These Are the 15 Best Breakfast Foods of All Time!

Breakfast, according to everyone’s mom and dad, is the most important meal of the day. Like most parental wisdom, this is true! A good breakfast can set you up for a successful day while a less than good breakfast can set you up for words spoken in hanger later on in the morning.

To get the most benefit from your breakfast, there should be a good balance of lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats. This doesn’t mean your good breakfast can’t taste fantastic: the key really is balance—if you’re craving something sweet, add a protein side to help avoid the sugar crash; if you’re more into something savory and rich, add some high-fiber veg to get more vital nutrients.

When it comes to breakfast foods, we’ve done plenty of rankings of our favorite types of breakfast foods but now it’s time for a ranking of the breakfast food types themselves. Read on for our list of the 15 best breakfast foods of all time!

15: Protein Shake

When you need a quick, utilitarian breakfast to fuel you up for the day on the way out the door to work, protein shakes are an obvious go-to. The quickest option possible are the premixed ones in bottles or cans, but you’ll find more flavor options—and be able to customize more—by choosing a protein powder to mix yourself.

To power up your protein shake with even more healthful superfoods, use a vitamin fortified nut milk in place of water and add a handful or two of spinach (or other leafy veg), high-fiber fruits like berries or a banana, and a bit of baking spice like cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom.

14: Oatmeal

Whole grains are healthful, filling, and they taste pretty good too! The fiber in oatmeal is what makes it filling enough to keep you satisfied until lunchtime, plus it’s full of vitamins and other healthful nutrients. Oatmeal is also the perfect foundation to build up to a nutritionally complete breakfast by adding some more healthful superfoods, like nut butters or fruits.

If you like oatmeal but you’re getting bored of brown sugar or maple syrup, give savory oatmeal a try. When you first hear it, it sounds a bit odd, but if you top your oatmeal the same way you’d top a rice bowl, you’ll be headed for good things! We recommend trying it with roasted grape tomatoes, feta, a bit of olive oil and a dash of salt.

13: Toast

Another option that can be made of whole grains if you want it to be and it can be portable if you want it to be too! Toast can be served savory or sweet, on its own or as a full breakfast, or it can even be the outside of a tasty breakfast sandwich. Whichever way you choose to butter your toast, there’s a toast with the most just waiting for you to discover it.

Next time you make toast, get a little more adventurous than your usual sandwich bread: sourdough, rye, and pumpernickel will all bring their own strong flavors to contrast with the rich butter—and cinnamon sugar, if you dare!

12: Tea

It’s no secret that we love tea! Tea is full of health benefits and has been used both medicinally and for its delightful flavor for as long as people have known how to dry plants and then put them into water. From green to black to white to oolong, let your tea flag fly when it’s breakfast time—and any other time you want to tea up a cup!

You’ll find black tea available in most restaurants (usually with lemon), but if you want to get far, far too interested in tea, there’s a whole world to explore—literally! Everywhere on earth has its own tea that local cultures are known for. Sampling teas from across the globe is a flavorful way to learn and explore.

11: Berries

Add something sweet to your plate with berries—blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, basically any fruit with “berry” in the name (and also some that don’t)—are full of potent antioxidants, high in fiber, and low in calories. But they’re mostly on our list because they taste so good!

Berries can be added to any breakfast plate without throwing off the flavor profile. Whether it’s blueberries added to French toast or strawberries served on the side with an omelet, there’s no wrong way to serve berries for breakfast and that earns them a place on the list of best breakfast foods of all time.

10: Fresh Fruit

Yes, this all-inclusive term technically contains the previous and following entries on this list, we have a plan and we’re not changing it! Melon, pineapple, apples, pear: have you had any of these fruits with your breakfast lately? If not, we suggest you correct that mistake immediately! Some fruit with breakfast is just the right amount of sweetness to start the day.

If you’re looking for a fun brunch idea, consider a breakfast charcuterie plate! Rather than stacks of rich meats, we recommend choosing one or two breakfast meats to feature and then make up most of the meal with fresh fruits, nuts, and other foods that are often overlooked when it comes to breakfast.

9: Bananas

The A students are pointing out that bananas are technically fresh fruit, and the A+ students are pointing out that bananas are technically berries. The best breakfast fruit of all time is the banana, partly because a banana on its own is a good breakfast if you’re looking for something light and easily portable (it even has its own wrapper!).

Served as they are or sliced and dusted with cinnamon are the two most popular ways of eating bananas at breakfast but consider expanding your horizons. Bananas are so easy to add to breakfast: blended into a smoothie, sliced or mashed and added to oatmeal, yogurt, or batter for breakfast treats!

8: Potatoes

Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a hash, however you serve potatoes for breakfast, they’re going to be the best! Potatoes are full of vitamins, minerals, and fiber to help you avoid the mid-morning temptation of the vending machine. They’re also easy to cook, and easy to batch cook, so you can take care of a ton of the prep work ahead of time and have potatoes for breakfast in no time.

We told you to try oatmeal savory. Now what are we going to do? Tell you to try potatoes sweet? Yes, exactly! A baked sweet potato with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon is a surprisingly cozy breakfast on a chilly fall day. If you want to get really wild, put some marshmallows on top and put it in the air fryer for a minute. You’re welcome!

7: Cheese

Do we even need to explain why cheese is on this list? Okay, fine: it’s gooey, it’s melty, it’s savory and rich, hard cheeses add a savory, pungent flavor that makes eggs even better, soft cheeses add a creamy, rich flavor to baked breakfast treats.

When it comes to new ways to enjoy cheese, we’d like to introduce you to ricotta. Add it to your pancake or waffle batter. Spread ricotta on toast and top with honey. Anything you can do at breakfast with sour cream, ricotta will do it better.

6: Coffee

While some may argue that coffee doesn’t count as food, we’d argue that breakfast doesn’t count as breakfast if there’s no coffee. Coffee contains antioxidants and has some anti-inflammatory effects, but let’s be honest: we’re all here for the caffeine. Luckily, it’s safe for most adults to drink about 3 cups of coffee per day, and we’ll pretend that’s how much we drink!

If you’re looking for ways to get all your coffee with all the flavor and bit less sugar, we suggest taking up the hobby of trying out flavored coffee beans. Remember, the flavor will be subtle, you’ll want to add some sweetener to bring it out.

5: Sausage

While there’s a saying about how it’s made, we don’t want to get into all that! Sausage is a delicious breakfast meat that’s smoky and spicy, making it perfect to add into a dish or to serve on the side. Whether you prefer patties or links, we agree! Sausage has earned its place as one of the best breakfast foods of all time—and its place in our hearts.

Looking for a new way to enjoy sausage and have time to learn a new recipe? Try Scotch eggs! It’s a boiled egg wrapped in sausage meat, then coated in breadcrumbs and baked or deep-fried. The trick is boiling the eggs until they’re only soft boiled so they don’t overcook when cooking the sausage to a safe temp.

4: Eggs

Eggs are the best! Well, not the best of the best but forth best is still better than all the breakfast foods that didn’t even make this list. (We’re looking at you, bran flakes! Sure, you’re tasty, but you’re no eggs!) Whether you serve them scrambled, fried, boiled, poached, folded up into an omelet or mixed into a batter to become a breakfast treat, eggs can’t be beat! (Yes, the dad joke was intended. No, we will not apologize.)

When it comes to eggs, you probably have your favorite way to eat them, and we support you in that! We also support you trying out new things and growing as a person. In this case, we’re talking about learning a new way to make eggs. Just pick a way to make eggs that you haven’t mastered yet and spend a weekend learning to make the perfect eggs.

2/3 Tie: Waffles and Pancakes

When it comes to waffles and pancakes, we were able to agree that they should be in the top three, but we couldn’t agree on a formal ranking! We’ve gone on record before preferring one over the other, but it’s all in good fun. Since our preference changes depending on the day, we’re not comfortable making a definitive ranking on such a definitive list.

If you want to up your pancake game, make the pancakes after you make the bacon. Browning your pancakes in bacon grease will add a smoky, savory, salty, bacon-y flavor to your flapjacks. Want better waffles? Add some mix-ins to your batter! Anything from chopped nuts to berries to crumbled breakfast meats is fair game for waffle-ception! Leftover Halloween candy? We dare you.

1: Bacon

Was there ever any doubt which breakfast food would top our list? Bacon is the best food to turn two fried eggs into a smiley face, it can be served at any meal without ever being out of place, and when it comes to the best breakfast food of all time, it honestly wasn’t much of a race.

The real trick to cooking the best bacon? Keep it moving! Once the bacon starts sizzling, don’t let it rest for too long. Flip it over and over to make sure it’s evenly cooked and crisped to your liking. (If you don’t have a pair of kitchen tongs yet, get that sorted out immediately! They’re the best way to make the best bacon.

Come Visit Kate’s Kitchen to Have the Best of the Best for Breakfast!

If our list of the best breakfast foods of all time has got you hankering for your usual or wanting to expand your flavor horizons, we invite you to come visit the family at Kate’s Kitchen for one of our delicious breakfast options!

When you’re looking for a way to pack the most best breakfast foods into one breakfast, we suggest our Breakfast Sandwich. Don’t be misled by the name, you won’t find this breakfast sandwich in any drive-thru: we sandwich two fluffy scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon or ham, and melted cheese onto a grilled croissant. Served with seasonal fruit and potatoes, that takes its Best Breakfast Food count up to an unbelievable five best breakfast foods all in one breakfast!

Take a look at our breakfast menu!

Give us a call if you would like to place a to-go order!

Kate’s Kitchen… (816) 436-7200

Ronnie’s Restaurant… (913) 831-8600