Hit Walk to School Week Running with Healthy Breakfasts

15 May 2023

We all know the horrors of the school run. Strongarming kids into uniforms. Getting them to sit still and eat. Cleaning up after they spill cereal on the dog. Navigating commuters with a death wish. Standing in the school carpark in your bunny slippers, feeling like you’ve missed something…

It’s your kid. They’re still at home on the sofa.

Then Walk to School Week arrives. Schools want what now? Pupils to turn up alive and healthy? Impossible! Or is it? Actually, not only is a morning walk and a healthy breakfast achievable on a commuter’s schedule, but executing both can also improve your life and work performance.

Say you whip up double portions of brain-boosting food for student success or a simple breakfast for weight loss; you’ll also gain a healthy breakfast for work. And then you’ll get your steps in. You and your kids will share the undeniable benefits. All it takes is the right kitchen workspace and easy recipes.

Leverage a Breakfast Dresser

We’ll get onto the recipes soon. Firstly, however, it pays to start by optimising your kitchen when looking to reinforce a positive habit. As habit-building expert James Clear suggests:

“Before you try to increase your willpower, try to decrease the friction in your environment.”

Giving an activity a designated space you won’t need to set up from scratch or fight to access every time you plan to use it reduces the friction required for the activity. At Sigma 3, we’ve optimised our Breakfast Dressers with convenience in mind to make breakfast a frictionless affair for this reason.

Echoing a luxury hotel room experience, this breakfast cupboard helps average families experience a taste of how the other half live, but on a realistic budget. Featuring ample room for a tea-making station or coffee machine, it keeps worktop clutter to a minimum – perfect for a stress-free breakfast.

High-Protein Breakfasts

Science tells us that protein is the most fulfilling macro-nutrient. Thus, a high-protein breakfast will keep you feeling full for longer. The problem is finding high-protein breakfasts for picky-eaters. Yet, we may have a solution.

Simple and packed with ingredients kids love, the air fryer egg on toast only takes a few minutes to prepare, satisfies your little monsters and – thanks to its simplicity – provides a welcomed sight for picky eaters. Even the brown bread receives a good reception, being toasted to perfection.

Ingredients (Serves One):

• One slice of wholemeal bread
• One egg

Instructions:

1. Set your air fryer on air fry mode to 200°C.
2. Press a crater into the bread slice.
3. Crack an egg into the bread crater.
4. Cook it all in the air fryer for six minutes.

Not just easy, this meal is also satiating. The wholemeal bread delivers quick energy for the school run while the egg provides lasting satisfaction, perfect for focus. Serve up your creation over a compact kitchen island, resplendent with island barstools, and you can even use the job as an excuse to bond.

Sweet Healthy Breakfasts

Summer porridge is a staple of health enthusiasts who opt for sweetness and fresh flavours over savoury tastes first thing in the morning.

Loaded with oaty goodness, and fruits full of antioxidants, which help the body combat sickness, this option is both delicious and healthy, particularly the blueberries, which nurture a good memory.

Ingredients (Serves One):

• 150ml of almond milk
• 100g of blueberries
• A quarter of a tablespoon of maple syrup
• Two teaspoons of chia seeds
• 50g of oats
• Half a kiwi fruit (sliced)
• 25g of pomegranate seeds
• One teaspoon of mixed seeds

Instructions:

1. Blitz the milk, blueberries and syrup in a blender.
2. Mix the blueberry milk in a bowl with chia seeds and oats.
3. Stir occasionally for five minutes until the oats absorbs the liquid.
4. Pour into a bowl.
5. Arrange the remaining fruit and seeds on top.

This meal includes more ingredients than most breakfasts, but the variation is fantastic for gut health, and storing them should be no hassle. Simply invest in Tupperware pots and a Hathaway kitchen pantry. Together, they’ll keep your ingredients fresh and you organised.

Vital for enthusiastic home cooks, you can get this storage feature from 400mm to 1,200mm wide, and it comes with a variety of shelves, drawers and cubbyholes.

High-Fibre Breakfasts

As a culture, we consume far fewer veggies than researcher guidelines advise, and often limit them to evening meals. However, there’s nothing wrong with creating a veggie breakfast that’s full of greens.

While you might doubt kids will enjoy this option, simple green smoothies are easier to introduce to them than you might assume, especially if they struggle to stomach solid foods at breakfast. The bananas and peanut butter make them delicious and keep stomachs satiated until lunch.

Ingredients (Serves One):

• 250ml of almond milk
• Two handfuls of spinach
• Two bananas
• Three teaspoons of peanut butter
• Two ice cubes

Instructions:

1. Blitz all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
2. Thicken with extra fruit or thin with more almond milk until consistency is prefect.
3. Pour into a glass and serve.

Yes, studies claim chewing your food is healthier than drinking it – blending accelerates oxidisation, which decreases nutrient richness – but, as the saying goes, “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

Veggies are still veggies, even at half power. So, if your child enjoys a simple vegetarian breakfast drink more than a solid meal, let them. Giving them an 80%-healthy breakfast they like will only improve their relationship with vegetables and nurture a healthy eating habit as they grow.

Maintaining the Habit

Right now, you might believe a quick TV snack and a car-based school run is better. In reality, though, kids value the time they spend with their parents, and they’re impressionable. Make a tradition of preparing a healthy breakfast with them and walking them to school beyond Walk to School Week and you’ll set them up with healthy habits for life, while making memories.

Optimise your kitchen for bonding and you’ll find the transition easier. If you need more help making this happen, find your nearest Sigma 3 showroom and book a consultation, or become a Sigma 3 Insider for free. As an Insider, you’ll get exclusive design tips, welcome guides and valuable resources just for joining the club.

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