Today we’re going to be talking all things AIP breakfast recipes! If you’re on the autoimmune protocol diet, often called the AIP Diet for short), you may find that breakfast is one of the hardest meals to create a variety for. I’m going to be sharing great recipes you can rotate through, including an AIP-compliant pancake recipe. By the time you get through all of the ideas, you’re going to be excited to make your daily morning meal.
Breakfast is our first meal of the day (often thought of as the most important meal of the day), and you’ll want to start the day off on the right foot. Choosing the right meal can help avoid a blood sugar spike, and set your day up for success. Whilst most traditional breakfast foods are off of the menu, I promise there are still tons of recipes to choose from.
I can tell you, your local grocery store probably won’t carry pre-made meals that are AIP Paleo compliant. However, they will have many components, including a lot of what’s on my ingredient list further down in this article. Additionally, there are some fantastic online stores that carry a huge range of AIP Paleo ingredients in pre-made foods. Tapping into those will make your life a lot easier.
What Does the Average AIP Diet Breakfast Look Like?
Making dietary changes can be seen as a tough thing, and if you have an autoimmune disease, you may feel there’s an extra pressure to succeed. Here’s what I want to encourage you to do: throw out any ideas you have about what a traditional breakfast looks like. If you’re constantly comparing what you have to what you *think* you should have, there’s a good chance you won’t feel successful in what you’re doing.
When you first start the elimination diet, especially in the first strict elimination phase, your breakfast may be dinner leftovers. This is a great option if you don’t have a lot of time in the mornings, or you’re still testing recipes to see what you like. My favorite way to support this option is to make sure you’re cooking plenty of food at dinner time, and bonus points if you can batch cook and freeze (more on that later).
Many people who follow the Paleo autoimmune protocol like to start their morning routine with a warm cup of bone broth. You may find that this becomes the first thing you do as well, since we know the gut healing benefits of bone broth. Think of it as your morning cup of coffee.
From there, breakfast is honestly what you make of it. There are no hard and fast rules. You don’t have to follow a specific template, unless your medical team has advised you to do so.
A Few Easy Breakfast Recipes and Ideas People Lean Into When First Following an AIP Diet:
- Sweet Potato Bowl (can be customized in so many ways)
- Turkey Breakfast Hash (a simple way to change this up is to use ground pork or ground bison)
- Protein + Vegetable (this is the most popular thing to do, and it’s simple)
- Smoothie + Protein (also another easy and popular way to do and a great way to add more vegetables via the smoothie)
Great AIP Paleo Compliant Ingredients to Keep on Hand
Half the battle when starting a new elimination diet is to have what you need on hand. Here’s a list of basic AIP diet compliant ingredients to keep on hand at all times. It’s not an exhaustive list, but it will get you started. As you explore meal ideas, you’ll get the hang of what you should never be without.
- Bone Broth
- Cassava Flour
- Cauliflower Rice (you can but this in the freezer section these days)
- Coconut Products (Coconut Flour, Coconut Milk, Coconut Oil, Coconut Yogurt)
- Date Products (Dates, Date Sugar, Date Syrup)
- Fresh Vegetables, Including Leafy Greens
- Ground Meat (Keep several types on hand)
- Healthy Fats to Cook With (Olive Oil, Avocado Oil,
- Japanese Yam (sometimes called Japanese Sweet Potato)
- Maple Syrup & Maple Sugar
- Organ Meats (some of the most nutrient dense foods available)
- TigerNut Flour
- Sea Salt and/or Himalayan Pink Salt (make sure you’re using a non-iodized, mineral rich salt)
- Squashes (Butternut Squash, Spaghetti Squash, Zucchini)
- Sweet Potatoes
You’re going to find that a lot of AIP Paleo recipe developers call for coconut. If you can’t have it, the great news is that RAISE is a coconut free website. You’ll find lots of AIP compliant recipes that are also free from coconut.
Get a Pressure Cooker if You Don’t Have One
Many years ago I read about a faster/better way to make bone broth, and it was by using a pressure cooker. Now, a pressure cooker is amazing for cooking meats and soups in a short amount of time. But bone broth? Could it really be done? Yes, yes it absolutely could. I went from cooking my simple bone broth (grass fed/grass finished truly corn free bison bones + my truly corn free water + apple cider vinegar + corn free salt) in 12 hours down to THREE hours. You read that right. AND!! Pressure cooker bison bone broth still produces just as much gelatin/wobble and gut healing properties.
You can also use your pressure cooker for easily and quickly preparing a range of meats. I like to do this once a week and have a protein to pull from (and even snack on). You can also make soup in your pressure cooker if that’s your jam.
My Best Tips for Success on the AIP Paleo Diet
Meal Prep Like Your Life Depends on It
Without a weekly time to shop and meal prep, I think I would have lost my mind when feeding my kids. It may seem like no big deal, but think of it this way: When you get home from work, the last thing you want to do is stand and chop vegetables.
You’ll need to determine a work flow that suits your needs. For me, I’d plan on Friday, have groceries delivered Saturday, then meal prep Sunday morning. Keep in mind, there are different levels of prep. In my case, I’d get all of the fresh produce chopped/diced/peeled and it would be ready to cook. If meat needed to be put thru the grinder, one of the kids got on it. If I was making fresh juice for the week (or bone broth), I’d have that going in the background.
By putting in a couple of hours on Sundays, each meal for the rest of the week was SO much easier to make. Soooooooooooooo much easier.
Create an AIP Meal Plan That Sounds Good to YOU
It is SO easy to get caught up in the rules and buzz that goes on with special elimination diets such as the AIP diet. Now, I’m not suggesting that you eat the wrong foods on the diet, rather, make a plan that you not only find delicious, but is also sustainable for your current situation. When your plan is unreasonable, you’ll most likely quit the diet. Make sure you set yourself up for success, and don’t feel like you have to follow something you read or saw online. Do what’s best for you.
Test AIP Recipes, Then Batch Cook
One of the biggest challenges, especially if you’re only one person following the AIP Paleo diet in your home is having the time to cook lots of small meals for one. The solution is to cook a full batch or double batch of recipes that you love, then freeze leftovers in individual portions. This allows you to have easier meals in the future. Your freezer stash can be used for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
The key elements is to make sure the meals are freezer friendly AND that you enjoy the recipe. Take your time to find recipes that excite you and try different things in your kitchen. If you have a freezer full of food you don’t like, that’s just a waste of of your time, energy, and money. RAISE has the Advanced Recipe Search where you can plug in AIP diet and freezer friendly to get some ideas on what to make. Whilst every food can be frozen, not all foods thaw well, so be sure to keep that in mind when batch cooking.
AIP Breakfast Ideas Ready in Under 30 Minutes
We all have busy mornings, and just because you’re following the AIP lifestyle doesn’t make you immune. Here are four recipes and ideas to rotate through each week. The smoothie has a huge range of potential, as you can swap ingredients each time you make it. On the salad, you can create variety by using a different protein each time.
- Easy AIP Sweet Potato Hash Browns (use a traditional potato-based recipe and swap for shredded sweet potato or Japanese yam)
- Sweet Potato Toast (top with a spread and sprinkle such as tiger nut butter + cinnamon)
- Cranberry Chicken Salad Recipe
- Lemon Blueberry Smoothie Recipe
 |
 |
Autoimmune Paleo Recipes You’ll Love for Breakfast
- AIP Paleo Diet Breakfast Hash
- Homemade Breakfast Sausage Recipe
- AIP Paleo French Toast Recipe
- Fluffy Grain Free Pancakes Recipe
 |
 |
 |
Amazing AIP Breakfasts That Are Also Vegan
- Tiger Nut Muffins (you can add homemade pumpkin spice to these to change up the flavour profile)
- AIP Pancakes Recipe
- Grain Free Strawberry Muffins Recipe
- Corn Free Avocado Porridge Recipe
 |
 |
 |
 |
Delicious AIP Breakfast Ideas
AIP Breakfast Bowl
Start with a base of cauliflower rice, Japanese sweet potato, or leafy greens. Add a well seasoned ground meat of your choice (a blend with organ meats adds extra nutrition). Pair those with steamed or roasted vegetables. Top with something a little bit crunchy if you can. This is a basic formula that you can use to build a nourishing bowl as often as you’d like. If you’re a sauce fan, and can have coconut, you can make an amazing creamy coconut sauce to drizzle on top of your bowl.
Meatballs + Steamed/Roasted Vegetables
Whilst this is not a traditional breakfast food, it sure is an easy one. Meatballs can be made in a huge range of flavours, cooked in large batches, and frozen. Vegetables can be purchased frozen. Place both on a sheet pan to heat whilst you go through your morning routine. Easy, right? Breakfast is ready when you are.
Smoothie + Sweet Potato Fries
My kids LOVED when I’d make them a smoothie and baked fries on Friday mornings. If you find yourself making oven fries often, invest in a commercial wall-mounted fry cutter (check my Amazon Shop to see which one I use). And get the regular and shoestring blade. You won’t regret it. The commercial cutter makes your life a million times easier and fries are ready to be cooked in mere minutes. Your cutter can also be used for other vegetables.
For variety, you can change up the flavour of your smoothie each time, but also use different seasonings on your fries as well. You could make maple sweet potato fries, Italian Japanese sweet potato fries, and so on.
Oven Baked Fish + Vegetables
Another non-traditional breakfast food, but still a great way to start your day. You can create a huge range of variety by switching up the type of fish you purchase. You can also change how you season the fish. One day it could be lemon juice and salt, another day it could be maple and seaweed. The key is to find flavour combinations you enjoy.
Be warned, most season blends are not AIP Paleo compliant. Paleo Powder sells some AIP compliant blends, as do a few other brands. More often than not, you may find yourself creating your own AIP Paleo-compliant blend at home. I did this for years, and enjoyed the personalization element.
A Few Final Resources Before You Go
RAISE has hundreds of autoimmune protocol compliant recipes and you can find them all here. Additionally, if you haven’t seen the AIP Paleo cookbook by Mickey Trescott, it’s a great read. If you need an AIP Paleo diet shopping list, Phoenix Helix has a great compact list on her website. Finally, be sure to check out Wild Mountain Paleo, as they have a whole section of AIP Paleo Diet compliant options to choose from.