A dietitian's top tips to make delicious, nutritious breakfast in summer

What gets you up in the morning? We talk to a dietitian about starting the day with delicious, nutritious food

Pic: iStock

“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,” said Piglet at last, “what’s the first thing you say to yourself?”

“What’s for breakfast?” said Pooh. “What do you say, Piglet?”

“I say, I wonder what’s going to happen exciting today?” said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully. “It’s the same thing,” he said.”

From Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne.

A fried egg and two slices of toast. One Weetabix drowned in fresh milk. Overnight oats with fruit and seeds. Muesli and yoghurt. Breakfasts - even in the same household, our household - can be very different and exciting as children grow up and everyone finds their groove. But when it’s sunny outside and holiday mode is activated, sometimes the old faithful breakfast starts to look a little dull and tired.

Someone starts ditching the egg and makes inroads into a loaf of just-baked bread with the help of a jar of honey. That bag of chia seeds makes another appearance as yet another version of chia pudding is explored. There’s a general, mutinous dissatisfaction with everyday cereal and muesli and, when it’s hot, there’s sometimes a general absence of appetite.

Is breakfast still the most important meal of the day? “They’re all important,” says Sarah Keogh, Dublin-based registered dietitian and founder of eatwell.ie. “What you need to keep in mind is that you are ticking all the [nutrition] boxes over the day.”

Some people just can’t get motivated to eat at breakfast time, she adds “but, if you wait an hour or so until you are hungry, then it’s easier to eat.”

According to Keogh, key elements to include in a nutritious breakfast are wholegrains, vegetables or fruit, protein, calcium and fibre. “Breakfast is a brilliant time to get wholegrains in. You might not want porridge on a hot morning but you could have muesli or granola, even wholegrain bread or toast, and these foods are important because they reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”

Dietician and nutritionist Sarah Keogh.

Keogh also advocates for including protein at breakfast: “A little bit of protein is increasingly important as we age. Having something like egg or yoghurt and including seeds in cereal are all ways of managing that.”

Dairy foods like milk, eaten with cereal, and yoghurt, also have the benefit of bringing calcium - and protein - to the breakfast table. “Packet cereal fortified with iron is good but you don’t need to choose a sugar-coated chocolate flavour. There are lots of good brands of cereals on the market, which are high in vitamins and fibre. Have that with a sliced banana and you’ve got a great breakfast.”

While we’re well used to having fruit at breakfast, is it difficult to introduce the idea of eating veggies first thing in the morning? “Not necessarily,” says Keogh. “We’ll often have beans and mushrooms with a fry. We have certain ideas about what vegetables are suitable for breakfast time. Some people sauté spinach, although that’s a bit beyond me. Or they grill tomatoes.”

Keogh points out that “80% of people in Ireland are not hitting their targets for fibre.” According to HSE.ie, we need to consume at least 25g of fibre - the indigestible part of plant food - daily to help maintain bowel health. Good sources of fibre include fruit and vegetables (especially the skins), those baked beans, wholegrain breads and cereals. Fibre-rich seeds like sunflower, chia, sesame and linseed are also good to sprinkle over cereals or add to smoothies.

Several Ireland-based companies - for example, Sligo’s Good4U and Linwoods in Armagh - sell bags of milled mixed seeds for exactly this purpose.

“There’s nothing like a bowel working properly to make you feel better in the morning,” says Keogh, who believes breakfast is the ideal time to build good food habits. “Often people make good choices in the morning before the day kicks in and things become more difficult.”

Rediscover that Pooh-bear breakfast excitement with five nutritious summertime ideas:

1. While the kids are off school, get them into the kitchen to make a batch of fluffy American-style pancakes. Serve with some Irish-grown strawberries, and try not to go overboard with the syrup. Yesterday’s leftover pancakes can be revitalised with a turn in the toaster.

2. Ditch the bought breakfast bars for a homemade version, using oats as a base, bananas to sweeten, nuts and seeds for protein and a few handfuls of tropical dried mixed fruit for flavour. Great for breakfasts on the go.

3. Eggs for breakfast are always a winner and summer is the perfect time to go hardboiled. Lower the eggs carefully into boiling water, simmer for nine to 10 minutes (depending on the size of your egg) and cool quickly in cold water. Peel and slice or mash on top of toasted wholemeal or rye bread. A pinch of crunchy sea salt and a twist of black pepper are essential additions. Hardboiled eggs are also good with cold noodles.

4. Boost your overnight oats by reframing them as bircher muesli: grate an apple, mix with a handful of oats and your favourite selection of seeds and nuts. Add milk or fermented milk drink kefir, stir well, cover and chill overnight. In the morning, choose your own adventure with toppings like yoghurt, seasonal fruit, and toasted seeds or nuts. This can be made with gluten-free oats or milk alternatives for a coeliac-friendly or vegan option.

5. Bake once, eat all week: make a batch of breakfast muffins, using all the good things like oats, linseed and nuts and freeze. Derval O’Rourke’s Oaty Breakfast Muffins are an ideal option here. Thaw in the fridge overnight and refresh on top of the toaster or in an airfryer for a high-fibre, low-sugar breakfast on the go.

What we eat for breakfast

“Often people just eat the same for breakfast all year round,” says Keogh, but summertime can also see big changes as seen in the responses to a question about breakfasts I posted recently on Twitter.

Get your oats: Porridge lovers are out in force. Diarmuid Ó Mathúna of POTA Café in Connemara needs a good foundation for his day: “Porridge, every morning, nothing else fuels me like it.”

“Porridge in the colder mornings, berries and yoghurt in the spring/summer,” says Meath-based podcaster Janice Dunne.

Toast time: Northern Irish whiskey writer Kenny Archer keeps it simple: “Toast. Always toast. With an espresso. Marmalade at the weekends.”

Perfect balance: Castlebar-based marketing director Shireen McDonagh ticks the veg and fruit breakfast boxes with her toast by having “avocado and tomato on toast or a homemade smoothie during nice weather, or even just a piece of fruit”.

Mix up the location: for Eoin Kelleher in Tipperary, good weather is the trigger to change his breakfast location: “I’ve started dining al fresco at my picnic table instead of indoors for breakfast. La dolce vita - Cashel is my Amalfi coast.”

Farm it out: glamping guests at Mount Briscoe Organic Farm in Co Offaly are in for a healthy treat at breakfast time, which features “homemade organic brown scones with hawthorn honey from our own bee hives in the orchard” alongside produce from the farm like gooseberries, blackberries, damsons, apples, roasted hazelnuts and garden greens when in season.

• Find Sarah Keogh on Instagram at @sarahkeoghrd and online at eatwell.ie.