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I love breakfast and enjoying breakfast foods any time of the day, so for this week’s Eat Voraciously newsletter (sign up here) I decided to share four classic breakfast recipes that will make dinnertime that much more enjoyable.
Here’s something else I like about the concept of eating breakfast instead of dinner.
If you’re feeling a bit stale with dinner, having breakfast for dinner is a fun way to change things up. For parents and guardians, or those who cook for kids regularly, having breakfast for dinner is a great way to get kids excited. If you don’t want to eat much meat, having breakfast for dinner is an easy way to create a hearty meal that doesn’t rely on meat. Sure, bacon, sausage, ham, smoked fish, etc. are great for breakfast, but meat isn’t as central to morning meals as it is for dinner. If you’re trying to keep your grocery bill down, having breakfast for dinner mostly uses less expensive ingredients than many of the foods typically associated with dinner (see meat and fish above).
This week’s recipes included Mushroom and Asparagus Hash, Banana Pancakes, and Tex-Mex Migas. In the final installment of this series, we present a recipe for a frittata stuffed with kale, leeks, and feta cheese. Ideal for dinner or breakfast, but of course you can have it any time…even in the morning! Serve with hash browns, biscuits, toast, sautéed veggies, salad, fruit, or any other side dish that goes well with eggs.
Get the recipe: Kale, Leek and Feta Frittata
This recipe is truly a road map: you can use any veggie in place of the kale, any spring onion in place of the scallions, any cheese in place of the feta (more ideas in the substitutions list below the recipe).
This week, I’ve been thinking about my memories of breakfast. Two stand out in particular: When I was a kid at summer camp, my counselor said, “I want to go to bed early and wake up and eat breakfast.” It’s a moment that’s stuck with me for years. I remember her unashamed enthusiasm when I was super excited about a meal I was looking forward to. I love food because the more I look forward to it, the more satisfying it is.
My other breakfast memory isn’t a specific moment, but a vague memory of my first morning with Grace. We’ve been married for over 10 years, and when we first got married, we were so excited and wanted to spend more time together. Those mornings included long days with piles of pancakes and a big breakfast board piled high with fruit, toast, cheese, jam and honey. I actually wrote a piece for The Washington Post about the pancakes Grace always made for us (we’re babies in the picture!) and how her diagnosis of type 1 diabetes as adults has slightly changed the way we cook and eat together and care for each other.
I wrote that article in 2018, just three years after Grace was diagnosed. It’s been another six years since then, and I have to say we’re both a lot more relaxed about what and how we eat. We continue to try to trust our bodies more and be as kind to them as possible. Overall, we’re being more flexible and proactive with our meals at home. We both eat what we want, when we want. And yes, we love breakfast, no matter what time of day we have it, but especially for dinner.
Get the recipe: Kale, Leek and Feta Frittata