Over at The Kitchn they're discussing must-haves to keep at your desk for emergency
lunches. I was glad to see the shout-out for nut butter: a jar
of peanut butter lives in my desk drawer for just such situations.
I would add tuna pouches to their list.
But even if I have last-minute lunches well in hand, I
continually struggle with eating a good breakfast. I am not a
morning person and often miss out on a hot breakfast because time
just gets away from me. It's not difficult to fry an egg and a few
slices of bacon, but if you are like me, even that simple task is
unworkable during the frantic morning rush. Therefore, after what
seemed like the millionth breakfast of Greek yogurt and a banana, I
turned to the EYB library to find hot breakfast foods that required
little time and slight input from a sleepy morning brain. I was
delighted to find hundreds of make-ahead breakfast items
available.
The recipe I plan to try first is oatmeal in jars from The Kitchn. I've
used a crockpot to make "overnight" oatmeal before, but the simple
yet brilliant idea of pre-cooking oatmeal and putting it in
individual serving containers somehow eluded me. This technique is
wonderful because in mere seconds you can have a delicious and
healthy hot breakfast. For variety, you can add nuts, berries,
syrup or jam.
I also like items I can bake straight from the fridge or freezer
and which are easily scalable. For starters, there is this overnight egg and cheese strata from
Leite's Culinaria. This one is sized for two, but I see no
reason you couldn't make individual portions in small ramekins.
Then all you have to do is pop one in the oven before starting your
morning routine and breakfast is done with no oversight required.
Other strata would work as well; many of them
could be frozen in small ramekins and baked right from the
freezer.
These individual coddled eggs with mashed potatoes
from Epicurious also sound perfect: you can make the
mashed potato part ahead (or even use leftover mashed potatoes). In
the morning, you just need to crack an egg, bake for a short time
while you finish getting ready, and you're set. Yotam Ottolenghi's
Shakshuka look fantastic as well. You can make
the pepper portion ahead, so all you need to do in the morning is
again crack an egg, go put on your makeup, and return to a
delicious meal.
In the same vein as strata are these mini-muffin frittatas from Simply
Recipes. You can make them ahead and quickly reheat in the
microwave for a hot, homemade breakfast. Another item you can make
ahead, freeze, and easily reheat are these "grown-up" hot pockets made with puff
pastry.
Even though I was mainly searching for hot breakfast ideas, I
was intrigued by this quinoa granola recipe. At least it would be
something to add to my usual yogurt and banana breakfasts. What is
your favorite make-ahead breakfast food?
Photo courtesy The Kitchn