Whether you’re on a rush to get out the door or the baby didn’t sleep well last night, sometimes it’s nice to have a nourishing breakfast you can pull out and serve in a couple minutes.
This post of healthy make ahead breakfast ideas will help you do just that. These recipes are quick and easy to make and have on hand. Most of them can also be frozen if you make a double batch so you have some left over.
As a bonus, these breakfasts are also a lot more filling than your average bowl of cereal or toaster pastry, which hopefully means your kids will go through less snack food (if you keep “snack-y” foods in the house).
My Top 9 Healthy Make Ahead Breakfast Foods!
1. Muffins
Muffins are my 1-year-old’s current favorite breakfast. Though he’s pretty partial to the ones with chocolate chips in them, muffins are great because he can hold them in his hand and carry them around while he’s eating.
I know, chocolate chips aren’t necessarily the healthiest thing for him (or me), but I sometimes put them in my banana bread muffins because I really like the combination of banana and chocolate, and so does he.
The thing is, however, that he eats bananas so fast that I don’t get to turn them into muffins very often, so most of the time we have chocolate-free muffins anyways.
If you’d like to make banana chocolate chip muffins, here is the recipe I based mine off of (with a few tweaks). I just put the batter into a muffin tin instead of a loaf pan.
2. Bagels
I actually just made these myself Monday, and they turned out really well!
I used a recipe from Lisa at Farmhouse on Boone. Here it is if you want to try it out!
You can top bagels with lots of different things, both sweet and savory. Here are some of our favorites:
- Peanut butter
- PB&J
- Butter with cinnamon sugar
- Cream cheese
You can also use these to make breakfast sandwiches (see #4).
3. Breakfast Burritos
I haven’t made these to freeze yet, but I have made them as quick meals for my husband and I, especially when we were in college.
In fact, I didn’t even realize you could make them homemade and freeze them until I saw two of my favorite bloggers post about it. I was afraid freezing them would do something weird to the egg.
Mariette from The Natural Catholic Mom made dozens of these before the birth of her third child last fall and inspired me to make up a bunch of these next time I have a baby.
Pregnant or not, you can make these burritos in large batches and have them on hand to pull out, saving you from stopping at a convenience store or getting out the cereal on those busy mornings.
Breakfast burritos are an awesome way to incorporate more meat and veggies into your diet, and their handheld nature makes them a fun, healthy make ahead breakfast for you and your kids!
4. Breakfast Sandwiches
Similar to breakfast burritos, you can make and freeze breakfast sandwiches so all you have to do is pull them out and heat them up!
You can use the bagel recipe I linked above as a holder for your fillings of choice, or you can use biscuits or croissants or English muffins. It’s really up to you!
My favorite breakfast sandwiches consist of a buttery biscuit, a sausage patty, egg, and cheese. You can also make them with ham or bacon, or you can change up the cheese!
5. Overnight Oats
I just made these last week and I see what all the hype is about!
I used a recipe from Arica over at Aspen on Main.
She has one basic recipe with 5 different variations, all with varying amounts of sugar. For the most part, the sweetness in her recipe comes from the fruit you put in it and a tiny bit of maple syrup, so there’s no refined sugar.
The two versions I tried were her Apple Pie and Blueberry Muffin flavors. Both were really good, but my husband and I especially liked the Apple Pie flavor!
6. Protein Energy Balls
I made these around the same time as I made overnight oats (sorry, I didn’t get a picture) because I wanted something to give me that little boost of protein to get through the afternoon until supper.
While these might not be completely stand-alone for breakfast, they’re an excellent source of protein.
This recipe only includes a spoonful of honey for the whole batch, and it makes about 30 energy balls (the recipe says it makes 8, but they’d be huge if I did that, so I’m not sure how they got that number).
Bonus: These taste like No-Bake/Top of Stove cookies that I always made as a kid (the chocolate peanut butter ones with oatmeal in them), but with way better ingredients!
7. Granola
My mom used to make granola when I was younger, and I loved eating it still warm from the oven.
I finally made her recipe myself last week, and I think it turned out pretty well for never having made it before myself!
You can also use granola as part of your yogurt parfaits from #9 in this post.
Here is a recipe that is similar to my mom’s recipe. Just switch out the canola oil for a healthier oil such as coconut oil and you’re good to go!
8. Fruit Salad
Whether you buy pre-cut fruit or cut up fruit yourself, fruit salad is a wonderful, kid-friendly breakfast.
To make it even easier to serve in the morning, you can even scoop it into indiduvdal containers for your kids to grab.
Here are some of my favorite ideas for including fruit salad:
- Apples
- Bananas
- Cantaloupe
- Honeydew
- Grapes
- Blueberries
- Strawberries
- Pineapple
- Mango
- And more!
9. Yogurt Parfaits
If you have some leftover cut-up fruit and some granola, kids love yogurt parfaits!
I love to make them with homemade yogurt (I used this recipe), but store bought works just as well!
Just grab a cup, layer yogurt, granola, and fruit of your choice.
If you’re making these the night before, I would leave out the granola or stick it in another container. If you put them all together ahead of time, the consistency of the granola will be more like overnight oats, but it will still taste amazing!
That’s it for my list of easy, healthy make ahead breakfast ideas for adults and kids alike!
