February is National Hot Breakfast Month, which makes perfect sense. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all, and February mornings can be awfully cold, making a hot breakfast comforting as well as nourishing. The trick can be how you are going to help your senior to eat a hot breakfast every morning. In reality, having help from home care assistance as well as planning ahead are your two best bets.
Make-ahead Egg Dishes
Egg dishes are easier to heat up than most people think and they’re also so nutritious. Add a few vegetables and proteins, like ham or bacon bits, and they have added protein, too. Making mini-egg muffins and then freezing them lets your senior pop a warm egg breakfast out of the microwave or oven any time she wants.
Overnight Oats
Oatmeal is fantastic for its fiber content. Since February is also American Heart Month, double up and add some easy oatmeal to the breakfast rotation. Soaking oats overnight in individual serving containers with milk makes it easy for your senior to microwave them in the morning, add fruit, nuts, seeds, or other toppings, and enjoy. Easy and nutritious, and if your elderly family member wants to eat the overnight oats cold, she still can.
Toaster Waffles or Pancakes
Another easy idea is to make a double or triple batch of your senior’s favorite pancakes or waffles. Bonus points if you include ingredients like chia seeds, flax seeds, or even berries. Another idea can be to make protein waffles and pancakes, which typically include protein powder to beef up the nutrition. Freeze them and wrap them individually. When it’s time for breakfast, they can go straight from the freezer to the toaster to get heated up.
Breakfast Burritos
Breakfast burritos can offer variety as well as ease of heating up and eating. You can put just about anything in them, from scrambled eggs, cheese, and sausage to bacon and other breakfast foods. When your senior is ready to eat, this is another breakfast idea that can go straight from the freezer to the microwave.
Keeping your senior in hot breakfasts can be a lot easier with some prep work, but it isn’t always easy to do that work yourself. Home care assistance can make hot breakfast planning and prep easy on you. Then elder care providers can heat up your senior’s breakfast and help her to get a great start for her day.