The alarm goes off. You think, "Already?" Just as you're convincing yourself that you can get five or 10 more minutes of precious sleep, a little voice whispers into your ear, "I'm hungry...Can you make breakfast now?" This is how school day mornings go down in my house. Perhaps it's similar at yours? You stumble out of bed and then sleepily stare into the pantry or fridge trying to find something to make for breakfast while also trying to get coffee or tea going and lunches packed. You curse yourself for being so disorganized and wonder if the routine will ever get easier.
My kids love milk and cereal and could eat that every day of the week, but they also love it when I make them oatmeal or smoothies with low-fat yogurt and fruit. It's easy to fall back on one thing every day, but I find that adding variety to breakfasts, while livening up our morning routine, is much easier to prepare when you have a game plan. Here's mine:
1. Plan your meals. Make a list of five different breakfasts your kids will eat, one for every day of the school week. Make your shopping list from those meal plans, get your ingredients and you'll be stocked and ready to take on the week.
2. Take time on Sunday night to prepare for the week: Chop fruit and store in a large resalable container to top low-fat or non-fat yogurt, cottage cheese, pancakes, cereal or oatmeal. Make sure you have enough milk. Boil up some eggs. Make layered yogurt-granola-fruit parfaits to serve the next day. Post your weekly meal plan in a place where everyone can see it.
3. Think outside the box: try grilled cheese and ham sandwiches for breakfast and serve it with a side of fruit. Cook oatmeal in low-fat milk instead of water, and instead of topping it with brown sugar, go the savory route and top it with crumbled bacon and chopped hard-boiled eggs. Serve a "breakfast milkshake" made with low-fat, plain yogurt, frozen bananas and honey. Serve a breakfast pizza bagel: toast bagels topped with shredded low-fat mozzarella cheese and top with chopped tomatoes and bell peppers, or whatever veggies your kids prefer.
4. Go international: Take a trip around the world at the breakfast table with French crepes stuffed with cheese and ham or fruit, make breakfast burritos filled with cheesy scrambled eggs and salsa, try an Italian frittata embellished with your favorite low-fat cheese, tomatoes and basil.
5. When all else fails, go out. Going out to dinner after a busy day or school and extra-curricular activities, isn't uncommon, so neither should be starting out the morning at your favorite breakfast spot. A cup of warm cocoa and a pastry from your favorite local spot or yogurt parfait brought to a park for a before-school picnic is just another way to shake up the routine and make breakfast easier.
Those are my tips for getting your breakfast game plan together. How about sharing some tips of your own?
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Comments: 11
We save a lot of money by getting a hotel room with a kitchenette and a lot of time by precooking everything before we go! You can also do this and roll the eggs and meat up in a flour buritto and nuke it...quick and easy breakfast. It works just as well at home, spend a little time on Sunday and you're set for the week.
Cook your bacon/sausage on cookie sheets covered with non stick aluminum foil to make a quick job of it, the aluminum foil makes clean up a breeze!
No kids or hubby, so I only have to worry about what I'm eating. Upside is that I haven't had to start my days to an alarm recently, either.