Breakfast Ideas: Our Master List of Go-To Meals

Breakfast is one of the hardest meals for meal prep. And that’s not because there are no breakfast ideas. It’s because it’s that meal when we are naturally so pressed for time because more often than not, we are trying to get out the door, not wind down for the day. The challenge is one of prioritization of time and energy. We feel the squeeze!

This list is a compilation of personal favorites, member favorites, and members of the Workweek Lunch Instagram community, compiled over the years. We asked for suggestions about favorite go-to breakfasts and compiled a list of the answers. There is MUCH to work with here . . . wait till you see these breakfast ideas!

There are lots of benefits to meal prepping breakfast:

• You have more control over what goes IN your breakfast.
• You’re less likely to go for the free cereal at work every morning or some other quick and/or processed shortcut that isn’t that filling.
• You get to sleep in because you don’t have to worry about cooking in the morning, because the prep is ALREADY DONE. Yay!

Oats

The holy grail of breakfast ingredients, indeed. Here are some of the meal ideas you can make with oats:

• Fresh oatmeal: Add in your favorite fruits, nut butters, seeds, nuts, protein powder or chocolate chips. Some people even like a savory oatmeal with Parmesan and olive oil!
• Overnight oats: You can eat this with similar ingredients as freshly made oatmeal, but there is no cooking involved. Try our delicious horchata overnight oats.
• Baked oatmeal: Think brownies, blondies, or chewy bars, but for breakfast and made of oats. That’s baked oatmeal in a nutsheell, and it’s easy to eat on the go. Plus, it’s freezer friendly!
• Homemade granola. Yes, it has a lot of ingredients, but it’s ten times better for you than most store bought granola! You can find our easy recipe here!
• Homemade muesli: Like granola, muesli is super easy to whip up and makes for such a simple but satisfying breakfast.

Loaded up toast, crackers and bagels

• Fruit + nut butter: Any combination works! I like peanut butter and strawberries or blueberries.
• Regular butter: Can’t go wrong with this classic.
• Butter and jam: Another classic that won’t let you down.
• Savory idea: Mushroom, chestnut, avocado – this was a very interesting combination I loved!
• Melted cheese on toast or bagels. It’s never too early for an open-faced grilled cheese. With a slice of tomato…
• Avocado toast: Throw some Everything But The Bagel seasoning on it and it’s a real delight. Or drizzle some olive oil over the top and some sea salt!
• Regular avocado toast with eggs: Open faced or not, but a drippy egg is so good here.
• Refried beans and cheddar cheese: Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it! Our community came up strong with this one.
• With lox and cream cheese: This is a total classic that will keep you full till lunch. Oh, protein!
• With hummus and veggies: So many types of hummus, but we like regular old hummus with slices of cucumbers, in particular.
• Avocado and pickled veggies: This is another delicious combo that also gets some veggies into your breakfast if that’s a goal.

Wondering what bread to use? We like the generic whole wheat bread in grocery stores. But if you want something different in terms of grains or texture, try Dave’s Killer Bread, Ezekiel Bread, Wasa Crackers and Thomas’ English Muffins.

You can also make your own sandwich bread with our easy recipe!

Baked Goods

• Breakfast Cookies: These are perfect for your morning meal and afternoon snack, like our banana chocolate chip breakfast cookies.
• Muffins – These savory cheddar muffins are absolutely delicious
• Banana, pumpkin or zucchini bread
• Sheet pan protein pancakes – This recipe looks amazing.
• Cinnamon rolls: Might not be your everyday choice but they’re great when the situation warrants them!
• Scones: A fanastic choice because they aren’t too sweet and can be made savory, too, if desired. Try our lemon blueberry scones.
• Homemade biscuits: Serve with eggs, dollop with jam, make a little sandwich out of them, pour gravy over them. Anyway you do it, it’s not a bad idea!

Smoothies

• With protein powder
• Add nut butter
• With your favorite milk (almond, oat, soy, cow’s)
• Add lots of fruit, fresh or frozen
• With veggies, fresh or frozen
• As a smoothie bowl
• With lots of add-ins like chia seeds, coconut, hemp seed, and/or flax seed

My FAVORITE smoothie combo: banana, cold brew, cocoa powder, vanilla protein powder, and almond milk. It’s like coffee and breakfast all in one. It’s hard to improve upon that.

Yogurt-based breakfasts

• Berry Parfaits are just breakfast trifles
• With protein powder
• With granola, like this vanilla maple almond granola
• Mix yogurt with cottage cheese – an interesting idea from a community member!
• With chocolate chips
• With fruit and honey and/or nut butter

My favorite yogurts are plain Fage, Chobani and Siggi’s. And for nondairy yogurts, I love CoYo, Forager and Kite Hill.

Eggs

• Breakfast Burritos, like our delicious veggie breakfast burrito recipe right above!
• Egg muffins: They’re like mini frittatas you bake right in muffin tins.
• Meal prepped frittata: A foolproof meal prep idea that’s easy to change up; check out our easy baked frittata recipe, which is basically a template.
• Scrambled eggs are classic; add veggies or not, top with hot sauce, serve with toast, or not.
• Omelets are always a winner
• Hard-boiled eggs are great for a quick breakfast on the go.
• With turkey bacon or regular bacon. You heard it here: bacon is NOT just for the weekends!
• With leftovers: Put an egg on leftovers like quinoa salads or roasted veggies, and call it breakfast.
• Fried and sunny side up eggs take less than 5 minutes in the morning!
• Poached with toast: Poached eggs are quick, too, and only sound fancy!!
• Breakfast sandwich: Fried egg, bacon or sausage, a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on a bagel, roll, or English muffin. Fan favorite, for sure.
• With potatoes : Have you tried meal prepping potato and veggie hash? Check out this sheet pan breakfast hash and eggs.

VEGAN IDEAS: scrambled tofu, scrambled chickpeas!

Waffles and pancakes

• Commercially prepped frozen ones: Just pop them in the toaster and call it a day. I like Van’s waffles; they also make gluten free ones!
• Prepped, savory: I love me some good savory pancakes or waffles, like Jalapeno Cheddar Cornbread Waffles.
• Prepped, sweet: I always look forward to traditional pancakes and waffles when I prep them. The picture above shows our incredible blueberry lemon pancakes!

Waffles and pancakes are a kid-friendly AND freezer-friendly option for breakfast meal prep. Get on it!

Bars

• Nature’s Bakery
• RX bar
• LARABAR
• Cliff Bar
• KIND bars
• Or make your own! The cereal bars above are in the WWL Program!

Breakfasts with tortillas

• Peanut butter and bananas (and maybe chocolate too!). It’s true; you don’t have to wait until dessert to eat this satisfying breakfast!
• Sauteed potato with soy chorizo and corn tortillas is an amazing idea from a community member
• Breakfast tacos! These are so easy and tasty!
• Breakfast quesadillas! Just take your normal quesadilla and add scrambled egg. BOOM. Breakfast quesadilla.
• Sweet potato and black bean wraps!  My recipe is part of the WWL Meal Prep Plan as a vegan breakfast burrito option.

Other breakfast ideas

• Easy Shakshuka With Feta
• Tuna sandwich
• Daily Harvest smoothies
• Pasta with tomato sauce
• Chia pudding
• Poptarts
• Belvita biscuits
• Cereal with milk (I love Nature’s Path cereal; Barbara’s Bakery makes good ones, too, that aren’t too sweet!)
• Dinner leftovers
• Just fruit and nut butter

Want to add any breakfast ideas to this massive list? Drop them in the comments below!

My go-to breakfast are always: overnight oats, pancakes, frittatas, egg muffins and regular muffins. And of course a smoothie when I need it to be fast and loaded with everything I need!

If you found this master list of breakfast ideas helpful, save it for the next time you need an easy, quick breakfast idea.

Happy prepping!