Agree that black beans are a great option. My nephews love breakfast tacos which consist of scrambled eggs, black beans (usually leftovers that also have some tomatoes and onions), a little cheese, and some hot sauce or salsa.

They aren't as good as beans health-wise, but Morning Star has veggie breakfast sausages that I swear by for an English muffin, egg, and "sausage" breakfast sandwich. They provide a pretty good sausage patty taste and fit perfectly on an English muffin.

Lean ground beef or pork that you season yourself with sage etc for a breakfast sausage taste or chili and cumin for taco meat vibe. Also avocado.

OP here - black beans are a great idea - I don't know why I didn't think of that.

And actually, making our own sausage is a good idea as well.

I was expecting a lot of lectures about how unhealthy processed meats are. Sometimes DCUM surprises me!

How about breakfast burritos with black beans, eggs and cheese a couple of days a week.

Tell them that some days, you'll just do egg and cheese. I know, breakfast meat is a great way to fill them up, but I'm with you about wanting less processed stuff.

Anonymous wrote:Why not substitute chicken? Or black beans?

Chicken? With eggs? No.

Make your own sausage by adding spices to ground pork. You could cook it and then freeze and defrost a few days worth at t a time.

Why do you have to move away? If anyone can eat breakfast meats daily it's tween and teen boys who are active and growing. Just make sure they have some well round options too (fruit, avocados, add some spinach) so that they know that's part of breakfast too.

You can get nitrate free bacon and sausage, and even sugar free paleo bacon at Whole Foods. A couple of slices of bacon or ounces of sausage isn’t going to hurt your tweens.

Why not substitute chicken? Or black beans?

Vegan sausage patties are decent.

I would just make sure that the rest of their diet is highly nutritious, and full of good fats. Lots of colorful veg and fruit. fiber, grains etc.

They are fine

I wouldn't change anything.

I absolutely know how bad processed meats are, but, despite an otherwise very healthy diet, I've come to rely on the high calorie, salty, fatty (satisfying!!) breakfast meats for my tween boys' breakfasts. They love a breakfast sandwich or breakfast tortilla with egg, cheese, and bacon/ham/sausage and have them almost daily.

I know we need to remove the processed meats and turkey sausage/bacon is no better from a complete health standpoint. What can substitute for that taste and the calories/protein it adds? Both of my boys are super-thin and athletes, so they really do need the calories.