Vegan breakfast

At least in cooler weather, one of our favorite breakfasts is old fashioned oatmeal. If you have a microwave, even old fashioned oats take just minutes to cook. You just use water to hydrate and add lots of fruit such as pears or berries or bananas, maybe a little brown sugar or maple syrup and/or some cinnamon. You can add chia sees and or wheat germ if you're so inclined.

First things first: the most stereotypical vegan breakfast is always topped with avocado slices.

My most typical breakfast consists of some kind of spread, or simply olive oil, on toast, with sliced cucumber (tomatoes, too, in season), some kind of sprouts, and whatever greens I have on hand. All garnished with salt and pepper and maybe some seeds like sunflower.

For spreads, my favorite to have on hand is cashew ricotta. This can be made easily by soaking cashews overnight, then draining, rinsing, and pureeing in a food processor with olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, lemon, a few splashes of water, and nutritional yeast if you are in the mood to make it cheesy. Do a whole pound of cashews and keep it to use throughout the week.

Even though I can't eat it anymore, the previous suggestion of tofu scramble is a great way to ease yourself into vegan everyday breakfasts. There is a great recipe in the book Vegan Brunch by Isa Moskowitz. I also like the other suggestion of smoothie, which I often pair with the toast. I usually go with banana, coconut milk, some kind of berry, hemp/chia/flax seeds...maybe spirulina if I'm in the mood. The key is to keep a wide variety in your diet.

Have fun!

Pho is another good one. The Vietnamese eat it for breakfast. Of course, it does involve stock (homemade is preferable although I suppose you could sub store-bought, but you want a good anise flavor in your stock), and there are perhaps too many components for it to be much of a quick breakfast, but it's wholesome and filling.
Beyond that, steel cut oats or whole grain toast with nut butter and honey are my usual breakfast standbys. There's something about honey that staves off hunger.

Wish for the edit button back. I should have you finish filling the bowl--after smashing the miso with a spoon of hot stock, and then add the more of the stock and tofu; maybe sliced mushrooms or rehydradrated wakame.

You eat fish stock, the powdered dashi (fish stock) is available in most Asian markets either in packets or better in jars..about 1 tsp to 1 cup of hot; heat in microwave. And frankly that's what most Japaneese resturants use; unlike chicken/beef stock crystals the dashi crystals are pretty much true to taste of the long form DIY stock.

How about Japaneese breakfast? Miso soup (can be made with veggie stock--and sea weeds) with tofu for protein-- easy to heat up the stock in the microwave and pour a spoon full over miso in a bowl and mash with a fork and finish filling the bowl with tofu cubes, and dehydrated wakame seaweed added at that point. Steamed brown rice with toasted nori crumbles. Pickles--cucumber slices in vinegar made the night before--or for the week. A low acid fruit (if you do the pickles) like banana, apples or melons. And of course Green Tea; sweetened with a simple sugar of 1 to 1 water sugar, heated with sliced ginger and stored in a squeeze bottle for use. (This is also great as a ice tea for a travel cup).

Uncoventional, but I don't eat "breakfast foods" because most are carbs and my body does better low carb. I eat salads with proteins for breakfast. Or hummus and veggies with melba toast.

While I do eat milk and eggs, I don't have them every day. I got tired of shoveling cold cereal into my mouth, and stick to hot cereals now. There are some amazing recipes for 'porridge' type breakfasts on the site, some made in a crockpot so they are ready by morning, or (especially) steel cut oats which can be half cooked at night and left to soak for a final quick finish in the morning.
One atypical (for Americans) breakfast is dal -- http://www.food52.com/recipe/breakfast%20dal -- look for a number of choices.
Very often I have a green drink, made from a powdered mix, with water as the liquid. Of course, adding anything fresh makes it better.... Even when I don't have anything else, I feel satisfied and energized the rest of the morning.
Fresh fruit, muffins (made without the dairy and egg; plenty of recipes) (I just made a version of this:
http://www.food52.com/recipes/197_walnut_bran_muffins -- to eliminate the milk, I would mix 1/3 tahini, which is a calcium source, with 2/3 water). Muffins are very forgiving when you substitute! When you find one you like, you're set for a while.
Like all dietary exclusions, it is hard to see how to fill the empty place in your usual repertoire. Try to look at all the wonderful foods that you can have. You'll end up enjoying the challenge!

My family and I are cutting way back on animal products, too. My favorite quick breakfast is peanut butter and jam on whole wheat toast - lasts me all morning! There are also a whole bunch of whole grains you can cook up with water for a porridge-type deal: oatmeal, buckwheat, millet, etc. - very good with a bit of honey, coconut butter and chopped nuts. I know you said you don't like the milk substitutes, but there are so many of them, some sweetened and some not. If you haven't experimented with them much, you might give them another chance. I usually end up mixing them because the sweet ones are way too sweet for me. Coconut/almond is a wonderful mix!

One of my favorite breakfasts is toast with peanut butter and honey. Also, the Chia Seed Pudding on this website is very good and very filling.

What about a tofu scramble? Typically the recipes are vegan, but you could certainly add some sausage or bacon. http://vegetarian.about.com/od/tofurecipes/tp/best-tofu-scrambles.htm

A very good friend of mine is vegan. She usually has what can only be described a vegetable smoothie for breakfast. She basically gets out her vitamix and deposits part of her CSA box in to it. She swears it is filling and energizing. She prefers kale as the main ingredient. That said, Ihave heard raves about almond milk although I have not tried it.