t like to taste of these “power cakes,” I have a substitute. If you’ve got a Harris Teeter near you, I recommend trying the Birch Benders protein waffle mix. These pancakes/waffles taste AMAZING. They absolutely do not taste “healthy” and should absolutely satisfy your brunch cravings. They aren’t “wheaty” like Kodiak, and yet they have less sodium, less calories, more protein, and are always on sale for a few bucks cheaper. To be completely honest, once I found these babies, I stopped buying KC pancake mixes. I stopped buying all other mixes in general. The Birch Benders brand has paleo, plant based and animal based protein waffle mixes, and more. SOLD!

Of course, you can choose to make your own homemade pancakes. This is just an option to help you out with prep time and understand that packaged foods in moderation don’t have to be the devil.

Brunch Baes

Grab yourself a cup of coffee, a comfy blanket, and a good friend to enjoy this meal with. Suzi and I enjoyed ours while catching up on this summer’s season of The Bachelorette – our favorite tradition. That’s what brunch is for, no? All happy tummies and memories here. Sans any food babies. 😉