The kids are up, bleary eyed and hair askew. The clock is ticking and the school morning rush is kicking in. A mother’s thoughts go to that age old question…how do you get the kids to eat a healthy breakfast? Even the ancient Egyptians were saying, “Tut! Eat your figs. Don’t you want to grow up strong like the Sphinx? EAT!”
Easier said than done. However, I’ve come up with my own bags of tricks and borrowed a few others. If you’re always short of time in the morning, I’ve noted those recipes that freeze well. Just reheat and serve. Here are some ideas to get your kids off to a good start.
- Oatmeal - The biggest hurdle with oatmeal is that it often looks like wallpaper paste or that glue we used to eat as kindergardners, you know, the kind that came with a brush? Oh, well, you didn’t eat it? Oooooo kaaaay. Anyhoo, oatmeal is a blank canvas. Jazz it up, girl!! Try adding some of the following: brown sugar, apple butter, honey, fruit spread or preserves, yogurt, caramel, applesauce, wheat germ or granola. Obviously some of these are healthier than others so just ad a couple chocolate chips or a spoonful of pie filling…just enough to make it fun.
- Breakfast Sandwich
- Oatmeal with nuts and chocolate chips
- Baked Graham Cracker French Toast (freezable)
- PB&J Wraps - Smear PB, jelly and cream cheese on a whole wheat tortilla and roll. Slice it up for the little tykes.
- Oatmeal with peanut butter and chocolate flavored protein powder (tell ‘em it’s Nestle Quik!)
- Peanut Butter Granola Logs
- Ants on a Log Moving Rocks - Spread PB on celery, add the raisins then add almonds or granola
- Oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts.
- Rice cakes with Nutella and banana
- Pumpkin Oatmeal
- Bean Dip with whole wheat tortillas
- Inside Out sandwiches - Roll ham or turkey slices with cheese around a rolled up tortilla or slice of bread.
- Whole Wheat Pancakes - The trick here is to make them fun. Draw a face with maple or chocolate syrup. Add bananas and chips for the eyes. Next time you’re at a restaurant with the kids for breakfast, look at how they make Mickey Mouse, a Martian, give the kids a cookie cutter to make shapes. (freezable)
- Breakfast pizza - For older kids and teens, a breakfast pizza is a lot more appealing than cold cereal. I make these on English Muffins, put them individually on a cookie sheet and freeze. After they’re solid, I pack them into Ziplocs for microwaving on busy mornings. Younger kids love these with the cheese cut into shapes before topping the pizza. (freezable)
- Cheese quesadillas or rolled tortillas with eggs and cheese. Roll a tortilla around string cheese with a bit of pizza sauce.
- Hummus Roll - Spread on whole grain flatbread, sprinkle with shredded carrots and thinly sliced red pepper for older kids. Younger kids will dip pretty much anything into hummus.
- Apple Bulgur (did you know bulgur has the highest amount of protein among cereal grains?)
- Maple Nut Oatmeal
- Baked Apples
- Banana Carrot Muffins (sneakily used by moms for decades to sneak in fruit s and veggies!)
- PB&J Waffles
- Little Pocket Buffet - Buy a small muffin tin. Put veggies, dips and cheese cubes into each “pocket.”
- Scrambled eggs with “blood” (ketchup) If you can stomach it, my daughters thought it was “REALLY gross” which to a preschooler means it must be eaten. Which means they’ll also love…
- A Spider Sandwich - Cut a PB sandwich with a round cutter and stick pretzels in for legs.
- Berenstain Bears Breakfast Oatmeal
- Grilled cheese and egg sandwich
- 1 Cup Strawberry Shake Smoothie - Mix 1 cup milk, 1 banana, 1 cup yogurt and 1 c frozen strawberries in a blender. Serve with a straw. Kids think everything is better with a bendy straw.
- Egg Muffins - Not McMuffins, but rather eggs mixed with ham, cheese and veggies and baked in a muffin tin. Portable and quick for the whole family.
- Ramen Noodles - My daughter loves this for breakfast. Toss the flavor packet or use very little as it’s high in sodium. Stir in leftover chicken or shrimp and toss with a some shredded skim Mozzarella or light herb cream cheese. Add milk to thin if necessary.
- Apple Smilies
- Butterscotch Banana Bread Waffles (freezable)
- Granola bar
- Banana Oatbran Muffins (freezable)
- Breakfast cookie - Not for everyday but better than nothing on really rushed days. (freezable)
- Shaped Pancakes - Coat a metal cookie cutter generously with non-stick spray. Pour pancake batter into the cookie cutter. When set, remove the cookie cutter and flip. Another way to jazz up pancakes is to “draw” with the batter. Put the batter into a squeeze bottle and let the kids draw letters or shapes. If you want to “etch” onto a pancake, squeeze out a little batter in a shape or letter; let it cook for a minute then top with more batter. When you flip the pancake, there should be a darker shape where you “etched.”
- Egg Salad Bagel - Use half the egg yolks and light mayo. Serve on toasted bagel.
- Waffle puzzle - Cut the waffle into uneven pieces and let the child put it back together.
- French Toast Rollups - French toast for on the go. Cream cheese adds calcium and protein.
- Grilled Peanut Butter sandwich
- Breakfast Burritos - Make on the weekend and freeze. Microwave for 3 minutes. (freezable)
- Ancient Scrolls - For your budding archaeologist, spread peanut butter over a tortilla or whole wheat flatbread. Let the children “write” text with Alpha-Bits cereal. This one’s a big hit in the kindergarten set.
- Nachos and Fruit Salsa
- McD’s style Egg Muffin Sandwich
- Peanut Butter “Sundae” bar -Spread peanut butter on whole wheat bagels and provide bowls of cut bananas, mini marshmallows, cubed apples, honey, raisins, grated carrots and maple syrup for topping.
- Pretzel kabobs - Let your little one thread Cheerios on mini pretzel sticks and dip into yogurt.
- Berry Berry Smoothie
- Peanut Butter Noodles - Mix a little peanut butter with HOT water and a touch of brown sugar. If your kids are older, add soy, rice wine vinegar and hot chili oil. Toss with whole wheat pasta.
- Scrambled Tofu…Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, but if you don’t tell, they won’t know they’re not eggs. Serve with ketchup.
- Amish Baked Oatmeal - If your kids like oatmeal cookies, they’ll love this. Cheap, healthy and a pan will last all week.
- Hot Brown Rice - Mix cooked leftover rice with a little milk, cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins. Heat.
- Waffle “French Toast” - Make a batter of eggs, milk, cinnamon, sugar and vanilla, dip waffles, coat in cornflake crumbs and bake at 375 for 10-12 mins.
- Banana “Pudding” - Mash a very ripe banana and stir into applesauce with a bit of vanilla yogurt. Toddlers especially love this when they make it themselves.
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup smoothie
- Hash - Cut up some leftover baked potatoes then fry them with a leftover meat.
- Yogurt and granola “sundae”
- Cereal Trail Mix - Mix cereal (great for the last of the box) with nuts, raisins, seeds and anything else your kid likes in a Ziploc bag.
- Peanut Butter Banana shake
- Pizza Rolls - Put pizza sauce, cheese and cut up veggies between two crescent rolls and pinch closed. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. (freezable)
- Applesauce “Soup” - Stir cut up fruit and nuts into applesauce
- Cinnamon Apple Quesadilla
- Country Cottage Cheese - Mix apple butter with cottage cheese.
- Hard boiled eggs
- Spinach Cheese Casserole - Bake on the weekend and enjoy throughout the week by heating and topping with salsa or spaghetti sauce for teens, ketchup for little ones.
- Waffle Egg Sandwich - Toast two whole wheat waffles, top with egg and cheese
- Checkerboard Sandwich - Spread one slice of light wheat bread with peanut butter. Spread a slice of white or dark whole grain bread with cream cheese or , for a treat, marshmallow cream. Slice sandwiches into 9 pieces by cutting into thirds length wise and width wise. Flip over every other piece to show the darker size of the bread. If you trim the crusts (which is de rigeur in the toddler set I know), it will look neater.
- Breakfast Rockets
- “Painted” toast - Mix a little food coloring into several bowls of milk. Give the kids a CLEAN paintbrush and let them “paint” their toast before eating.
- Fruit skewers - Thread cut up fruit on skewers and serve with cream cheese mixed with peanut butter and milk for dipping.
- Toffee Cream of Wheat
- Pizza Omelette - Ok, on this one, you need to be comfy making an omelette. If you are, before folding your omelette, fill with diced bell peppers, cheese and tomato sauce. If you’re not, throw these into a pita and nuke it for about 15 seconds to melt the cheese. I won’t tell.
- Fruit and cheese
- Ham and Cheese Bagel - Grill on your George Foreman or Panani press.
- Steel Cut Oatmeal cooked overnight in the Crockpot
- Banana Dog (banana dog (peanut butter, a banana, and raisins in a long whole-grain bun)
- Fruit and Cream Cheese Sandwich (use strawberries or other fresh fruit)
- Nutty Breakfast Rolls
- Ham and Tater Tot Casserole…Ah, tater-tots…a kids favorite potato.
- Blender Breakfast
- Mini Waffles
- English muffin topped with honey, cinnamon and granola
- Whole wheat toast with flavored cream cheese - Make your own. Stir in preserves, maple syrup, cinnamon, peanut butter or Nutella into softened light cream cheese.
- Pita Melt - Put thinly sliced turkey or ham with cheese in a pita and microwave for about 1 minute
- Fruit Salad - Cut up seasonal fruit and toss with yogurt thinned with a little milk.
- Green Eggs and Ham - Use a little green food coloring as you scramble the eggs.
- Banana “Buttons” - Cut slices and sprinkle with a little brown sugar.
- Waffle Sandwich - Make your waffles portable.
- Muesli
- Fruit “pizza” - Top a whole wheat tortilla, waffle or bagel with fruit yogurt and sliced fruit
- Breakfast taco
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Balls
- Grilled cheese on whole wheat
- French Toast Sticks - Kids love finger food. (freezable)
- Whole grain toast with peanut butter and apple or banana slices
- Chocolate Monkey Smoothie
- “Lunchables” Breakfast - Leftover meat thinly sliced with cheese and whole wheat crackers
- Bacon Hashbrown Rollups
- Kids Favorite Breakfast Bars
- Grilled Cheese and Bacon on Raisin Bread (It strangely works.)
- Leftovers (Do you really think the breakfast police will arrest you if you don’t eat “breakfast” foods?)
http://frantichomecook.com/recipes/100-quick-healthy-and-fun-kid-friendly-breakfast-ideas/
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