61 Brunch Recipes To Make Your New Year's Day Party A Smash

New Year's Day is a tricky holiday to celebrate. If you're planning to throw a party, it's safe to assume that a number of guests were up celebrating into the wee hours the night before, so they may not be in the mood for another evening bash. You could do a big midday meal a la Christmas or Thanksgiving, but this may be more suited to an intimate family gathering. If your intent is to launch into the new year surrounded by all your nearest and dearest, and maybe even a casual acquaintance or two, then a holiday brunch may be your best bet. You could even time it to coincide with the Tournament of Roses Rose Parade –- unless you live on the West Coast, that is, since such an early party start may be pushing things a bit.

So what should you serve at a New Year's brunch? You'll want a selection of foods that are festive, yet not fussy, so you don't have to spend too much time prepping for the party. Our list includes a selection of both sweet and savory dishes to cover all the bases. While you'll probably want to have plenty of coffee, tea, juice, and sparkling cider on hand for those who overdid things the night before, as well as designated drivers and anyone participating in Dry January, we've also included a few cocktail recipes for those guests who still want a boozy brunch.

As you would expect, any recipe created by Giada De Laurentiis will reflect her Italian roots, and her breakfast egg casserole is no exception. It gets its flavor from a combination of sun-dried tomatoes, fresh basil, sausage, and goat cheese, making for a colazione molto deliziosa! In order to make her casserole even more party-friendly, though, we've repacked it into miniature bite-sized versions baked in a muffin pan. These can easily be made ahead of time, then reheated to enjoy for brunch.

Recipe: Giada's Egg Casserole With A Twist

One sure-fire hit for breakfast or brunch is a basic coffee cake –- not one made with coffee, but one meant to accompany the beverage whose name it bears. For a festive occasion, however, why not take that standard coffee cake recipe and dress it up with a colorful addition like sprinkles? This Funfetti-like creation not only has little bursts of color throughout the cake, but the sprinkles are also stirred into the brown sugar streusel topping. Each of these cakes makes 9 slices, but you can easily stir up more.

Recipe: Classic Coffee Cake Recipe

A breakfast burrito is an easy-to-make, tasty, and filling entrée for breakfast or brunch, and these ones are no exception. Typical of a breakfast burrito, they contain the standard filling of scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, and cheese, and they get some southwestern flavor from pico de gallo and fresh cilantro. What makes these burritos California-style, however? The same thing that puts the "California" in California rolls: a few slices of fresh avocado.

Recipe: California Breakfast Burrito Recipe

While asparagus is typically not in season in January, you may be able to find fresh asparagus imported from warmer climates that will allow you to make this salad. As this is a salad and not a cooked asparagus dish, it wouldn't be advisable to make it with frozen asparagus. The crispy fresh texture, after all, is crucial to concocting a successful salad. In fact, the delicate taste of raw asparagus, paired with fresh lemon juice, champagne vinegar, and goat cheese, may even appeal to people who aren't normally fans.

Recipe: Shaved Asparagus Salad Recipe

While eggnog season is pretty much over after Christmas day, you may still have a carton or two kicking around in the fridge. Why not repurpose it by turning it into a fancy cocktail? Rather than making eggnog boozy by adding the traditional rum or bourbon, this eggnog martini goes for a nutty twist with vanilla vodka and Frangelico. Serve these drinks up in martini glasses or champagne coupes that have been dipped in maple sugar and rimmed with cinnamon sugar.

Recipe: Eggnog Martini Recipe

Nachos for breakfast? Sure, why not? After all, if breakfast burritos are a thing, is it really so much of a stretch to give another Mexican favorite a morning makeover? Instead of tortilla chips, these nachos are built on a base of sturdy waffle fries (frozen ones, for convenience sake). They are then topped with scrambled eggs as well as some typical nacho ingredients: black beans, shredded cheese, guacamole, and salsa. To make these nachos extra-breakfast-y, they're also sprinkled with crumbled bacon.

Recipe: Easy Breakfast Nachos Recipe

One popular make-ahead breakfast (or brunch) option is the breakfast version of bread pudding that's often called French toast casserole. Like French toast, it involves bread soaked in milk and eggs, flavored with sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon, and our recipe also adds a handful of chopped walnuts or pecans for a little extra crunch. One great thing about this French toast casserole is that it makes for the perfect way to use up a loaf of bread that's starting to go stale.

Recipe: Simple French Toast Casserole Recipe

If you've invited guests whose idea of the best brunch tipple is a pint of stout or a strong cup of tea, then you'll want to serve up some classic British pub snacks like Scotch eggs, something that can also double as an entrée for a decidedly un-fancy "high tea." This 3-ingredient recipe couldn't be much simpler, particularly as it's actually a 2-ingredient recipe if you don't count the water.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Scotch Eggs Recipe

Need a meat-free entrée for non-carnivorous guests? This breakfast hash starts out with potatoes but it gets some flavoring from extra added veggies. In this case we're using onions and peppers, though you can feel free to toss in whatever else you've got in your fridge's produce bin. This hash is generously seasoned with spices including garlic, paprika, and oregano, then topped off with a couple of fried eggs.

Recipe: Best Veggie Breakfast Hash Recipe

One often-neglected method of egg preparation is poaching. We all know how to scramble an egg, and it's not even that hard to whip up a decent omelet. Frying eggs is also fairly easy, as is boiling them in their shells. Poaching, them, though, always seems super-tricky. Luckily, the Instant Pot is here to assist. This wonder appliance uses steam to cook the eggs, poaching them in just one minute. Best of all, Instant Pot-poached eggs come out looking symmetrical and pretty.

Recipe: Instant Pot Poached Eggs Recipe

Even though Starbucks is primarily known as a coffee chain, they do make some pretty tasty breakfast sandwiches. One of our favorites is the classic combo of bacon, cheddar, and a fresh scrambled egg. If you want to make your egg come out perfectly round a la Starbucks, this recipe gives you the directions for doing just that. If you prefer to save yourself some time and trouble, though, free-form scrambled eggs are just as tasty as cylindrical ones.

Recipe: Copycat Starbucks Bacon, Cheddar & Egg Sandwich Recipe

If you or any of your guests have egg allergies, there's no need to miss out on all the delightful things that can be done with a simple crepe. This crepe recipe doesn't call for any eggs whatsoever, although it does require both milk and butter. You can fill these crepes with melted Brie as we do in this recipe, but you can also substitute any other kind of cheese and/or meat or even a sweet filling, such as jelly. Ces crêpes sont très magnifiques!

Recipe: Savory Eggless Crepes Recipe

Making your own sausage sounds like it would be quite labor-intensive, and it could well be if you intend to start by grinding your own meat and/or stuffing the meat into casings. If you just want loose sausage meat, however, and you start with a package of ground turkey as is the case in this recipe, well, it couldn't be much easier. All you need to do is add some spices, seasonings, and a bit of sugar, and in this case, an egg for a bit of moisture and cohesion.

Recipe: Homemade Turkey Breakfast Sausage Recipe

Avocado toast makes for a pretty good brunch dish. It's healthy, it's easy, it's tasty, what's not to like? Plus, this particular version brings avocado toast into the current decade by making it with the uber-popular sourdough bread. Oh, and if you think poaching eggs is a real pain, it needn't be. You can either follow the fairly simple directions given here or else you can scroll up to see how to poach the eggs the easy way using your Instant Pot.

Recipe: Simple Poached Egg And Avocado Toast Recipe

Breakfast lasagna? Now that's probably something your guests don't have for brunch every week. Some of the ingredients it uses –- tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, pancetta, and ricotta and asiago cheeses –- all sound pretty typical for lasagna, and the dish is also assembled by layering lasagna-style. What makes this casserole a brunch dish is the fact that eggs are involved, since eggs make every meal more breakfast-y. What's more, the wide noodles used in lasagna are swapped out for refrigerated biscuit dough.

Recipe: Breakfast Lasagna Recipe

If McDonald's has just one dish that's worth copying, it's the McGriddle. An egg, cheese, and sausage breakfast sandwich on a maple-flavored pancake, what's not to love? Plus, made-from-scratch Mickey D's is practically party-worthy. Our recipe makes things easy by using pancake mix and frozen sausage patties for a dish you can throw together in less time than it takes to go through the drive-thru.

Recipe: Copycat McDonald's Sausage, Egg & Cheese McGriddles Recipe

If there's one country whose cuisine gets short shrift, that country would have to be Turkey. We're all familiar with Greek food like baklava, souvlaki, and stuffed grape leaves, and there are a plethora of generic "Middle Eastern" restaurants offering falafel, shawarma, and gyros, but how many specifically Turkish dishes can you name? Well, here's one Turkish-style recipe you'll want to add to your repertoire. These Turkish eggs are fried in the usual way, but they are served atop a bed of garlicky yogurt and finished off with a drizzle of chili-spiked brown butter.

Recipe: Turkish Eggs Recipe

If you're planning to have guests over for brunch and you'd prefer to spend time with them rather than be cooped up in the kitchen, your best bet is to find recipes that can be prepared well in advance. If you want a hot, eggy main dish, you can always whip up on overnight breakfast casserole the evening before. Not only is this type of dish a time saver, but it can be a money saver, too, since the bulk of the dish is made up with bread.

Recipe: Overnight Breakfast Casserole With Bacon Recipe

Everyone knows and loves breakfast burritos so why shouldn't breakfast tacos be a thing? The taco fillings in this recipe include sautéed peppers, sausage, cheese, and, of course, the scrambled eggs that make this a breakfast dish. They are wrapped in small corn tortillas and then pan-fried in oil to make crunchy little two-bite taquitos. To make them even spicier, you can swap out the bell pepper for a jalapeño. You might want to have some sour cream on hand to cool things down, as well.

Recipe: Fried Breakfast Tacos Recipe

Picnic food for breakfast? Go ahead, be a little devilish and serve your guests these delicious deviled eggs. They're great for parties because it's easy to make up a big batch of them and they don't need to be kept warm. This deviled egg recipe is a classic one where the filling is made with mayo and yellow mustard, but it adds just a dab of sour cream for some extra richness. Garnish these eggs with snipped chives as we do here, or go old-school with paprika or spicy with a sprinkling of cayenne.

Recipe: Deviled Eggs Recipe

On occasions like this, recipes that are quick and simple are ideal. It's even better if the ingredient list is short! One ingredient, in particular, will allow you to come up with simple-but-elegant creations with hardly any effort: Frozen puff pastry! Here we use it to make breakfast puffs that are a fancied-up version of eggs in a frame. The eggs are baked in a puff pastry shell and topped with savory cheddar cheese for a brunch dish that will look like you put out a lot of effort.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Savory Breakfast Puffs Recipe

There are some pretty decent items on Burger King's menu and one of them is the breakfast sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. And, the thing about such a dish it, if you make it yourself from scratch, is that it is worthy of serving to company. In fact, your brunch guests may never even guess that this copycat BK breakfast biscuit was inspired by fast food.

Recipe: Copycat Burger King Double Sausage, Egg, & Cheese Biscuit Recipe

While this recipe for Starbucks-style egg bites does call for a sous vide machine, you can cook the bites using a stovetop, a pot of water, and a good thermometer. A water circulator is nice but not really necessary, and you can maintain the proper water temperature by monitoring it yourself and adjusting the heat or adding cold or boiling as you pull this masterpiece together.

Recipe: Sous Vide Egg Bite Recipe

While Joanna Gaines is a home rehabber by trade, her Magnolia empire includes several successful restaurants and cooking shows. One of her recipes is for a crunchy French toast where the crunch comes from cornflakes. We took this recipe and embellished it to make it even more festive by giving it a tasty Nutella filling. Not such a Nutella fan? You could fill yours with peanut butter instead, or maybe jelly.

Recipe: Joanna Gaines' French Toast Crunch With A Nutella Twist

Do you still have a can or two of cranberry sauce kicking around in the pantry leftover from your Christmas dinner? Well, here's a creative way to use it up and make it brunch-worthy, to boot: mix it with raspberry Jell-O, crushed pineapple, chopped apples, and nuts to make a charmingly retro Jell-O salad! If you want to get really cute, you can always use a vintage Jell-O mold to shape it.

Recipe: Cranberry Salad Recipe

While Gordon Ramsay may hurl the word "donut" around as an unflattering epithet frequently accompanied by an expletive or two, he has no issues with the actual food. In fact, he makes a delightful version of homemade donuts filled with chocolate ganache. This version, however, simplifies things quite a bit by allowing you to use Nutella or a similar store-bought chocolate spread in place of the ganache.

Recipe: Gordon Ramsay's Donut Recipe

Are you thinking you might want to make fried eggs for your whole crowd of guests? Sheet pans to the rescue! No, seriously, you can actually make "fried" eggs in the oven, although yes, technically that does make them baked eggs. Semantics aside, you'll be sure to appreciate this super-easy recipe. All you'll need to do is grease up the pan, crack the eggs, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, and bake them for just 5 minutes.

Recipe: Sheet Pan Fried Egg Recipe

Perhaps you are familiar with le croque monsieur, non? Well, what you may not know is that this tasty, toasty, French take on the ham and cheese has a counterpart called the croque madam. The madam, like the monsieur, is made with ham and cheese, but it isn't dipped in egg batter, french toast-style. Instead, the ham and cheese sandwich itself is prepared in more of a straight up grilled cheese syle, then topped with additional cheese and béchamel sauce.

Recipe: Croque Madam Sandwich Recipe

If you've just read the slide title and thought "gotcha! there's a typo!" we hate to disappoint you, but no, we meant exactly what we said (and spelled). This isn't a recipe for giant cinnamon rolls, but for one single super-colossal extra giant cinnamon roll complete with cream cheese icing. This roll weighs in at a whopping 2 pounds and is capable of feeding up to 10 people. Forget tiny foods, those are so last year!

Recipe: Giant Cinnamon Roll Recipe

Brunch tables tend to be heavy on two things: Sweet carbs of the muffin/donut/coffee cake variety and eggy dishes like breakfast casseroles. Brunch is supposed to be a combination of breakfast and lunch, however, so a few lunch-type dishes wouldn't come amiss if you want to be well-balanced. This mango-quinoa salad is light, refreshing, healthy, and can at the very least make for a great palate cleanser between the aforementioned heavier dishes.

Recipe: Mango Quinoa Salad Recipe

If there is one dish that will perennially be associated with brunch, that dish is eggs Benedict. Benedicts in all their numerous variations don't really make for the kind of dish you can prepare as a quick breakfast since a good hollandaise sauce can't be hurried. For a leisurely brunch gathering, though, this classic eggs Benedict recipe is worth all of the time and trouble it takes to make. After feasting on these elegant eggs, your guests will undoubtedly feel as if they've just enjoyed the brunchiest brunch they've ever brunched upon.

Recipe: Eggs Benedict Recipe

While pumpkins will forever be associated with the autumnal season and are often considered to have passed their sell-by date once Thanksgiving is behind us, it's quite possible you still have a can or two of pumpkin left over from all your fall baking. No need to save it until next September rolls around. For one thing, your pumpkin might be past it's "use-by" date by then. For another, that's far too long to wait to try this delicious pumpkin coffee cake.

Recipe: Best Pumpkin Coffee Cake Recipe

Breakfast casseroles are a great way to feed brunch guests. Such a hassle-free dish doesn't requite any last-minute prep other than time spent heating in the oven. This casserole recipe switches up the typical flavor profile a bit by giving it a southwestern spin. While there's nothing wrong with the standard bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast casserole, you and your guests might enjoy this Mexican version that makes use of black beans, chorizo, and salsa and swaps out the bread chunks for corn tortillas.

Recipe: Mexican Breakfast Casserole Recipe

Dunkin' Donut' healthy "Power Breakfast" sandwich is something well worth duplicating, as health-conscious brunch guests will appreciate the low fat egg white omelet and turkey sausage, the iron-rich sautéed spinach, and the high fiber multigrain bread. This recipe makes 4 servings, but it shouldn't take too much time to whip up as many extra batches as your heart desires.

Recipe: Copycat Dunkin' Donuts Power Breakfast Sandwich Recipe

It may seem a bit "devilish" to serve hard boiled eggs for brunch since doing so seems to violate some sort of unwritten rule that all egg dishes need to be hot ones. As long as you're being a devil, though, why not go even farther and whip up a batch of deviled eggs that get their flavor and distinctive green color from guacamole? Don't forget to bookmark the recipe for next year's Halloween party, as well! These guac-filled eggs would look spooky with a sliced olive "eyeball."

Recipe: Guacamole Deviled Eggs Recipe

Skillets are just so stretchable, which is what makes them great for a brunch party! Our recipe calls for using bacon, sausage, and ham for a triple-meaty breakfast treat, but you can easily customize a skillet to suit your guests (and your budget) with your own choice of meats, cheeses, and/or veggies.

Recipe: Bacon Sausage Ham Breakfast Skillet Recipe

While iced tea and lemonade are both delightfully refreshing, some mystical alchemy causes the two beverages to become far more than the sum of their parts when combined. The classic Arnold Palmer is a summertime beverage par excellence, but it's one we're happy to drink in the middle of winter as well. In order to make your Arnold Palmers extra festive for your brunch party, you can even booze them up with bourbon as Martha Stewart does in this recipe.

Recipe: Martha Stewart's Boozy Arnold Palmer Is Perfect For Brunch

A frittata sounds like a fancy Italian dish, and it does, in fact, have it roots in la bella Italia. Fancy, however... not so much. Basically, it's yet another way to use up the about-to-wilt contents of your produce bin by repurposing them via the magic of eggs. Plus cheese, of course, since cheese makes everything better. In this frittata recipe, we're even using a little cooked ham for extra flavor. The best part, though, is that the whole dish, eggs and veggies and all, can be cooked in the microwave!

Recipe: 15-Minute Frittata Recipe

Monkey bread is one of those retro recipes that's gone trendy. Many monkey bread recipes are even based around canned biscuits, although this version starts with frozen dinner rolls so there is a little thawing time required. The upside of using such rolls, though, is that this yeast bread version makes monkey bread seem a bit more upscale than the kind everyone's mom used to make for weekend breakfasts.

Recipe: Tasty Monkey Bread Recipe

Zucchini is a vegetable that can be characterized as inoffensive at best. In it's favor, though, it is very easy to grow. What's more, the fact that zucchini doesn't have a strong taste of its own makes it extremely versatile. In this instance, zucchini is used to bulk out an easy, crust-free quiche. Here the zucchini's mild flavor stands it in good stead as it doesn't overwhelm the cheddar and parmesan cheeses that give this breakfast dish its flavor.

Recipe: Crustless Zucchini Quiche Recipe

Muffins are perfect for a quick weekday breakfast on the go, but they also make a nice little side dish for a leisurely holiday brunch. The best thing about muffins is that you can make them well in advance as they needn't be either hot or cold when you serve them. This muffin recipe combines two of fall's favorite flavors, apple and cinnamon, but it's such a classic taste combo that we feel it works at any time of year.

Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Muffin Recipe

The one meat that everyone wants piled on their plate at breakfast is bacon. The one thing that might make this most perfect of pork products even better is to gild the lily with a sweet glaze. The brown sugar used in this recipe not only gives the bacon some extra flavor, but it also adds a little crunch, as well. The best thing about this brown sugar bacon, however, is how insanely easy it is to make!

Recipe: Crispy Brown Sugar Bacon Recipe

What is it about Belgium, is there something in the water? The country not only lends its name to a breed of gigantic, beautiful horses, but also to a type of waffle that is almost as large, almost as lovely, and likely to be a far more welcome addition to your brunch party than even the best-behaved equine guest. This recipe will result in delicious waffles that are crispy outside, fluffy inside, and ready to be topped with syrup, jelly, whipped cream, or even ice cream.

Recipe: Belgian Waffle Recipe

Quiche is a classic brunch dish, and ham and cheese is a perfect flavor combo. While quiches themselves aren't too hard to throw together in a hurry, the crust can present a problem, particularly if you feel you need to make everything from scratch. Crustless quiche, however, simplifies the process considerably. This recipe goes even farther, improving upon matters even by using a muffin pan to bake mini quiches.

Recipe: Crustless Ham And Cheese Quiche Muffins Recipe

If you want pancakes that can easily be served at a brunch gathering, may we recommend this version where you bake one mega-flapjack on a sheet pan? Sure, you're not going to get that classic round pancake shape, and the resulting squares when you do slice it up will be somewhat thicker than the standard pancake. If you think about it, though, the results are exactly what the words "pan cake" imply. Plus, these pan-baked pancakes still taste great with butter and syrup, and that's what really counts.

Recipe: Easy Sheet Pan Pancake Recipe

Of all the different types of quiches out there, the most celebrated –- and justifiably so -– is the quiche Lorraine. It is made with eggs (of course), milk, and cream, and gets its flavor from gruyère cheese, bacon, and a sprinkling of snipped chives. Quiche Lorraine is typically baked in a crust, but it's ok to start with a store-bought one to save a little time. Be aware, though, that this quiche will need to be prepared in advance as it has to cool for several hours before you serve it.

Recipe: Quiche Lorraine Recipe

There really is no official flavor of January, unless you want to count "leftovers," but that's no way to kick off a new year. Instead, you can celebrate by reviving some of your favorite types of food from seasons past, including these delicious, fall-spiced pumpkin muffins. As long as you've got a reasonably well-stocked spice cabinet and a can of pumpkin kicking around in the pantry, you can whip up a batch of these with no trouble at all.

Recipe: Pumpkin Muffin Recipe

Remember those dear old days of college keggers where the all-beer menu was occasionally supplemented by a watermelon spiked with booze? If you're able to source a watermelon in January, your guests will surely get a kick out of this recipe's boozy blast from the past. If you can't find this summertime fruit where you live, though, you could always go for a tropical twist by using the same technique to fill a pineapple with rum.

Recipe: Easy Vodka Spiked Watermelon Recipe

Many brunch dishes are based around the incredible, edible egg, as it is pretty much the official food of breakfast. Is your brunch party is going to be more of a standing room only kind of affair, or else one where people load up their plates and take them to the couch to watch TV? In that case, you're going to need finger foods like sandwiches. With egg salad as a sandwich filling, your guests can have their brunch eggs and eat them, too, with no forks required.

Recipe: Egg Salad Recipe

While apple harvest time really kicks off in late summer and fall, apples and apple-flavored dishes really aren't considered to be season-specific so they're as well-suited to January as they are to any other time of year. If you're looking for an apple-flavored brunch dish, one of the easiest, yet most impressive, is this show-stopping puffy German pancake. Unlike a standard pancake, this German apple one is sweet enough to enjoy on its own, so there's no need for syrup.

Recipe: German Apple Pancake Recipe

Frittata is a classic brunch dish, but mini frittatas are downright cute. Who doesn't love itty-bitty foods, after all? Plus these eggy little bites are great for a brunch party since everyone should be able to sample them before they run out of steam. This particular recipe makes use of broccoli and pecorino cheese to flavor the tiny frittatas, but you could swap the broccoli for your favorite veggies and the pecorino for another firm cheese if you prefer.

Recipe: Mini-Frittatas Recipe

Since brunch is supposed to be breakfast, plus lunch, it's perfectly appropriate to include a dessert, right? Well, at least something dessert-like, which, for many of us, means chocolate. These miniature chocolate chip muffins are actually a perfect compromise between breakfast (since muffin) and dessert (since chocolate). Their small size means they are great for a buffet-type situation.

Recipe: Chocolate Chip Mini Muffin Recipe

Caprese salad typically involves nothing more than fresh tomatoes and mozzarella cheese dressed up with a little basil, olive oil, and maybe a drizzle of balsamic vinegar — if you are into that sort of thing. However. if you haven't invited the foodie purist police to your brunch, you should be able to get away with a little embellishment, such as fresh peaches, for a fun twist.

Recipe: Peach Caprese Salad Recipe

We have no idea what makes these scones French per se, since the ginger and lemon you'll be using comes from wherever ginger and lemons are grown (probably not France) and the recipe itself was developed for us right here in the U.S. of A. Still, these scones are just as fancy as the descriptor "French" typically implies, and they are also as delicious as you'd expect from a flavor combo that includes both tangy lemon zest and spicy-sweet candied ginger.

Recipe: French Ginger And Lemon Scone Recipe

Want to start your new year off on a healthy note? Why not eat a banana? They're full of potassium and all kinds of other healthy stuff, and they also have the benefit of being one of the cheapest fruits in the produce department. If you think just plain bananas don't make for good party fare, that's no problem. Just mush 'em up and stir them into a batch of pancake batter. In fact, you can even use up any of the bananas that are starting to go brown.

Recipe: Quick Banana Pancake Recipe

While brunch is supposed to combine the best parts of both breakfast and lunch, sometimes the latter is neglected. Many brunch tables tend to look more like breakfast on steroids, with egg dish after egg dish supplemented by mountains of pastries, waffles, and/or pancakes. Enough. Let's put the "unch" back in brunch, and let's start by doing it with a classic French salad. If you're unfamiliar with the Niçoise, it's kind of a spin on chef salad, one that makes use of boiled potatoes and eggs along with tuna.

Recipe: Classic Niçoise Salad Recipe

One good thing about January is, you won't be getting any "surprise" bags of unwanted zucchini on your doorstep for a good many months. Still, you may have some of it left in the freezer from last year's overabundant crop. You know what that means? Yes, you can easily sneak some healthy veggies by your brunch guests in the form of a tasty cinnamon-spiced quick bread! This zucchini bread is just as easy to make as its cousin, banana bread, and is equally warm and comforting.

Recipe: Spiced Zucchini Bread Recipe

If you're having people over for brunch, you've got to have bacon. If you want to beef up your bacon to the point where it's practically an entrée, however, you really need to try this recipe for chicken-fried bacon. As the name implies, the bacon is dipped in eggs and flour before being fried in oil. Helpful hint: use the thick-cut kind of bacon so it can stand up to the coating.

Recipe: The Game-Changing Bacon Recipe You're Not Making

Brunch seems to be all about sweet breads and other pastries, but even the sweetest of sweet teeth can need a break from all that sugar. Why not let your guests bite into something savory by stirring up a batch of cornbread? This recipe lets you cook it right in a cast-iron skillet. In fact, you could even make individual versions baked in mini skillets if you want to make for a super-cute table setting.

Recipe: Cast Iron Cornbread Recipe

If you're brunching up north, out west, or anywhere in flyover territory, you may not have thought to include this particular type of cooked cereal. If you've been binge-watching "The Magnolia Table" and are charmed by the idea of a Southern-themed brunch, though, then you've simply got to have grits. Don't make the faux pas of serving up instant grits to your guests, though! Instead, try these easy, cheesy, super-creamy from-scratch grits. While the recipe given here makes four servings, it can easily be doubled to feed a larger gathering.

Recipe: Easy Creamy Grits Recipe

On a brunch table laden with sweet fare such as donuts and waffles, savory baked goods are sure to stand out. We're particularly fond of cheese biscuits, combining, as they do, two of our favorite foods: cheese and biscuits. The best part of this particular recipe is how ridiculously easy these biscuits are to make. All you need is self-rising flour (which you can easily DIY if you only have the all-purpose kind), milk, and, of course, cheese.

Recipe: 3-Ingredient Cheese Biscuits Recipe