Easy Breakfast Ideas Part 1 - Submitted by Blog Readers

I think breakfast is a very important meal and I always feel more energized after a healthy breakfast. Usually we have always sat down as a family but I know that those with more children often eat individually. Partly we have eaten together because my mom loves to make breakfast, so she wants everyone to have it while it is hot. There are so many things to make, if you like to cook. On typical days we have fruit/yogurt/coconut milk smoothies with hot or cold cereal; muffins or coffeecake with eggs; toast and eggs; and I like to have fruit salads as much as possible with any of these. I don't like breakfast to be late, so I usually make coffeecake the night before and warm it up in a toaster oven. While it is warming, I like to chop vegetables (broccoli, bell peppers, spinach, zucchini,) and shred cheese to put in scrambled eggs. Or, sometimes we make pancakes and top them with a variety of syrups, whatever anyone likes. I have found that breakfast is a good place to introduce some healthy ingredients, like flaxseed in the muffins, green vegetables in the eggs, or wheat germ oil in a smoothie. We try to plan the night before, what to have, which makes it quicker. If we don't plan anything, by default we end up having cold cereal. Oh, we do make granola and each person tops it with their preference: fruit, dates or raisins, yogurt, milk, etc. Cereals can be so versatile and pleasing to everyone if you have different toppings in stock. On weekends or for company we do enjoy making a larger breakfast like stuffed crepes, Dutch pancakes, omelettes, puffy pear pancakes, Belgian waffles, hashbrowns, apple crisp, or turkey sausage once in a while. These do take longer but it is nice to have a different, full, meal in the morning and a light meal at lunch or later in the afternoon. If you want a certain recipe I can get it for you, depending on what you like to cook. There are so many recipes online if you are looking for a certain flavor of muffins, omelette, pancake, etc. It is easier to make these in a timely fashion with two people in the kitchen. My parents used to have a bed and breakfast and my mom would cook everyday for 5-15 people so she was really good at organization and efficiency! I wasn't old enough to help then, either. - Renee

Our breakfasts are boring but quick--at least for us small families. I make a big pot of steel cut oats on Sunday night--we microwave individual servings 3-4 mornings a week. I also cook a roll of sausage and warm the individual patties later. The other work mornings I scramble a couple of eggs. One weekend morning, I might make blender batter waffles. Nothing spectacular, but it's less effort, time, and money than it takes to "drive-thru"! - Meredith

Well, it's funny because in Australia breakfast is NOT a meal that we homemakers are expected to cook...unless it's Saturday morning brunch or something special like that. So, my DH who is very easy to please has a bowl of natural muesli each morning. I could make it for him from my own mix of grains/fruits but it actually doesn't work out much cheaper and he actually prefers the store bought so I buy 2-3 1.5lb packs at the supermarket every fortnight plus make sure we have milk and he's good to self serve on his way to work each morning. For me who hates cereal I keep a couple of loaves of bread in the freezer to make toast. I keep fruit bread and plain bread so I have a choice. Also, sometimes I'll make muffins and heat them in the microwave. I'll usually round that out with a piece of fruit or juice. Because I'm pregnant if I'm going to be out and not be able to have a snack at morning tea time I'll scramble some eggs or heat some baked beans and serve them over toast just to make sure I have the energy to get through the morning but most of the time it's just toast and fruit and then I'll snack on something healthy come mid-morning. -Rachel

I have never commented on your site before but this one pushed me into it. When I married my husband expected that we would sit down and eat breakfast together every morning, whereas I had grown up in a family where breakfast was eaten as each person was ready for it. To be honest, I found this a real nuisance at the time, although we usually made it easier for ourselves by setting the table the night before. Almost twenty years and several children later, I am so glad he started this tradition. It means that we all begin the day together in a civilized manner, rather than rushing. It gives us time to talk, pray and plan the day and means we all know what everyone else is doing. Particularly important is that the children know how Daddy will be spending his day, whether out or working at home. Our actual breakfasts vary, although generally include home made muesli, banana bread, whole wheat bread, sometimes pancakes, eggs etc. Most of this is prepared the day before, so I don't have to rush, although there have been occasions when I have been up extra early and the household awakes to the smell of baking! – Anon.

For the children:

Oatmeal
Bear Mush (Cream of Wheat)
Eggs and Toast
Granola (homemade)
Pancakes (different recipes)

My husband and I eat low-carb. This means breakfast sausage or bacon, eggs cooked a variety of ways (scrambled with meat and cheese and salsa, yum! or fried, or poached), sometimes low-carb toast with all-fruit jam, fresh berries, homemade pancake mix with lots of high-fiber grains and sugar-free syrup, plain whole-milk yogurt with frozen berries mixed in or nuts on top; smoothies. And every morning my dear husband brings me a sugar-free mocha to help me wake up! Breakfast is a very important meal. -Carmon

This is something I've been working on! I realized that most of the time my husband was grabbing cereal before he left and I was staying in bed! I saw how silly it was when I realized that our son gets up around 6:30 or 7:00 and I was fighting with him to try to get him to sleep some more when I could just get up and see my husband off for the day. :) Anyway, so I usually do one of these, or a combination of some of them: french toast, pancakes, oatmeal, eggs, sausage, and bacon. I was just thinking yesterday that breakfast is the most un-healthy meal of the day! :) I'm looking for ways to make it healthier but still make it pretty quick to prepare and to eat. One time, I bought some english muffins and made ham and cheese sandwiches and froze them. At the time, we didn't have a toaster oven (and we don't use the microwave) so it didn't work too well to heat them on the stove, but now that we have a toaster oven I might try that again. That's something that you can take with you, too. Occasionally we do fruit smoothies with yogurt and wheat germ. Sometimes I fix yogurt with strawberries. And sometimes, we just eat cold cereal. :) -Carrie

I sometimes make a breakfast pizza that has eggs, cheese, sausage and potatoes. I cut it up into individual servings and then freeze it. On those mornings when something hot and filling is desired, I take one out and pop it into the microwave. Yum! I also do this with pancakes and muffins! -Donna