26 Cold Breakfast Recipes for Busy Mornings (2024)

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1. Leftovers Frittata

• Time Commitment: 25 minutes
• Why We Love It: <30 minutes, gluten-free, crowd-pleaser
  Get your a.m. egg fix straight from the fridge by rounding up your leftovers the night before and tossing ‘em into the skillet with some eggs to make a frittata that doesn’t even need reheating.

2. Breakfast Parfaits With Fruit, Yogurt And Granola

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 ingredients, kid-friendly

In case you missed it, parfait is the French word for perfect…and let’s just say this simple but satisfying combo of fresh fruit, yogurt and granola lives up to its name.

3. Cranberry Walnut Grain-free Granola

• Time Commitment: 20 minutes
• Why We Love It: Crowd-pleaser, gluten free, dairy free

Tired of spending a fortune on fancy store-bought granola? Good news: There’s a DIY for that.

4. Espresso Streusel Coffee Cake

• Time Commitment: 1 hour and 15 minutes
• Why We Love It: crowd-pleaser, special occasion-worthy

Because some mornings you deserve to get your caffeine fix in cake form.

5. Aran Goyoaga’s Glazed Lemon, Yogurt And Olive Oil Pound Cake

• Time Commitment: 1 hour 20 minutes
• Why We Love It: Special occasion-worthy, gluten-free

Other mornings, a regular cup of joe with a slab of moist olive oil pound cake on the side will suffice.

6. Crispy Quinoa Cashew Granola

• Time Commitment: 1 hour 10 minutes
• Why We Love It: Vegan, beginner-friendly

Here, another homemade granola recipe that hits the spot and boasts an impressive nutritional profile, to boot.

7. Green Smoothie With Avocado And Apple

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why We Love It: <30 minutes, natural sweeteners, beginner-friendly

Packed with leafy greens and healthy fats, and lightly sweetened with a combination of honey, coconut water and tart Granny Smith apples—this smoothie is a well-balanced and palate-pleasing way to start the day.

8. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Blueberry Cauliflower Smoothie

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why We Love It: Beginner-friendly. <10 ingredients, vegan

Add creamy, dreamy smoothie to the growing list of things you can do with cauliflower.

9. Fruit And Granola Breakfast Popsicles

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 ingredients, beginner-friendly

Freeze your favorite breakfast ingredients—fresh fruit, granola, Greek yogurt—for a cold treat you can eat on the go. (Did we mention this treat’s great to eat on a scorching summer morning?)

10. Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Roll-ups

• Time Commitment: 15 minutes
• Why We Love It: Kid-friendly, <10 minutes, gluten-free

Here, peanut butter and banana get wrapped in a crepe and drizzled with dark chocolate. Make the crepes the night before (or buy premade ones from the grocery store) and keep them in the fridge for a guilt-free breakfast that looks and tastes like dessert.

11. Strawberry And Banana Smoothie W/ Yogurt

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why We Love It: Natural sweeteners, gluten-free

What’s there to say? It's hard to go wrong with a morning smoothie that features the classic strawberry and banana flavor combo.

12. Cranberry Almond Breakfast Cookies

• Time Commitment: 20 minutes
• Why We Love It: Crowd-pleaser, kid-friendly

Presenting a grab-and-go breakfast cookie that will please your inner child (or your real-life kids) without sacrificing your grown-up healthy eating goals.

13. Frozen Peanut Butter Smoothie Bowls

• Time Commitment: 6 minutes
• Why We Love It: Vegan, high protein, kid-friendly

Peanut butter, coconut oil and mixed berries combine to make a smoothie that’s so creamy and decadent it deserves to be savored with a spoon.

14. Panda Peanut Butter And Jelly Sandwich

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why We Love It: Kid-friendly, vegetarian, >10 minutes

You’d be hard-pressed to find a kid who could resist this level of cuteness. (Thankfully, it doesn’t require serious artistic skills on your part, either.)

15. Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

• Time Commitment: 30 minutes
• Why We Love It: low sugar, kid-friendly

Applesauce is used to cut the sugar content in these healthy and satisfyingly sweet peanut butter and banana muffins.

16. Easy Cherry Almond Granola Bars

• Time Commitment: 25 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 ingredients, kid-friendly, beginner-friendly

These homemade granola bars are considerably healthier than the sugar-loaded store-bought kind and can be customized with any combination of your favorite mix-ins.

17. Homemade Maple Pecan Granola

• Time Commitment: 50 minutes
• Why We Love It: Kid-friendly, natural sweeteners, <10 ingredients

You’ll want to make a big batch—this crunchy maple, peanut butter and pecan granola is downright addictive.

18. Apple Muesli

• Time Commitment: 10 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 ingredients, <30 minutes, one bowl

Running late? You can still whip up a quick, homemade breakfast. Put down that box of sugary cereal and opt for some healthy homemade muesli that you can whip up in ten minutes flat.

19. Cranberry Apple Danish

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why We Love It: Crowd-pleaser, <10 ingredients

Test your star baker abilities with a sinfully delicious Danish recipe you can bake in advance and enjoy for many mornings to come.

20. Monkey-bread Danish

• Time Commitment: 1 hour
• Why We Love It: Kid-friendly, crowd-pleaser

Cream cheese in the middle and streusel on top? Yep, this is yet another Danish we can get down with.

21. Peanut Butter And Jelly Muffins

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why We Love It: gluten-free, vegan, natural sweeteners

The lunchtime staple gets a breakfast makeover for busy mornings, and we’re not mad about it. We like that they’re naturally sweetened and are gluten-free, so we can feel semi-virtuous about seconds (and thirds).

22. Biscuit Doughnuts

• Time Commitment: 45 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 ingredients, crowd-pleaser

These doughnuts are exceedingly easy to make, thanks to premade biscuit dough. Fry up and frost a batch to keep in the fridge for mornings when you want to indulge.

23. Ginger Citrus Chia Cups With Pistachios And Goji Berries

• Time Commitment: 25 minutes (and 2+ hours in the fridge)
• Why We Love It: one bowl, gluten-free, whole grain

Ginger and orange zest make palate-pleasing magic in this healthy and oh-so fancy chia pudding, courtesy of Coterie member Gena Hamshaw.

24.

• Time Commitment: 8 hr 5 min
• Why We Love It: Beginner-friendly, <10 ingredients, gluten-free

With five minutes of evening prep and a full eight hours of shut-eye, you can wake up to chocolate for breakfast.

25. Everything Bagel Cheddar Cheese Ball

• Time Commitment: 10 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 ingredients, <30 minutes, low carb, gluten-free

For when you want a mouthful of seasoned cream cheese without a carb-loaded bagel. Try dipping carrot sticks or celery in it.

26. Peanut Butter Maca Overnight Oats

• Time Commitment: 5 minutes
• Why We Love It: <10 minutes, beginner-friendly

Peanut butter and maca give these overnight oats a rich, nutty flavor; the raw chocolate is there ‘cause you deserve it.

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Emma Singer is a freelance contributing editor and writer at PureWow who has over 7 years of professional proofreading, copyediting and writing experience. At PureWow, she covers...