Healthy Breakfast Ideas Restaurants Ever had a restaurant breakfast that was so good that you wished you could get it at home? Restaurants these days are great at making meals that are enjoyable, healthy and quick. You can drink coffee and juice, eat bagels, oatmeal or cereal with milk or yogurt, any sort of pasta and bacon, sausage or anything else you want. A well-balanced breakfast is an essential part of every healthy diet and lifestyle. This is especially true for those of us who are living a busy life, on the run and have to be at work early each morning. A rushed breakfast does not only mean skipped meals but can also mean eating food that might add up to your waistline inches. In order to avoid this situation, try some of these quick breakfast ideas that you can get from most restaurant chains around. You will never know what your favorite restaurants really serve unless you ask or read their nutritional information online. That’s where I can help.
Healthy Breakfast Ideas Restaurants
In an ideal world, you’d eat nutrient-dense, unprocessed food that you prepare yourself for every meal. But this isn’t an ideal world. It’s the real world.
Sometimes you’re in a damn rush, and you don’t have any food in the house, and you have a million things to do, and you basically have only two choices: Starve until lunch, or hit up a fast-food restaurant. And if you’re hungry, you should eat.
Here’s the thing to remember: Eating fast-food on occasion isn’t going to destroy your health or ruin everything. Especially if you aim to eat the healthiest things on the menu.
But What Does It Mean To Eat a “Healthy” Fast-Food Breakfast, Anyway?
Here are some rough guidelines for the following suggested meals. Not all of them fit perfectly into these requirements, but most of them do.
• Reasonable portion sizes: Almost every one of these breakfasts has less than 400 calories.
• Low sugar and sodium: Too much of either one is tied to serious health issues. These limits were hard to follow, but most of these meals have less than 20 grams of sugar and under 1,000 milligrams of sodium.
• Reasonable amount of protein: Eating protein can help you feel fuller for longer, so you won’t be as likely to get peckish well before lunch. Most of these meals have at least 10 grams of protein (although a few of them aren’t quite there).
• Ideally some amount of fiber: Fiber can also help you feel full for longer. When it came down to choosing between two different meals, I went with the ones that had more fiber content.
• No trans fat: Trans fat is tied to heart disease. So none of that.
Wait, a quick note about drinks:
All nutrition info here refers to just the food listed. In order to stay within these guidelines, you should probably stick to drinking water or black coffee with your meal, instead of a smoothie or sugary coffee drink or soda.
And one more obvious disclaimer:
These meals aren’t for everyone — some people may want to eat more than 400 calories for breakfast, for instance, and other people may feel seriously uncomfortable with the idea of eating processed food at all. The choices you make about the food you eat are totally personal, and there’s no judgment attached to it. Just trying to show you that it’s totally possible to keep your calories and sodium and sugar and so on in check at fast-food restaurants, if that’s what you care about.
1. Starbucks
Starbucks has a good selection of healthy breakfast options outside of their bakery. Look toward the egg-based meals, or even expand out into the bistro boxes (which are usually thought of as snacks or lunches, but can definitely also work for breakfast). There’s also a line of yogurt parfaits, but those come with over 20 grams of sugar each – so if you’re trying to cut back on your sugar intake, you probably want to skip them.
Spinach & Feta Breakfast Wrap (Vegetarian)
290 calories
19 g protein
10 g fat (3.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
830 mg sodium
33 g carbohydrates (6 g fiber, 4 g sugar)
Protein Bistro Box
380 calories
13 g protein
19 g fat (6 g saturated, 0 g trans)
470 mg sodium
37 g carbohydrates (5 g fiber, 19 g sugar)
See all nutrition info for Starbucks here.
2. Subway
6″ Egg & Cheese Omelet Sandwich
360 calories
19 g protein
12 g fat (4.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
860 mg sodium
6 g sugar
3. Panera Bread
Panera has a number of solid choices on their breakfast menu; and if you don’t like eggs or oatmeal, a whole grain or sprouted grain bagel with cream cheese would also roughly fit into the guidelines above (it would come in above 400 calories, but not by much).
Steel Cut Oatmeal With Strawberries And Pecans
340 calories
6 g protein
14 g fat (2 g saturated, 0 g trans)
160 mg sodium
51 g carbohydrates (9 g fiber, 16 g sugar)
Avocado, Egg White & Spinach Breakfast Power Sandwich
400 calories
12 g protein
13 g fat (6 g saturated, 0 g trans)
650 mg sodium
52 g carbohydrates (5 g fiber, 5 g sugar)
See Panera Bread’s full nutrition info here.
4. McDonald’s
The key to eating a healthy breakfast at McDonald’s is to keep the order small, and to avoid the coffee and smoothie drinks (which all come with a LOTTT of sugar). Here we’re suggesting the Egg McMuffin, and also the fruit and maple oatmeal without brown sugar. You can add a low-fat milk jug to either one of those if you feel like 300 or 260 calories isn’t going to be enough to keep you satisfied.
Egg McMuffin
300 calories
17 g protein
13 g fat (5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
750 mg sodium
31 g carbohydrates (4 g fiber, 3 g sugar)
Fruit And Maple Oatmeal Without Brown Sugar
260 calories
5 g protein
4 g fat (1.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
115 mg sodium
49 g carbohydrates (5 g fiber, 18 g sugar)
1% Low Fat Milk Jug
100 calories
8 g protein
2.5 g fat (1.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
125 mg sodium
12 g carbohydrates (0 g fiber, 12 g sugar)
TOTAL
360 calories
13 g protein
6.5 g fat (3 g saturated, 0 g trans)
240 mg sodium
61 g carbohydrates (5 g fiber, 30 g sugar)
See more nutrition info for McDonald’s here.
5. Taco Bell
There’s not much on the breakfast menu that comes in under 1,000 milligrams of sodium, unfortunately. The Biscuit Tacos are all in the right range, though (choose from the sausage egg and cheese, the sausage and cheese, and the egg and cheese). Grilled Breakfast Burritos and a few of the A.M. Grilled Tacos also generally fit our parameters.
Sausage And Cheese Biscuit Taco
370 calories
14 g protein
23 g fat (10 g saturated, 0 g trans)
640 mg sodium
29 g carbohydrates (1 g fiber, 7 g sugar)
Grilled Breakfast Burrito – Fiesta Potato
340 calories
10 g protein
15 g fat (3.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
790 mg sodium
43 g carbohydrates (3 g fiber, 3 g sugar)
See Taco Bell’s breakfast menu nutrition info here.
6. Dunkin’ Donuts
Bacon Guacamole Flatbread
360 calories
17 g protein
17 g fat (5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
850 mg sodium
34 g carbohydrates (5 g fiber, 3 g sugar)
TWO Egg-White Sausage Wake-Up Wraps
300 calories
18 g protein
14 g fat (6 g saturated, 0 g trans)
720 mg sodium
28 g carobhydrates (2 g fiber, 2 g sugar)
See all Dunkin’ Donuts nutrition info here.
7. Burger King
A lot of the breakfast items at Burger King have over 1,000 milligrams of sodium, which is definitely not ideal. The CROISSAN’WICH line of breakfast sandwiches tends to have less sodium than the breakfast sandwiches on muffins, although the breakfast muffins tend to be lower-calorie. Up to you which is more important, if you aren’t into either of these options listed below.
Sausage Breakfast Burrito
310 calories
14 g protein
19 g fat (7 g saturated, 0 g trans)
820 mg sodium
27 g carbohydrates (1 g fiber, 2 g sugar)
Egg & Cheese CROISSAN’WICH
330 calories
11 g protein
18 g fat (8 g saturated, 0 g trans)
620 mg sodium
31 g carbohydrates (1 g fiber, 5 g sugar)
See Burger King’s nutrition information here.
8. Hardee’s
Made From Scratch Biscuit
300 calories
5 g protein
15 g fat (4 g saturated)
780 mg sodium
36 g carbohydrates (3 g fiber, 2 g sugar)
Sunrise Croissant With Ham
400 calories
18 g protein
23 g fat (9 g saturated)
880 mg sodium
29 g carbohydrates (2 g fiber, 4 g sugar)
9. Caribou Coffee
Stick with the oatmeal options and breakfast sandwiches and you’ll have an easier time staying within the limits we outlined above. In fact, some of the mini breakfast sandwiches are so mini that you can order two and still come in under 400 calories.
Blueberry Almond Oatmeal
340 calories
16 g protein
8 g fat (0.5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
210 mg sodium
54 g carbohydrates (9 g fiber, 13 g sugar)
TWO Spinach, Egg, And Swiss Minis
380 calories
16 g protein
20 g fat (7 g saturated)
520 mg sodium
32 g carbohydrates (2 g fiber, 2 g sugar)
See all nutrition info for Caribou Coffee here.
10. Pret A Manger
Pret has a ton of healthy breakfast options — there’s good variety of egg sandwiches and oatmeal dishes. You can also go for the yogurt parfaits, but should know that they come with a good deal of sugar. And as with any place that serves coffee, the less milk and sugar you add to your brew, the easier it’ll be to stick to the general guidelines above.
Egg And Mushroom Brioche
250 calories
14 g protein
14 g fat (7 g saturated)
300 mg sodium
19 g carbohydrates (1 g fiber, 3 g sugar)
Southwestern Breakfast Hot Wrap
330 calories
18 g protein
14 g fat (6 g saturated)
710 mg sodium
40 g carbohydrates (3 g fiber, 2 g sugar)
11. Quiznos
Quiznos food tends to be high in sodium, but there are some breakfast items that come in under 1,000 milligrams. Go for the grilled flatbread sandwiches or the breakfast subs to keep things lower-calorie and in the right sodium range.
Ham & Egg Grilled Flatbread
300 calories
17 g protein
12 g fat (5 g saturated, 0 g trans)
760 mg sodium
32 g carbohyrdates (1 g fiber, 5 g sugar)
Egg & Cheddar Sub
370 calories
18 g protein
16 g fat (6 g saturated, 0 g trans)
760 mg sodium
39 g carbohydrates (1 g fiber, 4 g sugar)
See all nutrition info for Quiznos here.
12. Au Bon Pain
Most breakfast items at Au Bon Pain are over 400 calories, and a lot of them have over 1,000 milligrams of sodium. But there are still some good options on there, especially if you focus on the egg dishes and avoid the smoothies and baked goods.
Egg Whites, Cheddar And Avocado On A Skinny Wheat Bagel
310 calories
20 g protein
17 g fat (6 g saturated)
610 mg sodium
26 g carbohydrates (9 g fiber, 2 g sugar)
2 Eggs On A Bagel
430 calories
22 g proteim
12 g fat (4 g saturated, 0 g trans)
580 mg sodium
58 g carbohydrates (2 g fiber, 5 g sugar)