How did cereal get to be the go-to breakfast choice? We stumble out of bed and pour starchy flakes (puffs, squares, etc.) into a bowl with cold milk that all quickly becomes mush before we can muster the jaw strength to chomp it all down. An hour or two later, we are hungry again, and the second time around, if you are anything like me, you go for a quick snack, which inevitably ends up being unhealthy at least 50 percent of the time (“but I ate so well yesterday…”).
John and I are on a mission to stop eating cereal so much—or maybe cereal at all—we will see how this goes. In all honesty, I was nervous to start this, because I had a hard time brainstorming anything to eat for breakfast besides cereal or breakfast tacos. The brain block is not so surprising, I suppose, when you consider that grocery stores devote whole aisles to stocking boxes of cereal. What else is there?
Having lived in Germany, however, we learned that not every grocery store is like that. The German grocery stores we frequented had just a couple (really, a couple…like two) cereals. Certainly, then, not everyone eats cereal for breakfast!
After some thinking, I came up with the list below to get us started. We were already big fans of the green smoothie, and I am looking forward to seeing where we go from here.
Non-Cereal Breakfast Ideas:
- Green smoothie – The one we make consists of spinach, banana, plain Greek-style yogurt, peanut butter (natural — no JIF here), almond milk and just a touch of sugar.
- Oatmeal (steel cut or rolled oats) – I found some great recipes for fun oatmeal flavors like apple or pumpkin pie, and I am excited about sampling those.
- Sausage and eggs
- Waffles
- Pancakes
- Omelets
- Quiche
- Bagels
- Cold cuts, cheese and bread (German breakfast, here we come!)
- Muffins
- Fresh fruit
- Scrambled eggs
- Hardboiled eggs
- Breakfast casseroles (there are too many to name)
- Granola (we have a great recipe from Alton Brown that is far better than any store bought granola we have ever tasted)
- Plain Greek-style yogurt with honey or berries
- Breakfast tacos
- Coffee cake
- French toast
We are mainly looking for easy things we can have before work, but a couple on my list do not fit that requirement and will have to be weekend meals. Do you have anything to add to our list?
LOL! I love cereal but never for breakfast! It icks me out to eat cereal for breakfast, but I’ll eat if for snack, lunch and ocassionally even dinner! Cereal is my snack (drug) of choice. I don’t like super sugary cereals (except Froot Loops or Apple Jacks, but those are only when I’m really celebrating something), so I’m pretty dull about it. Cascadian Farms’ Nut O’s are my favorite, followed by Strawberry Mini Wheats. See? Dull.
I do sometimes eat oatmeal or even grits for breakfast, but usually it’s just a piece of multi-grain toast (Rudi’s Organic Bakery Nuts and Oats Bread) with nothing on it and 2 pieces of veggie sausage (though now that Han Solo has decided he likes my breakfast better than his own, I have to make more) with a cup of black tea (he likes that too, so I’ve moved to a larger cup!). I’m not a big fan of breakfast as a rule, but I know I have to eat something, so that’s what I usually go with. Never eggs though! Ack! The thought of eggs in the morning just makes my stomach turn. I prefer scrambled eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, etc for dinner. 🙂
You have an excellent list of b’fast foods to try out.