How do I make a decent breakfast when I have no time?

Breakfast is skipped because of time pressure rather than lack of interest. Moving the preparation to the previous evening removes the constraint entirely, and it is where every practical solution ends up.

What you'll need

• Jars or containers (optional)
• Fridge space (optional)

Step by step

1. Make overnight oats.Oats, milk or yoghurt, and something for flavour, left in the fridge overnight. Two minutes of preparation and it is ready to eat cold.
2. Boil a batch of eggs at the weekend.They keep a week in the fridge in their shells. A boiled egg with toast is a genuine breakfast that takes thirty seconds to assemble.
3. Prepare a fruit bowl in advance.Chopped and stored, so it takes no decision or preparation. Whole fruit is easy too, and needs nothing.
4. Batch-make something you can grab.Frittata portions, breakfast muffins, or a tray bake. Made once, eaten across several days.
5. Keep something proper for a five-minute option.Eggs on toast, yoghurt with fruit and nuts, or beans on toast. All take five minutes and are considerably better than nothing.
6. Include protein.Eggs, yoghurt, nuts, beans. A carbohydrate-only breakfast leaves most people hungry within a couple of hours, which is why mid-morning snacking happens.
7. Set it out the night before.Bowl, spoon, the packet on the counter. It sounds trivial and it measurably increases whether it happens.
8. Accept that some people do not want breakfast.That is fine. The important thing is not skipping it by accident and then eating badly at eleven.

Tips

• Frozen fruit straight into yoghurt or porridge needs no preparation and thaws while you eat.
• Porridge in the microwave takes three minutes and is a genuinely good breakfast. Made with milk rather than water it is considerably better.
• If mornings are the constraint, eating breakfast at work or after the school run is a legitimate solution rather than a compromise.

Common mistakes

• Planning a breakfast that requires cooking on a weekday morning — Time pressure means it does not happen. Preparation the night before is what makes breakfast realistic.
• Eating only refined carbohydrate — Toast or sweet cereal alone leaves most people hungry within a couple of hours. Adding protein changes that noticeably.
• Buying breakfast on the way in every day — It is expensive over a year and usually worse than what five minutes of evening preparation would produce.

Questions people ask