We get it – when you have an 8:30 class, the number one priority is getting as much sleep as possible, down to the last second. Morning routines are perfectly calibrated – five minutes to motivate yourself to get out of bed, two to get dressed, one to brush your teeth and thirty seconds to slip on your backpack and head out the door.
But there’s one crucial ingredient missing from the typical college student’s morning recipe: breakfast. Eating a healthy breakfast gets your body and mind going, helping you to stay focused in two hundred person lectures, where it is all too easy to drift off. Don’t want to wake up early enough to make breakfast or head to an on-campus eatery? Here are a few make-ahead recipes that will only take a few minutes of prep the night before, and can easily be made in any dorm.
On the Lighter Side: Frozen Fruits
Banana Bites
Photo by Genny Liebes
Simply slice up a banana and place on a sheet of parchment paper in the freezer. Top with peanut butter, yogurt, or melted chocolate – the beauty of these banana bites is that they can be totally customized to fit your own palate. Let the slices freeze overnight, and eat a few in the morning to get going. Adding peanut butter and yogurt (especially Greek) packs a lot of protein into a little package.
Looking for a recipe? Try this one.
Yogurt-Covered Blueberries
Dip blueberries into any flavor yogurt using a toothpick, and set on a piece of parchment paper in the freezer. Blueberries are naturally sweet, so to keep the sugar in these down, use plain Greek yogurt.
Keeps You Full: Oatmeal Two Ways
Overnight Oatmeal
Photo by Gabby Phi
High in dietary fiber, oatmeal is one of the best ways to stay full for a long time. To keep hunger at bay during back-to-back lectures, try eating this overnight oatmeal for breakfast.
- ¼ cup rolled oats – NOT instant, quick or steel cut
- 1/3 cup milk
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt
- Sweetener, if desired
Put oats, milk and yogurt into a Tupperware container or something similar. Shake thoroughly to combine the ingredients, and add any mix-ins, like fruit, nuts or sweetener. Try adding different flavors, like cinnamon or cocoa powder, to mix things up.
Homemade Instant Oatmeal
The packaged oatmeal you can buy in the store may look healthy, but often, it’s really hiding massive amounts of sugar, fat and sodium. To skip the stuff that’s bad for you and only get the benefits of oatmeal, make your own instant oatmeal packets.
- ¼ cup quick or instant rolled oats
- ½ – ¾ cup milk (varies depending on your preferred thickness for oatmeal)
- Pinch of salt
- 1 – 2 teaspoon sweetener (like sugar or honey)
- Additional add-ins like apple and cinnamon or cherry and almond are good flavor combinations
Make instant oatmeal packets simply by filling Ziploc bags with the dry ingredients and add-ins of your choice. To cook the oatmeal, just pour the packets’ contents into a microwave-safe bowl, add the milk and heat for 1-2 minutes. If you’d like, use 2 teaspoons of powdered milk in the packets and just add water instead of milk.
Want to read more? Try:
- More adventurous options: Unusual Breakfast Foods
- What else can I do with a frozen banana? Go Bananas
- How important is breakfast? To Skip or Not to Skip