Over the years I have had many people ask me what I eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner if I don’t eat flour or sugar. I wanted to share some of them with you here in case you are trying to transition into healthier meals. If there are certain foods you love or hate and want ideas of how to incorporate or avoid those foods let me know so I can add more recipe ideas for you!
Meat Lovers Breakfasts
The easiest way to avoid carbs during breakfast is to stick with eggs and meat. This may not be for everyone but if it is, you know who you are. When I am eating very clean I find that my metabolism gets a boost and I get very hungry come breakfast time. A good hearty breakfast can help hold you off until your next meal and control your eating throughout the day. Here are some common Meat Lover breakfasts we enjoy at my house.
But before we get to meat, lets talk about Eggs- Lots of eggs.
If you hate eggs than let me know and we’ll come up with a solution for you. But eggs are a wonderful source of protein and can be made a plethora of ways.
- Scrambled*
- Fried*
- Poached
- Boiled
- Made into an Omelet*
- Quiche*
- etc
Depending on your fat allowance for the day you can eat whole eggs or separate the whites from the yolk to increase protein without increasing fat. If I am eating predominantly eggs for a meal I’ll use one whole egg and maybe two egg whites scrambled together with a little bit of my favorite meat.
*Our Favorites
Andersen Omelet
If an omelet is made at our house it usually includes:
- 4-6 Mushrooms Chopped
- A handful of Spinach
- Gary likes to add peppers or onions to his omelets. I prefer just the mushrooms and spinach.
- Sliced Turkey meat/sausage/or cut up bacon pieces (maybe a 1/4 cup of meat)
- put into a pan with a bit of olive oil and cook until spinach is wilted and meat + mushrooms are cooked.
- 1 whole egg and 2 egg whites (Gary likes to add a dash of milk and water to his eggs to make them light and fluffy)
- mix in a bowl and pour over the veggies and meat
- cook until eggs are firm enough to flip
- Add cheese to cooked side (if desired)
- Salt/Pepper
- fold in half and enjoy!
- Top with avocado, salsa, hot sauce, etc
Here’s where I get weird. Instead of eating salsa or cheese on my eggs I’ll usually put a scoop of cottage cheese on top instead. It adds a bunch of protein and helps avoid the taste of dry bland egg in my mouth. Feel free to knock it after you’ve tried it 😉
Favorite Meats
Whenever I make eggs I usually combine them with a meat I’m digging that week. Some of my favorites are:
- Uncured Bacon
- Turkey Bacon
- Low Fat Ground Turkey
- Ground Sausage
- Deli Turkey
- Ham
Cook up a fried egg and slap that on top of any of these meats and I call that a great breakfast.
Andersen Scramble
My house is also the castle of scrambles so we’ll throw a bunch of meat and veggies in a pan, scramble in eggs and maybe some cheese and we’re set. The scramble came about because I suck at perfecting the omelet (while Gary’s omelets look like works of art). I ruin the omelet every time when I try and flip it. It either gets stuck to the bottom of the pan or I turn it too soon to avoid “dry egg” from overcooking it, blah, blah, blah, I gave up. The easiest solution? Mix all that shit together.
Our favorite scramble includes:
- 1 yam/sweet potato peeled + diced
- Cook in the pan first with 1 T olive/coconut oil until sweet potato begins to get soft
- Add 4-6 mushrooms chopped
- Add 1/4 cup of your favorite meat- ground or cut into bite size pieces
- Cook the potatoes, mushrooms, meat & any other veggies until the meat is cooked and potatoes are soft.
- Next you can either scramble in your egg/egg whites/milk/water mixture or remove the “hash” from heat and fry up some eggs to put on top (my favorite).
- Top with salt/pepper/salsa/hot sauce/or Katie’s weird low-fat cottage cheese.
Meal Prep- Breakfast Quiche Muffins
Growing up my Nana made the BEST quiche and if there was ever a brunch party I looked forward to that delicious egg-pie-thing that I knew would be served. Obviously this quiche had pie crust in the bottom and became off limits when I started paying attention to the amount of flour I ate. But I found a solution, quiche muffins!
Things to love about quiche muffins:
- East to meal prep and have on hand for on the go breakfasts
- No Crust
- So versatile! Quiche muffins can be different every time and will help use up whatever leftover meat/veggies you have in your fridge
- Fun for kids to help make and eat. Great for little people portions too
Ingredients:
Spinach/Kale, Mushrooms, Favorite Meat, Favorite Cheese, Eggs, Milk/Cream, Salt/Pepper
Directions:
- Get a regular sized muffin tin and either grease it with butter or fill with muffin wrappers.
- Begin filling with the veggies. fill about 1/3 of the cup with pre-cooked veggies. Some of our go-to’s are
- spinach/kale
- mushrooms
- peppers
- Add meat (if you are a meat lover…which you should be if you are still reading this post). Fill the cups another 1/3 of the way with Pre-cooked meat. This is best for quiche because you’ve been able to remove excess moisture and grease before adding it to the muffins.
- Crumbled bacon
- Ground Sausage
- Diced Ham Steak
- Chopped Deli Meat
- etc
- Add Cheese – fill the rest of the cup with shredded cheese. Use your favorite cheese. If I am trying to cut back on fat I’ll use low-fat mozzarella cheese or maybe not even add cheese. Some delicious/flavorful cheeses are
- Swiss
- Smoked Guda
- Sharp Cheddar
- Pepper Jack if you like a bit of a kick
- Eggs- Your egg mixture will change depending on your fat allowance. Anyone doing keto can dump the cream or whole milk into their eggs and be just fine. Those of you trying to cut out some fat, I suggest using a low fat milk (dont use fat free milk, you might as well just add sugar water and it wont add any creaminess).
- Depending on how full your 12 cups are you probably only need 4-6 eggs. If you want to cut out more fat then you can sub egg whites for some of the yolks. But the consistency will definitely be better if you just use the whole egg.
- Add 1/4 teaspoon and 1/4-1/2 teaspoon pepper
- Add a 1/4-1/2 cup cream/Milk to your eggs and beat until the consistency is smooth.
- Fill each cup up to the top with your egg mixtur & put in the oven
* Bake at 375 degrees for 30 min-1 hour…once the muffins are firm to the touch you’ll know they are ready to come out. The amount of fat/water in each batch will alter baking time. Let muffins cool completely before wrapping/covering and putting in the refrigerator. These should be good for about a week:)
What about Hash Browns?
If you grew up like Gary and Me you are probably used to having some sort of carb or starch with your breakfast. That can be a hard habit to shake! The easiest way to change your eating habits is to substitute what you are used to for something healthier. The Hash brown substitutes we use are:
- Sweet potatoes or yams instead of white potatoes
- Peel uncooked potatoes and use a cheese grater to make your own hash browns. Cook them in a bit of oil just like you would with regular hash browns and carry on as usual.
- Spaghetti Squash
- Yep, here is a weird Katie thing again. Go ahead and knock it after you’ve tried it. Spaghetti squash is such a simple substitute for regular hash browns and tastes SO good! So much more flavor.
- The easiest way to incorporate this food is to plan a bit in advance. The night before, cut the spaghetti squash in half, gut the seeds, cover in a bit of oil + bake at 400 degrees until soft. Eat one half for dinner the night before and then refrigerate the rest for hash browns the next morning.
- Scoop the squash out the next morning and “fry” them up in a bit of oil or butter the way you would usually make hash browns. They taste delicious if you get them a bit crispy too.
My Four Leaves 