Extreme makeover: Big breakfast

Extreme makeover: Big breakfast

Big breakfast

It’s a favourite weekend meal. But do you know how much energy and fat is hiding in it?
Try these tips to make your weekend brunch that bit healthier:

• Streaky bacon can be up to 1/4 fat. Use Dansk, middle or eye bacon; it has much less fat and kilojoules. It needs careful cooking – don’t over-cook or it’ll be leathery. But the taste is just as good.
  
• Pre-made hash browns have 530kJ and 5.7g of fat per serving. And it pays to check the pack: on some a serving is only one hash brown!
  
• Instead try oven-baked cubed potatoes: cut a potato into 1cm cubes and bake with a light spray of oil in a hot oven. Just as quick as hash browns and much healthier, with barely any fat.
  
• If you fry your eggs and use butter or oil, you’ll add still more fat. Opt for microwave eggs: scramble or poach eggs in the microwave and you don’t have to add any fat at all. For scrambled, just cook beaten egg in a bowl for around 2 minutes on medium, then break up with a fork. We hear this is how some restaurants do it!
  
• Add some oven-roasted tomatoes for a vege boost: add these to the dish when you cook the potatoes and they’ll be collapsing and sweet by the time they come out.
  

How they compare

Traditional fry-up:3 rashers streaky bacon, 2 hash browns, 2 eggs, 1 tomato
Total kJ per serve = 2,400
Total fat per serve = 47g (22g saturated)
HFG breakfast:
3 rashers Dansk bacon, 2 scrambled eggs, 1 roasted tomato, 1 cubed potato
Total kJ per serve = 1,515
Total fat per serve = 16.1g (4g saturated)

http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/articles/browse/breakfast