Our Easiest Breakfast Recipes Ever

Easiest Cinnamon Rolls Ever Recipe

Holiday mornings and chilly afternoons are made complete with warm, gooey cinnamon rolls. If you want to make them for breakfast, you can make the rolls the night before, cover them well, and refrigerate the unbaked rolls overnight. Just let them come to room temperature before baking them as directed. If you prefer a more gooey roll, bake for less time. 

2-Ingredient (More or Less) Sweet Potato Pancakes Recipe

Yes, you can make sweet potato pancakes with just two ingredients (give or take)! If you’re a little skeptical, you’ll become a believer after biting into them. They’re simple enough for weekdays, yet feel indulgent enough for weekend brunch. We’ve included a delicious topping that only three more ingredients. Roast a couple of sweet potatoes ahead of time, and try it this weekend!

Quinoa Breakfast Bowl with 6-Minute Egg Recipe

Embrace breakfast’s savory side with this whole-grain bowl. This simple one-dish meal is crowned with a soft-boiled egg; the nutrient-rich yolk creates its own creamy sauce. New research shows that eating eggs with raw vegetables like tomatoes increases your absorption of carotenoids—antioxidants that may protect against heart disease.

Sausage, Gravy, and Egg Breakfast Sandwiches Recipe

This sandwich will rival what you get at the drive-through. Freezing the gravy in ice-cube trays makes portioning easy. For freezing and heating instructions, see below.

Make-Ahead Microwave Breakfast Sandwiches Recipe

You’re running out the door, slightly late for work, with a thermos dripping with coffee and a half-unwrapped granola bar in your mouth. If this sounds like just another day in the life, you need these make-ahead egg sandwiches in your life. Take less than an hour one night or weekend to make a batch (or 5) and be prepared with a real breakfast for days.

Crack a whole carton of eggs into a bowl and beat them with salt, pepper, and a splash of milk if you like. If you have some on hand, toss in chopped parsley or chives. Pour the eggs into a well-greased baking dish or muffin tin and bake them until just firm. Meanwhile, cook a mess of bacon, sausage or ham and set the meat aside. When the eggs are cooked, lay them onto a toast a bunch of English muffin with slice of cheese and a couple pieces of the cooked meat. Stack the sandwiches a container, then tuck them into the freezer. When you’re ready to eat, pull out a sandwich, wrap it in a damp paper towel, then tightly in parchment paper, and pop it in the microwave. In just about 2 minutes you’ll be out the door, sandwich in hand.

Microwave Breakfast Sandwiches

How to Make Easy Cinnamon Roll Pancakes Recipe

In the US, cinnamon rolls are the classic pastry of all classic pastries. There’s a reason why Cinnabon exists. You can even scoop up cinnamon rolls at gas stations in Nowhere, Kansas. (Not that I’ve done that before or anything.) Cinnamon rolls are easy to find, but if you want to make your own, here’s the problem: They can be a pain. Yeast? Kneading? Real-life baking? Ugh, the horror. This is exactly why cinnamon roll pancakes can save your morning/day/life.

Pancake batter eliminates the need for actual dough. You can even use the stuff out of the box. No judgement here. It’s all about adding a buttery cinnamon filling to each and every pancake. Extra points for making swirls. The best part is when the cinnamon butter melts. It will literally cook into your pancake, infusing it with flavor. And in true frankenfood style, there’s also a cream cheese frosting. Maple syrup, who?

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

Swoon Over This Easy Croque-Monsieur French Toast Recipe Recipe

Chef Jeremy Glover serves up a bangin’ croque-monsieur French toast at Ceia Kitchen + Bar in Newburyport, MA. Slices of fresh white bread are stuffed with prosciutto, Manchego, and béchamel sauce made from a white roux and milk. This French toast inspired by the classic French sandwich croque-monsieur, which literally means "crunch sir," is dredged in an egg-and-cream bath, pan-seared, then topped with an egg. In a nutshell, this croque-monsieur recipe is simply a sexy, saucy breakfast. 

Making perfect Hollandaise is a great trick to have up your sleeve. Although it’s totally possible to whip up a batch of “broken” Hollandaise sauce, and even though you won’t care to eat it, you are able to learn more about how it works as an emulsification, so all is not lost. You can easily fix broken Hollandaise sauce by whisking in boiling water one teaspoon at a time or by adding another yolk to the mix.

French Toast “Croque-Monsieur” 

Ingredients

A Super Easy Breakfast Pizza to Make in Under 25 Minutes Recipe

Growing up in post-farmland Long Island in the 1980s, Michael Bernstein never got his hands on really fresh eggs, and he had no idea what he had been missing out on. He never considered that eggs are special, and he thought of them as purely utilitarian and something you eat in the morning because who even knows why. Once he started going to farmer's markets in his 20s, he started getting fresh eggs and realized how incredible they can be. He understood why French pastry and Italian pasta are thinly veiled homages to the egg itself. The omelet became bewitching.

Michael’s in-laws have a farm in southern Maryland where there are hens that are free to roam wherever they please (including one named Henny Penny who thinks it’s a house dog and likes to beg for food at the dinner table). Those free hens lay amazing eggs. Seeing his five-year-old daughter come back from the hen house with her grandma, carrying eggs for pizza, is precisely what our book, The Pizza Book, is all about.

This breakfast pizza recipe combines potatoes, thyme, and a little bit of hard cheese, but the star of the show is the freshest eggs you can possibly find.

Breakfast Pizza

Yields: 1 pizza

Excerpted from The Pizza Book by Aaron Quint and Michael Bernstein. Copyright © 2016. All rights reserved.

An Easy Breakfast Quesadilla Recipe to Know by Heart Recipe

The best savory breakfasts can be broken down into four essentials: egg, meat, cheese, carb, and anyone who disagrees is probably selling a fake food product you don’t want to mess with. These breakfast quesadillas are easy to make and the perfect base for your favorite mix-ins. Brown your quesadillas in the pan—a light toast will give you a crunchier bite.

Breakfast Quesadillas

The Easy French Toast Recipe You Should Master Before Getting All Fancy Recipe

French toast: not really French and not really toast. But it still rules. You can cover it in berries and literally any sweet food on the planet except for maybe Good & Plentys, but who knows, try it. Here’s a super basic, super easy French toast recipe that you should think of as your blank canvas for experimentation. Before you attempt a pumpkin-stuffed French toast or a decadent foie gras French toast, you need to learn how to crawl—mouth first into this iconic breakfast recipe.

Basic French Toast

Easy Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe

A little maple syrup in the blend adds a hint of sweetness and helps the patties develop a beautifully caramelized crust. We like to use dark maple syrup, formerly labeled as Grade B, because it has more intense maple flavor than lighter-colored syrup, so you can use less. This recipe makes a big batch but freezes well. Shape into patties before freezing for convenience, so you can use them as needed. While we like them for breakfast, they have enough savoriness that they’d also be great at dinner, served with snow peas, brown rice, and a tamari–rice vinegar dipping sauce.

How to Make Sheet Tray Pancakes Recipe

If you’ve ever tried to make pancakes for more people than, well, yourself, you know it’s quite a commitment. You’re glued to the stove, pouring and flipping, while your friends sit at the table and eat. Then, by the time it’s your turn for breakfast, the only pancakes left are cold or burnt. You don’t have to take this anymore. You need to make sheet tray pancakes. Make an extra-large batch of your favorite pancake batter—you’ve got a lot of real estate to cover—the dump the entire batch onto a sheet tray. Cover it with toppings, and be creative (sliced fruit! chocolate chips! bacon bits!) then bake the whole thing in one fell swoop. Slice the warm pancakes into pieces, then serve as you would were they round.

Sheet Tray Pancakes

Three-Ingredient Pancakes for When You Literally Can't Even Recipe

If you’ve ever tossed a brown banana, apologize right now. Spotty bananas past their prime can transform breads, muffins, smoothies, and these Three-Ingredient Pancakes. Store the next batch languishing on your kitchen counter in the fridge until you’re ready for a quick, 10-minute protein-packed breakfast. The mushier the banana, the sweeter the flavor. Live alone? Great—these are perfectly-portioned for one and reduce food waste. If you’re cooking for a crowd, this recipe can easily be doubled or tripled to serve more. 

3-Ingredient Pancakes

Boom! That’s it. So simple.

How to Make Carrot Cake Pancakes with Boxed Pancake Mix Recipe

Pancakes are so basic—in a good way. A standard pancake recipe doesn’t call for bells and whistles, which means there’s room for your bells and whistles. Don’t have eggs? Use an egg substitute. Want to go gluten-free? Sure, that can happen. You can also mix in things like blueberries, almonds, and chocolate chips. Top it off with sprinkles or spices and you’ve got yourself an extraordinary pancake. And now that you’re clearly craving a delicious recipe, you should make a carrot cake pancake with cream cheese glaze. 

There is nothing wrong with classic buttermilk pancakes. It’s probably one of the most respected breakfasts out there. But when your love (or appetite) for carrot cake is endless, combining the two only makes sense. Listen to your gut, people.

Here’s the best part: You can use boxed pancake mix for this. In fact, I totally encourage it. The secret lies within using pureed carrots instead of eggs. The result is a beautiful stack of golden, moist pancakes. And don’t forget the homemade cream cheese glaze. It’s a piece of cake, I promise.

Carrot Cake Pancakes with Cream Cheese Glaze

Make This 5-Ingredient Vegan Cashew Yogurt for Breakfast and Calm Down Recipe

As a holistic lifestyle guide, Cassandra Bodzak believes that the way you begin your morning will set the tone for the rest of the day—and for Bodzak, getting a strong start means a fresh, healthy meal and a mindfulness exercise. "When you fuel yourself properly and give yourself a few minute to get centered with your breath you give yourself a competitive advantage on the day," she explained in an email. "Starting off from a calm, positive place and eating foods that genuinely nourish you help you think clearer, improve your mood, and allow you to tune into that inner guidance system we all have within us."

Bodzak's book Eat With Intention: Recipes and Meditations for a Life that Lights You Upis full of wholesome plant-based recipes that make for a healthy morning meal, like this pretty foolproof recipe for dairy-free, creamy cashew yogurt. "Just make sure to blend up those cashews well, and it will turn out nice and creamy," she notes. And though Bodzark pairs it with raspberries, she adds, "You can even have fun with different flavors if you want to mix in different kinds of fruits, nuts or even chocolate chips to make it your own special combo."

If you really want to make the most of your morning routine, try the meditative exercise that Bodzak has paired with each recipe. They're approachable for everyone, even those who might feel initially self-conscious about pairing their dairy-free cashew yogurt with a side of meditation.

This particular morning meditation is designed to help you let go of your expectations for the day and start to accept the unknown, which is pretty much how Bodzak came up with this yogurt recipe. "When I first started toying around with making an alternative 'yogurt,' I had no idea how it would turn out," she writes in Eat With Intention. "But I soon discovered that cashews make a perfect dairy-free Greek-esque yogurt." The yogurt will keep in your fridge, too, so feel free to make a big batch and eat it throughout the week.

There's really no reason not to start the day with this breathing exercise and homemade yogurt—and who knows what you'll be able to come up with, too!

Let It Go Meditation

Sit in a comfortable position, place your palms facing up on your knees, and start breathing in through your nose and out your mouth. Allow your attention to focus on your breath and add the mantra “let go,” breathing in “let” and exhal-ing “go.” When other thoughts come up, let them float by like clouds and keep coming back to your breathing and the “let go” mantra. Continue for 3 minutes, gradually building up to 20 minutes. To close the meditation, take a deep breath in, hold it, and exhale powerfully.

Creamy Cashew Yogurt

Recipe reprinted from Eat with Intention by Cassandra Bodzak, courtesy of Race Point Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group

4-Ingredient No-Bake Funfetti Breakfast Bars Recipe

You don’t need permission to eat cake for breakfast. You’re an adult who deserves to treat yo' self occasionally (and your kids—if you have any—just because they love sugar and they’re cute sometimes). Think of these breakfast bars as a no-bake cheesecake that doubles as breakfast and dessert, so you can have the best of both worlds. Prepare the no-bake breakfast bars before bed and you’re all set for sweet indulgence when you wake up. Of course, because this is a funfetti recipe, sprinkles are involved. And sure, these kid-friendly funfetti breakfast bars get a bit messy, but that’s half the fun.

No-Bake Funfetti Breakfast Bars

4-Ingredient Chorizo and Egg Breakfast Tacos Save Time, Cash, and Your Morning Recipe

You’re craving a new protein-packed breakfast, but you don’t have much time to experiment in the kitchen before running out the door. Here’s a foolproof breakfast taco recipe that’s quick, simple, and most importantly, delicious. The chorizo breakfast tacos only call for four ingredients (meaning you won’t break the bank when buying groceries). If you’re looking to save extra time, chop cured chorizo and stir into the eggs just before they’re finished scrambling. There you have it, egg breakfast tacos that’ll keep you moving all day long.

4-Ingredient Chorizo and Egg Breakfast Tacos

Make No-Bake Granola Bars with Only 5 Ingredients Recipe

Five is the magic number with these all-star no-bake granola bars. You only need to set aside five minutes for prep work and just buy five ingredients. Seriously, you can count all the ingredients needed with one hand, and you’re guaranteed to feel like you’re #winning. The best part about this no-cook breakfast recipe? These heavenly, portable breakfast granola bars star a classic combo sure to melt the hearts of all devoted peanut butter and chocolate fans. The 5 ingredient granola bars take an hour to set in the freezer. After, treat yourself for all your hard work, and sleep in for a couple extra minutes this week—breakfast’s already made.

No-Bake Granola Bars

This 2-Ingredient Egg Cloud Is Next-Level Egg-in-a-Hole Recipe

Eggs and chives—that’s all you need whip up eggs in clouds that’s as easy as an omelet but as impressive as a soufflé. (Salt and pepper are freebies in our book.) The idea is to beat egg whites into an airy, cloud-like consistency and form little nests to hold the yolks. Simple, right? It’s possible that you might be daunted by the idea of making egg clouds for a crowd, but once you master our technique for separating eggs like a boss, the sky’s the limit. If you don’t feel like breaking a sweat whisking all those egg whites, you can just throw them in the bowl of a stand mixer and use the whisk attachment to whip up stiff peaks. Feel free to fold in your favorite ingredients—bacon, cheese, jalapeños, whatever. Then, spoon the mounds of egg whites onto a baking sheet, place the yolk in the center of the fluffy nest, and bake. In just a few minutes, you’ll be on cloud nine.

2-Ingredient Egg Clouds

4-Ingredient Prosciutto Egg Cups in Just 15 Minutes Recipe

A regular morning struggle: You come across a healthy breakfast recipe at night and wake up disappointed when you realize it calls for more than two handfuls of ingredients, including at least one ridiculous thing that you’ve never heard of. Now, breathe a sigh of relief. Our prosciutto cups (inspired by the ever-so-Pinterest-famous ham cups) only require four ingredients—including black pepper! It’s proof positive that you can eat a healthy breakfast on a budget, even when your fridge is bare and you’re short on time. Hit the snooze button one too many times, then whip up a batch of portable egg cups wrapped in salty prosciutto.

4-Ingredient Prosciutto Egg Cups

1-Ingredient Potato Frittata Recipe

It’s the end of the week and you basically have nothing in your kitchen except potatoes. Here’s the only one-ingredient recipe you need. OK, fine. This frittata recipe calls for four ingredients, but you always have salt, pepper, and olive oil on hand, so they basically don’t count. A few potatoes and a mandoline (the best kitchen gadget for quick slicing) will yield a crispy frittata that’s half french fry, half potato gratin, and 100 percent breakfast.

Slice the potatoes using a mandoline, but don’t wash them—it’s the starchy potato that keeps this frittata intact. Cook the potatoes in whichever fat you prefer: olive oil, butter, bacon fat, or, if you’re on a health kick, coconut oil. Layer the slices in your pan and cook low and slow to ensure the potatoes have cooked all the way through. If the heat is too high, the crust will burn before the inside is done all the way. When the middle is almost cooked (stick a knife under the layers to get a good peak), crank up the heat to get a nice golden brown crust on both sides. Serve this one-ingredient frittata recipe with a sprinkling of salt and pepper and dunk into ketchup or the breakfast condiment of your choice.

1-Ingredient Potato Frittata

6-Ingredient Healthy Muffins for a Plum-Perfect Morning Recipe

Claus Meyer, chef and cookbook author of The Nordic Kitchen, is known worldwide for co-founding Copenhagen restaurant Noma with Chef René Redzepi. (Last year, to everyone’s surprise, Redzepi announced his plans to close Noma and reopen with an urban farm.) With Meyer’s recipe for plum muffins, you can seamlessly introduce Nordic cuisine to your kitchen by highlighting food and flavors in season. 

Plum season begins in May and ends in early October. Plan a trip to the farmers’ market and fill a basket with deep dark purple stone fruit at its prime. Make the most of the season’s bounty with this plum muffin recipe sure to brighten your mornings all summer long.

Meyer’s simple healthy breakfast muffins only call for six ingredients. The true selling point? Besides plums and jaggery, we bet you have everything on hand for this muffin recipe. Now, you’re probably wondering “what is jaggery?” It’s an unrefined natural sweetener with a similar taste to molasses, made from sugar cane, and popular throughout South and Southeast Asia. If you can't find jaggery at your local grocery store, look for it at Indian and Asian markets.

Plum Muffins

Recipe excerpted from The Nordic Kitchen. Copyright © 2016 by Claus Meyer. All rights reserved. 

Make PB&J-Stuffed Doughnuts in Just 15 Minutes with This Simple Hack Recipe

Ryan Scott, former Top Chef contestant and author of One to Five, is hooked on this place in San Francisco called Bob’s Donuts. People especially like to go to there late at night (and occasionally when they’re drunk) since it’s open all day, every day. Their crumb donuts and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are both serious vices of Scott’s, so this is his mashup of two of his sweet obsessions together in one epic, easy-to-make treat: peanut-butter-and-jelly-stuffed doughnuts. With the help of this canned biscuit hack, you’re only 15 minutes away from sweet indulgence. “These are why I wake up and wonder why I can’t see my feet,” Scott jokes.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Time

Excerpted from One To Five: One Shortcut Recipe Transformed Into Five Easy Dishes by Ryan Scott. Copyright © 2016. Published with permission by Oxmoor House.

Simple Gruyere Toasts Recipe

Though it's a hard cheese, aged Gruyère melts nicely. You could also use Swiss cheese.

The Fanciest 10-Minute Brunch Ever Recipe

Did you know you’re always 10 minutes away from a fancy brunch? And no, I’m not talking about walking down the street to your local breakfast spot. If you have a bunch of asparagus, butter, eggs, and miso paste, you’re well on your way to a super-nice—yet wildly simple—meal. Only thing left to do is invite some people over.

Mix white miso paste with softened butter and sauté a few handfuls of asparagus in the mixture until the vegetables are bright green. No asparagus? Try this with broccoli, cauliflower, or green beans. To round out the meal, fry a few eggs sunny-side up and serve the whole mess with a fat slice of toast. 

Asparagus with Miso Butter and Sunny-Side Up Eggs

You Can Make This Microwave Blueberry Muffin in Less Than 5 Minutes Recipe

If there’s anyone who knows a thing or two about making breakfast in a microwave, it’s definitely college students—but Izy Hossack isn’t your ordinary college student, so it makes sense that her go-to breakfast in a microwave is far from ordinary, too. The 20-year old studies food science and nutrition at the University of Leeds, runs the food blog Top With Cinnamon, and now has two cookbooks under her belt. The most recent is The Savvy Cook, and it’s full of cost-effective, delicious, and easy recipes—like this one for a single-serve microwave blueberry muffin made in a mug. As Hossack writes in The Savvy Cook, “This is my go-to winter breakfast on mornings when I only have 15 minutes to get dressed and eat before going to class (hello, 9 a.m. lectures).”

This recipe for a microwave blueberry “oat” muffin is actually based on one of Hossack’s recipes for baked oatmeal, which, she explained to Extra Crispy in an email, “ I love to make but, as you have to make it in a large batch, you have to be committed to it for the week. So I scaled down my basic baked oatmeal recipe to be mug-sized, adapted it a bit, and ended up with this recipe!”

It’s also readily adapted depending on your personal taste or dietary restrictions, as are all the recipes in The Savvy Cook. That’s because Hossack herself follows a primarily vegetarian diet, for both budget and environmental reasons, and she wanted to make sure the recipes in her cookbook were “accessible to everyone so whether it’s a dietary choice or an allergy [or] intolerance.” So she recommends that those who are gluten-free make this microwave blueberry muffin with certified gluten-free oats, and those with a dairy intolerance should swap in nondairy milk.

Hossack also notes, “If you know you’ll be really pressed for time, mix the oats, baking powder, and cinnamon in the mug the night before, and in the morning just mix in the wet ingredients and microwave away!” And with breakfast this easy, there’s no reason to skip it.

Microwave Blueberry Oat "Muffin"

Tips and Swaps

Use fresh or frozen raspberries or strawberries instead of the blueberries.

For a chocolaty treat, add 2 tablespoons chopped dark chocolate to the mixture before microwaving.

From The Savvy Cook by Izy Hossack, Mitchell Beazly 2017.

10-Minute Asparagus Brunch for Fancypants People Recipe

I am not someone with addictive tendencies—in fact, I’m an exceedingly, sometimes overly moderate person. I like a little bit of one thing here, and a little bit of another thing there, and lots of different things all the time, and not too much of any one thing ever. The exception to this is when something like asparagus swings into season at the farmer’s market. Absolutely all my self-control goes out the window in favor of carving out a very sizable budget for peaches or tomatoes or, in the spring, wonderfully green, gorgeous, and alive asparagus. I just about ran home from the market with the first asparagus of the season, steamed it in a pan, and then consulting my very odds-and-ends-filled refrigerator. 

Knowing how much asparagus loves cheesy, salty, funky, richness (think asparagus in quiches or eggs Benedict or with sauce gribiche or eggs mimosa or roasted with Parmesan.) I emerged with a tub of miso and the butter dish. Mashed together and tossed with the hot asparagus, the miso butter makes a salty, savory sauce, and it really is just the thing for the very green, very demure on its own asparagus.

Another reason I love asparagus: It is totally kosher to eat it with your fingers. This is even true when it is dripping with butter. This is what I did with this asparagus the first time I made them and then the next day, when I made them again. And again when I made them for friends. We made a big plate of them and sat there with it between us, forgoing our forks, reaching for the stalks.

If you add eggs to the equation, you have to add the fork back in, too, but you get a really lovely brunch, one that feels a little fancy (asparagus just feels sort of elegant, doesn't it?). It also takes a scant 10 minutes to put together, and is very easily batchable, making it an ideal choice for breakfast if you’re having a crowd over—or if you’re just trying to pull together something for yourself in the same time it takes to make a cup of coffee. 

Asparagus with Miso-Butter and Eggs

20-Minute Baked Matcha Doughnuts Recipe

Invest in a doughnut pan and you can whip up a batch of these earthy baked goods in just 20 minutes. The forever-trendy Japanese green tea powder matcha is packed with antioxidants, and studies show it can reduce stress, boost metabolism, lower cholesterol, and even lower the risk of cancer. Its bright, emerald color shines in these soft, cakey donuts, which are coated in a simple, sweet, powdered-sugar glaze. With a quick clean-up and no oil splattering all over your kitchen, you won’t miss the deep-fried version. 

Homer Simpson would approve.

Baked Matcha Doughnuts

Ingredients

5-Minute Vegan Breakfast Burritos Recipe

An eggless breakfast is practically unheard of for those without dietary restrictions, but for vegans, especially those who used to loved a good scramble, it’s definitely a feat to fake. Luckily, the consistency and texture of spiced tofu crumbles in these vegan breakfast burritos mimic that of scrambled eggs. The vegan-friendly swap is so spot-on, it’ll win over any soy skeptic. Be sure to drain the tofu before cooking; that way your scramble won’t be watery. Ready to roll in just five minutes, you’ll be out the door faster than ever—burrito in hand. 

Tofu Breakfast Burritos

Sheet Pan Fried Eggs Recipe

Say hello to the easiest way to make fried eggs for a crowd. In fact, this sheet pan technique for frying eggs might just be the best thing to happen to breakfast since oven baked bacon. 

Instant Pot Egg Casserole Is the Easiest Way to Feed Lots of Hungry People Recipe

Essentially a frittata or a crustless quiche, this Instant Pot egg casserole really couldn’t be easier. This one-pot meal can be served at brunch this weekend, or made ahead of time, wrapped up and reheated right before heading to work on weekday mornings. Sweet with onions and bell peppers, with pockets of savory breakfast sausage and shredded cheddar cheese, this fluffy egg casserole proves just how crafty you can get with an Instant Pot.

Let the onions and bell pepper brown in the pressure cooker on the sauté setting until caramelized along with a few links of breakfast sausage. The casserole itself cooks inside a springform pan and sits on the grate insert of the Instant Pot. After beaten eggs are poured over the cheese, vegetables, and sausage, the casserole cooks for just 12 minutes. 

Instant Pot Egg Casserole

The Easiest Way to Poach Eggs Is in the Microwave Recipe

 When it comes to cooking eggs, most of us have mastered the basics: sunny-side-up, over-easy, scrambled. But when you’re craving a perfect poached egg, with a just set, silky white and a soft, warm center, it’s tempting to throw in the apron and the slotted spoon and let a professional handle your order. The poached egg is intimidating, and many of us who've tried to master the technique at home have been left with a mess of stringy egg strands floating in vinegary water. But you don’t need to shell out $15 for a little eggy heaven courtesy of a professional chef anymore—poached eggs are actually completely within your easy reach. Making a poached egg at home is easy thanks to your loyal kitchen friend, the microwave. That’s right: You can stop fretting about the size of the pot, the temperature of the water, or the merits of adding a splash of vinegar and just zap that egg instead. 

While the microwave hardly screams fine cuisine, it is in fact, the best way to make a consistently delicious poached egg. And the foolproof method is also much quicker than waiting for that water to come to a simmer. Besides, according to Bon Appétit, microwaving is the technique of choice for brunch restaurants like Jasper White’s Summer Shack in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

And if you think a poached egg only belongs on the breakfast table, think again. Eggs are basically condiments and can elevate any meal, from pancakes to burgers to salads. Microwaving poached eggs just makes this creative egg-eating a whole lot easier. In just a few minutes, you can even transform a sad weekday lunch into an impressive dish. Poach an egg in your office microwave and suddenly, ta-da! Your kale and lentil salad has just become bistro-worthy. And after all, there’s no better protein boost than a healthy poached egg, prepared with no butter or oil. 

So how do you do it? Before we jump in, a caveat: microwaves, like snowflakes, are all different. You may need to adjust this recipe based on your microwave’s wattage and taste preferences.

This Oatmeal Trick Will Save You Tons of Time in the Morning Recipe

If you like the start the day with a bowl of oatmeal, you’re familiar with the options: rip open a packet of artificial-tasting instant oats and toss the contents in the microwave, grab a cold jar of overnight oats you made the night before, or go the old-fashioned stovetop route and probably be late to work. Before you shake your fist at the sky and shout “IT’S HOPELESS” like a beleaguered woman in an infomercial, give this oatmeal trick a try. Make a big batch of oatmeal at night, then freeze mini-portions in a muffin tin, ready to be defrosted in the microwave at a moment’s notice.

Overnight Oats with Blueberries Recipe

Steel-cut oats have a wonderful chewy texture but can take a long time to cook. By soaking them overnight, all you have to do is heat them in the morning. Chia seeds help make the cereal creamy and filling. The recipe comes from the outdoor cooking experts behind the blog Dirty Gourmet, dirtygourmet.com.

GEAR 2-qt. backpacking saucepan, spork, backpacking stove and fuel, Nalgene bottle (for measuring), backpacking ladle

How to Make Instant Pot Breakfast Burritos Recipe

Starting the day with a breakfast burrito is always a good call. Packed with the protein and carbs you need to greet the morning with gusto, a warm tortilla bursting with eggs, cheese, and salsa is a way better choice than any sugar bomb of a breakfast pastry. But unlike that box of Pop Tarts sitting on your kitchen counter, a breakfast burrito takes a bit of work to put together in the morning. Enter the Instant Pot. In just a few minutes, you can cook a mess of eggs and vegetables into a fluffy egg mixture that’s practically begging to grow up to be a breakfast burrito.

Saute chorizo, onions, and peppers in the Instant Pot, then pour into a steamer basket. Fill up the pan with eggs, then cook until fluffy. Now, the rest is up to you. Scoop the egg and vegetable mixture into a tortilla, then toss in your favorite breakfast burrito fixin’s, from hot sauce to pico de gallo to fresh cilantro—then wrap it up and take a big ol’ bite.

Instant Pot Breakfast Burritos

Miso Soup Is the Cheapest, Easiest Vegan Breakfast Recipe

In the United States, miso soup is generally considered little more than a side dish for sushi. But in Japan, people commonly eat miso soup for breakfast. It's a meal dating back centuries, and though there are many variations on the type of miso soup eaten at breakfast, it's low-key the cheapest, easiest vegan breakfast you can make in the morning. Yes, I said vegan, even though, at its most traditional, miso soup isn't technically vegan. That's because the soup base is dashi, a simple yet savory broth that's made by boiling dried kelp and bonito flakes—and these dried, fermented slivers of fish that are decidedly not vegan.

But if you're looking for the cheap, easy and vegan recipe for miso soup, simply skip the bonito flakes. You don't even really need to use the dried kelp, called wakame, if you're really looking to cut steps and ingredients. (It should be noted here, though, that a package of the stuff is also available on Amazon for a very reasonable $4.50, and using it doesn't add too much extra time to the recipe.)

Miso soup makes for an admittedly simple breakfast, but that's part of the appeal, especially since easy doesn't have to mean unhealthy. This soup also packed with protein, thanks to all the soybeans, and that'll help keep you full until lunch. Plus, miso itself is a good source of copper, manganese, vitamin K, protein, and zinc—all necessary nutrients in a balanced vegan diet. You can even add whatever leftover vegetables you might have on hand, like mushrooms, snow peas, even carrots and potatoes, for some extra fiber and flavor.

Miso soup is filling, delicious, and even portable if you need it to be. (Seriously. Just pour it into a to-go mug before you walk out the door.) It's also cost-effective. You can order over a pound of miso paste on Amazon for less than $10, and that's good for about 20 servings of soup. The best part might be that making good miso soup for breakfast, or any meal, really, isn't that complicated. All you need are a few basic ingredients, a pot, a spoon, and about 10 minutes.

Eating miso soup for breakfast proof that eating a healthy, cheap vegan breakfast can be so much more than overnight oats or a slice of toast with almond butter. And when it's this easy and delicious, why not give plant-based breakfasts a chance?

Vegan Miso Soup

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If you’re too busy wrapping and delivering last-minute gifts on Christmas Eve, breakfast is probably the last thing on your mind. Thankfully, slow-cooker recipes exist and allowing you to do the least amount of work to make breakfast on Christmas morning. Learn how to make breakfast potatoes in the slow cooker and it’ll do all the work while you catch up on sleep. The hardest part of making these slow-cooker potatoes is the prep. After frying the bacon, throw all ingredients in the Crock-Pot and go to bed. In just six hours, you’ll have perfectly cheesy slow-cooker breakfast potatoes. Feel free to freeze whatever’s left. 

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Skip your favorite neighborhood ice cream parlor (it’s probably not open for breakfast anyhow), and head to your kitchen for a banana split. It’s not all that different than your fruit, yogurt, and granola breakfast parfait. It’s essentially the same, just assembled in a way that’ll have you feeling like you’re about to dig into dessert for breakfast. Make this breakfast banana split with the same giddy anticipation you have when you walk into an ice cream shop. Add whatever toppings you prefer (ours are just suggestions). There’s also peanut butter, berries, toasted coconut, and sprinkles, because every classic banana split needs some sprinkles.

Breakfast Banana Splits

The World's Simplest Breakfast You're Probably Too Scared to Try Recipe

To your typical eggs-and-bacon American, there’s not much about tamago gohan that makes sense. The Japanese breakfast is nothing more than a large raw egg cracked over a mound of steamed rice. If you feel like having an extra luxurious morning, you can splash the combination with soy sauce and/or speckle it with a shake or two of sesame seeds. Then, using chopsticks, you vigorously swirl the mixture into a froth and devour.

The first time I heard about tamago gohan was in college. I worked the lunch shift at a sushi bar, where I had the good fortune of joining the owner, Tencho, and my co-worker, a petite Japanese woman named Shoko, for breakfast. Each morning, Shoko would simmer a stockpot of miso soup, I’d wash and cook the rice, and Tencho would slice sashimi.

We’d then sit in the sunny corner of the restaurant, NHK news on the television, the spread before us. I’d hover above my bowl of miso soup and allow the steam to kiss my skin awake. I’d feel the warm rice quiet my grumbling gut. I’d inhale the sensuous slices of salmon, snapper, and yellowtail. 

As a white kid who grew up in Eastern Pennsylvania, I had a healthy fear of salmonella. My grandmother used to pull her potato salad from the table the moment a sunbeam struck it. Tamago gohan made me a little nervous (and where was the obligatory pork product?). I'd watch my boss crack, stir, and inhale with the nonchalance associated with pouring a bowl of cereal. Did this man secretly possess an iron-lined stomach? It took Tencho several months of prodding, of him repeating, “You are not man,” before I could accept a bowl of rice topped with a quivering, uncooked egg.

It quickly became one of my favorite comfort meals. Tamago gohan possesses the rib-sticking satisfaction of oatmeal, and the simplicity of sushi. The egg, when incorporated into the rice, relaxes each grain, and, with it, the rest of the morning. Pops of nuttiness, provided by the sesame seeds, punctuate every few bites. The salty spike of the soy sauce balances the grassy brashness of brewed green tea, which you hopefully also have close at hand.

As Shoko taught me, it’s rude to leave even a single grain of rice in the bowl. So I spend the last few moments of breakfast meticulously plucking the remaining morsels with the tips of my chopsticks. I cup the bowl with my hand to feel the warmth of the rice through the ceramic. The process is meditative and, ultimately, lends a sense of closure to the meal.

You probably think I’m overselling tamago gohan. But I still feel different as an eater after finishing a bowl of the stuff then, say, after a Monte Cristo. Even piled-high breakfast sandwiches can't compete with the satisfaction of finishing a simple bowl of egg and rice. And maybe Tencho’s refrain of “you are not man” was less a jab than it was a philosophy. Finishing a bowl of tamago gohan somehow makes you feel more complete.

It’s been nearly a decade since I last ate with Tencho and Shoko, but I still crave our breakfasts—and the bowls of tamago gohan that accompanied them. Occasionally, on a lazy Sunday, I’ll shuffle into the kitchen, rinse a cup or so of rice, steam it in a pot, gently crack an egg over the mixture, and then sit down to reminisce.

Tomago Gohan

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When it’s too hot outside to turn on your oven, your slow cooker is a lifesaver. Microwave leftovers about a minute, checking after 30 seconds.