
Everyone loves breakfast for dinner. That’s old news. And — at least according to food commercials shown during popular cartoons — children love novelty. (Purple ketchup? Really?) And we all want them to eat more vegetables. Dinner for breakfast is the perfect solution.

My children really don’t love breakfast, and that makes me nervous. Every other day, I read something about how they won’t make it through the day without a healthy, nutritious start. I am terrified one of their teachers will send me a note reading, “A handful of peanuts is not breakfast,” after one of them fails a test. (This fear is not unfounded. Years ago, one son’s preschool teacher strongly suggested I spend the weekend cleaning my car. To be fair, this was after she saw what fell out of it when my son opened the door.)
I’ve always enjoyed dinner for breakfast — and breakfast for dinner, of course. For some reason, I have yet to eat salad as my first meal of the day. Somehow, that seems like crossing a line. But most of our dinner leftovers are perfect after a night’s sleep.
A warm bowl of chicken soup on a cold February morning, last night’s spaghetti sautéed in a pan, or a slice of veggie pizza on whole wheat crust — these are all valid, healthy breakfast options. At least in our house!
Do you ever eat dinner for breakfast? Or — humor me here — do your children ever slip out the door without eating?
Related: The Pleasures of a Breakfast Salad
(Images: Anne Postic)
Martha Concrete Lam...

Leftover pizza(usually cold straight from the fridge) is hands down my favorite breakfast food. Even without a hangover!
Growing up in Hong Kong, a popular dish you would order at cafes and restaurants is elbows pasta in a bowl of chicken broth. You can top it with ham, spam, eggs, vegetables, or even roast pork. When I visited HK last summer I had a bowl of those everyday! Oh nostalgia :)
Similarly, ramen noodles and congee are also popular breakfast items.
I was vacationing in the British Virgin Islands last week. We got enough food for the rental house to last the whole week, with breakfast food pretty much the only stuff to have run out. Luckily for me we went to an Italian restaurant the night before (the last full night we stayed). I had leftover carbonara the next morning for breakfast before getting on the plane. It was great!
I prefer to eat dinner stuff for breakfast. I find breakfast kinda limiting because so much that's out there is sweet items. And I prefer savory to sweet. So some egg fried rice for breakfast sounds better than a danish to me any day.
In Vietnam we eat diner for breakfast and that's the norm. Banh mi (French sandwiches), Pho, rice noddle soup, rice dish, savory sticky rice pastry, congee with salted duck egg name a few. Breakfast portion is just smaller that's all.
I can't wrap my brain around savory items for breakfast in the morning... I need sweet food as my first meal!!! I can have bacon or breakfast sausage, but it's accompanied by pancakes or waffles! I also don't like eggs, which if I did, would be a nice little segue into savory breakfasts. :( I seem to be an odd one out!
I agree! I think the best breakfast for dinner food is frittata!!! I make them all the time!
www.bitesforbabies.com/chorizo-zucchini-and-saffron-frittata/
For many years, my hubs worked 2nd & 3rd shifts...his breakfast was dinner, his dniner was breakfast, and sometimes all his meals were "dinner" meals. Find whatever works for you & go with it.
Left over sesame peanut butter noodles...mmmmm
I frequently a baked potato for breakfast (now that I've finally learned out to do it in the microwave). It gets me through to lunch better than most breakfast meals. I used to love sweets in the morning, but now I crash too soon.
I don't usually do dinner meals as I like to save them for either lunch, or dinner, when I DO have leftovers, which isn't as often as I'd like.
That said, I do enjoy cereal and toast for breakfast most work mornings, or oats at times as it's easy to make and tasty to go along with my coffee.
However on the weekends, it can vary. Eggs if I have them on hand, toast, waffles, pancakes etc, thus does not need to be sweet all the time. I sometimes will have a breakfast like meal for my dinner!
In the end, I need my 3 square meals at minimum most days. That said, I'll end up with breakfast at 6am, but not get to lunch until around noontime due to my work schedule, and am often hungry and need a snack of some sort by 9am many mornings. Eggs, toast, bacon tend to hold better than cereal and toast do.
When I was in middle school if my parents left before I did, I'd make ramen noodles for breakfast. I don't know why the secrecy made them taste better but mmm, those were some good breakfasts.
i'd say i eat dinner for breakfast 2 days out of every 5. soup, especially. NOM.
Not exactly dinner but my go to breakfast lately is half an avocado sliced up on Triscuits, seasoned and topped with halved grape tomatoes. I don't like sweet food in the morning, it doesn't stick somehow.
In Indonesia, it's very common to eat dinner for breakfast. Often it's whatever was served for dinner the night before.
Even after living in USA for many many years, I still feel weird eating cereal or danish for breakfast. I would rather eat a hearty curry stew for breakfast.
I sometimes do breakfast salads...usually heartier greens (kale or spinach), an egg, some onion. I usually toss it all in the egg-cooking pan to warm it up and wilt it a bit. YUM!
I prefer savoury over sweet anyway, so the line between breakfast and dinner is pretty blurry. That said, while I often have eggs, sandwiches, and leftover soups, stews or cooked vegetables in the morning, I can't imagine having salad for breakfast (even though it's often my dinner). I know it's common in many parts of the world but it just doesn't do it for me.
I feel really sick if all I have for breakfast are things like pancakes, donuts or french toast. I need PROTEIN for breakfast! Even my regular breakfasts are hearty things like eggs and refried beans or cottage cheese and toast.
My husband is just the opposite. He feels sick with real food in the morning.
a friend and mine discuss this frequently. people don't get why we'd rather have soup for breakfast than pancakes. i usually wait for my boyfriend to leave the house in the AM to indulge in my habit.