7 Quick and Easy Breakfast Ideas
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If you’re a blogger and you’ve been blogging awhile, you may have had one of those moments where you think of a great idea for a post – then, you can’t remember if maybe you posted that very same idea last month.
Or maybe you just have to be of a certain age for that to happen to you.
At any rate, I searched through 8 pages of old blog posts and can’t find a single one in which I have shared quick and easy breakfast ideas. That is, most likely, because until recently we never ate breakfast during the week.
photo credit michael sarver on flickr
Yeah, I know it’s the most important meal of the day and all that stuff, but when you don’t like to eat upon first waking and you don’t get up until nearly lunch time, you might as well just skip the traditional breakfast and break your fast with lunch foods.
I’ve turned over a new leaf, though, and it’s rare these days that I’m not up by 8:00. I’m trying to help the kids turn over a new leaf, as well, and have been getting them up earlier.
And, of course, since last week, Brianna has been getting up early to head off to cosmetology school. That means it’s time to start making sure there are breakfast foods in the house.
That means I’m long overdue to share our favorite quick and easy breakfast foods. Just because we rarely make them doesn’t mean we don’t have them.
Baked oatmeal
Baked oatmeal is probably our very favorite breakfast food. Megan is the only one who doesn’t like it, but she doesn’t like any other breakfast foods either (except Chick-Fil-A Chick-n-Minis and hash browns, which are, essentially, just chicken nuggets and fries). We’ve tried a few baked oatmeal recipes, trying to come up with a healthier version, but our hands-down, all-time favorite is not-so-healthy, but super-yummy Money Saving Mom’s baked oatmeal recipe.
I like to make a pan on Sunday so that whoever wants it can heat up a bowl during the week.
Monkey Bread
I haven’t made monkey bread in a long, long time, but it’s going back on the rotation now that we’re eating breakfast again. Everyone loves it! (Just for the record, Megan is not included in everyone when discussing breakfast foods.) It’s super-easy to put together the night before, too. Then, you can just pop it in the oven for a hot, delicious breakfast.
Fruit Salad
When I say fruit salad, I am not talking about the canned stuff. Yuck! I’m talking about a simple, fresh fruit salad recipe that my cousin shared with me. I pretty much just toss in whatever fruit we have. It always includes apples of some sort and I try to keep a jar of mandarin oranges on hand since that keeps the apples from turning brown.
The homemade fruit salad is good plain, but I like to add a scoop of vanilla yogurt and a sprinkle of granola.
Loaded Yogurt
I try to keep a few containers of yogurt in the fridge. Vanilla and strawberry are our staples. I’m considering getting brave and trying my hand at making my own. I like yogurt by itself, but I’m also fond of loaded yogurt, which usually involves tossing in some sort of fruit and a little granola for crunch.
Non-loaded yogurt is not a bad choice either and is, in fact, one of the few breakfast-type foods eaten by my anti-breakfast girl.
Convenience Foods
I’m not too crazy about convenience foods for breakfast, but the kids sometimes like them. Their favorites are:
- cereal
- waffles (often leftover, frozen homemade ones from the weekend)
- Toaster Strudels
- muffins (because my weird kids don’t like homemade ones)
- cinnamon rolls (because it takes too long to make homemade ones)
Yesterday was the first time that Briana hasn’t eaten baked oatmeal before going to school. I bought some of her favorite convenience foods so she wouldn’t get burned out on the oatmeal. She’s been working through her lunch break because she hasn’t been hungry. She texted me yesterday afternoon to say she wished she’d brought something for lunch. Those convenience foods may be quick and easy, but they’re not filling like baked oatmeal.
Eggs
Josh and Brianna are both very adept at making scrambled eggs and omelets. Sometimes they’ll make their own for a quick breakfast or snack. I also will sometimes boil eggs the night before to have in the fridge for breakfast.
Fruit
And, of course, there is plain old fruit. Apples, oranges, or bananas with a spoonful of peanut butter, a side of toast, or a piece of string cheese make a super-easy breakfast on even the busiest of mornings.
What are some of your favorite quick and easy breakfasts?
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
Great list! My kids recently became dedicated toast fans. We normally have oatmeal for breakfast but we started with the toast since they can get that themselves. They also love yogurt parfaits!!
We love crockpot steel cut oats! Before our family went gluten free, my baked Apple French Toast was in weekly rotation. And I also used to make breakfast burritos with hash browns, sausage/diced ham, eggs, cheese and freeze them to be heated up.
It’s just me for breakfast most days, but I love sturdy oats like steel cut or Coach’s oats. I usually add a little brown sugar and toss in strawberries, blueberries, peaches, or sliced bananas. When the weather turns cold and berries aren’t available, sometimes I’ll saute some diced apples with cinnamon to stir into my oats.
Lately, I’ve been on a Trader Joe’s delicious, rich, creamy Greek Honey Yogurt. It’s full-fat, but that makes it more filling, too. I can get by with half the amount (over nonfat. I love it with fresh fruit and a sprinkling of granola or muesli.
I also go through stages where I have bagels or English muffins or sourdough toast every day. Regardless, I always eat breakfast!
We usually just have cereal with milk. Sometimes healthy, sometimes the terrible sugary kind (I rationalize this by reminding myself that my kids don’t drink pop, Kool aid, or any other sugary beverages, they do a pretty decent job of eating their fruits/veggies, and overall we steer clear of processed foods). It’s our family’s one ‘guilty pleasure’.
That being said, sometimes:
– On the weekends I make pancakes or waffles (a double batch, for freezing). Always sneaking something in there like whole wheat flour, bananas, flax, pureed squash, applesauce.
– Recently, I taught my 9-year old how to make eggs. She likes making scrambled for her breakfast; with toast.
– We sometimes have smoothies (made with yogurt or frozen yogurt and real fruit), or yogurt parfaits.
– Banana bread or healthy muffins make good breakfast eats here, when I’m so motivated
– On occasion I’ll make a dessert (pie, fruit cobbler, cookies, even cake) and we’ll have that with frozen yogurt or even real full everything ice cream
– And of course, my kids love, love, love bacon. If I just made a trough of bacon every morning, they’d be happy with that.
I’m going to try this