I'd like to stop buying boxed breakfast cereals. They're expensive and not overly nutritious. What are some good healthy breakfast ideas? Some prep time is okay as long as it can be done the night before. I do oatmeal regularly but I don't want oatmeal every day. Yogurt and fruit is an occasional treat but also expensive. Any other ideas?

i would suggest farmer cheese with sour cream, but it's definitely not cheap. cottage cheese, scrambled eggs, toast?

why are you saying that cereal is not nutritious? i just bought something similar to bran flakes, jewish company - it has 100% daily value of about 5-6 vitamins and minerals. that's pretty good, i think.

I obviously prefer the healthier cereals--bran flakes, wheat flakes--to rice crispies and corn flakes. However, even the healthier brands have a lot of added sugar and corn syrup, and are only partially whole grain. And, the healthier cereals are also the most expensive.

The best is a cooked whole grain like oatmeal. I know some people cook kashe for breakfast. I think I tried it once for breakfast but I prefer it as a side dish with supper.

I don't want anything that requires washing and bentching.

Cereal is healthy if you purchase the right ones. They're full of vitamins and fiber.

Oatmeal is also a good breakfast.

You can make homemade granola bars with some dried fruit and rolled oats. I don't have a recipe offhand.

There is a Mr. Food Chicken Soup for the Soul Cookbook for Working Moms or something which has some excellent breakfast ideas. See if your library has it. I took a lot of recipes from that.

Granola

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.

Has anyone ever tried non-breakfast breakfasts? Like, say, vegetable soup? If you have, how did it go?

i've never tried soup, but i never have cereal either. when i wake up, i'm always starving, so i need FOOD. i can't see soup being a bad thing for breakfast - it shouldn't be that hard on a stomach and is filling.

Whole wheat toast with fruit and cottage cheese
Scrambled eggs with lots of veggies
Healthy cereal with milk and berries

That's if I have time. If I don't which is usually, it's more like:

Instant oatmeal in a cup with dried fruit
Two cheese sticks and a few whole wheat crackers
Yogurt with dried fruit
Granola bar and a gulp or two of milk
Protein shake

I only do non-breakfast breakfasts (I dont like any breakfast foods). Soup is good, especially in winter, but might not hold you over till lunch. I generally just have leftovers from the night before or make something really quick, like steak. You could also do a salad (fruit or greens) if you want something lighter. More breakfast-y ideas would be omelettes with cheese and veggies/mushrooms (you can do egg-whites only if you're watching your cholesterol), low-sugar muffins, breakfast pizza (I'm not sure if you can buy it pre-made kosher, but it's easy to make), whole-grain waffles with fruit, or farina.

ETA: If you have a blender, fruit smoothies are easy.

fleishig for breakfast? are you russian?

waffles sound good, btw.

Jeanette, how about kugels/quiches? even milchig ones.

tuna?

I wouldn't dream of steak for breakfast or anything too heavy. Some light pasta might be good though.

Kugel/quiche.. hmmm.. labor intensive though. Something to think about!

Waffles I would make only if they were healthy and whole wheat. I have a waffle iron but never use it.

I wonder how my kids will react to these breakfasts though, since they've pretty much been raised on boxed cereals and oatmeal. On Pesach breakfast is hard boiled eggs and fruit.

pan cakes made the night before can be reheated in toaster oven in the morning

Quiche isn't THAT labor intensive, especially if you find a premade pie crust. It's just eggs and filling stuff. You make it in a big pie plate and just take slices of it every day for a week. A good one is lox (you can get the lox pieces for someone cheap) or chedder and eggs. I'm all about milchigs for breakfast. I don't make it because I have skyrocketing cholesterol, but I wonder what it would be like with egg substitute?

(canned) salmon and cheese quiche from the binah magazine - i have the recipe at home - yuuuum!
mushroom and cheese.

milchig.........

Agreed. A breakfast cereal fortified with 100% vitamins and minerals is about the healthiest thing you can eat. Next I would say oatmeal with milk and then yogurt. Yogurt is not expensive if you buy the generic brand. It costs 50 cents for one container.

If you have high cholesterol it's probably not a good idea to eat pie crust every day - it's full of fat. Even if you have high cholesterol, it's still good to eat eggs in moderation. Eggbeaters taste fine, you can make a crustless quiche with that.

yes. It was delicious. It didn't take long to eat. It didn't cause a side ache when running to be on time afterwards.

Grill cheese is another good choice.

You're right. I have silicone bakeware, which I hear takes well to crustless baking. I madetartlets like tht as well, I suppose quiche would be good.

My healthy breakfast this morning was toast with sesame butter and honey, and cucumber slices on the side. I'm so proud of myself.