Make Your Best Breakfast Yet. Stock Up Your Pantry (With Our Breakfast Grocery Store Checklist).

Make your best breakfast yet with our grocery store checklist.

Breakfast is the meal of champions. It fuels your body and starts your day off right. Unfortunately, too many people claim they don't have time for that early bite to eat. The bright side of being stuck at home right now is that we have a little more time to do things like cook, but what happens when life gets busy again?

To help make life easier, I've compiled a list of ingredients that everyone should have in their refrigerator or pantry to make a great breakfast. I've also highlighted what each ingredient does and how I use them. No matter how big or how small, breakfast can be amazing, but you have to be prepared. We've also included a BREAKFAST GROCERY STORE CHECKLIST for you to print out and take with you the next time you go shopping and YOUR CHOICE OF A SWEET OR SAVORY BREAKFAST RECIPE using some of the ingredients we list here. Going to the store unprepared is the easiest way to waste time, money and food, and we don't want you to do that.

Flour

Flour is like the binding agent to every recipe. It adds the gooey to your recipe when you combine it with fats and liquids.

How to Use: Use measuring scoops and spoons on dry ingredients. Unless your recipe calls for it, flatten your measurement. Using heaping scoops of flour is the quickest way for a dry tasting dish. Use the back of a knife to scrape over your flour-filled measuring cup to make it even with the rim. I also like to sift the flour because it make it a little more fine, which just mixes better to me.

Sugar

Sugar is what makes your recipe sweet.

How to Use: Use measuring scoops and spoons on dry ingredients. I like to add rounded scoops to my recipes, based on what measurement the recipe calls for. In my opinion, the sweeter, the better.

Baking Powder

Using baking powder gives your recipe a fluffy, cloud-like consistency.

How to Use: Use measuring scoops and spoons on dry ingredients. I tend to give myself a slightly more rounded scoop when measuring out baking powder. I have accidentally put too much baking powder in a recipe and it makes it taste different, so don't heap it into your mix. Instead, measure it with just a little lift over flat.

Salt

Believe it or not, salt adds flavor to any recipe. Finer grains blend better with your sweet recipes than coarser versions.

How to Use: Even if a recipe gives a measurement, I almost always just add a dash. My version of a 'dash' is the amount of salt I can pinch together with two fingers. The last thing you want to do is have something that's too salty to eat. And if you mix everything up and find that it's still a little bland, add a little more.

Butter

Butter adds flavor to your recipe. It gives you that melt in your mouth taste.

How to Use: Use it to spread on your toast, pancakes, biscuits, or anything else that might needs a pat of it. You can also use a little butter to give your pans a non-stick coating. If a recipe calls for using oil, I'll sometimes melt butter and use it instead (especially if I'm out of oil. Your butter stick should have pre-marked measurements for easy use. Just cut according to how much you need.

Oil

Oil adds flavor to your recipes but because it is liquid at its core, it increases the recipe's gooey factor.

How to Use: Use measuring spoons and cups when measuring liquids. I use fresh veggie oil on all my breakfast recipes. I'm making that distinction because I'm of the generation that will save and reuse oil in a heartbeat. But it's not fun when your pancakes taste like chicken, so please use new oil. If you use oil instead of butter, consider adding a small bit of butter flavoring to infuse a buttery taste to your recipe. A small cap full will do.

Vanilla Extract and Butter Flavoring

Extracts and flavoring add subtle hints of flavor to your recipe. Vanilla and butter are common flavors used in your sweet recipes.

How to Use: Use measuring spoons and cups when measuring liquids. Measure just as the recipe calls for. There's no need to add extra!

Milk

Milk is the glue that holds everything together. This is probably the most liquid you'll use in your recipe.

How to Use: Use measuring spoons and cups when measuring liquids. Measure just what the recipe calls for, making sure to take the measurement from a flat surface.

Other breakfast goods you might want to include on your grocery list includes meats like sausage bacon, ham or turkey, veggies like potatoes, bell peppers, onions and mushrooms, fruits, syrups and other sweet condiments, and bread (or tortillas).

You can also make substitutions based on your dietary needs. I've used egg substitutes, lactose-free condensed milk, and turkey bacon in some of my recipes and they've still tasted good. Our BREAKFAST GROCERY STORE CHECKLIST has a space directly on the form where you can list your substitutions.

So, what's the first meal you're making now that you are prepared to cook breakfast? Need breakfast inspiration? When you request your BREAKFAST GROCERY STORE CHECKLIST, we'll also give you one of our tried and true BREAKFAST RECIPES. Just let us know if you want a recipe for a sweet breakfast, or if you want something more savory. You can also try my mom's cinnamon toast (when you do, let us know what you think)!

Here's to great, sustainable cooking!