​USC Healthy & Delicious Breakfast Challenge: the winners!

For the USC Healthy & Delicious Breakfast Challenge, we asked our sporters to send us their most favorite breakfast (sorry, chocolate croissants won’t pass the bar in this time). We were looking for healthy recipes based on their ingredients and a fair balance of macro- and micronutrients. Macronutrients are carbohydrates, proteins and fats and micronutrients are vitamines and minerals. Besides healthy, these recipes also had to be delicious.

The two best recipes were picked out by our fitness instructor Zella, ánd tested of course, to find out if they were delicious as well. And the winners are….

Jacoline and Hester. Congratulations to both of you! You two win a USC sports bag.

Curious for the winning recipes of Jacoline and Hester? Here they are.

Jacoliene’s Yoghurt Bowl:

Jacoliene’s recipe was picked out because it contains a good amount of complex carbohydrates (oats), fibers (oats/fruits), healthy fats (nuts), vitamines (in all ingredients), minerals (such as kalium from bananas) and a fair amount of protein (mostly from Greek yoghurt and a bit from oats). Besides a delicious taste this recipe is easy to make and some of the ingredients you can exchange according to taste, for example using mixed berries or kiwi instead of apple.

Ingredients

Greek yoghurt (about 200-300 grams)

2 tbsp of oats

2 tbsp of mixed unsalted nuts

½ banana

½ apple

How to make it?

Pour the yogurt into a bowl. Cut the apple in small pieces and the banana in thin slices and put them together with all the other ingredients on top.

Hester’s Golden Milk Smoothie

Perfect for vegan lifestyle lovers! This one definitely got our attention, because the mixture of ingredients used is very original. First of all this smoothie is packed with vitamines (A, C, B2, B6) and minerals (calcium, kalium, magnesium, copper, potassium, zinc, iron), coming from all ingredients. Mango contains, besides vitamine C, a good amount of carbohydrates and fibers. Flax seeds are a great source of fiber; one tablespoon provides about 3 grams! They also contain healthy fats and a bit of protein. Cinnamon and ginger are loaded with antioxidants; they protect your cells from the damage caused by free radicals.

Besides all this we were pleasantly surprised about the fresh and slightly sweet taste of this Golden Milk Smoothie. So get out of your comfort zone and give this one a try!

Ingredients

150 grams of frozen mango

2 celery stalks

¼ zucchini

1 tbsp broken flax seeds

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp turmeric powder

½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

Pinch of black pepper

100 ml almond milk

100 ml coconut milk

How to make it?

Blend all ingredients into a delicious smoothie ;-)

Thanks for the inspiration,

Zella van der Toorn Vrijthoff

Team Fitness, USC Leiden