Getting more protein into breakfast

[Pinklightning]

With food restrictions. I’m starting ADHD meds and have been advised by the prescriber to eat more protein in the morning. This will be challenging.

I can now eat almonds after a successful food challenge test but still need to test other nuts.
I don’t eat meat, fish, eggs and try not to eat UPFs too often so wouldn’t add protein powder to anything. I did try some once and it gave me terrible stomach cramps over the few days I tried it. I have IBS and my gut did not like it at all. I don’t think I could stomach cooking anything beyond porridge on a school day morning and don’t have loads of time. I’m very active and need carbs at breakfast otherwise I feel faint by 9am. adding Greek yogurt to porridge wasn’t a pleasant experience and if I have yogurt for breakfast it’s not enough to keep me going. The school run is a 3 mile round walk and it’s hilly.

I’m currently eating leerdammer and breadsticks. I’ve had 18g protein from the cheese. I’ll have hummus and breadsticks for lunch as always. Dinner I’ve no idea. Maybe vegetable soup.

I don’t think I’ll succeed at this especially as the meds are likely to decrease my appetite.

What could I eat?!

I only eat the Bonne Maman chocolate hazelnut spread. It’s so much better.

Sugar doesn’t cause diabetes.

A dietician is possibly a good call but probably a waste of time. I know what I should eat but actually doing it is a different matter.

I’m making broccoli and cheddar soup for dinner tonight. Veggie pizza tomorrow.

Soya milk is quite high in protein. My standard work breakfast is a soya latte, a banana and 30g mixed nuts which adds to about 17g protein.

Purition shakes aren’t UPF and paired with soya milk (a quality one like Plenish) will get you to about 22g protein.

Skyr also works really well. 150g of Skyr yoghurt, 45g of granola (eg Waitrose Raisin & Almond) and a chopped banana or fruit of your choice will get you to about 21g protein. Granola is easy to make if you prefer your own.

10g chia seeds soaked overnight, 150g Skyr, a chopped banana or fruit and 30g of All Bran/fibre cereal will also get you to about 22g.

I personally find I need to mix fibre or fat with protein for satiety in the mornings.

You are right that too much sugar doesn't cause diabetes, but it does create a higher risk of developing it. I'd give a dietician a go because they may have ideas of things you can tolerate that you haven't thought of. Wishing you all the best OP, it sounds like you've got a real struggle on your hands.

You do have a challenge there.

I saw you said peanut butter might be a possibility for you. Manilife is great if you can get it, just peanuts and a touch of salt. I know what you mean about stickiness though so two suggestions: have it with cream cheese or sliced banana. Both are great combinations.

Emma Bardwell (again) uses a lot of peanut butter.

Have you got a blender? I've got ASD child as well as ADHD and have found blending cottage cheese or chick peas or even black beans into pasta sauces/soups bucks up the protein. That's also the only way DS can stomach his protein shakes - blended not shaken. I use it for chia/oat overnight yoghurt with fruit for texture issues - basically make a smoothie with greek yoghurt, fruit, oats, chia and milk then leave overnight to thicken. It's an Emma Bardwell recipe with all the bits I don't like taken out - like peanut butter and pumpkin seeds, which OP likes!

At around 8am, I have mixed berries (approximately two heaped tablespoons) with the same quantity of Greek yoghurt (full fat). Avoid Greek style as it’s thickened with starch and will have less protein to keep you full. On this breakfast I either do a two km run followed by a 45 minute cardio gym class or two gym classes one after the other. I don’t feel at all hungry till 1pm when I’ll have lunch.

A good dietician will work with you to balance what you can eat and what you need to eat. They will start slowly based around what you are having and help you not just with what food but strategies to try new food. They shouldn't give you general information about food but work with you as a whole person to help improve your overall diet quality.

Hi @Pinklightning, it sounds really challenging, but good on you for giving it a go.

Agree with others a big jar of museli/granola is a good start. Oats/quinoa flakes. Pumkpins/sunflower seeds. Flaked almonds/any other nuts you're ok with. I rotate which nuts I use and sultanas/cranberries/dried apricots/prunes etc so it tastes slightly different each batch. I like giant oats but you might prefer small porridge oats. Oatiflakes in the mix add some crunch but you might prefer without. Baking some apple/maple granola chunks to mix in would up the sweetness if you have a sweet tooth? Put a handful of frozen berries for flavour, a scoop of collagen for extra protein and some freshly ground linseeds (good for fibre, protein & omega oils & much cheaper than chia). Serve with greek yoghurt (I like yeo valley 0% to offset the healthy fats in the nuts & seeds, although sounds like if you can get away from the cheese a but more you have plenty of calories to play with, so probably don't need to worry about 0% particularly!)

Lots of options on egg free cottage cheese pancakes-have a google. Anything using buttermilk is just to offset the tang of bicarb in the recipe. Use 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar per 250ml of milk to make your own buttermilk-it will curdle slightly if full fat, but that's fine.

Soca bread is a gram flour based flatbread. Absolutely delicious & can make & freeze portions to go through the toaster. Gram flour waffles are also easy to make ahead to freeze & toast. Serve both with greek yoghurt & some defrosted berries.

Egg free greek yoghurt cornbread is another one you can make ahead & freeze.

Tempeh is a good suggestion, as is silken tofu blended into shakes/smoothies/dips. I quite like a fried egg over puy lentils with a spoon of salsa verde stirred through for a quick lunch, but could equally have at breakfast with fried tempeh instead of the egg? Any soups with red lentils & blended will also be fairly high protein.

For protein powder, hemp based may be worth a try if you'd actually use smoothies? It's slightly nutty but not as grim as pea. I struggled with both whey & pea and get on ok with it. It's actually ok shaken with apple juice as a base too. No added ingredients & not UPF.

If you like banana milk, can you make your own? We freeze just overripe bananas peeled in chunks to put in millshakes. They thicken it and make it cold. Can add cocoa powder/vanilla for flavour and hemp powder to up the protein, a bit of maple
syrup to sweeten if you like.

Don't be sucked in too much by the 'high protein' aisle. It's usually got loads of additives & costs twice as much. Normal/seeded bread, pasta, noodles, a pint of milk & a tin of baked beans (appreciate the last one might be off the cards for now) are all naturally fairly high protein. There's protein in wheat and rice, just not enormous amounts. There's protein classic vegetarian way to get all the essential amino acids is 'rice & peas' but wheat or rice with any lentil/chickpea/bean sauce you can tolerate is a good start.

It's much trickier without beans, but could you manage chick peas, cannellini beans, peas or black beans if blended? All make good soups with red pepper/leek/mint/chilli respectively. This might be a good way to gradually increase a bit if beans without the texture issues?

There are some good nutritionists out there who specialise in eating disorders & work well with homemade suggestions that may be able to give you a wider suggestions list, but hope the above helps?!

Thinking outside the box a bit I’m wondering if it’s more an OT who could help, given its textures and sensory issues that seem to be your biggest challenge.

Have you been tested for allergies though? The egg might actually be an allergy- hard to tell.

If you could find a ground almond based high protein vegan crunchy biscuit type thing you could make, that could be another thing to add to your list.

Luckily vegan high protein is a big baking thing now!

Ground flaxseed is a good egg alternative that they use which is also high protein, high fibre too.

Oh yes! Soca pizzas are brilliant. You could add what ever toppings you want

Thank you for all the suggestions. It all feels a bit overwhelming at the moment. I think I have some linseeds because o sometimes put them on my homemade bread. I don’t think I’ve got flax seeds but I’ll get some tomorrow. I might grind them up together and make a protein boost for porridge along with the almonds.
I'm struggling to eat at all but had two slices of the ancient grains sourdough toasted this morning. It was ok but I’d rather have my own seeded bread. Cheaper too. I tried something new though and Ds had a bite but didn’t like it. We are a very restricted family but we are big on trying things. My argument to the dc is that imagine if you’d never tried chocolate?! It makes them grudgingly try things. 9 times out of 10 it’s a no but at least they try.

If I continue to struggle I’ll see about a dietician. Eggs are a big no though. I can’t stand the look, smell or texture and they do make me vomit if eaten as things like omelet, scrambled, boiled, egg mayo etc. If eaten in homemade cake I just feel a bit queasy but I can taste them so it takes a lot of mental effort to not think about the eggs in there. It’s a good while since I ate cake though.

The Greek yogurt I use of Waitrose No. 1 which is proper Greek yogurt, not Greek style. I would prefer to have fat feee but the full fat one helps stabilise blood sugar by allowing the release of carbs or something. I can’t remember what exactly I was told about that by a dietician once but they said full fat was better and would keep me full for longer. I add chia to it and might add almonds as I love cherry and berry compote so it will be like a Bakewell flavour.

Linseeds and flaxseeds are the same thing @Pinklightning so just use what you already have.

I have just ordered some Purition protein shakes. One of their vegan versions is Cherry Bakewell flavour, so you might like that. Their shakes aren't a UPF either.

Thank you but I don’t want shakes. That Puriton one is ultra processed containing flavourings and sweeteners. A brand that someone else recommended was 6% sugar which is only 0.3% less than the Yazoo banana milk. The plain sugar free protein powder was UPF. They all seem to contain flavourings which make them UPF. Most contain sweeteners. I just want proper foods.

https://naturya.com/products/hemp-protein-powder

nothing added. choose your own flavour & sweetener

You can buy it pre-ground in a resealable bag at Aldi too. I find that really convenient for adding a spoonful to porridge, yogurt or soup for a protein boost.

A common European breakfast is fresh white cheese with honey, seeds/nuts, berries or compote. I really like it and it’s high protein. Add crackers if you want carbs. Worth a try?

Do you like cottage cheese? The Longley Farm one is unusually nice, people like it who don’t usually like cottage cheese. Or you could try ricotta, or there are some Eastern European fresh white cheeses available in bigger supermarkets.

I make overnight oats with added seeds or milled seeds. I also add Vanilla protein powder from the Organic Protein Co (NOT UPF) and Soya Protein Crispies (80% protein). I add some milk to mix & then Greek or Skyr Yoghurt plus frozen fruit. It's then perfect in the morn!

I also use the milled seeds and protein powder to make protein banana cake or banana protein pancakes (defrosted frozen bananas are fab for this - and both finished products can then be portioned and frozen).

I also make a protein flapjack based on a Tesco recipe, where I add seeds, nuts, protein crispiest, dries fruit & more defrosted banana - again, freezes really well.

Cottage cheese is fab with seeded oatcakes at any time.

kefir or Greek yoghurt

Have a look at Puriton - much cleaner ingredients
cottage cheese on rough oatcakes or sourdough toast
There are also some coffees made with functional mushrooms that have a lot of protein (reformed coffee or matcha )
the matcha made with skimmed milk is 17g a serving and the coffee 25g made with skimmed milk

Could you have porridge as you like it . But have a chocolate tofu pudding before or after maybe. Or chia pudding. I like a raspberry smoothie with Greek yogurt/ chia seeds with frozen raspberries.
So have my porridge then a second breakfast as I was walking children to school?

I don’t mind cottage cheese. I used to like it on a sandwich with salted crisps as a teenager.

I’ve prepped my porridge for morning. I always have a third cup of oats and don’t measure the chia but today I’ve added one tablespoon of chia. One tablespoon of ground almonds, a dash of vanilla, 50g frozen cherries and a cup of semi-skimmed milk. Semi-skimmed makes better porridge than my usual skimmed that I use for tea. I’ll see how I get on with that. It’s going to be a case of small changes that add up I think.

There’s no way I could eat porridge and then eat second breakfast. I used to tease my mum about her second breakfasts. My dad would take her coffee and toast in bed every morning and then she’d get up and have cereal. She would not have it that she was having two breakfasts. But mum, the coffee and toast IS breakfast! No, it’s not. Don’t be ridiculous. The cereal is my breakfast. So what’s the toast? It’s just toast, she’d say 😂 I’ll remind her of this tomorrow when I see her. They were married over 50 years and my dad only missed that coffee and toast if he was ill or away, which wasn’t often. She’d say to me the coffee was too strong and too sweet but never told him.

I enjoyed the homemade pizza for dinner. About an 8 inch one loaded with mushrooms, peppers and pineapple and plenty of mozzarella. And a Fab for pudding.

I’ve lost all desire to snack and I was a dreadful snacker so it’s a good thing. I’m drinking loads of water too. I was warned about the dry mouth and needing to drink
more but I’m amazed at how much water I’ve got through today.

I might try a chia pudding for breakfast one day as I do like that.

These milled seeds are nice, I got them from Sainsbury’s
I’ve been adding them to smoothies, yoghurt, salads, on cottage cheese (on top of rice cakes with chilli oil)

https://www.zertus.co.uk/pages/yum-and-yay

Have you tried Surreal cereal? It’s high protein low sugar. I have IBS too and it does make me gassy, but might not do that to you! I had the same advice when I started my adhd meds but in the end they didn’t affect my appetite at all so I haven’t had to up the protein much. Good luck x

Surreal is full of sweeteners unfortunately. I saw an advert for it the other day and thought it might be good for Ds whose ADHD is made worse by additives and preservatives but when I read the ingredients it’s UPF. He’s fine with sugar but sweeteners are terrible for him and give him stomach cramps. I wish they’d stop putting sweeteners in everything. They taste awful and aren’t good for us. He only has porridge, or shreddies.

My porridge smell of playdoh 😂