Healthy Life: Wake up to something delicious

Have you ever awakened excited to breakfast? If not, you probably haven't found a quick, go-to breakfast yet.

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Ronald Pierre fills buckets of water from a broken city pipe near a sewer in Port-Au-Prince. Methodists in Springdale are raising money during Lent to provide clean water for Haitians.

Research shows that breakfast can help make your diet throughout the day more nutritionally complete. By starting your day making good choices, you decrease sugar cravings and increase consumption of nutrient-rich foods such as whole grains, lean proteins and natural forms of sugar found in fruit and dairy. Including breakfast daily also helps increase concentration and performance in the classroom or at work, increase strength and endurance for physical activity and lower cholesterol levels.

If breakfast is so good for us and helps improve the body throughout the day, why do so many people skip it? Simple: time! Busy schedules, lack of adequate sleep, and lack of preparation and planning can decrease the chance that breakfast will make it to the morning table. However, do not let this discourage you. There are lots of simple, great-tasting breakfast ideas packed with nutrition that can be made in under five minutes with very little prep.

One of the most underutilized pieces of kitchen equipment for breakfast is the slow cooker. For a slow-cooker breakfast, just put together the recipe the night before, set your slow cooker on low, fall into a deep sleep and wake up to a delicious and nutritious meal. Great additions to your slow-cooker morning meals can include traditional or steel-cut oats or quinoa hot cereal, egg frittata or a morning bread recipe made with whole wheat.

If the slow-cooker breakfast isn't for you, there are plenty of simple breakfasts that can be made for on-the-go eating. Try:

Greek yogurt with fresh fruit and granola - put it in a cup for easy travel.

Breakfast smoothie with protein powder - extra protein will keep you full longer.

Make pancakes on a lazy day and freeze the extra. Spread with peanut butter for a travel-friendly breakfast.

Trail mix made with nuts, granola, unsweetened coconut and dried fruit.

If you opt for frozen convenience breakfast foods, be sure to watch the amount of sodium in each product. Some have as much sodium as you need for an entire day!

Consciously making better choices at the beginning of the day helps prevent poor choices later. Not only can breakfast be convenient, it also guarantees that the entire family will have a healthy start before a busy day at work and school. If those benefits don't excite you, then maybe this recipe will.

SLOW-COOKER BANANA BREAD QUINOA

Makes: 6 servings

1 1/2 ripe bananas, plus additional for garnish

2 tablespoons chopped walnuts

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1 cup uncooked quinoa

1 cup low-fat or fat-free milk

1 cup water

1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mash the bananas in a bowl and set aside. In another bowl, mix together walnuts and brown sugar. Pour quinoa, milk, water, butter and vanilla into a slow cooker. Stir in the mashed bananas and walnut mixture. Set slow cooker to "low," and cook overnight or six to eight hours. If needed, add additional liquid or sugar to taste. Serve warm with additional sliced bananas for garnish if desired.

Nutrition facts per serving: 220 calories, 6 grams fat, 2 grams saturated fat, 30 milligrams sodium, 35 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams fiber, 7 grams protein.

Adapted from www.nutritionfor.us.