I've been promising you guys this recipe for a while and it only took me a matter of throwing it into almost every client's meal plan to realize I needed to get this up and out to you guys ASAP! (Side note: I don't just duplicate the same recipes in every client's meal plans, but this specific breakfast is just that good and nutritious not to share with everyone!).

Long before I was a Holistic Nutritionist, I used to be a cereal fiend. At the time I thought I was doing a good thing for my body, downing a hefty bowl (sometimes 2) of Raisin Brain, LIFE or Mini Wheats and drenching it with my skim milk. That was of course when my focus was centralized around calories and low fat (as it was for most people) and not the actual ingredients and amount of sugar that was in my food. Now when I look at the ingredient list of each of those cereals, I just have to laugh. How did I ever think those cereals were healthy?! Actually, I do know how I thought this and if this is something you were fooled by too, don't beat yourself up over it!

Marketers are sneaky little smarty pants nowadays, stating that your cereal is fortified with vitamins and minerals, gluten-free (knowing that everyone sees "gluten-free" and immediately think it's healthy), a great source of ______ (insert nutrient here), heart-healthy and loaded with protein. This, my friends, is called "Healthwashing", which is when a product (typically a food) is marketed as being healthier than it actually is with references in advertisements to vitamins, antioxidants and probiotics.

The reality is that marketers aren't making it any easier to know how to navigate the grocery store when you're trying to make healthy options. One of the best things we can do in this case is to learn to be avid label readers by keeping an eye out for processed ingredients, fillers, preservatives and most of all, sugar. I think this will warrant another blog post in itself at one point just because it is such a beast to fully understand and it's so important!

Next to being an avid label reader, the absolute best thing we can do is simply make our food ourselves! Sure, it takes a bit more time and effort but it's always worth it! I couldn't believe how much my overall health improved just by swapping my typical sugar-laden breakfast for whole foods-based, healthy fat and protein-based breakie, like this Sweet Potato Egg Trio!

While this breakfast looks somewhat fancy with all of that #yolkporn jazz going on and whatnot, it's actually super easy to throw together. I've even converted my bagel-loving boyfriend to this and now it's just second nature for one of us to make it for each other whenever we're at each other's places (if only you knew how happy this makes me!).

It's truly the perfect blend and ratio of macronutrients (not that we're counting) to start your day off right, with loads of healthy fats and protein from the eggs and some slow-burning carbohydrates from the sweet potato and broccoli. It does involve whipping out your mandolin (my preferred method), cheese grater or spiralizer, which I personally don't mind but if you're opposed to that, you could easily just enjoy this over roasted cubed sweet potato (which I always meal prep at the beginning of the week) or some mixed greens.

You've probably heard "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" right? While there's truth to that, the actual truth is that whatever your first meal of the day is, is the most important meal of the day. This is what's going to jump start your metabolism for the day, balance yourhormones and your blood sugars so you can have sustained energythroughout the day. When we start our day with that sugary cereal or a bagel, we're spiking our blood sugar so high in the morning which always leads to an energy dip or crash later on in the morning or day (and we wonder why we're reaching for coffee and sugary sweets throughout the day!).

Because I just love eggs on everything (literally, EVERYTHING), this is definitely a breakie fave, which is why I recommend it to so many of the clients I work with who are looking for healthy balanced breakfasts. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do!

Sweet Potato Egg Trio

Ingredients

2 organic eggs, over easy
1 handful broccoli florets (don't forget to use the stem!)
1/2 sweet potato, shredded with mandolin
1 tbsp grape seed oil

Directions

Preheat a frying pan on medium heat with grape seed oil (safe for high-heat cooking).
Toss shredded sweet potato in pan and sauté for about 4-5 minutes until cooked (but not too mushy). Remove from pan and set aside in a bowl.
Toss broccoli florets and stems into frying pan and sauté until fully cooked. Transfer from pan to bowl, topping the sweet potato with the broccoli.
Crack eggs into pan and cook to desired preference (over-easy: cook one side for 1-2 minutes, flip, remove from heat after about 10 seconds.
Remove from pan and place on top of sweet potato and broccoli. Sprinkle with hemp seeds and ground flax for an added boost of protein and healthy fats!

What's your favourite whole foods based breakie?