by Kim Brown and Erich Sachs

This winter I’ve been working hard to get healthy fat and protein into my morning diet. I also tend toward anemia and have been focusing on foods that are naturally high in iron. Here is the breakfast that I developed with my nutrition coach that has been my go-to for the past four or five months:

Roasted sweet potatoes, sliced avocado, and organic breakfast sausages.

We roast the sweet potatoes during our batch cooking time on the weekends. It takes about half an hour to prepare the three or four sweet potatoes (which fit on two cookie sheets)  that last all week.

To roast sweet potatoes:

Slice the sweet potatoes into rounds about 1/4-inch thick and lay them on the cookie sheet. It is okay if they touch and they shrink quite a bit while cooking, so what starts out looking like a lot ends up being pretty reasonable.

Brush them liberally with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

Roast in a 425° oven for about 25 minutes, or until they are easily pierced with a fork and have started to brown.

Once they have cooled, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.

We also cook the sausage links all at once in the frying pan and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.

Most days I have about a dozen sweet potato rounds and two sausages. I reheat them in a toaster oven to crisp them up (about 8 minutes at 350° gets them warm and crispy. You can also heat them in the microwave for 90 seconds if you’re in a hurry.

Once everything is warm and ready to go, I slice half an avocado on top, which is a nice, cool counterpoint to the heat and salt of the sweet potatoes and sausages.

This breakfast gets me about 8-10 grams of protein, loads of healthy fats, and a nice shot of iron. Plus, it’s delicious. Between the health benefits and the once-a-week prep, this has been an ideal breakfast for my fall and winter workweek.