13 Quick and Easy Breakfasts That Come Together Faster Than Your Morning Coffee

Time is a luxury many of us don’t have on weekday mornings. If I had to choose between breakfast and a few extra minutes of sleep, it would almost certainly be the latter. But starting the day with an empty stomach is rough, and with plenty of quick and easy breakfast options, there’s no reason why anyone has to choose between getting enough sleep and enjoying a satisfying morning meal. Below, you’ll find a few of our favorite speedy breakfast recipes, including creamy scrambled eggs, nutty fruit and seed bars, and perfect poached eggs. Some take just a few minutes to make, others can be easily prepped ahead of time, and all are great to keep in your back pocket for stress-free mornings.

Make-Ahead Rice Cooker Steel-Cut Oatmeal

Have a rice cooker designed to also make oatmeal or porridge? You can set everything up the night before and wake up to flawlessly cooked steel-cut oats. Top it with a pat of butter, fresh fruit, or chopped nuts—or go all out with caramelized bananas and walnuts.

Easy Overnight Oats

Anyone who has been turned off by bland, watery overnight oats will love our fabulously creamy version. Rolled oats are tender when soaked and just thick enough to lend the uncooked porridge a bit of heft and chew, while oat milk, maple syrup, vanilla, and a tablespoon of chia seeds give the oats a subtle sweetness and a luscious pudding-like texture. It’s almost like you’re eating dessert for breakfast.

Microwave Granola

If you love granola but don’t exactly feel like making a big batch, the microwave is your solution. The appliance is perfect for making a small amount of granola. This one is lightly sweetened with maple syrup, well-seasoned, and hearty with dried fruit and nuts. It’s also ready in about five minutes, which makes it our speediest granola recipe ever.

Easy Peanut–Butter Banana Smoothie

It takes just five minutes to whizz up this salty-sweet and creamy smoothie that’ll win over peanut butter and banana fans. Blending frozen sliced bananas with whole milk and nut butter creates a richer, thicker texture, and a pinch of salt enhances peanut butter’s savory notes.

Soft-Scrambled Eggs

Creamy soft-scrambled eggs can be yours in less than 10 minutes. How you like your eggs is a matter of preference, but there are a few key techniques that can make them the very best scrambled eggs. Pre-salting helps the eggs retain moisture and tenderness, and a small proportion of milk gives them richness. For velvety curds, add the eggs to a cold pan, then stir them frequently over low heat.

Avocado Smoothie

This ultra-creamy avocado smoothie gets its sweet, tangy flavor from frozen mangoes, orange juice, and a ripe banana. A generous handful of spinach and avocado give it a vivid green hue without imparting any vegetal flavors—a win-win in my book.

Breakfast Bars

These homemade breakfast bars are the very definition of grab-and-go. Unlike big-batch granola, this recipe only takes about 10 minutes to prep so it’s a great make-ahead breakfast and snack that will last the week and beyond. Packed with toasty oats, nut butter, dried fruit, crunchy seeds, and fruit preserves, they’re pretty filling by themselves, but you can always pair them with a banana, small pot of yogurt, or one of our smoothies.

Honey-Butter Toast

This iteration of the popular brick toast found in cafés across Asia is fluffy on the inside and shatteringly crisp and buttery on the outside. You can slather the thick bread slices with the butter mixture and refrigerate overnight for easier baking in the morning. A dollop of creamy yogurt and fresh fruit nicely balances the sweetness of the toast and adds a bit of protein and fiber to boot.

Perfect Quick-and-Easy French Toast

Sometimes keeping it simple is best, especially when you want to whip up a quick batch of French toast on a weekday morning. Using the right ratio of eggs and sugar to whole milk—along with some salt, vanilla, and cinnamon—ensures that your French toast is custard, moist, and light.

Thick and Fluffy Pancakes From Homemade Pancake Mix

You don’t have to wait for the weekend to make pancakes for breakfast, not when you’ve got a stash of homemade pancake mix in your pantry. We use refined coconut oil—blitzed together with dry ingredients in a food processor—which makes the mix shelf-stable for up to a year. All that’s needed for thick and fluffy or light and thin pancakes are eggs, milk, and a splash of vanilla.

Perfect Microwave Poached Eggs

When you’re practically paying for eggs in gold (pasture-raised, cage-free, or otherwise), you want the best—and preferably the fastest—way to cook a restaurant-worthy poached egg. We’ve got you covered with our microwave method, which takes under 10 minutes from start to finish and yields perfect results every time.

Ful Medames (Egyptian Breakfast Fava Beans With Tahini)

Canned fava beans with tahini, garlic, cumin, and lemon make a great breakfast food. Serve it with some warm pita or spread it on toasted bread and top with sliced avocado.

‘Nduja Scrambled Eggs

The next time you’re on breakfast duty, forget the sides of bacon and sausage, and stir some ‘nduja into your eggs instead. With its high-fat content, ‘Nduja easily emulsifies and melds into the creamy curds of a soft scramble, adding rich savory flavor and a bright tangy finish.