My Favorite Make Ahead Breakfasts

In my little family, breakfast is by far our favorite meal.  It’s the only meal where I can make one thing and know that, 9 times out of 10, everyone will be happy.  That being said, mornings are usually the busiest time of day for us so I love to have breakfast made the night before.  Taking one less to do out of the morning helps us all start our day happier. 

If I could give you one tip for prepping your breakfasts the night before, it’s prep once, eat twice or even three times.  Any time I have the chance, I double the recipes and we either eat the meal two mornings in a row or I freeze half and have a breakfast ready to eat another day. 

Here are my family’s favorites:

1.     Overnight oats

I love how simple and versatile overnight oats are.  You can throw together almost any combination of grains, fruit, milk, protein, seeds and sweetener and you will have a winner.  Here are a few of my favorite recipes but be adventurous and make them your own.  Add some chia seeds or nut butters or play around with fruit and milk types.  The options here are honestly endless.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Overnight Oats

Cocoa Banana Overnight Oats

Raw Raspberry Buckwheat Overnight Smoothie Bowl

2.     Baked Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal is another breakfast (and let be honest, supper when dad’s working late) staple in our house.  The options are endless and it makes an entire pan, which means it could feed a family for a few days. AND…double win, if you make them in muffin tins you can freeze them and have grab and go breakfasts at your fingertips.  And yet another major win in my books- baked oatmeal doesn’t require a spoon! This means my littlest can grab a piece and go to town and likely make less of a mess or at least the mess is often easier to clean. Don’t be afraid to experiment with baked oatmeal too.  Have some fun and try different frozen and fresh fruits or even different grains.  I like to throw in some buckwheat or quinoa with the oatmeal – added nutrition and my kids and husband never know the difference. 

Customizable Baked Oatmeal Cups

Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal

Dairy Free Baked Oatmeal

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

  

      Pancakes

While pancakes aren’t technically a make ahead breakfast, I’m going to include them because my kids are crazy for pancakes. Whenever I make them, I double or triple the batch and freeze the extras or pack the extras for snacks.  In the morning we just pop them in the toaster and voila! a make ahead breakfast.

Chunky Monkey Greek Yogurt Pancakes

Kellie's 3 Ingredient Pancakes

Rob’s Pancakes

Wet Ingredients:

1 cup milk (or almond, soy or rice milk)

1 banana

1 tsp oil (whatever type you prefer)

1/2 tsp vanilla

- Blend the wet ingredients together in a blender until there are no more banana chunks and set aside.

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup flour (whatever type you prefer)

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

dash of cinnamon

dash of nutmeg

-The above dry ingredients make the basic recipe, I like to add in some extras.

Extras: 

1-2 tbsp cornmeal

1-2 tbsp rolled oats

1-2 tbsp hemp hearts

1-2 tbsp Coconut
1-2 tbsp Craisins

-Mix dry the dry ingredients together and make a well in the mix. Pour the wet mix into the well of the dry ingredients and mix together.  Feel free to mix in a 1/4 cup blueberries or chocolate chips into the batter.  Add a bit more milk if the batter feels too thick, it will depend on how much extras you put in and how big your banana is.

Eating a healthy breakfast starts your day off on the right foot and kick starts your metabolism.  I hope you enjoy trying out some of my family's go to breakfasts.  Let me know what you think.  What are your go to make ahead breakfasts? We are always looking for new recipes to try.