You hear the saying all the time — breakfast, it’s the most important meal of the day. And to us, it truly is! We. Do. Not. Mess. With. Breakfast. Or, at least we didn’t while we were in Hawaii. Every day was a buffet-style breakfast and the first morning I was there I was a bit overwhelmed with what to pick. I had been on the longest travel day of my life (seriously, I was traveling for about 23 hours and only was eating snack foods the entire trip) so I naturally wanted something that would fill me up quickly… So, I went for the banana pancakes with coconut syrup. Yes, they are just as amazing as they sound. This coconut syrup is brilliant and I am playing around with recipes at home right now so I can eventually share with you a concoction you can enjoy at home.

But, as the days went on I had the opportunity to scout everything out at the buffet — french toast, breakfast burritos, every type of fruit you can imagine, Hawaiian made granola. You name it — it was there! So, the best technique for breakfast came down to this: get the food that you absolutely have to have, share it with anyone at the table, and eat off of other people’s plates so you get to taste a little bit of everything. Don’t worry, I’m not that crazy, I wasn’t eating off of a stranger’s plate (I just plate fork war with my boyfriend over the Nutella stuffed french toast).

Something we discovered that wasn’t at the buffet was an unbelievable crispy hashbrown that the kitchen was happy to whip together for us. I swear, whenever I eat a great hashbrown the rest of my breakfast is fantastic — whenever I eat a crappy hashbrown (or home fries) the rest of my meal goes down the drain. So there you have it — the way I judge a breakfast. Don’t hate me.

One of the treats that the Four Seasons in Wailea had for us was every morning the breakfast buffet had some sort of smoothie sampling. One day the smoothie was made with kale, another day oranges, and another day strawberries and bananas. Some I preferred more than others, but it has inspired me to whip out my juicer at home to help me blend together some homemade smoothies made with only the freshest ingredients!