Every morning for breakfast, I used to eat cereal in a box with a plastic liner. I loved Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs, Honey Nut Cheerios, Frosted Mini Wheats and Honey Bunches of Oats. Actually, I still love all these cereals, and I would love it if I could eat them every morning for breakfast. But unfortunately, there are several issues with cereal in boxes. First, there’s the plastic problem. Cereal in a box comes with a plastic liner. Second, there’s the fact that the contents of the box aren’t really…well, food. The stuff in the box, delicious as it is, contains strange things that a normal person would never cook with themselves. The sugar content of cereal is also extremely high. Another thing that I find extremely disturbing is that most of these cereals are marketed toward small children. (Ever notice that the really unhealthy ones in really colorful boxes are on the lower shelves in the grocery store?)

For those reasons, cereal is mostly out. Occasionally I still eat it but only stuff in bulk that doesn’t have anything weird in it. Here are my top suggestions for plastic-free breakfasts:

• Oatmeal made from oats bought in bulk. Rolled oats cook more quickly, but steel cut oats are more nutritious and have a chewier texture when cooked.
• Certain cereals in bulk. But check the ingredients list to make sure there isn’t anything weird in them. My little sister eats cornflakes from the bulk bin at Whole Foods. The only ingredients are corn and fruit juice.
• Homemade granola with almond milk or soy milk.
• Homemade waffles and pancakes made with homemade buttermilk.
• Almond rice porridge, one of my favorites.
• Toast, scrambled eggs and sausages. Bring your own container to the meat counter to buy the sausages. For toast, try this oat and raisin bread.
• Fresh seasonal fruit with homemade yogurt.
• Make your own smoothies instead of buying them in those little plastic bottles. The store-bought ones, aside from being in plastic bottles, are filled with additives and lots of sugar. Instead of buying frozen fruit for smoothies in plastic bags, I cut up fresh fruits and freeze them in glass jars. Another beverage I like to drink in the morning is orange juice with buttermilk.
• Homemade muffins. Try my pumpkin walnut date muffins or maple pumpkin muffins.
  

If you have any more suggestions, leave them in the comments.