I Ate Breakfast Every Meal For A Week And This Is What Happened

This is one in a series of stories; visit The Daily Meal Special Report: Breakfast in America: What It Is and What It Means for more.

Those who know me well know that I'm all about breakfast. I never skip it, and often have two, one at home when I first wake up and then a second when I get to the office a few hours later. I love eggs, omelettes, bacon, bagels, pancakes... name a breakfast food and I'll likely give it a thumbs up. So when we started talking about doing this month's special report on breakfast, I jumped at the chance to experiment with eating my favorite meal every meal for a week: 21 breakfasts in all, plus snacks. This is how it went down.

Day 1, Monday

5 a.m. — Lately I've been loving these Thomas' English Muffins Double Protein with Oatmeal variety, toasted, with a schmear of Simply Jif peanut butter. I love coffee but can't stomach it first thing in the morning, so I make a mug of Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Gold tea with two percent milk.

6 a.m. — After my morning run I have a glass of fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice and coffee, because as a working mom of three I am all about a steady flow of caffeine most of the morning. I wish I could tell you I was a coffee gourmet, grinding up a small amount of Costa Rican or Sumatran beans and expertly brewing it in my French press, but the honest truth is that my palette is not that advanced and my time (and money) is pretty precious, so instead I buy giant bags of Dunkin' Donuts ground coffee at my local Costco. With some half-and-half, it is my delicious wake-me-up.

9 a.m. — Time for second breakfast! This is normal for me, I'm afraid, and my experiment is really not ready to begin. I stop by Pret A Manger in Penn Station to pick up one of their extraordinary avocado and greens breakfast shakes. Cool, creamy, and delicious. I also grab a Dunkin' Donuts cold brew, which fared quite well in our blind taste test of cold brew coffees recently.

Noon — I'm judging a food competition this afternoon, so I eat a small egg bowl I brought in from home (via Fresh Direct, our local home grocery delivery service) so that I won't be famished and scarf down too much at the competition. Details: a hard-boiled egg with roasted eggplant, tomato, olives, red onion, lemon, and herbs with a side of creamy hummus.

2 p.m. — Okay, so the food competition at NYC's Grand Hyatt (a regional competition for Hyatt chefs) is wonderful, but the five ingredients the chefs have to design their dishes around with today are quail, corn, Tazo green tea (cool, right?), clams, and heirloom tomatoes. I taste all the dishes because hey, it is my job, so I'm not breaking my breakfast rules (yet).

6 p.m. — Still pretty full from the food judging, so I grab a banana and some raw almonds as a snack. (That's breakfast-y, right?)

8 p.m. — Back at home I crack a couple eggs and fry them over easy, on top of one slice of Ezekiel bread with some butter. Perfect any time of day. (My kids eat with their dad well before I get home, so luckily I'm on my own with this breakfast-for-dinner thing — not that they'd all mind eating French toast or pancakes every night!)

Day 2, Tuesday

5 a.m. — Amy's Organic makes an awesome Black Bean Ranchero Breakfast Burrito. I pop it in the microwave, but am so full afterwards that my morning workout becomes a fast walk rather than a run.

9 a.m. — Second breakfast time: another Pret avocado and greens shake.

1 p.m. — I'm stumped about what to have for lunch. Luckily I work at a food site, duh, so I turned to our search and found this piece on 10 Breakfast Options That Are Better for You Than Eggs and remember my Grandmother Ida's favorite breakfast: cottage cheese with lightly-sweetened cling peaches. It's actually perfect for this hot day.

3 p.m. — A Fuji apple and a round of Babybel Light cheese. Confession: This is my go-to afternoon snack at work, but it's breakfast-like so I feel good about it.

8 p.m. — No eggs yet today, so it is omelette time! I use one whole egg and then the white of another to hold down the calories, steam some broccoli, and then sauté with bell mushrooms and white onions and just a little spray canola oil and a dab of unsalted butter. (Here's how I learned to make the perfect omelette.) I finish it off with rainbow peppers and sea salt from the grinder. Hooray! Eggs for dinner.

9 p.m. — Okay, time to make some overnight oats! This has become my go-to recipe. For this batch I throw in fresh blueberries instead of grapes.

Day 3, Wednesday

6 a.m. — No run today, so I sleep in! Six a.m. has never felt so glorious. I add some shaved almonds (not only are they a yummy protein and healthy fat, they also can lower your cholesterol) to my overnight oats, and it is the perfect breakfast on this very hot day.

10 a.m. — Time for a splurge that I've been thinking about all week. Two blocks from my office, the Portuguese restaurant Lupulo — the second restaurant from Michelin-starred chef George Mendes — has an adorable walk-up window that serves one of the best egg sandwiches in New York City. Their Smoky Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich, which includes a thick cut of Benton's smoky bacon and Monte Alva cheese, is well-worth the wait. The roll is fresh and delicious. It was $7, which is pretty pricey for a breakfast sandwich, but I am in heaven!

2 p.m. — I'm still really full from my large second breakfast, so I head over to my favorite juice joint, Juic-O-Logy, for one of their protein-rich breakfast smoothies. I need some strength for a long afternoon of meetings, so I order the Cage Fighter, which is made with coconut milk, blueberries, almond butter, banana, and organic chocolate protein.

7 p.m. — I'm starving (a protein shake only fills you up for so long) when I get home, so I pop a healthy Evol Lean Breakfast Burrito with Egg White and Spinach in the microwave. Dinner is served!

Day 4, Thursday

5 a.m. — Scarf down some overnight oats. This time I add some chopped walnuts, which have recently been in the news for their apparent ability to steer our brains away from junk food.

9 a.m. — Second breakfast is a hard-boiled egg with some Trader Joe's Everything but the Bagel seasoning. If you haven't experienced this magical substance, get yourselves to TJ's, stat.

1 p.m. — So excited to head back to Lupolo, since it is only two blocks from our office, for their take on avocado toast. I get takeout and bring it back to the office to eat. The avocado is prepared with olive oil and coriander, served on wood-charred country bread, and topped with black-eyed peas, cherry tomatoes, and a fried egg. I find out that after 11 a.m. the dish actually costs $16, so word to the wise: Get there in the morning to snag this delicacy for $9.

6 p.m. — It may be 85 degrees outside, but in this penthouse on East 36th Street it is all mistletoe and gingerbread scents — I'm visiting the Cozy Home holiday product showcase with one of our sales reps. It's fun to see all the seasonal offerings coming up from vendors from Yankee Candle to Crock-Pot. I get some good ideas for future stories, skip the decidedly unbreakfastlike (and calorie laden) treats, and am famished as I walk across town to make my bus.

7 p.m. — I duck into a Pret A Manger on my way to the bus station, but breakfast was hours ago and there is not an egg or oatmeal dish to be found, not even any yogurt. So I grab the most breakfast-appropriate thing I can find: a ham and cheese sandwich on French bread, something I definitely eat for breakfast while traveling in Europe.

9 p.m. — I finally get my yogurt fix. I adore Noosa yogurt (an Aussie-inspired brand made in Colorado), which to me tastes more like dessert than breakfast. Their lemon flavor tastes like a lemon meringue pie, I am not kidding you.

Day 5, Friday

Morning — The usual for breakfast (English muffins) and second breakfast (my green shake). I should be sick of both of these meals by now but I'm not. I'm definitely a creature of habit.

Noon — I didn't have any left at home so I grabbed some overnight oats at Pret on the way to the office. They make them with almond milk, Coyo açaí and berry purée, fresh apples, and pomegranate, and a seed mix. I'm full until dinner!

8 p.m. — I have a slice of broccoli and cheese quiche which I ordered earlier in the week from Fresh Direct. If I'd had a few spare moments to cook dinner for myself, I would have used this great recipe for making a quick quiche in a mug.

10 p.m. — Before I go to bed I whip up a batch of this amazing raspberry and chia pudding.

Day 6, Saturday

After having the amazing raspberry and chia pudding for second breakfast this day completely falls apart! We are heading upstate to a lake to hang out with family at their Airbnb, and I have not planned well. Because I forgot to pack the rest of the quiche, lunch is an Uncrustables in the car. (If you're a mom or you just love convenient PB&Js, you need to check these out immediately; here are some other great school lunch ideas.) Afterward we hang out at the beach, where I snack on very unbreakfast-like chips and guac. For dinner we end up at the food court of our local mall (a long story) and there isn't any breakfast to be had — so I order my favorite Wendy's salad (read 20 things you need to know about Wendy's). Oh well. This day has collapsed so badly — but there is always tomorrow to get back on the breakfast horse.

Day 7, Sunday

6 a.m. — I wake up resolved to finish out the week strong. Sundays are pancake day at our house.

8 a.m. — I'm feeling lazy and am out of flour, so I whip up a batch of Arrowhead Mills Buttermilk Pancake batter but add a couple of extra eggs and a scoop of vanilla protein powder to give them more staying power. Short stacks with real Vermont maple syrup for all!

10 a.m. — Summer fruit is amazing. We're headed to a friend's pool for the afternoon so I whip up this perfect summer salad that I found on Simple Nourished Living. I made it last week and it was so good I've been practically dying to have it again. Watermelon and cantaloupe qualify as breakfast foods, correct?

Noon — Lunch is impossible. I eat a hot dog. This is America, after all. (To distract you from my failure, here is a list of America's 75 best hot dogs.) I miss salad.

6 p.m. — One of the best things about living in New Jersey is our amazing diners! Tonight we head to the (in)famous Tick Tock in Clifton, and what better way to round out my week of breakfasts than with a Greek omelette, a side of crispy bacon, and some home fries with ketchup. (Here's to perfection!)

I have to say, as much as I love breakfast, I was definitely ready to add some non-breakfast meals back into my life. Also, I gained two pounds, probably because I was eating more grains and flour than I normally do instead of my go-to big salads.

Still, it is amazing how many more breakfast foods exist that I didn't manage to eat during this week. Popovers (one of my favorites, with butter and strawberry jam), this amazing Thai oyster omelette, breakfast sausage, waffles, poached eggs... and I didn't eat nearly enough bacon! I can't believe I didn't eat more, truly, although that probably would have added another pound. Here are 13 ways people around the world eat bacon.

Susan Houriet is the coffee-fueled editor-in-chief of The Daily Meal. You can follow her continuing advocado toast adventures on Instagram @thedailysusan.