QUICK nutritious breakfast ideas for those early school mornings

[Katherine]

Ideas and recipes all welcome.

I need to get some protein and complex carbs into my boys every morning before school... We leave about 7:10, so we're talking breakfast at 6:30 when everyone is still a zombie. (IOW, freshly made pancakes are not an option) :shifty :lol

I am NOT a morning person and was really starting to struggle with providing a decent meal by the end of last semeter. This year is going to be even tougher if I have my 2 eldest enrolled, but ds2 is not a morning person either... HATES transitions, and is a very S L O W, nitpicky eater. :doh

I need super quick breakfasts, make-ahead ideas, tried-and true recipes for things that freeze well and toast up nicely, etc.

Nuts and peanuts are not an option for us due to allergies, but it's fine to include them for other who are reading along. ;)

Fire away!!

[joyful mama]

baked oatmeal, made the night before. Eat it hot or cold, with or without milk. Soooo yummy with coconut and walnuts (elminate the walnuts ;)), dried fruit like raisins and cinnamon. I make mine with maple syrup instead of sugar, old fashioned oats, milk, eggs. :yum

quiche! crustless or crusted (crustless is healthier :duh). I make mine with eggs, cheese, spinach, salt, pepper. Or broccoli, or a combo of the two. Again, make it the night before, its great hot or cold.

Homemade pancakes made beforehand will work, too. My kids like whole grain apple cinnamon pancakes with butter and maple syrup and fruit

homemade smoothies with fruit, yogurt, milk, or kefir

I can give you recipes if you'd like for any of the above :)

banana bread, cheesy muffins, fruit muffins, all made ahead

all of the above freeze very well (I've heard the oatmeal does but mine never makes it to the freezer ;)), and are easy to reheat.

[Marielle]

baked oatmeal, made the night before. Eat it hot or cold, with or without milk. Soooo yummy with coconut and walnuts (elminate the walnuts ;)), dried fruit like raisins and cinnamon. I make mine with maple syrup instead of sugar, old fashioned oats, milk, eggs. :yum

quiche! crustless or crusted (crustless is healthier :duh). I make mine with eggs, cheese, spinach, salt, pepper. Or broccoli, or a combo of the two. Again, make it the night before, its great hot or cold.

Homemade pancakes made beforehand will work, too. My kids like whole grain apple cinnamon pancakes with butter and maple syrup and fruit

homemade smoothies with fruit, yogurt, milk, or kefir

I can give you recipes if you'd like for any of the above :)

banana bread, cheesy muffins, fruit muffins, all made ahead

all of the above freeze very well (I've heard the oatmeal does but mine never makes it to the freezer ;)), and are easy to reheat.


yes recipes please :heart

[Psyche]

Hardboiled eggs and whole wheat toast with a fruit smoothie :) Or skip the toast and add wheat germ to the smoothies.

[Psyche]

Also, you can cook bacon or ham steaks or sausage for a couple days, fry some eggs over hard the morning of, heat the meat in the microwave, toast the whole wheat bread and add some white cheddar. Easy breakfast sandwich.

[joyful mama]

I'll be back in a bit w/recipes. writing this out I'm totally craving baked oatmeal now, and I just stocked up on oatmeal and walnuts, so I've got to put the kids down and make some :shifty :giggle

[gentlemommy]

:popcorn

[naturallia]

breakfast sandwiches

smoothies

[Myrtle]

:) wanting to glean...

[emmalouise]

We have oatmeal made with low fat milk, sweetened with chopped dried fruit, served with yoghurt or milk, and a boiled egg each.

The oatmeal can be prepped the night before by putting the oats, milk (I make it from powder b/c it's cheaper) and fruit in a saucepan, putting the lid on, and sticking it in the fridge overnight. In the morning, put that saucepan on, then the other with the eggs and there you go!

In the summer we have bircher muesli made with yoghurt instead of oatmeal, that actually has to be made the night before.

[Iansmama]

Sunflower seed butter and raw honey on toast.

Cook a lot of breakfast meat up once or twice a week and have it ready for a breakfast sandwich.

[MamaMansa]

I make whole wheat pancakes and waffles ahead of time, and flash freeze them (single layer on a pan). Once they are frozen, I put them all into gallon ziplocks, and that way they don't stick together. The waffles are ready to pop in the toaster, and the pancakes heat up nicely in the microwave. Muffins also freeze well.

I make large batches on the weekends, so I'm not struggling to cook one more thing on a weeknight. :)

[joyful mama]

baked oatmeal:

Baked Oatmeal:

1/2 C pure maple syrup or honey
1 t sea salt
2 t baking powder
3 C oatmeal
1/2 C melted butter
2 eggs
1 C yogurt
1/2 t vanilla
optional: raisins, cinnamom, nuts, nutmeg, dried fruit, flax seeds, dried coconut

Combine oats and yogurt. Let soak overnight. The next morning, add the rest of the ingredients. Pour into an ungreased casserole dish (I use a round cake pan) and bake at 350 for about 30-45 minutes, until lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or cold, with milk. (soaking is for those who follow NT, I don't always do this. If you choose not to, substitute milk for the yogurt, and cook immediately).

I'm sure I've posted the crustless quiche recipe a bunch of times here. Its a sbd recipe, and every time I mention it, someone asks for it, lol:

two different quiches:
(this one is my sister's)

2 pkgs. frozen chopped spinach
16 oz. container cottage cheese
1 diced onion
1 C shredded cheese (any kind, I've used mozzarella and cheddar, montery jack, feta)
2 eggs, beaten
garlic powder (I usually just use salt)
pepper

Thaw and drain spinach well. Combine all ingredients. Bake in a greased 8x8 casserole dish at 350 for 45 minutes until browned. Let sit for 10 minutes before serving. SO GOOD!

the sbd one:


Veggie Quiche Cups with Fresh Spinach (from MizFrog's page)

6 large eggs
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup diced onions
1 small bag (6 oz) fresh salad spinach (I prefer more, 16 oz frozen, thawed or a lot more sauteed or steamed fresh, maybe a pound)
1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)


Preheat oven to 350 or 375 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin (or a 6-cup larger capacity tin) with cooking spray


Beat fresh eggs with wire whisk in large mixing bowl until completely blended. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well with spoon.


Divide mixture as evenly as possible into each cup. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until a sharp knife inserted in the center comes out clean. They will rise during cooking and fall while cooling.

*I often do just chopped broccoli or half broccoli/half spinach (cooked)

You can 'healthify' almost any muffin recipe. Cheesy ones are soo good for a change, I use 1/4 of the sugar recommendation (I use honey, maple syrup or rapadura), real organic butter, and I add about 1 cup of shredded cheese. mmmm

Kefir smoothies are fantastic, plain w/pb and banana, or fruit ones. sometimes I add a little spinach.

[Michelle-Lea]

Oatmeal w/ peanutbutter added is a big hit here.

[Katherine]

Great ideas, ya'll! Keep 'em coming. :)

I think making ahead is going to be the vital element for me. :think 5 weeks til school starts so I'd better get cracking and put some stuff in the freezer.

Anybody ever tried chicken biscuits? I kept meaning to do this toward the end of last year, but never tried it. My kids don't really like/eat most of your traditional breakfast meats, so I was hoping to find some frozen chicken patties (preferably without a lot of junk in them) that I could heat up and stick on a biscuit.

anybody have a good quiche recipe? My oldest loves brocolli and cheese omlettes, so I bet he'd like the quiche, too, as long as the texture was firm enough.

also... has anybody tried those omlette making gadgets? :think

like this:
http://www.wdrake.com/WalterDrake/Shopping/ProductDetail.aspx?CID=Kitchen&SCID=Food+Preparation&ProductID=0000103190&SiteNum=0&sortBy=Rank%20ASC

or

http://www.pamperedkitchenchefaid.com/site/745900/product/OM-2

[Myrtle]

Well, my suggestion might not be as good as these other ones, but my dh isn't a big breakfast person even though he knows he needs some protein. He drinks a protein shake in the morning and eats a Clif bar (10g protein) on the way to class. I know there are some kid-friendly protein powders, and we throw in a banana and some frozen strawberries (slightly thawed) to make a smoothie. Takes about 3 minutes from start to finished product being gulped down.

[Katherine]

We do protein smoothies here. :yes My younger kids love them. My oldest son (the one with food allergies) is the hardest to feed in general; he's more particular about food and I've had a really hard time finding a protein mix that is safe for him and that he will actually drink. :/ I used to use dehydrated egg whites to get him some protein :yes but I've had a hard time finding them lately.

I did notice that South Beach brand makes a drink mix with protein added, and I plan to send that as his lunch drink this year instead of juice, etc. It's just a few grams, but every little bit helps.

OH yeah.. I wanted to add that we do giant breakfast cookies sometimes. (Need to make/freeze some of those too) I have to make my own, of course.... I use whatever is around the house.. oats, dried fruit, wheat/oat bran, flax meal, seeds, etc. and of course some maple syrup or brown sugar, oil, etc. I've made them both vegan and non. There are plenty of recipes on line, and I try different ones.

I forgot to add granola bars... I made some recently and they were a big hit...

ok... so here's what my mental list is looking like so far (and my baked-ahead-and-freeze list where applicable):

Make-ahead Options:

baked oatmeal
bran muffins
whole wheat fruit muffins
cheesy muffins
banana bread (or zuchinni, etc.)
whole grain pancakes
quiche
boiled eggs
breakfast cookies
granola bars

Quick on-the-spot options:

yougurt and fruit smoothies
protein powder (or egg white) shakes
omlettes
scrambled/fried eggs
chicken biscuits (using pre-cooked chicken)
granola cereal or muesli with milk
oatmeal

[RealLifeMama]

Jen, with the baked oatmeal, when you say soak the oats in the yogurt overnight, do you do it at room temperature or in the refrigerator?
Can I use kefir?

[rstump]

I do all my soaking at room temp on the counter. Make sure you are using....yogurt, raw milk or kefir not p/h milk. As that will just sour nasty.... :sick

Kefir works but it does make it pretty sour.

[Marielle]

thanks for the recipes - I recognize the baked oatmeal, we've definitely made it before. Although I'm not fond of the tang of the yogurt it gave the oatmeal so I stick to our dominican style milk based oatmeal but definitely loving the quiche ideas.

I've taken a bit to breadbaking again and have been making yummy bagels which we love with roasted veggie cream cheese (whatever veggies we have around, roasted and whirred with cream cheese).

[rstump]

My kids don't like the "tang" of the baked oatmeal with yogurt either. I do mine now with raw milk and sometimes make the whole thing and soak it over night in the . THey like it MUCH better that way. Not totally NT...but good.