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Do you remember when you were a kid, learning about the food pyramid in school, and being told the importance of starting your day with a balanced breakfast?  Then, we all became adults and a balanced breakfast started to mean getting to work on time while eating the contents of last night’s Chinese takeout, or grabbing a cookie off the counter, because coffee became more of a priority in the AM than a nutritious meal. 

Yeah.  About that.

I’m totally guilty of those, “Do I really need to eat?” mornings.  Or even mornings when I’m digging out last night’s leftovers just so I don’t pass out before lunch.  Even working from home, there are just those mornings when I roll out of bed and am already engrossed in my day.  I don’t know about you, but my body definitely suffers those days.  Sure, it seems all well and good in the AM, but by 2 or 3:00, watch out!  The afternoon sluggishness takes over.  Bye-bye motivation!

So maybe there’s something to that whole “balanced breakfast” thing after all.  Huh?  I mean, think about it. You never see a cereal commercial with just a bowl of cereal pictured. There’s always fresh fruit and a glass of milk or orange juice pictured alongside it.  Gotta get those food groups in!  That’s why I love quinoa bowls so much!  I like cooking up a batch of quinoa at the beginning of the week to keep in the fridge and add into breakfast bowls or salads.  So easy!

Recently, I decided to watch my carb intake again (yeah, yeah, I know).  I discovered how easy it was to make homemade bagels with just flour, baking powder, and Greek yogurt and got hooked!  My everything bagel habit had to go!  So instead, I used Trader Joe’s awesome “Everything but the Bagel” seasoning to make a breakfast quinoa bowl taste sorta-kinda like a deconstructed bagel sandwich.  Or at least trick my mind into thinking I was eating one.

That’s what I love about quinoa bowls.  You can load them up with all kinds of wholesome ingredients, but if you season them right, you’ll never get bored with breakfast!  It’s kind of like how I am with salad.  I can’t just eat lettuce and dressing.  I need to build it up into something that will excite my taste buds.  It’s the same thing with a quinoa bowl!  The more you add to it, the better it will be!  It also doesn’t hurt to eat it out of a really cool bowl!

But yeah, that everything seasoning is where it’s at and this quinoa bowl is all kinds of awesome!  Eggs, bacon, everything seasoned quinoa – what’s not to love? I also really love blistered tomatoes. Just cook them with a little olive oil until they burst. Then sprinkle them with some sea salt. So good! 

I’m really into alfalfa sprouts at the moment, too.  They’re great on salads, sandwiches, and really good with eggs.  You could always add spinach or kale instead of alfalfa sprouts. Just make sure you get that wholesome balance of protein, grains, and veggies in your bowl. 

Prep your ingredients beforehand so you can easily throw your bowl together in the morning before you head out the door! It might not be an everything bagel, but it’ll taste just as good, if not better!  Don’t have a Trader Joe’s nearby?  You can make your own everything seasoning with this recipe!

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If you liked this quinoa bowl recipe, you might enjoy these as well:

• Apple Pecan Quinoa Breakfast Bowl
• Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Buddha Bowl
• Greek Goddess Buddha Bowl

This post has been sponsored by Folgers Coffee. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Like most adults, my day doesn’t begin without a cup of coffee.  Nothing says “good morning” like the sound and smell of coffee brewing.  That first sip is comforting and reassures me that I can tackle the day ahead of me.  Of course, some days require that second afternoon cup. Whether it’s a dip in energy or just handling my business as a girl boss, I want that jolt of caffeine to keep me going and I want it fast!  Thankfully, Folgers® K-Cup® Pods make it easy and convenient to get a great tasting cup of coffee whenever I want it!  

I’m a traditional kind of girl and I like planning each day over a cup of coffee.  Folgers is a brand that also believes in traditions and has since 1850!  I basically start my morning the same way every single day – over coffee and breakfast while checking my email.  We all know the importance of starting the day with a wholesome breakfast.  It sustains us, keeps us satisfied, and just like coffee, helps us get through our day.  But what’s better than breakfast, I ask?  Dessert!

Ask me what my all-time favorite dessert is and I’ll tell you, “tiramisu.”  My love for this dessert started when I was younger.  Growing up, I lived down the street from Italian neighbors.  I will never forget having them deliver a homemade tiramisu to our house.  It was amazing!  Tiramisu has everything I love all wrapped up in one delicious dessert.  I mean, you can’t go wrong with ladyfinger cookies that are soaked in coffee, layered with a sweet mascarpone cheese mixture, and dusted with cocoa.  Every single bite is heavenly!

Years ago, I spent a day in New York City with some friends and their family. We ended our day at a restaurant in Little Italy. I couldn’t tell you what I ordered for dinner, but I definitely ordered tiramisu for dessert! The waiter asked me if I knew what “tiramisu” meant in Italian. I didn’t.  So he proceeded to tell me something along the lines of, “come and get me.”  Makes perfect sense to me.  It’s a tempting little dessert that lures me in every time it’s on the menu!

Despite my love for tiramisu, I’ve never attempted to make it at home.  Then I got the idea to make it for breakfast in the form of a parfait.  What a better way to start the day than with dessert for breakfast?  Am I right?

So I gathered up ingredients from ShopRite to make Tiramisu Breakfast Parfaits. The first thing I did was brew a cup of coffee using Folgers K-Cup coffee.  Their Morning Cafe Blend is a light roast that doesn’t overpower the other flavors in the parfait.  I used 1/4 cup of coffee in a Greek yogurt mixture made with Neufchatel cheese and vanilla.  Then, I enjoyed the rest with a splash of creamer!

The coffee infused yogurt mixture is a lighter alternative to the traditional mascarpone cheese used in tiramisu.  It still adds that creamy texture you would enjoy in the Italian dessert.  Instead of sugar, I used a natural sweetener to sweeten my yogurt mixture.  You could certainly use sugar, if desired, since it’s such a small amount.

Traditional tiramisu is made with coffee-soaked ladyfingers and cocoa. But since this is a breakfast version, I decided use dark chocolate granola instead.  I layered the parfait with the yogurt mixture, granola, and repeated until I was left with yogurt on top.  Then, like tiramisu, I dusted the top with cocoa powder.

While this isn’t going to taste exactly like tiramisu, I thought it came pretty close for a breakfast parfait.  If you let the parfaits chill in the fridge for a little bit before serving, they get even better!  The yogurt mixture thickens and the flavors really come together.  It’s scrape-the-bottom delicious!

There’s a perfect blend of flavors, too.  The coffee infuses the yogurt mixture with just enough flavor to balance out the dark chocolate granola and dusting of cocoa.  There’s also a perfect balance of textures with the creaminess of the yogurt mixture and the crunch of the granola.

This recipe makes one of my absolute favorite desserts suitable to start the morning.  Who wouldn’t want to start the day with dessert for breakfast?  Dessert for breakfast parfaits might just become a new morning tradition for me.  How will Folgers inspire your morning rituals?

Head to a ShopRite store near you to purchase Folgers K-Cup varieties and look for a $1-off digital coupon available with your ShopRite Price Plus® club card. Folgers K-Cups can be found where coffee and tea is sold.  

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What’s your favorite dessert for breakfast recipe?

This post may contain affiliate links. Making a purchase through one of these links helps support this blog. “Power Plates” was provided to me through Blogging for Books in exchange for this review. All opinions are my own.

OMG!  It’s another vegan recipe day!  What is happening?  I’ll tell you what’s happening.  So, I discovered a vegan cookbook called Power Plates and I would recommend it to even the meatiest of eaters.  There’s so many gorgeous and colorful food photos in this cookbook.  I was flagging recipes to make left and right (with adorable bacon strip page flags, but we’re not going to talk about that right now)!  So I decided to start with a breakfast recipe.  That seemed easy enough and not too scary.  I mean, you probably start your day with a meatless breakfast anyway.  Right?

Plus, breakfast tostadas are kind of like flat tacos.  And who doesn’t love tacos?  Just like tacos, tostadas start with a crunchy tortilla.  The topping possibilities are basically endless for tostadas.  They’re usually topped with beans, cheese, a mix of veggies, and a protein like chopped chicken or beef.  But for this tostada, we’re cleaning it up!  Guys, hold on tight because we’re taking away the dairy and you can say “adios” to adding any kind of meat.

This is one of those recipes that is perfect for when I buy way too much at the farmer’s market.  Produce is beyond cheap at farmer’s markets, so I usually load up and stuff my fridge with fresh veggies.  Then, some of it starts to spoil before I get a chance to use it.  Not anymore, my friends.  Breakfast tostadas for life! Here’s a tip from me to you – prep those veggies once you get home from the market.  Wash, chop, and store them in airtight containers.  It makes adding them to dishes that much easier!  

Of course, some foods you’ll have to wait to prep.  I mean, it’s so true about avocados.  If you blink, they can go from unripened to over-ripened in an instant!  So top your tostada with a nice, ripened, sliced avocado.  Or if you’re not a big beans for breakfast person, mash it up and spread it on your toasted tortilla instead!  There.  I just saved a helpless avocado from a life destined to end in a trashcan.

But seriously, this is a super easy recipe that won’t take up a lot of time in the morning to make.  Toast a tortilla, top it with beans, chopped veggies, a squeeze of lime juice, and load it up with Cholula (or your favorite hot sauce, but Cholula is pretty OG in this house).

Most people probably think that vegan food is boring and bland without meat and dairy.  But just like any dish you make, if you season it correctly, it’ll taste pretty good.  It’s really not a big, mind-blowing cooking secret. I mean, I just made vegan cookie butter with five ingredients (one being water) and my jar of cookie butter was finished in less than a week!

So if you’re looking to consume less meat in your diet or go vegan, Power Plates will definitely give you some tasty recipe inspiration.  In fact, I can’t wait to make the Guacamole Quinoa Salad in this cookbook as a wholesome vegan lunch option!

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What’s your favorite meatless breakfast dish?