A peek into my morning routine

Over the years, I've become a total morning person. Here's a peek into my routine including the veggie breakfast sandwiches I'm obsessed with!

My Morning Routine

Today I’m taking a break from sharing a recipe to show you a peek into my world at home – specifically, my morning routine. For me, every day always looks a little different. Some days are spent shooting photos, other days are spent writing blog posts, planning recipes, laying out book pages, emailing, testing, the list goes on and on. Suffice it to say, many of my days are pretty chaotic, so one thing I’ve learned to value over time is having a morning routine. I feel like it’s a great way to ready myself for the rest of the day, so I thought it would be fun to share it with you (and have an excuse to share puppy pics)!

My Morning Routine

The first thing I do every morning is wake up and play with our dog Annie. Or rather, the dog wakes up and plays with me. Either way, as soon as my eyes open, a slobbery, bouncing puppy comes up to my pillow to greet me. It’s not a calm way to rise, but it’s a happy one. Her crazy joyful energy reminds me that every day is an exciting day to wake up. After I get up, Annie goes back to sleep because she’s the one in our household that’s truly living her best life.

My Morning Routine

Next, I go downstairs, make a cup of tea, and empty the dishwasher. As a food blogger, I go through a crazy amount of daily dishes, and they can get out of control quickly. I’m adamant about putting everything away first thing in the morning so that the kitchen is set and ready to go before the cooking / testing / photographing madness begins again. Because most of our dishes double as photography props, this process is always a bit of a Tetris game.

My Morning Routine

Then it’s breakfast time! I go to bed dreaming of food and wake up hungry, so I always make time to have a decent breakfast. Lately, I’ve been into these little breakfast sandwiches! Jack makes biscuits over the weekend that we keep in the freezer along with MorningStar Farms Sausage Patties. The patties are super delicious and convenient to assemble with whatever other fresh ingredients I have on hand. They have 9 grams of vegetarian protein per serving, so they’re a great warm, satisfying way to start the morning.

My Morning Routine

Here are a few of my favorite sandwich combos, each makes 3 to 4 sandwiches because I’m usually making breakfast for Jack as well:

Sandwich Variation #1 (the one pictured!)
– MorningStar Farms® Original Sausage Patty
– egg with spinach
– tomato and/or sliced avocado
– a dollop of chipotle sauce, for a little bit of kick!

Sandwich Variation #2
– MorningStar Farms® Hot & Spicy Sausage Patty
– scrambled eggs
– chopped roasted red peppers
– sliced serrano peppers (I like a spicy breakfast, if you haven’t noticed)

Sandwich Variation #3
– MorningStar Farms® Maple Flavored Sausage Patties
– roasted sweet potato (a great way to use leftovers!)
– a dollop of pesto, especially if I have it on hand in the fridge

My Morning Routine

They’re so yummy and cute!

My Morning Routine

After breakfast, I settle into work and spend the rest of the morning doing desk tasks before the rest of the day takes over.

12 comments

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  1. Misty
    04.28.2019

    I would love your biscuit recipe! My 3 1/2 year old would love these breakfast sandwiches!💖💖

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      05.02.2019

      We will post it one day soon, thanks for the request!

  2. Emily
    04.17.2019

    Your breakfast looks absolutely delicious!! Thank you for sharing a peek into your morning routine! My morning usually starts with my cats scratching and meowing at my door begging me for food (even though they have some downstairs!!).

    Emily | Snippets of Emily’s Life xx

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      04.17.2019

      ha ha, the joy of waking up with animals 🙂

  3. Susan
    04.17.2019

    I hear you about the value of a morning routine. Mine includes doing a sudoku, crossword, and jigsaw puzzles before a good breakfast, to help me wake up. Except on the days when we volunteer at our local park, the rest of the day is pretty much free form, but the routine always gets me off to a good start.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      04.17.2019

      That sounds like a great morning!

  4. Kari
    04.17.2019

    Annie is adorable. I’ve never had the energetic, kissy wake up with my dogs. They are all very chill and stay asleep as long as we do – and even a few minutes after we do. Lol.

    I used to work at a doggy daycare, and the Shiba Inu there was an excellent climber. The daycare had to fix their fences because she was able to climb right on over with no effort.

    • Jeanine Donofrio
      04.17.2019

      ha, oh wow, ours won’t climb a fence but she has a sneaky way of getting out of her collar/leash. Tricky dogs, for sure 🙂

A food blog with fresh, zesty recipes.
Photograph of Jeanine Donofrio and Jack Mathews in their kitchen

Hello, we're Jeanine and Jack.

We love to eat, travel, cook, and eat some more! We create & photograph vegetarian recipes from our home in Chicago, while our shiba pups eat the kale stems that fall on the kitchen floor.