Easy Breakfasts for Early Mornings
Back to school is hitting different
Cooking for a family of three sure feels different. I have one college kid in DC and the other in College Station, Texas. My high school junior is SO excited that we are 100% focused on her!
I’ve started thinking about the type of dinners I’ll work into my fall rotation and how to structure our weekly meal plan, but breakfast is the thing that actually feels easy for the first time. Let’s also pause for a moment to celebrate that this is the first full school year in 18 years that I haven’t driven to school for drop off or pick up. I can’t lie, I’m not sad about it.
One of the struggles I’ve had for years is getting breakfast in my kids before they leave for school, typically around 7 a.m. or so. Getting breakfast down the hatch is tricky when you sleep until the last possible minute (and I’m not just talking about my kids). There’s either insufficient time or it just doesn’t sound appealing to eat a protein-packed breakfast at the crack of dawn. I’m not a good breakfast mom, I admit it. And I was never great at packing Pinterest-worthy lunches. But I’m determined to get breakfast in my last remaining child at home. Guy—this is my last chance to win mom-of-the-year.
My solution with my youngest has been room service or something close to it. Some of you are rolling your eyes or have just shut your browser window, but hang in with me. I take breakfast to her room as she gets ready for school and she can nosh as she goes, and then brush her teeth and run out the door. Whether it’s her favorite version of a strawberry-banana smoothie (more on that later), good-quality chicken breakfast sausage and a fried egg, hard-cooked eggs with everything bagel seasoning, scrambled eggs and cheese rolled up in a warm tortilla or vanilla yogurt with blueberries and granola on top, I definitely cater to what she will actually eat. High school schedules are long, stressful and sometimes mentally and emotionally exhausting, so it’s important to power up with protein. She often eats later in the day, so this one meal at 7 am needs to last for several hours. Here are a few ideas that have helped me along the way and saved me from frustration. Note: this isn’t a list for every teenager, this is what works for mine, a notorious “I don’t like breakfast” person.
Strawberry Banana Smothies, but not like I make them for myself. I don’t add the veggies in my blog recipe. Instead, I use unflavored protein powder, 1/2 a banana, about 3/4 cup frozen strawberries, 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt and a peeled mandarin orange with a small scoop of ice and a splash of water. If I’m out of unflavored protein powder (I can not stand the flavor of vanilla protein powder!) I will add a scoop of collagen peptides. If I don’t have a mandarin orange, I’ll add a spash of OJ or a tiny squeeze of honey. (No more than a teaspoon!) For her, I use Stoneyfield lowfat vanilla yogurt instead of plain Greek yogurt.
A note on protein powder: I was using 365 grass-fed whey protein, but they are currently out of it. Instead, I’m trying this organic grass-fed whey protein. Think of protein powder like extra virgin olive oil, you get what you pay for! (Thank you to Brain Health Kitchen for that awesome analogy.)
My days of thinking I can batch-cook egg muffins are over. In my humble opinion, they don’t taste good when reheated. I’d much rather cook a few hard-cooked eggs in the Instant Pot. Here’s an Instagram video that shows the steps to make those. Just add one cup of water to the base, use the rack to elevate the eggs, add the eggs, seal the lid and valve, and set to 5 minutes to make them, or 4 minutes for slightly jammy eggs. Carefully release the steam and remove the eggs with tongs and dunk in an ice bath, it stops the cooking so they don’t overcook. Once peeled, top with Maldon or kosher salt or Everything Bagel Seasoning.
Speaking of hard-cooked eggs, use them for a quick breakfast taco. Just add a quartered egg to a warm tortilla, add some avocado for healthy fat and fiber, salsa or hot sauce of choice. This might not seem like much of a time saver, but when you’ve batch cooked eggs on the weekend and you don’t have time to scramble eggs without being late for school, this is lifeline. Or slice hard-cooked eggs and add them to toasted sourdough or half a whole wheat English muffin. We also like avocado toast topped with a hard-cooked or fried egg.
Protein pancakes are perfect for special occasions or days when I have time to pull them off. I like mine with added blueberries or banana slices added to the mix, but my kids like theirs plain with maple syrup. With the addition of Greek yogurt and protein powder, these treats fill you up. If you need to thin the consistency a little, add a little more milk. Depending on how densely your oats were packed, you might need more liquid to thin the batter. I warm maple syrup in the microwave for 20 seconds in a creamer or small pitcher; there’s nothing like warm maple syrup on homemade pancakes to start your day. If you do one thing for your health and the flavor of pancakes and waffles, switch to pure maple syrup instead of that other stuff. Note: I have friends who will mix this batter the night ahead, but I don’t love what happens to the consistency. Just pre-measure all the ingredients to make life easier. The dry ingredients can sit out at room temperature overnight, and you can grab the cold ingredients from the fridge and add everything together quickly.
Muffins or banana bread are perfect to batch cook on the weekend. Banana muffins or blueberry muffins will turn out just fine with an added scoop of protein powder. If you do add protein powder, use a plain unflavored variety instead of vanilla. My daughter doesn’t love baked fruit, so I’ve learned to stay away from blueberry muffins for her, but I’ll include my recipe in case you want it! The banana bread recipe is from my cookbook.
You can add 1 cup blueberries to my corn muffins, or leave them out. Now I always use a silicone muffin tin set on top of a sheet pan instead of a metal tin with paper liners.
If you’re making breakfast sausage or bacon in the mornings, be sure to read labels carefully. I look for “no sugar added” bacon that has few ingredients. One of my go-to’s is Applegate Organics No Sugar Uncured Bacon (just FYI, this is not sponsored in any way). Look for the Whole30 sticker in the upper right-hand corner. Pederson’s Farms makes a no-sugar-added breakfast sausage, and we have great Kiolbassa breakfast sausage at our local markets, but I’m not sure if this is a regional thing. Just read the ingredients, less is more, and watch the added sugar.
Sometimes, when we’re really in a hurry or my teenager isn’t super hungry, I’ll just cut an apple with a scoop of peanut butter added to the side of the plate. She can dip the apple wedges into the peanut butter and it’s a light and quick breaky. Add a sprinkling of cinnamon to the apple slices if want.
Last but not least, add extra protein to an already high-protein breakfast by stirring in half a scoop of plain protein powder to a bowl of yogurt or chia seed pudding.
None of these ideas are revolutionary, but they sustain us in the early, hazy, crazy mornings. What about you? Let me know if you have a go-to breakfast for crazy busy mornings that your teenager will actually eat!
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