Easy Hacks To Upgrade Your Breakfast

Breakfast was thought to be the most important meal of the day, with studies shown in Medical News Today that suggest it would stabilize our blood sugar and keep us energized. In recent years, though, there's been a bit of a change of attitude on that front. But frankly, even if it isn't totally vital to eat as soon as you wake up, we're still gonna do it — because it's delicious, people. That first bite of food after a long, restful slumber, leaving you full of beans and ready to take on whatever the day brings? Sign us up.

But even the keenest breakfast aficionados out there can't deny that sometimes, it can be a slog to make. Whether you've had a sleepless night or you're already running behind to get to work, we've all had those mornings where we just can't face making something tasty to eat. And even if we do feel the urge to rustle it together, there's something about breakfast food that can be incredibly repetitive, leaving us falling into a rut, bored with our morning meal. But it needn't be that way. With these easy hacks, you can make your breakfast feel brand-new and have it on the table in a matter of moments.

We have yet to meet a person that doesn't like hash browns, and if we did, we're not sure we could trust them. But there's no denying that they can be a bit of a chore to make, especially first thing in the morning. Sure, the ends often justify the means with these little bites of joy. Not everyone has the time or inclination to form shredded hash browns into perfect patties and fry them until just right — even if they do, they can end up limp, wet, and undercooked in the middle.

Enter the waffle iron. Hash browns are one of those things you didn't know you could make in your waffle iron, but once you do, you'll never try it another way again. By using a waffle iron, you don't have to worry about shaping the hash browns — just put a few tablespoons into the mold, close it, and the machine will do the rest. Waffle irons give your hash browns a bigger surface area, which means that you get an excellent crisp on both sides, and the little indentations in the mold give the food an interesting texture. Thanks to the continually-applied heat, everything cooks at the same rate, with the inside steaming up perfectly. No need to worry about flipping it over continually, either.

Someone get the Nobel Prize committee on the phone because we feel like they made a mistake in not giving their award to the person who invented overnight oats. This time-saving food is perfect for folks who enjoy oatmeal but not the laborious preparation of it in the morning. With overnight oats, all you have to do is throw a few ingredients into a dish or Tupperware and leave them to soak overnight in the fridge. The liquid ingredients soak and soften the oats, leaving you with cool, ready-made oatmeal in the morning, requiring very little effort.

Overnight oats are also ideal for making in batches, which gives you a ready-to-eat breakfast every day of the week. It's important to avoid a few mistakes when preparing overnight oats. Make sure you're following your recipe carefully, and be sure to add enough liquid and leave it for long enough to soak; otherwise, the oats will remain chalky and brittle. You should also leave most of your toppings out of your oat mixture, only adding them just before you eat to make sure they don't break down overnight. The main mistake to avoid, though, is not mixing things up: The best thing about these oats is that they're thrillingly versatile, so try out a few different recipes and find your favorites.

Scrambled eggs are a tried-and-true classic at breakfast. But how many of you make your scrambled eggs in exactly the same way every time? While the reliability of scrambled eggs is part of the meal's appeal, it's also easy for it to become very boring.

But the thing about scrambled eggs is that they're simple to jazz up, and you can do so incredibly quickly. Our favorite way to hack scrambled eggs to give them an immediate pop of flavor is with herbs. Adding herbs to scrambled eggs requires very little additional preparation, and the fresh flavors of herbs help to brighten a dish that can otherwise become quite dense.

Fresh herbs are undoubtedly best for scrambled eggs, and we'd recommend veering towards lighter, less woody tastes. Both parsley and basil are excellent choices for eggs, as the gently floral notes of both help to counteract the fattier flavor notes in the meal. Chives also have a similar effect. To use herbs, stir them in just before you take the eggs off the heat so that the flavor has a chance to work its way through the dish, but the herbs don't wilt too much. You can scatter any leftovers you have on to the eggs when you serve them.

Few breakfasts are quicker or easier than a smoothie. Throw all of your ingredients in one container and blend it all up; pour the mixture into a glass, and you're done. It doesn't get much faster than that. Regrettably, though, smoothies can not only get a bit repetitive, but they can also be surprisingly sugary. All of those sugars in the fruit you're using, which makes the smoothie so delicious, can go straight to your bloodstream, and by blending them, you make them more impactful, explains the British Heart Foundation.

A good way to counteract this somewhat is to make a smoothie that's more vegetable-heavy. While adding vegetables into your smoothie in addition to fruit may not reduce the impact of the sugars, subbing out some of the fruit for lower-sugar veggies may well do. And if you still want a sweet smoothie, tossing in vegetables may boost the vitamin and mineral content of your smoothie and potentially add some beneficial nutrition. Avocado, spinach, and even sweet potato are great additions to sneak into your smoothie, with avocado, in particular, providing some healthy unsaturated fats.

The humble, unassuming egg is the king of breakfast foods. Whether you're scrambling, frying, or poaching them, these simple foods can form the center of a morning meal designed to keep you full for hours. And the simplest method of preparing eggs, boiling them, can be mastered by anyone — but they can also take time. If you're making hard-boiled eggs, they can take upwards of ten minutes until they're fully done. And frankly, not all of us have that time in the morning.

That's why batch-boiling your eggs is the way to go. Grab yourself a pot that's big enough for all of the eggs to rest on the bottom without any overlap, add your eggs, and then pour in water until they're fully covered. Stick them on the heat, and bring them to a boil, allowing them to cook for around 8-10 minutes, before removing the pot and dousing the eggs with cold water to halt the cooking process. Once your eggs have cooled, dry them off, and put them in a container in your fridge. And like that, you've got a stash of hard-boiled eggs to eat throughout the week. Hard-boiled eggs last for up to seven days in the fridge, so this is a great hack to do on a Sunday evening before the working week begins, and it'll save you precious minutes in the morning.

If you're only using your slow cooker for stews, you're using it wrong. This kitchen gadget is way more versatile than we give it credit for, and anything from shepherd's pie to noodle soup can be made in your crock pot. And breakfast foods aren't off the menu, either. That's why fans of French toast can rejoice, as the time-consuming breakfast can be prepared in a flash and then left to cook overnight.

For slow-cooked blueberry French toast, all you have to do is layer cubed French bread, blueberries, cream cheese, and a mixture of eggs, sour cream, yogurt, and flavorings into your crock pot the night before you want it for breakfast. Then, set it so that it starts cooking approximately four hours before you usually eat in the morning, on low heat. When you wake up, the toast will be ready to go, and then all you have to do is whip up a quick blueberry syrup, or if you're running low on time, grab a pre-made syrup. Dish up and enjoy a seriously low-stress breakfast.

If we told you there was a way to make bacon even more delicious and even quicker than it already is to make, would you believe us? Well, prepare to be converted because we're here with the truth. Crispy bacon is loved by pretty much everyone, but it can be tricky to master when cooking in a skillet. The bacon can release copious amounts of liquid, leaving you with a rather soggy plate of meat.

The solution lies in one unexpected ingredient: flour. Before you cook your bacon, simply dredge each piece in a small amount of flour. This creates, in effect, a sealant on the outside of your bacon, both stopping the moisture from leaking out and all over the pan and providing a coating that can crisp up.

To amp the bacon up even further, and save more time and effort, place it on a baking sheet and cook it in the oven. Doing so provides regular heat to the bacon, avoiding any undercooked sections, and the dryness of the heat helps to make it more brittle, which is what you want for that next-level crunch. It also means that you have to spend less time flipping your rashers and more time sipping your coffee.

There has been a lot said over the years about how best to scramble eggs, and for many folks, the solution lies in moving the eggs around in the pan constantly. We can understand the logic behind that. By moving your eggs continually, you ensure that the mixture is cooking at the same rate, and you end up with a smooth, creamy plate of scrambled eggs at the end.

But if you want the fluffiest results for your scrambled eggs, it's time to mix it up — quite literally. While it might sound completely wild, a sure-fire way to get a super-fluffy plate of eggs is by separating the whites and yolks, and keeping them apart until the very last minute, according to chef Caroline Fidanza, via Epicurious. "You scramble the whites in the pan, leaving the yolks whole, and then you break them at the last minute, folding them into the whites." There's a method to this apparent madness. By keeping the yolks out of the pan, you don't run the risk of overcooking them, which can toughen up your scrambled eggs. Instead, the yolks remain custardy and rich, and you not only get a fluffy end result but a premium taste. ‌

The rise of the Instant Pot was a serious moment in food culture, and at one point or another, it felt like we were making literally every meal with those little gadgets. Now, don't get us wrong, we still love Instant Pots. But if you've found that yours has been gathering dust in recent years while you struggle to figure out what else to make with it, you might not be alone.

This is why we suggest turning your attention to the possibilities it holds for breakfast. Oatmeal is a breeze to make using an Instant Pot or another pressure cooker, and all it takes is the press of a few buttons. For pressure cooker cinnamon roll steel cut oats, begin by using the sauté function on your pot to melt some butter, then brown your oats for a few minutes until they release a rich aroma. Add in water or milk if you're using it, and set it to cook for ten minutes. Once done, stir in some raisins and some powdered cinnamon and sugar, or sprinkle some over the top of your oats before adding a drizzle of icing. If this sounds a little complicated, though, keep it simple by adding oats with liquid and cooking for ten minutes until the oats are tender.

Using the freezer is the ultimate cooking hack for almost anything, including breakfast. And if you're a fan of a cold smoothie, this smoothie tip will not only keep your drinks icy, refreshing, and thick but also stop you from having to spend loads of time on prep in the morning. All you have to do is grab the fruit that you're going to use in your morning smoothies for the week and some freezer bags. Chop all the fruit up, separating it into daily portions, and place each portion in a bag before popping it in the deep freeze.

Then, when the morning is upon you, grab one of the bags, pour it into the blender with a little liquid, and press go. You'll end up with a super-thick, cold smoothie that's full of flavor. This smoothie hack not only means you don't have to worry about using a knife first thing in the morning, but it also stops you from having to use ice in your smoothie, which can water things down considerably. You can also use pre-frozen fruit bought from the grocery store, too. ‌

Frittatas are, more often than not, the star of the brunch table. But their large nature means that they're slightly less convenient for making just for yourself — and there's no denying that they can take a bit of time to put together and cook. But with this frittata hack, you can not only enjoy a personal frittata every single morning, but you'll also save yourself a huge amount of time throughout the week.

Mini frittatas can be made using a muffin tin and with just a few ingredients. Whisk together eggs, a little milk, and seasonings, and then stir in any additions that you'd like: cheese, ham, vegetables, you name it. Then, pour a portion of this mixture into each greased section of a muffin tin. Pop it in a 350-degree oven, and bake for ten minutes, until the little frittatas are golden on top and cooked in the middle. And that's it, they'll store in the freezer for a few days, or pop them in a Ziploc bag and freeze them until you're ready to eat.

Pancakes are, undoubtedly, a lot of people's favorite breakfast food. But making them takes time and work. You have to measure all your batter ingredients, get out that big bowl from the bottom of the cupboard, and expend valuable arm energy whisking everything together. Then you come to pour them into the pan, and your pancakes end up misshapen and ugly.

But not anymore. The night before you want your pancakes, mix up your batter and then pour it into a large squeezable bottle, like an old ketchup container. Mixing pancake batter ahead of time can actually make it taste better, as it will give it time to settle. Then, when it's time to make your perfect pancakes, all you have to do is squeeze a portion of the batter into your hot pan. A quick squeeze in the middle of the pan will give you a nice round shape. Or if you want to get creative, you can get really artsy with it, making pancakes that look like squares, stars, fish, you name it. ‌

Okay, so who here has messed up a poached egg before? They are devilishly tricky, and even the finest chefs have trouble getting the technique just right. But if you have an air fryer in your kitchen, you don't need to worry about your technique at all, and you'll have perfectly poached eggs every time.

While it sounds a little too good to be true, we promise it works. Grab a heatproof ramekin, and place it in your air fryer basket. Then, add a tiny bit of boiling water to the bottom of the ramekin, followed by a cracked egg. Close the drawer, and set your air fryer to 340 degrees before letting the whole thing cook for 11 minutes. Then open it up, and prepare to be amazed. The heat from the air fryer envelops the egg, giving it an even cook throughout — and all you have to do now is spoon it out and onto your toast, with no need to do the dishes.

If your idea of heaven is to wake up and head straight to the drive-thru, you're not alone. A fast-food breakfast sandwich is a dreamy way to start the day, and it's a delight to have something delicious to eat without having to worry about getting up at the crack of dawn to make it. But breakfast sandwiches, while compact, can be pricey, and if you're making regular trips to get them, the pennies can add up.

Rather than doing this, make your own freezer-friendly breakfast sandwiches ahead of time in the oven for a lightning-fast morning bite. All you have to do is bake a few ramekins filled with beaten egg until they cook through, creating an egg patty. Once it's cool, put the patty between a sliced English muffin, and add any other toppings you like, with ham, cheese, cooked sausage rounds, or cooked bacon being our favorites. Wrap the sandwich up tightly, and put it in the freezer. Then in the morning, when you're ravenous, you just have to unwrap it and microwave for a minute or two. Give it a try — your wallet will thank you.