Avoiding the egg-sistential crisis: a guide to the best student breakfast

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day but, for students, it seems to be the one that’s most disposable. Whether you’re rushing to catch the bus before your 9am, or only managing to drag yourself out of bed at midday after a night out, chances are breakfast isn’t the first thing on your mind. As a breakfast-lover, I’ve just never understood that, so I suppose this is my attempt to win some people over.

For me, the go-to when I have to be on campus early in the morning is always granola, yoghurt and a banana. It’s simple, quick and easy, and is still a good option if you’re trying to be healthy. As long as you buy a granola that isn’t packed full of sugar, and go for something like Greek yoghurt (which has less fat than other options), it’s a pretty good meal. I always try to pay attention to the recommended serving sizes, which tend to be small for granola (typically about 35g), but if you bulk it out with some fruit, you’ll find that you stay full for a while.

Being an arts student with a scarily small number of contact hours, I only have one or two early starts a week and can’t get through a whole tub of yoghurt before it goes off, so in that case I’d recommend instead buying a multipack of individual yoghurts so you’re not throwing anything out. If you’re the sort of person that’s always in a rush for their 9am, or just doesn’t want to eat that early in the morning, you can pick up a to-go cup like this one, so that you can take a filling breakfast onto campus with you for a bit later in the day.

For those of you who are suffering from a hangover and want something indulgent without having to put the effort in to cook, frozen pastries are a life-saver

Admittedly, that’s probably a bit too much hassle and planning for some people, so in that case, cereal bars are probably the way to go. They can be packed full of sugar, but if you try to find some that are decently healthy, the best thing to do is just keep a few in your bag for when you find yourself feeling hungry.

If you like a filling breakfast, but cereal isn’t really your thing, I’d recommend bagels. While they can actually be surprisingly unhealthy, bagel thins are much better for you (despite being a bit more expensive) and I’d recommend just buying a pack and freezing them so you don’t have to worry about using them all at once – you can simply use the defrost setting on your toaster or take one out the night before to ensure their ready for the next morning. My personal favourite way to eat a bagel is, in the New York tradition, with cream cheese, but you could also go for cheese slices or, if you want something a bit more filling, scrambled eggs.

For those of you who are suffering from a hangover and want something indulgent without having to put the effort in to cook, frozen pastries are a life-saver. You can buy big bags of frozen croissants, pain au chocolat or other assorted pastries that take about 20 minutes in the oven with no food prep necessary.

But when you’ve got a bit more time on your hands an omelette or a full English is that way to go. Omelettes are brilliant for using up, as you can just throw in any assorted vegetables, and you can make a full English as high or low maintenance as you like. If you just want the basics, you can just stick some frozen hash browns and sausages in the oven while you fry an egg, but there are other ways to dress it up a bit. For those who are health-conscious or vegetarian, you can grill mushrooms, peppers or tomatoes or, if you’d really rather be indulgent, I’d highly recommend this recipe for garlic spinach – it’s not healthy in the slightest, but tastes incredible.

So whether you’re a fully-fledged member of the Breakfast Club, or thinking about eating that early in the morning makes you want to have an egg-sistential crisis, I hope you’ve found my breakfast waffle useful

Finally, a fun way to do breakfast is to organise a brunch with your friends. This is a great option for the weekend and is a really nice way to socialise without going out and getting wasted (although it also makes a great option for when your friends are all hungover). Something like pancakes are really easy to make using a simple 3:2:1 ratio – 300ml of milk, two eggs and 100g of flour – and you can always keep leftover batter in the fridge for the next day. But if you’re more of a cooking person than a baking person, I’d recommend huevos rancheros. It’s easy to make a big batch for lots of people, and as long as you’ve got eggs, tinned tomatoes, peppers and onions you can’t really go wrong.

So whether you’re a fully-fledged member of the Breakfast Club, or thinking about eating that early in the morning makes you want to have an egg-sistential crisis, I hope you’ve found my breakfast waffle useful.