I have found it's very easy to do these things, it just takes some prep work ahead of time. 'Cause let's just be honest, I won't be up frying bacon, sausage, and eggs every morning at 6 a.m.! I do cook those things some mornings-but certainly not every morning. I have found that on Tuesdays and Thursdays especially, I like having something fast for breakfast because Dustin is the only one eating at 6 a.m. those days!
Fruit ~ First of all, I think it's important to have plenty of fresh fruit for the kids to eat with breakfast. My kids love apples, grapes, and mandarin oranges. I also keep bananas on hand. Emmy is my only watermelon eater, and depending on the day some of them may eat strawberries-but they aren't in season anymore so I don't really buy them often. Applesauce is good too if you are out of fresh fruit.
A smoothie is also another option for a fruit side option, and you can use frozen fruit. I also love putting fresh spinach in smoothies, which is the only way spinach gets eaten around here (myself included).
Meat ~ As far as meat goes, I take a big package of homemade sausage, patty it out, and fried it ahead of time. I will even go ahead and freeze it cooked. The night before, I just pull out however many patties we need and let them thaw overnight. In the morning, I just pop them in the oven or toaster oven to warm them up. Easy, yummy, and filling. I've never tried freezing cooked bacon, but I may to see how it does. For bacon, I just fry up and leave in the fridge till we need to warm it. I do this for BLTs for supper too, or club sandwiches. A big time saver.
Breads/Pancakes ~ Biscuits can be made ahead of time and frozen in a big Ziploc bag so you can also pull out however many you need. If you are going to the trouble of making biscuits or pancakes, you may as well make a big batch and have more for later. I usually pop the pancakes in the toaster, and it heats them up nicely. I have not tried making waffles, but I got a waffle maker a couple of years ago and really need to try making my own Eggos!
My kids love banana bread, so I try to keep that in the freezer, either in mini-loaves (it takes one mini-loaf to feed them for breakfast), or in muffins. We also like blueberry muffins, but banana is definitely the favorite. Let's face it, bananas are much cheaper than blueberries-so that's a no-brainer. Also, it helps keep you from wasting them when they get too brown. If I don't have time to make bread, but the bananas are brown, I will take them out of the peel and freeze them until I have time to cook them. It works just fine and ensures we have no waste. You can also throw them in a smoothie straight from the freezer.
- A tip I just recently learned and have loved is that you can go ahead and mix up your muffins, put them in the muffin tins, then pop them in the freezer uncooked. Once frozen, pull out the tins and pop the uncooked muffins in a freezer bag for later. You can do a big variety, then when you are ready to serve muffins, just cook the ones you want. I have tried this and it works great! It's a good time saver, and also nice if you want to cook just a few of each type of muffin.
~ I have an overnight cinnamon roll recipe that is really good, and you pop them in the oven in the morning. Yum!
~Breakfast casseroles are great for making ahead. Except my family doesn't like them. Fooey!
~I have also made and frozen quiches for eating later. Again, my family doesn't like them. Are we seeing a pattern here???
~Another option-Burritos! Dustin likes breakfast burritos. I don't really care for them, but I make them for him. I put eggs, sausage, and cheese on them. I freeze them and just pop out however many the night before. They can be heated up in the toaster oven quickly, or he can take them with him and microwave them at work. Yes, we sometimes use other people's microwaves in a pinch. :-) Not often though, ideally. I also freeze burrito "packets", by putting the cooked ingredients in a snack sized Ziploc bag. We then just thaw a couple overnight and put them on a fresh tortilla in the morning. These work great either way you do it.
~You can also cook some type of home fries or hashbrowns fairly quickly. I am not sure why I don't do that more often, maybe I will add them in the rotation. I recently started making my own hashbrowns from leftover baked potatoes. So easy!
~Oatmeal is another great option. You guessed it-it's not popular here. Not sure why. Maybe a texture thing?
I have a recipe for a breakfast pizza which I really want to try. I will have to share if it's good and family-approved.
I have learned that it isn't nearly as hard as I thought it was to get a good breakfast on the table to fill up my family. Here are a few meal combinations that seem to work well and the kids like...to give you some ideas. I just have had to change my routine and make sure I plan for breakfast, instead of just waiting until we wake up and figuring out what to fix/grab. Now, I meal plan all 3 meals of the day, instead of before just actually planning dinner.
- Sausage patties, banana bread, fruit
- Eggs, fruit
- Overnight cinnamon rolls, fruit
- Pancakes, bacon, fruit
- Eggs, Bacon, fruit
- Eggs, Sausage, fruit
- Banana bread, fruit
- Eggs, biscuits, bacon or sausage, fruit
- Sausage, muffins, smoothies
If we are running late, Health Valley makes organic cereal bars that the kids really like, and we can eat those on the go, maybe with some applesauce squeezies or some other easy to grab items.
Hopefully this may help everyone avoid those pre-packaged breakfast items that have so much sodium and preservatives and ingredients you can't pronounce. Not to mention how expensive they are! For a treat I bought some of the breakfast "lunchables" for the kids. They did not like them and they were a big waste of money. I was fine with that since I don't like the ingredients in them anyway. Now, they will eat a lunchtime lunchable like nobody's business, but I try to let them only be an occasional treat. I will have to do a lunch post as well!!!
And maybe, just maybe I will become a morning person! :-)
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