Breakfast might be the most important meal of the day, but in my house it’s also the most rushed and annoying — and my kids are old enough to feed themselves. Around here everyone runs on a different speed in the morning. My daughter eats the minute she wakes up, and my son eats the minute we need to leave the house. The dogs (all three of them) also eat all morning. I eat when I remember, which is somewhere in between making lunches, throwing frisbees and getting dressed.
So to make “make your own breakfast” or our family-famous “I’m hungry,” “Go eat,” repartee go a little smoother, I’ve found some fail-safe healthy breakfast foods that make the mornings run smoothly and make sure that everyone is well-fed before school.
And while the concept of hot oatmeal or eggs is fabulous, in our house, weekday breakfast foods fall into two categories:
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1) Foods you can eat while walking around or riding in the car;
2) Foods you can eat while finishing your homework or a blog post.
While you might think the first category is the easiest, when you cross Pop Tarts and sugary fruity bars off the list, it becomes trickier.
Luckily we’ve fallen in love with a couple of prime choices, the first being toaster waffles. Since the biggest waffle eater around here chooses to eat them as an a-la-on-the-go food without syrup, it’s perfect. And we’ve found that Kashi’s Blueberry Waffles do not have what we’ve coined “that funny waffle taste” like the Original flavor.
Another walk-around breakfast that we all love adds a little of our favorite food group into the mix. Chocolate. Fiber One Chewy Bars are a tasty, relatively healthy alternative to regular granola or snack bars. They do contain some of the ingredients we love to hate like high fructose corn syrup and the dreaded mixed tocopherals, these are not the ingredients at the top of the list. And with 4 grams of fat and 9 grams of fiber, in our house, it balances out and comes out a winner.
Cold cereals also rank high. And the milk? We only drink skim but whether or not it lands on the cereal is 50/50. We eat it au natural — you know — the way you feed it to babies for a snack, we just don’t put it into cute containers, we eat right out of the box. Two of our favorites are Kashi Heart to Heart Cereal which is not only tasty but cute with it’s little o’s and hearts — and regular old fashioned, yellow box Cheerios. They’re not just for babies anymore, folks!
And while I believe weekend mornings should be reserved for black and white movies and hot cups of coffee all enjoyed before any child or canine stirs, I can often be found whipping up a batch of Banana Cinnamon pancakes that will be ready when everyone stumbles out of bed. My daughter came up with the ingenious idea to add cinnamon, and luckily, along with the mashed bananas, it completely disguises the fact that I use a multigrain pancake mix. I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I’ve stashed pouch in a Bisquick box.
*The column that never ends! If you leave a comment or a question, not only will I love you, but I’ll answer you! Always! So don’t forget to come back to see what advice, recipes and suggestions I’m dishing out in the comments section! Come up with something great — and it might be fodder for a “From Froot Loops to Flax Seeds” column of its own, with a link to the lucky commenter!*
by Amy Nathan
[tags]kids, children, teens, parents, cooking, food, meals, breakfast, fast, breezy, granola bars, cereal, tasty, Banana Cinnamon pancakes, Kashi Heart to Heart[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by gesteves, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved
13 responses so far ↓
Ginger // Oct 17, 2007 at 5:50 am
Hi Amy!
I loved your breakfast blog! I’ve tried most of your suggestions but thanks for the tip about Kashi blueberry waffles. We still eat Cheerios and my 6th grader still packs them for snack at school. Heck, if you’re in 6th grade and you still get snack bringing Cheerios is a natural, huh? But I would love to have your banana pancake recipe. Of course, I will probably add chocolate chips but that’s what weekends are for! Thanks!
Brenda // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:15 am
My kid really likes the Z Bars made by the people who make those Cliff Bars—they have more sugar grams than maybe is ideal, but there’s no HCFS and no preservatives, plus mostly organic if you care about that. The “Chocolate Brownie” flavor is pretty damn good.
Amy Nathan // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:38 am
Ginger,
I’ll admit that the lack of chocolate chips in the pancakes is because they originated on a day when I hit a mothering low and was out of chocolate chips. The addition of the cinnamon was my daughter’s — and pure genius!
Brenda,
I’m going to check out those Z Bars. My kids are all about the bars. Lets hope that’s not the case when they hit 21.
~ Amy
AmyL // Oct 17, 2007 at 7:09 am
We hit on a possible breakfast winner recently. Hubby and I love making our own fruit smoothies (dump fruit and ice into blender…voila). But his tastes are for really strong flavors, while the kids and I like a more mild approach. So we bought the Magic Bullet blender and it’s working very well. You can make an individual size serving with it, instead of having to use the big blender. Cleanup is easier too since all the parts go into the dishwasher.
So far I’ve talked 2 out of 4 kids into trying their own blend of fruit with great success. One of the 9yos has a giant penchant for banana-pineapple and he’s able to make the whole thing himself as long as I have the ingredients available for him. And getting to drink with a bendy straw is a wonderful bonus. Heh heh heh. I figure it’s only a matter of time before the other boys get on board my fruity bandwagon at least a few mornings a week.
Stu Mark // Oct 17, 2007 at 8:12 am
Amy,
What do you think of adding soy powder to the breakfast smoothies? Is it a good protein alternative, or does soy have too many downsides?
Karen // Oct 17, 2007 at 8:59 am
I love the wheat-in-the-bisquick trick. Your breakfast blog is much needed at our house. I just blogged today about how the 4 year old is so sure hot dogs are not only food, but breakfast food at that. Go Cheerios!
nan // Oct 17, 2007 at 10:40 am
More! More! Always looking for advice here! We eat in the car, and recently discovered that you can make oatmeal in a container in the microwave and eat THAT in the car. Hard boiled eggs and trail mix with cherios too. (make your own in ziploc bags!) (o ziploc, how do I love thee?) All of the small reptiles and arachnids which my sons have released in my car over the years are VERY well fed.
By the way, you can use the regular pancake mix and add oats, wheatgerm, eggs etc. And they taste just fine and fluffy as ever. Experiment!
Amy Nathan // Oct 17, 2007 at 10:48 am
Stu,
I’m looking into the soy-thang — I’ve never added it to smoothies, although I’m a HUGE proponent of Fibersure. We add it to everything and it has no taste!
And speaking of smoothies…
AmyL (great name),
We do smoothies as snacks all the time. Frozen fruit works great for us, then I add a little juice or even some sugar-free lemonade mix, a little water and press LIQUIFY. I’ve started cutting up our almost-ready-to-be-thrown-out bananas and popping them into the freezer. If you don’t use ice cubes you have less diluted flavor. My kids like strawberry and banana. I’m a tropical gal and go for mango and pineapple. I’ve also frozen canned pineapple and used that. All I need then is a little umbrella (oh and rum but we won’t go there).
Nan,
I have to get back to hard-boiled eggs for the kids. Thanks for the reminder. I think I’m going to give some thought to healthy snacks and what to feed not only your kids, but other people’s kids — and what to do when you’re on-the-road. (Oh and the soy and dairy thing, I have a “Stu-List”)
Thanks for all the feedback, folks. It IS all about the food isn’t it??
~ Amy
Alip in the Qc // Oct 17, 2007 at 11:31 am
I heart easy breakfast too. I have two boys in elementary school and one is a very picky eater. He loves the Eggos oat and wheat waffles( i refuse to buy plain ones) but i will check out the Kashi line soon! Cheerios, Shreddies, Crispix etc are all very popular with my younger son as are hashbrowns. The child loves him some potatoes. Smoothies are so easy with frozen fruits and berries with yogurt +juice. Soymilk powder can add some more protein or even sneak in some cottage cheese.
I make homeade pancakes from scratch with whole wheat flour etc and freeze the extras for future breakfasts and snacks. It only takes one breakfast when you have the time to cook up a pile for the freezer.
Love your articles.
IntheFastLane // Oct 17, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Frozen waffles are very popular at our house. The Z bars (as someone mentioned above) are too. When my daughter is in a big hurry sometimes she just grabs a bag of trail mix to eat at the bus stop.
Amy Nathan // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Alip, I have added milk to smoothies or yogurt, but I can’t do the cottage cheese thing. My son likes it but I make him eat it where I can’t see! I am going to look into some soy options and post about them next week! I love the idea of protein in the smoothie!
In the Fast Lane, I have to come up with a good trail mix that’s not too sugary or too fatty but that my kids will eat. Again, my motto is “a happy medium.” Do you have a recipe for trailmix that you swear by? I’ll love to have a look-see!
~ Amy
Stu Mark // Oct 18, 2007 at 7:10 am
It occurs to me that I haven’t mentioned my absolute favorite easy breakfast nutrition - Go Lean by Kashi. Lots of fiber, lots of protein, and tasty as all get-out.
Daisy // Oct 26, 2007 at 1:30 pm
One of our favorite things to do with pancakes is to add fruit and/or yogurt. Strawberry yogurt pancakes are delicious!
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