Today we’re going to be talking about breakfast ideas, tons of ideas for breakfast on the go, packed breakfast for work, high protein breakfasts without eggs, breakfast for moms, healthy breakfasts, and all those things. I think that breakfasts are one of the most chaotic parts of the weekday morning if your mornings are anything like mine. The moment I get downstairs, it’s chaos. There’s just a ton of things to do, and I often forget to have breakfast myself while just saying “I’ll quickly do this, I’ll quickly do that,” looking after everybody else. So, what do you do?
I think one of the best things is to be able to make breakfast the night before, though that’s not always possible. Sometimes we make the THM pancake batter the night before so that it has time to thicken in the fridge, and then it’s easier to make breakfast in the mornings. My older children help by making their own breakfast and making breakfast for their siblings, so that’s a huge help.
Some of you would have to be going out early to drop off kids or to do various errands and to go to work, and then it’s important to have a healthy breakfast. It’s a very important part of the day – it jumpstarts your metabolism, boosts your energy levels, helps your kids to stay focused and perform well in school or in homeschool, and helps them not to drive you crazy in homeschool. So, we don’t want to do sugary cereals. We don’t want to skip breakfast. We want to have good nutrition to power the day, so whatever you can prepare in advance is going to be helpful.
If you’re eating on the go, or if you’re going out to work with a packed lunch or something, you can eat in the car when you’re parked waiting for something. That’s very helpful. If you can just grab and go from the fridge, and even if you’re doing some elements at home in advance, it helps. We sometimes cook bacon in the oven the night before and put it in the fridge in a glass dish, and then the next day it’s easy to warm up.
Sometimes on really hectic days, like when we’re getting ready for church, we have to leave quite early, and then we’ll actually make the pancakes the night before and keep them in the fridge. I bought one of those big round pizza containers for the fridge to keep the pancakes in overnight because there’s a lot of pancakes. They’re quite thick, and there’s seven of us, so we make about twenty pancakes. We keep those in the container overnight, and then just warm them in the pan in the morning. That goes quite quickly.
Chia seed jars, oats – lots of things can be done the night before. It’s great sometimes to do your breakfasts in advance, and then you can somehow quickly eat at the beginning while you’re making breakfast for the kids, or even making a different part of your breakfast. A great one to freeze when you need to is egg muffins, egg quiche, or even crustless quiche, because those are easy to defrost overnight and warm in the oven on the day.
So, let me start by talking about a few breakfasts that are good to keep in the freezer and warm up the next morning. Number one, as I just mentioned, is egg muffins. You can use any kind of ham to line the muffin cup, or tear it up. You could also use bacon, and you add any leftover vegetables you have, or chop something like zucchini. Put these in the muffin cups, and then whisk up some egg with milk. Add that, and put a little bit of grated cheese on top. You bake those in the oven for about 20 minutes at 360 Fahrenheit, or 180 Celsius. Those are great for quick breakfasts.
You can do the same thing to make quiche. You use a big glass dish, and then just sprinkle it with vegetables and some salt, and you pour the egg mixture over the top of that. You can blend some feta into the egg mixture, and sprinkle cheddar on top. Remember to add at least a teaspoon of salt to it. Your quiche can be kept overnight in the fridge or in the freezer.
Then there’s things like cheese muffins. High protein is good. You can use freshly ground flour – we like to do that to increase the protein content, but just ordinary muffins that include a lot of cheese are great. I can put a recipe on the website of the ones we do. Those are great for freezing.
We used to make something called breakfast cake, which is a combination of almond flour, eggs, and a couple of other things. I say “used to” because we did it more when the children were younger. We haven’t made it lately, but it’s delicious, and it really does taste like cake. Again, you can whisk it up and bake it the night before, and then heat it up in the morning. I’ll put a recipe for that on the website too. You can google most of these things, so I’m not gonna put recipes for them, but those two things, the cheese muffins and the breakfast cake, that are specifically ours, I’ll put on the website.
Here are five quick healthy breakfasts for when you don’t have a lot of time. There are overnight oat jars. For these, you add rolled oats, milk or yogurt to add more protein, and then fruit, nuts, seeds, and whatever you like to sprinkle on top or mix in. Fresh berries are great to mix in or to put on top. You can defrost them and mix them in the next morning. You prep these the night before, and grab and go. There are all kinds of recipes on the internet. You can add nut butters, or anything unusual that you feel would work with the oats. Your egg muffins in the freezer are also great to grab out of it and take with you or eat at home.
There are pre-portioned smoothie packs. If you have a pre-portioned pack in the freezer, you can grab it and make the smoothie to take with you in your smoothie jar. Blend it with milk, water, or coconut cream, coconut milk, or coconut water for some good electrolytes. You can use your fruit. Some vegetables like zucchini or kale can go in there, although I’m not a huge fan of those. You can also add something like yogurt or protein powder.
Then there’s sourdough or whole grain toast with avocado or cottage cheese. That sort of meal is quick. You can add a bit of nut butter and fruit perhaps, or you can be fancy, like in Kate and Leopold where they spread the toast with mascarpone, and add sliced strawberries.
You could do breakfast quesadillas – tortilla plus scrambled egg, cheese, and beans. You can also do it with sourdough, and use scrambled eggs, fried eggs, or anything that you like to add on top there, with a little bit of cheese or beans. Let’s talk about these when you’re having breakfast on the go. If you have to leave the house and eat in the car, breakfast burritos can be wrapped up with some kind of parchment or sandwich paper, or just put into a lunchbox. You can eat over the lunchbox in the car and catch the drops. Perhaps you can have some sausage or bacon with it, which you can put in the tortilla. You could even prepare these in advance and freeze them, although I’m not sure how they would turn out.
Instead of this, you could do a breakfast sandwich where you have some sourdough and some fried egg that’s quite well cooked, with some cheese and ham. You can also put it in an English muffin cut in half, or in a croissant. Add the bacon and et cetera, and you can have that in the fridge to grab and eat cold, or you can reheat it before you go and take it with you.
You could make a bagel sandwich. Cream cheese, smoked salmon, or eggs in a sturdy bagel will hold up on the go.
You can have a plastic jar of your overnight oats, or even a glass jar if you’re up to that. Take it with you with your fruit or yogurt added, and just mix it up and eat it in the car.
Various muffins can have high protein, like muffins with oats or bananas. You can add some protein powder, or have dairy in there as well.
Also for on the go, you could do a container with a couple of dollops of nut butters, a couple of different ones if you like. Add some sliced apple, sliced carrot, or any sliced fruit that goes well, to scoop up your nut butter. It gives you a little protein boost, and it’s quite easy to take with. Those are good for when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office and you need something to eat.
You can take smoothies with you, once you’ve blended them, in a travel cup or a cup that seals well, but is easy to drink from. You can do some kind of yogurt drink with fruit, or keifer, if you like to have it in a smoothie. Those are also great to take in a travel cup.
Hard boiled eggs are also great, for example, packed in a lunchbox. You can eat them on the go with a bit of salt. You can add some berries and sliced fruit to the lunchbox, along with any kind of trail mix, and some slices of cheese. You could put a few different kinds of nuts; some cashews, some almonds, and some seeds, and then eat some cheese with that.
Those breakfasts are all great for on the go, and any of them would also work for packing your breakfast if you need to take it with you to work. “On the go” could be in the car, or at the destination where you’re going to be. Here are a couple more ideas to add to that.
There’s chia pudding (chia seeds soaked in milk or water) with a protein boost – you can put some kind of protein powder or nut butter in there. Make it the night before, and let it set into a lovely jelly. You can add some honey or maple syrup.
There’s the pancakes that I mentioned. If you make them smaller, they can easily fit in a lunchbox. We like to add cheese on top, grated cheese or butter, and sometimes a bit of maple syrup. You could pack those in your lunchbox with the toppings separate for when you want to eat them.
If you like a savory breakfast, then a hummus and veggie wrap is great. You can add shredded carrots and cucumber, and maybe a little bit of feta and some hummus in your wrap. It’s almost like a lunch.
A combination of hard boiled eggs, and Greek yogurt with berries and a bit of maple syrup, perhaps in a little side container, is great to eat on the go. Of course, you can have any of these at home, especially if you’re in a hurry to get started with a school day, or to get started making other food for everyone else. If you have one of these packed ready to go for you while you do stuff, that’s always a plus.
You could even do something like steak and eggs. Slice up your steak, cut up your hard boiled eggs, and put them in your lunchbox, or warm it up and eat it when you’re at home.
You could make a cottage cheese bowl. Add flax seeds, almonds, or fruit. The cottage cheese would be instead of yogurt, but you can do the same thing with Greek yogurt, adding your toppings.
A great breakfast at home for mom, one that I love is an omelet or an egg scramble where you add vegetables and cheese. I like to add chopped mushrooms and zucchini that I stir fry a little bit in the pan, and then I add some grated cheese on top.
A quinoa breakfast bowl can be good. Add some stir-fried vegetables and some leftover chicken that’s been cooked and is in your fridge – crumble that on top. Perhaps you can put some egg on top. Crumble a bit of feta onto it.
Here are some no-egg ideas. There’s smoked salmon with cream cheese and a little bit of lettuce or sliced cucumber. You can do smoked salmon on whole grain bread or sourdough with a little bit of cream cheese or cottage cheese underneath. You can put a little bit of cracked pepper on the top. That’s always delicious.
There’s a tempeh or tofu breakfast wrap if you’re vegetarian. Just saute it with spices and wrap it in a tortilla. You could also reheat some burger patties or sausage links, and add whatever you like. Maybe you like some vegetables like zucchini or onion with it. You can put whatever you like on top of it with some cheese. That’s a great, great quick breakfast.
Ordinary oatmeal, of course, is great. I like to soak it overnight, as it helps to make the oats healthier. You leave it in the water overnight, and you put some cinnamon and a tiny bit of apple cider vinegar in. The vinegar helps to ferment the oats a little bit. Don’t worry, they still taste great. In the morning you just cook that up, and add a little bit of milk and fruit like banana, or whatever you like to it.
A cottage cheese or cream cheese snack box is a great option, especially for on the go. You can add cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, some nuts, and anything that you can dip in or eat with the cottage cheese or cream cheese.
Of course, there’s granola bars, which you can make at home, but I’m not a big fan of those because they’re not filling, though they’ll certainly do for if you need something to grab in a hurry.
Just remember that high protein, adding some good protein, is always good. I believe that dairy is incredibly healthy for you, and one of the best proteins, as are coconut milk and coconut cream. We don’t always need to eat muscle meat for our protein. Eggs, of course, are great too, but there are lots of options if you don’t eat eggs. Having something that’s high protein is great.
Having things in advance is also really helpful, especially for a mom.
I’ll do another episode on breakfasts at some point, but I hope this has given you a few ideas, and of course, you can also try any of the breakfasts from the previous episode, episode 60, where we talk about all the unusual things they have for breakfast in foreign countries. I want to try the cheese balls from Brazil, and the hummus with all the different side dishes from Turkey – that sounds amazing. You can get lots of ideas from that episode too – maybe try something new.
There’s one more thing I wanted to mention. On special days, like birthdays, we’ll do something like french toast, which is a great breakfast. You dip the bread in egg mixture and cook that up, either making it savory with salt, or sweet with maple syrup on top.
Sometimes we’ll do corn or zucchini fritters. Those are something you can do in advance, and you can even freeze them. You can do small round ones, or flatter ones. You just need batter with cheese and grated zucchini or pieces of corn. Those fritters are amazing.
We also do Dutch pancakes. You can do one big one, or you can do lots of small ones in a muffin tray. Those are really amazing. You can add a lot of treats to them, things like whipped cream, melted chocolate, and strawberries, for a really great birthday breakfast.
Recipes for Breakfast Cake and Cheese Muffins below.
Almond Breakfast Cake
Ingredients:
- ½ tablespoon butter – for pan
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup honey
- 1½ cups almond flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Generously grease an 8-inch nonstick cake pan or glass baking dish with butter.
- In a large bowl, lightly whisk the eggs. Gradually whisk in the honey, vanilla, almond flour, kosher salt, and baking soda. Don’t over-mix the batter. An overworked batter can cause the middle of the cake to collapse as it cools.
- Use a spatula to transfer the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake until fragrant and set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes.
- Cool the cake in the pan for about ten minutes, then remove from pan (or eat it warm and delicious!)
- Slice and serve.
Cheddar Cheese Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup butter, melted
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Grease a 12-cup muffin tray or add inserts.
- Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a large mixing bowl. Stir in Cheddar.
- Add yogurt, eggs, and melted butter.
- Stir until the dry ingredients are moistened (not too much).
- Spoon into the prepared muffin cups.
- Bake in the preheated oven until the tops just start to brown, about 20 minutes.
