What does breakfast look like at your house on the biggest feast day of the year?
Everybody seems to enjoy their own traditions.
Beth and I grew up in a family where a huge breakfast was served while we watched the Hudson’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. It was one of the few days of the year we were allowed to eat in the living room instead of at the dining table.
The meal of mile-high biscuits or waffles, breakfast meat, and eggs kept us full in anticipation of Thanksgiving dinner, usually served very late afternoon/early evening.
For some other families, Thanksgiving breakfast is a simple meal that is possibly prepared the night before and only needs to be heated up in the morning.
Some families skip breakfast altogether and opt for a late-morning Thanksgiving brunch.
We’ve taken all these differences into account and gathered these breakfast ideas from across the web to make your Thanksgiving as stress-free as possible.
So, let’s get cooking! You’ll be happy to know our list of breakfast ideas considers your time, holiday stress level, plus your pocketbook. We’ve also included hints on how to use efficiencies to help make the holiday morning enjoyable for all – including the cook.
Because everyone serves the main feast at different times, we’re giving you three menu ideas:
1. Breakfast when dinner is served early
2. Breakfast when dinner is served late
3. Breakfast when you and your family are invited out/or dinner is restaurant-served
1. RISE AND SHINE - breakfast when dinner is served early
The name of the game on a day like this is planning, and short-cuts. Hopefully, you have a little help from family and friends. But if you’re ultimately responsible for an early breakfast plus getting the massive Thanksgiving Day feast on the table as early as noon, a strategy is critical.
Here are some serving ideas to satisfy a house full of hungry early risers that leave you with enough energy to keep your focus on the Thanksgiving feast.
One Main Dish
You can keep it simple and still keep it delicious by serving one main dish.
A breakfast casserole comes to mind. Some can be prepared the night before, popped in the refrigerator overnight, and baked in the morning, or baked at night and warmed in the morning.
There are so many recipes for this handy and hearty dish. Make it traditionally with eggs and breakfast meat. Or modify it for those at your breakfast table who adhere to a vegan diet by using veggies, a tofu egg mixture, dairy-free cheese, and vegan sausages.
Another suggestion is making a simple one-dish meal on Thanksgiving morning. This works best if you’re also a morning person. You’ll want to be two steps ahead of the crowd by getting up before everyone else in the house stumbles into the kitchen hungry and ready to eat.
What about an easy shrimp and grits? A baked oatmeal?
You can round out either of these with warm bread (biscuits?) fruit bowls and of course, breakfast beverages.
If you do opt for a baked oatmeal, savory turkey sausage might also be a nice accompaniment.
If you’re not a morning person but you need to feed people in the morning, don’t forget store-bought!
Who says breakfast has to be handmade and home-cooked? Certainly not us! There are wonderful bakeries, delis, cafés, and food emporiums that create fabulous, delicious food for you to pick up or have delivered.
You add the coffee, the cocoa, and the tea, prepare the table by putting all the food on serving dishes (or not!), and call all to the table.
2. BREAKFAST AS BRUNCH – breakfast when dinner is served later
Some of us love this schedule on Thanksgiving.
Breakfast becomes a brunch and dinner is served as late as 7 pm. This is especially nice if you’re cooking for adults only. Maybe you and your partner and a few other couples will be seated for brunch and dinner.
It’s maybe just a few of you but want to put a nice, hearty brunch on the table.
What might be fun and unexpected is a sandwich bar. Sliced meats, cheeses, hearty bread, and rolls. Of course, chips and dips, including chunky hummus with raw veggies are nice. A pan of brownies or sweet loaf bread (like pumpkin loaf, or zucchini bread) along with spreadable cream cheese, finish out this simple but delicious spread.
Or you could do something more traditional like a variety of quiches or frittatas (miniature ones would be cute.) Here’s a wonderful recipe from Ina Garten for a simple, but great frittata. Served with a big green salad, possibly a couple of different soups and you’re good to go.
And of course, because these are adults you wouldn’t want to forget brunch drinks. Here are a few that sound both interesting and delicious.
At TwoWomen we’re dessert people so we have to mention something sweet.
You wouldn’t want to take away from what will be your dramatic dessert after Thanksgiving Dinner, but a little sweet at brunch is never a bad thing. Brownies and cookies, muffins, or iced loaf cakes are a nice touch.
3. You’re invited out for Thanksgiving Dinner/you’re going to a restaurant
No need to plan anything. You’re either invited out for the big day, or a restaurant is doing all the cooking this year. You get to sleep in, take in your first of many seasonal Hallmark movies, and leisurely scroll the web for Black Friday deals.
Lucky you! I’d take advantage of this slow-to-start morning with a wonderful cup of coffee wearing my bathrobe and slippers. Or if I felt like it, I’d keep to my regular schedule and go out for a run/walk. Come back in and make myself a wonderful breakfast.
But if you have a family and still need to cook in the morning, just keep it simple. Granola and fruit, protein smoothies, toast, and peanut butter. Simple meals to keep you full as you dress to go out for the main meal.
If it’s just you on Thanksgiving morning, take advantage of it by keeping it unhurried and relaxed.
The fun part is that when so many others are in a panic trying to fix lumpy gravy or kicking themselves because they forgot the cranberries, you are sailing through your holiday carefree. Sooooo fun for you! Enjoy.
We hope these ideas help you create the Thanksgiving Day of your dreams.
From Beth and me, we’re wishing all of you a Thanksgiving filled with blessings and good memories.
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