Healthy Winter and Fall Breakfast Ideas to Start Your Day

You are probably familiar with those chilly fall and winter mornings when you’d instead prefer staying tucked in than getting up to make breakfast. But, it would be best if you had a healthy breakfast to energize yourself and get your day started. It’s also essential to maintain healthy eating habits and regular exercise for energy balance and good overall health, especially when watching your weight. Here are three fall breakfast ideas to give those chilly mornings a wholesome and healthy start. You might also want to try these vegetarian recipes if you are interested in a few more healthy meal ideas.

• Fall Breakfast Ideas: A Nutritious Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Quinoa Recipe
• A Warm and Healthy Breakfast Recipe for Chilly Mornings: Paleo Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes
• Crunchy, Wholesome, High-Fiber Breakfast Fix: Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Bars
• Conclusion

Fall Breakfast Ideas: Nutritious Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Quinoa

This heartwarming pumpkin quinoa breakfast bowl gives you a comfortable and healthy fix for winter mornings. This tasty breakfast meal provides the nutrition required by your body to sustain itself for hours.

With ingredients like quinoa, pumpkin, and pecans, this recipe makes for a highly nutritious breakfast. Also known as a whole-grain superfood, quinoa is a great ingredient to add to your breakfast. It’s a versatile, gluten-free seed that is a rich protein and fiber source and provides all essential amino acids required by your body.

This recipe includes a few other ingredients rich in antioxidants, such as pumpkin and maple syrup. You can use honey as a sweetener if you want to cut down on sugar calories and heart-healthy pecan nuts or any other nuts as toppings.

Pumpkin Spice Breakfast Quinoa Recipe

Ingredients:

(For two servings)

• ½ cup milk (any milk of your choice)
• ½ cup water
• ¼ cup (or slightly more) pumpkin puree
• ½ cup rinsed and drained, uncooked quinoa
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• A pinch of salt
• Chopped pecans for topping

Directions:

• Combine water and milk in a medium-sized saucepan and bring to a boil.
• Add quinoa and cover the saucepan. Simmer on low for approximately fifteen minutes.
• Remove from heat. Keeping it covered, let the mixture rest for  five minutes.
• Remove the lid and fluff the quinoa with a fork.
• Add the maple syrup, pumpkin puree, salt, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice, and stir to mix.
• Add milk and serve.  Optional: top with chopped pecans (or any of your favorite toppings).

A Warm and Healthy Breakfast Recipe for Chilly Mornings: Paleo Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes

Paleo is a whole-food-based diet that excludes refined sugars or flours. These warm and cozy Paleo Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes are an absolute treat for breakfast in the winters for weight watchers.

This healthy pancake recipe is straightforward to make and extremely nutritious. A few notes: you can remove the egg yolks from the eggs to reduce the recipe’s fat content. Bananas are rich in potassium, promoting good heart health and regulating blood pressure, so make sure to include them in your recipe. Apples offer tremendous health benefits such as blood sugar regulation and improving digestive health, so they are essential. As this is a Paleo recipe, it does not include any sugars or refined flours, but you can choose to add healthy flours like almond flour.

Paleo Apple-Cinnamon Pancakes Recipe

Ingredients:

(For eight small pancakes) 

• 2 whisked eggs
• 1 small apple, peeled and diced 
• 2 mashed bananas
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons of almond butter
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 ½  teaspoon cinnamon
• Some coconut oil for cooking the pancakes

Directions:

• Whisk the eggs in a medium-sized bowl.
• Use a fork to mash the bananas.
• Add the mashed bananas to the whisked eggs.
• Peel and dice the apple.
• Combine the apple chunks, banana, and egg mixture. Stir to mix.
• Add the nutmeg, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and almond butter.
• Mix well to make a pancake batter.
• Heat the coconut oil on medium heat in a skillet. 
• Pour a thin layer of pancake batter on the skillet. Cook both sides evenly until the pancakes are golden brown.
• You can easily double or triple the pancake batter using the same proportion of ingredients.
• Pour raw maple syrup on top or add fresh fruit for topping.

Tip: Keep your pancakes smaller than your spatula head, so they are easy to flip and don’t fall apart.

Crunchy, Wholesome, High-Fiber Breakfast Fix: Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Bars

These crunchy and tempting pumpkin cinnamon chip oatmeal bars can make an irresistible addition to your fall and winter breakfast menus. You can choose whole wheat flour, coconut flour, or almond flour instead of refined flour to make these bars healthier. Another healthy choice would be to replace the brown sugar in the recipe with honey to cut some extra calories.

There are many other healthy ingredients in this recipe, including pumpkin, fall and winter vegetables essential, oats, and molasses. Oats are power-packed with antioxidants and soluble fiber for better digestive health. Molasses is another ingredient that is an excellent nutritious source of iron that can help improve bone health.

For more flavored and travel-friendly oatmeal breakfast options, you might want to try oats overnight. Here is a six-minute video including five delicious and nutrition-packed oats overnight recipes.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Oatmeal Bars Recipe

Ingredients: 

(Makes 16 bars)

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 1/2 cups old-fashioned oats (not instant)
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten 
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1/2 cup cinnamon chips

Directions:

• Inside a large bowl, sift and combine flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice, and baking powder.
• Add the oats and brown sugar to the bowl and stir to mix.
• In a separate bowl, combine and mix all the liquid ingredients including the: milk, pumpkin, molasses, beaten egg, and vanilla. 
• Combine and mix the liquid mixture and the dry ingredients.
• Fold the cinnamon chips into the mixture.
• Line a 8×8” panwith aluminum foil and spray with non-stick spray. 
• Gently spoon the mixed batter into the lined pan and make sure it’s spread evenly. 
• Bake in an oven preheated at 350F for thirty to thirty-five minutes.
• Let cool.
• Cut into sixteen squares and serve.

Conclusion

Winter nutrition is all about warm and healthy comfort food. Give your day a delicious nutrition boost with these delectable and nutritious winter and fall breakfast ideas. A nutritious meal for breakfast can set the mood for the rest of the day. These breakfast recipes are sure to make the chilly mornings warmer, cozier, and tastier while keeping your health in check. So remember to help yourself to a nutritionally-balanced breakfast this winter that is also a treat for your tastebuds!