Breakfast is one of the hardest meals for meal prep.
Why? Because there are simply less prep-friendly options compared to lunch and dinner. So it’s pretty easy to run out of breakfast ideas.
At least I know this to be true for the breakfasts in the Workweek Lunch Meal Prep Program where I send weekly meal plans to members with different recipes every week. When creating the plans, I struggle with breakfast the most. (You can learn more about and join the program here!)
There are lots of benefits to meal prepping breakfast:
- You’re less likely to grab a bagel or doughnut (which are great, but not ideal every day)
- You have more control over what goes IN your breakfast
- You’re less likely to go for the free cereal at work every morning (which isn’t that filling)
- AND you get to sleep in because you don’t have to worry about cooking in the morning. Yay!
To give you more breakfast ideas, I asked the Workweek Lunch Instagram community what their go-to breakfasts are and compiled a list of all the answers.
I hope this breaks you out of your meal prep breakfast rut or inspires you to get started!
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!
- Overnight oats – same as above, but no cooking involved. Find my master recipe here.
- Baked oatmeal – think brownies or blondies, but for breakfast and made of oats. That’s baked oatmeal and it’s so easy to eat on the go. Plus, it’s freezer friendly!
- Homemade granola – 10x better for you than storebought granola! My recipe is part of the WWL Meal Prep Program, but here’s another good one to use.
- Homemade muesli – Like granola, muesli is super easy to whip up and makes for such an easy breakfast. Here’s a recipe I like.
Stuff on 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 – it’s never too early for an open-faced grilled cheese amirite?
- Regular avocado toast – throw some Everything But The Bagel seasoning from Trader Joe’s and it’s a real delight.
- Regular avocado toast with eggs – go a step further and make it into a sandwich!
- Refried beans and mozzarella – another interesting idea from a community member that I loved the sound of!
- With locks and cream cheese
- With hummus and veggies
Wondering what bread to use? I like the generic whole wheat bread in grocery stores. But if you want something extra, I recommend Dave’s Killer Bread, Ezekiel Bread, Wasa Crackers and Thomas English Muffins.
Baked goods
- Baked oatmeal (like we mentioned above)
- Fruit muffins! Pick your favorite fruit. Throw it into a muffin. That’s it!
- Protein muffins! Like these.
- Banana, pumpkin or zucchini bread
- Sheet pan pancakes – I’ve never tried it, but this recipe looks amazing.
- Cinnamon rolls – I’m sure there’s a way to make them healthier! Maybe this recipe?
- Doughnuts (sooo good and easy to make at home)
- Scones – I love this recipe.
- Homemade biscuits – try this recipe!
Smoothies
- With protein powder
- With nut butter
- With your favorite milk (I like almond milk)
- With lots of fruit, fresh or frozen
- With veggies, fresh or frozen
- As a smoothie bowl
- With lots of add-ins like chia seeds, coconut and flax seed
My FAVORITE smoothie combo: banana, cold brew, cocoa powder, vanilla protein powder, almond milk. It’s like coffee and breakfast all in one.
With yogurt
Pictured above are my no-cook parfaits. You can watch the video tutorial to make them on Instagram here!
- With protein powder
- With granola
- Mix yogurt with cottage cheese – an interesting idea from a community member!
- With chocolate chips
- With fruit and honey and/or nut butter
- Parfaits – like above!
My favorite yogurts are plain Fage, Chobani and Siggi’s. And for non-dairy yogurts, I love CoYo, Forager and Kite Hill.
Eggs
freezer egg muffins
The freezer egg muffins pictured above are part of the WWL Meal Prep Program!
- Egg muffins – these are amazing.
- Meal prepped frittata – a foolproof meal prep idea that’s easy to change up.
- Scrambled – can’t go wrong with a scrambled egg.
- Omelet – I only started nailing these three months ago.
- Burritos – not just good for breakfast, but also lunch and dinner
- Hard-boiled – it’s protein on the go!
- With turkey bacon or regular bacon – bacon is NOT just for the weekends!
- With leftovers – put an egg on leftovers and call it breakfast.
- Fried and sunny side up – takes less than 5 minutes in the morning
- Poached with toast – if you’re feeling fancy!
- Breakfast sandwich – my personal favorite.
- With potatoes – have you tried meal prepping potato and veggie hash? Trust me on this.
VEGAN IDEAS: scrambled tofu, scrambled chickpeas!
Waffles and pancakes
- Premade – chuck ’em in the toaster and call it a day. I like Van’s toaster waffles!
- Prepped, savory – I love me some good savory pancakes or waffles! This recipe looks awesome.
- Prepped, sweet – I always look forward to traditional pancakes and waffles when I prep them. My recipe is for members of the WWL Meal Prep Program!
Waffles and pancakes are a kid-friendly AND freezer-friendly option for breakfast meal prep. Get on it!
Bars
- RXbar
- LARABAR
- Cliff Bar
- Or make your own! Like mine above. Recipe coming soon 🙂
With tortillas
- Peanut butter and bananas (and maybe chocolate too!) – because you don’t have to wait until dessert to eat this satisfying breakfast!
- Sauteed potato with soy chorizo and corn tortillas – an amazing idea from a community member
- Breakfast tacos! – so easy and tasty! Here’s a recipe I love.
- Breakfast quesadillas! – 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 random ideas
- Nice cream (when you make ice cream out of frozen bananas)
- Tuna sandwich
- Daily Harvest smoothies
- Pasta with tomato sauce
- Chia pudding
- Poptarts
- Belvita biscuits
- Nothing – intermittent fasting
- Cereal with milk (I love Nature’s Path cereal!)
- Dinner leftovers
- Just fruit and nut butter
- Bulletproof coffee
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.
If you found this master list of breakfast ideas helpful, go ahead and Pin it for the next time you need an easy, quick breakfast idea.
Happy prepping!
