We’ve all heard it. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. The reality is, all meals are important, and what matters most to the 22 million people in the U.S. with food allergies is finding allergy-safe foods that meet dietary needs throughout the day.
Melanie Carver
Chief Mission Officer, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
Typical American breakfasts contain common allergens. Although people can be allergic to any food, the top 9 food allergens are milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soybeans, sesame, fish, and shellfish. This means scrambled eggs, cereal with milk, pancakes, waffles, bagels, granola, muffins, toast, protein bars, donuts, and yogurt are often off the table for people with food allergies.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s (AAFA) food allergy division, Kids with Food Allergies (KFA) provides a collection of nearly 1,500 allergy-friendly Safe Eats® recipes, including 89 breakfast recipes – some of which are featured in this list of allergy-friendly breakfast favorites.
Looking for a grab-and-go choice? Muffins can be a great way to include whole grains and a serving of fruit. Most muffin recipes are flexible: wheat flour can be replaced with other flour mixes like oat, millet, quinoa, rice, and sorghum; egg can be replaced with fruit sauce, vegetable puree (like sweet potato), chia or flax seed goo; cow’s milk can be replaced with water or plant-based milk.
Keeping pancakes on hand also offers a way to get a healthy start to the day, and KFA offers a variety of allergy-friendly recipes. We’ve got milk- and egg-free homestyle pancakes, oat pancakes, pumpkin pancakes, and more.
You can freeze allergy-friendly pancakes, French toast, and waffles, too! Make extra and arrange cooled items in a single layer on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and freeze. Once frozen, then add a square of parchment or waxed paper between stacked pieces to make them easy to separate and store them in an airtight container in the freezer. Pull them out as needed and heat or toast them up.
Another quick go-to? Oatmeal! Our recipe collection features options for overnight oats, oatmeal bars, and oatmeal bars with fruit. Oats offer a whole grain choice and adding fruit to oatmeal or oatmeal bars makes them both yummy and extra nutritious.
Mornings can be hectic, but with some planning and prep, breakfast doesn’t have to be stressful. You can find anything from crepes to breakfast bars and banana bread in the KFA Safe Eats® recipes to keep your family nourished and well-fed without sacrificing flavor and enjoyment: kidswithfoodallergies.org/recipes-diet.
