Did you know that breakfast, as we know it, didn’t exist for large parts of our history? That’s right. No bacon and eggs. No poptarts. No fruit loops. For centuries. 

During the Roman era, it was considered gluttony is you ate more than one meal a day. (I can’t even imagine what they would say about us crazy Americans!) 

During the Middle ages, which was ruled by a monastic lifestyle, there was no food before mass and meat could only be eaten on half of the days of a year. (Better hope mass was early!)

Around the 17^th century, so the 1600’s, breakfast started appearing among the wealthy in England. Some houses even had breakfast rooms added to their house. I guess that’s where we get the breakfast nook or kitchen eating area we still see in houses. 

In the 19^th century in England, with the popularity of hunting parties among the aristocrats, breakfast foods got a big boost. Sometimes tables would seat up to twenty-four at a time for breakfast.

Then came the Industrial revolution and more and more people headed out the door to work, feeling like they needed to have fuel for the day. SO, by the 20’s and the 30’s, governments were promoting breakfast as the most important meal of the day, then came WWII and breakfast foods were hard to come by so another slow down. 

By 1950’s, inventions like toasters, sliced bread, and cereal were on the market. Thus—-we have breakfast as we now know it. 

“Now, where did cereal come from?” you might ask. It’s hard to believe people have been eating a form of cereal since 1890. What? 1890!! That’s crazy, but yes, that’s when a Mr. Kellogg decided the root of people’s digestive problems was eating a large breakfast, so he created the first cereal. And the rest is cereal history. (Seriously, are you a cereal eater? I am.)

Breakfast seems to have come a long way. I love looking at how things are done from one generation to the next. So interesting!

One of my best breakfast hacks is to cook the bacon in the oven. In full disclosure, my husband and I have been pescatarians (fish only eaters) for over 20 years, but I still cook bacon for my family who eat it. And when I do, it’s a lot! It saves so much time and clean it. It’s definitely worth it. 

Here’s how I do it:

1. Cover the bottom of the pan (pan should have a small side on it to catch drips) with foil. 
2. Lay out the bacon in strips. 
3. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Be sure your oven is pre-heated to 400 before put them in. 
4. If you can get the bacon off the foil without breaking the foil, you can just wrap the foil up and throw it away. The pan will barely need cleaning. 

Muffin Tin Eggs—This is the best for anytime you’re in a hurry or are fixing for a crowd and you don’t want to stand over the stove all morning like you work at Waffle House. 

All you need is whatever veggies you want (onion, bell pepper, mushrooms, etc.), cheese, a little milk, salt and pepper. 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Saute the vegetables you want to use. Since you’re making 12 or more, you could do a variety. 

In a large bowl, beat the eggs together (you can count one egg per tin, but if you put a lot of veggies in, you could count 10 eggs per 12 spots). Beat in the milk (you just need a little, probably 2 tablespoons), salt and pepper.

Evenly divide the vegetable mixture into the egg cups. Top each muffin cup with a bit of grated cheddar cheese. Gently pour on the egg mixture into each muffin cup. Be sure it’s not too full that you can’t transfer muffin tins to the oven. (I use the silicone cups because the cleanup is so easy.)

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden and the muffin tin eggs are puffy and cooked through.

The great thing is you can serve immediately or freeze for a quick breakfast later. 

You can find both of these hacks all over the internet, but this might have reminded you of something you’ve been wanting to try.