I opened the fridge and cupboards half a dozen times this morning, looking with apathy at the various breakfast options. I kept thinking, “I can’t wait for lunch so I can have that leftover lasagna.” After awhile the coffee kicked in enough for me to think, “Wait. I could have that lasagna FOR BREAKFAST.”
Typical breakfast foods have been successfully incorporated into other meals: plenty of people have pancakes and sausage for dinner, or omelets. They might be sheepish enough about it to call it “breakfast for dinner” or “brinner,” but they go ahead and do it. Lunch/dinner foods for breakfast is a harder sell, apparently, and needs to be handled gently. One kind of ground-meat patty on a bread product is WEIRD for breakfast; another kind of ground-meat patty on a bread product is FULLY FINE. French fries for breakfast, are you NUTS? Oh, hash browns! Sorry, I misunderstood!
I had coffee and half a grapefruit with the lasagna.
I get fries with my breakfast sandwiches all the time. It’s awesome. :)
Eat what you want when you want it: we are all going to die anyway. (SEE WHAT I DID THERE??)
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I have put some serious thought into this, and have come to the conclusion that breakfast foods are breakfast foods because they are fast. It doesn’t take long to scramble an egg. Ergo, a pre-made lasagna is a perfectly acceptable breakfast. It’s even faster than scrambling an egg.
I don’t know why society is so persnickety about what can and cannot be a breakfast food. Cake is a no, but muffins are a yes. Milkshakes, no; frappuccinos, yes. Steak frites, no; steak and eggs, yes. It’s all quite silly. Usually first thing in the morning, very little appeals to me even though I am ravenous, so I will eat anything that seems remotely palatable — crackers, cookies, salty nuts. Some of my favorite breakfasts have been leftover pizza or Chinese food. I am all for breaking down these barriers.
I looooove leftover chinese food for breakfast! With orange juice! (No one else has ever watched me eat it and decided to join me, though!)
This! I thought about the muffin versus cake issue one day while I was making muffins, and thought the recipe was eerily similar to a cupcake recipe. HUH! Since then, I think anything goes for breakfast even though I always have oatmeal. (Also, I made an apple french toast breakfast bake for Christmas. It was delicious. It had an apple syrup drizzle. Essentially, though, it was dessert. For breakfast. I can get behind that too.)
Shortly after we were married Husband saw me eating a leftover burrito for breakfast. I don’t believe he’s been so horrified by anything I’ve done in the 30 ensuing years. I stand by it: bread-like substance plus protein source equals breakfast in my book.
I eat burritos for breakfast all the time! They’re delicious cold or hot. I never realized it was weird!
I would like to state for the record that cold, leftover pizza is totally a breakfast food. At least in my house!
One of the biggest perks of staying at home now is I can eat leftover dinner for breakfast. And I do. I’ve preferred to do so ever since I was a kid. Traditional “easy” breakfast foods like cereal or toast have never appealed to me and why bother making a big breakfast if there’s already made food in the fridge? I’m sitting here reading this with a bowl of chicken tortilla soup:)
My daughter doesn’t like eggs, pancakes, cereal, waffles, yogurt, smoothies. What does she eat for breakfast? Leftover taco meat with sautéed onions and peppers in a flour tortilla. I figure if you threw an egg in there it’d be called a Spanish breakfast taco at a hipster diner. So why not?
You know what happens next right? Slowly the lines of orderly food blur into obscurity. Then you find yourself waking up one morning and making yourself a steak muffin.
With a bacon crumble and a maple glaze? Cheesy?
It’s very wrong how hungry your comment made me. ;)
I always think how crazy people would think it would be to eat a bowl of cut up fruit covered with milk, but throw some cereal in there and it becomes normal.
My kids love leftover pasta for breakfast. Love it. And, since they’re old enough now to start breakfast while I’m getting ready for work, they do make the executive decision to heat up spaghetti instead of Eggo’s at least a few times a week.
Leftover dinner/non-breakfast food for breakfast is AWESOME. I eat pizza, soups & stews, chinese, spaghetti, you name it and I’ve likely eaten it for breakfast. My husband thinks I’m crazy – LOL.
I’d have to say, I don’t have actual “breakfast foods” for breakfast more than once or twice a week – the only time I do is when I don’t have anything leftover from the night before.
This morning, after a walking the dog in 7-degree temperatures, I had a nice warm bowl beans and greens with Italian sausage. Tasty AND better for me than a bowl of crappy cold cereal.
My favorite breakfast food is leftover pork fried rice from my favorite Chinese takeout place. My second favorite is Mexican food.
I crave eggs. Like, all the time. Eggs are easily one of my favorite foods, so I almost always have an egg for breakfast. Sometimes, I throw that egg on top of leftover dinner foods. My favorite so far has been the fried egg (runny yolk, yum!) over leftover scalloped potatoes. Today, I’m getting bold. I made spicy New Orleans barbequed shrimp for dinner last night with cheese grits. In just a few minutes, I’m gonna nuke the leftovers and put an egg on top of them. I am anticipating breakfast joy.
All of this is a lengthy way of saying that any food is breakfast food. I have had leftover lasagne many, many times for breakfast, for the same reason you did: I couldn’t wait for it to be lunchtime.
I think “Dr. Maureen” has a point. Many people claim they’re “not hungry” or “can only stand” certain foods in the morning. But this is probably more a matter of habit then anything else. We tend to follow the same food habits we grew up with. If breakfast is “the most important meal of the day” and you’re breaking a fast (from going overnight without eating), people of previous generations believed that specific foods were optimal for restoring the body and getting off to a “good start.”
Years ago (80s) I worked as a research associate for a professor who was one of the first to visit China and subsequently brought Chinese research scholars to the U.S. They were unfamiliar with the notion of breakfast food, and ate their own regular food for breakfast. It was then I learned that breakfast preferences are largely cultural.
I do not consider leftovers for breakfast “weird;” some people do, but that it probably more due to the customs in which they were raised. Clearly, many people — includeing most of the commenters before me — disagree with this notion.
Since I work outside the home these days, I often like something portable. Breakfast burritos from the drive-through on the corner are wonderful. Or I make a “green smoothie” from fruits and veggies and some coconut milk and almond milk, which I bring to the office to nosh on.
Breakfast = breaking a fast. How did I never realize this? Thank you!
I never get any leftovers. Teen boys. Dinner is hoovered up frantically, and if there are any shreds of the meal left, there is a massive turf war over who gets to take it to school the next day. I’ve taken to midday baking, just to ensure I get SOMETHING around here.
We lived with my sister for a few months and she would often times have half a turkey sandwich for breakfast. It seems weird but really when you think about it, it’s probably better than a bowl of cereal nutrition wise
I’m pregnant, and I’m usually eating the lunch I brought from home at my desk at by 10 am. And it’s always “lunch food” but it tastes SO DELICIOUS. Something about cheesy protein at that hour makes me happy.
I’m with you – I can actually take or leave most traditional breakfast foods so I tend to eat non-breakfast breakfasts often. I am sure the lasagna was yummy!
I’m not a fan of most traditional breakfast foods, mostly because I hate eggs and can’t handle sugary foods first thing in the morning, so I routinely have lunch/dinner foods for breakfast. My favorite is a quick ham and cheese quesadilla. So good!
Also, a couple weeks ago I was craving a breakfast burrito (egg-free) but couldn’t find any hashbrowns in the freezer, so I just chopped up some frozen french fries instead. It was delicious.
My favorite breakfast burrito is diced pork, green chile, and refried beans. Savory!
The place I like has at least half a dozen flavors, including “Spanish omelet” and some with potatoes. I’d rather have the “Lunch”-y ones (beef/bean, chicken/rice, pork/bean, etc.).
I eat a ham sandwich almost every day for breakfast. It’s not that different from a ham biscuit, I guess. It’s just satisfying to me!
My Uncle’s family are all morning/high energy people (the obviously get that from my Aunty’s side of the family). When my cousins were younger he used to make dinners for breakfast including full roast meals so they could have a good start to the day and then they’d have cereal for dinner. It seemed to work well for them but only my Uncle would want to cook dinner overnight. I have a feeling he also did it that way to get a lower rate on electricity. He’s an eccentric man.
I broke out of “traditional breakfast” a few years ago when I decided to make an effort to have 2 servings of vegetables at every meal. Often I’d have 1/2 a sandwich plus spaghetti squash with veggie sauce.
Recently, I tried making a quinoa/egg casserole with lots of veggies in it. I was amazed – due to the seasonings it tasted JUST LIKE traditional stuffing, which is always my favorite post-thanksgiving breakfast.
I’d love the recipe!
When I was in Israel, people often had salad for breakfast. In Vietnam, pho is a popular breakfast food. As long as it doesn’t give you indigestion, who cares?
I’ve gone through several phases where my very favorite breakfast is leftover lasagna. Cold. I used to stick lasagna directly into the fridge after cooking, without eating any hot, even. I also used to purchase pizzas from Mellow Mushroom specifically to eat as cold pizza the next day. Mmmmm leftovers.
Oh that sounds like a glorious breakfast.
By the way, What kind of lasagna do you make ? Is it an easy recipe and if so how much time does it take? I love homemade lasagna but hate the effort but love it so much I eat it for a week straight, and during my pregnancy nobody better even look at my leftovers.
It’s a ground beef and tomato sauce, cook-the-noodles, cottage cheese, sliced mozzarella kind. It’s not difficult, exactly (except I find it hard to get all the ingredients ready at approximately the same time, and I always burn my hands on the noodles), but time-consuming and dirty-dish-creating; I can only make myself make it occasionally.
Have you ever tried the no boil noodles? It really cuts down on the burned fingers! (The texture is slightly…firmer? maybe? But, I am totally willing to sacrifice softer noodles for in tact digits!) This pregnant lady is making lasagna tonight! YUM
I looooooove having non-breakfast food for breakfast.
Twice last week I had leftover apple crisp for breakfast. Oats! Apples! Brown sugar! Cinnamon! It’s practically porridge. (If you ignore the enormous quantities of delicious butter.)