Cooking for One: Breakfast for Dinner

I will start off with saying that I love breakfast. If all other meals, with the exception of desserts, mac 'n cheese, and mashed potatoes, ceased to exist tomorrow I would be totally cool with it. I could eat breakfast all the time. In fact, I'm eating it for dinner right now as I write this hub. Nine times out of ten if you ask me to cook at the last minute you will get breakfast. Why? Its quick and simple. Not to mention most breakfast foods are very filling and often have a bit of a sweet taste to them.

If you have children making breakfast for dinner is a great way to keep things exciting at dinner time. Its unexpected. Its almost a treat since it is so unusual. Even if you don't have children spicing things up with breakfast for dinner can make a bad day better.

If you have a crock pot you can come home to have your breakfast dinner fully cooked and waiting for you. I have seen many excellent recipes for slow cooker oatmeal with fruits and nuts floating around the internet. I have even seen many recipes for slow cooker breakfast casserole. They all sound so amazing! I will admit that I haven't had the chance to try any out yet, which is why I will not post them here. I have only had my crock pot for a month or so and I haven't had much time to play with it yet. As I'm one person and my small crock pot still yields so much it takes me a little while to get through all the leftovers. I can say that I am really looking forward to coming home from work this winter to breakfast casserole.

I lived off scrambled eggs, bagels, and cereal for breakfast in college. I also lived in a dorm where the only way I had to cook things was a microwave. So, how did I make the scrambled eggs? Easy. In the microwave.

Simple put your eggs (two works best), a little water, and a little milk, and any spices you want in a microwaveable mug. Mix all the ingredients together. Microwave on high for 45 seconds. Stir the mixture. Then microwave it for another 30-45 seconds. Bam! Instant scrambled eggs. You can coat the mug in cooking spray to help with clean up later, but I never did this and never had any problems cleaning my mugs by hand.

Eggs are one of my favorite things to cook. They are fast, full of protein, and they taste so good. I also love that they can be prepared in a variety of ways and taste so different. Some of my preferred ways to cook eggs are:

• Scrambled
• Over Easy
• Over Hard
• Sunny Side Up
• Hard Boiled

I like to spice things up sometimes when I cook eggs. Literally. I typically add freshly crack black pepper to my eggs. But, sometimes that isn't enough for me. I will add some crushed red pepper flakes when I want some things spicier. For fluffier scrambled eggs I add a little milk to the eggs. I will admit, I am sometimes bad and add cheese to my scrambled eggs.

I love these. In all honesty I could live off these. For real. Just take a tortilla, scramble up some eggs with a little milk. Add in some cheese, sausage, and potatoes and you're all set. My dad always liked to put salsa in his, but I'm not always in the mood for spicy first thing in the morning, but for dinner that's another matter entirely. I've always wanted to try adding avocado to my dinner breakfast burrito. I'm sure it would be a great combination.

I love sandwiches. I think its because it's a meal that is portable, and since my life is always on the move I need a food that can keep up with me.

Bagels, English muffins, and toast make great breakfast sandwiches. Just toast up your preferred outer layer, fry up an egg, add some cheese, and meat and you're done. Simple and tasty. I will even make the argument that grilled peanut butter and banana is a breakfast sandwich. After all, it has toast, protein, and a fruit. What's more breakfast than that?

I love pancakes! There, I said it. There are some weeks where I eat them every morning because I made so many on Sunday. Actually, that's my goal most weeks so that I can just pop the leftover pancakes in the microwave as I get ready for work.

If I'm making breakfast for dinner chances are pretty good that pancakes are involved. My go to is pancakes, scrambled eggs, and hash-browns. I will admit that I will make enough pancakes for several days, that way I can have an awesome breakfast for the rest of the week.

My favorite things to add to pancakes are:

• Chocolate Chips
• Pumpkin Spice
• Cinnamon
• Banana
• Blue Berries
• Apple
• Apple Cider

A mix of most of these things can be amazing. A little apple cider with pumpkin spice and chocolate chips is one of my favorite combination. It is surprisingly quite tasty and refreshing.

I recently made pancakes with orange zest and chocolate chips, and they tasted amazing! I, of course, made more than I could eat for one breakfast. So, now I was able to enjoy them a few more times throughout the week.

Smoothies are becoming a very popular breakfast meal. I haven't quite caught on with the craze of eating nothing but a smoothie for breakfast, but I do think they are great with something else. Smoothies are a great way to get fruits and vegetables into your diet. They taste great, are quick to put together, and can be taken with you on the go.