Sunday, June 7, 2009

Menu Monday--A Change of Pace--Breakfast :)

During my boot camp orientation, I lied. The instructor was asking how many different breakfasts you prepare. I was about to speak and heard words like 'one', 'two' and 'one'. I shyly mumbled 'six' and she looked at me in shock--I continued to mumble I had kids that were always wanting something new so I had to keep it varied. Right then I was glad I did not say the truth because honestly I have 12-16 go-to breakfasts in my rotation. I am not sure why I was scared to admit I have such a large variety--probably because the rest of the room had a variety of cereal and toast.

I've never been able to go 'small' on breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day. A good, balanced breakfast will make or break your day--too much sugar and you get hyped up only to drop by noon, too much fat and you feel bloated for the rest of the day. 

I also have this thing against a 'cold' breakfast. I pretty sure my kids would look see me as an alien clone if I fixed cold cereal for breakfast. I just find cold cereal better suited as a quick after school snack or even a snack after dinner. A mushy box of flakes drowning in bowl of milk just doesn't work for me.

I also firmly believe breakfast plays a role in our children's school work. Kids are so sensitive to foods. If you hand them off to the school full of fruit loops or pop tarts, you should expect to spend many an afternoon at the principal's office discussing behavior. I remember when Miley was younger and she was having 'talking' issues on certain days. Her teacher being of the same food mindset as me, linked it to breakfast. So for two weeks, she recorded her behavior--attention, grades, listening--while I recorded what she ate before school. Any morning she had a high carb breakfast like french toast (made on multi-grain bread even!) or breakfast muffins, she had behavior and listening issues while when she had protein rich breakfasts like scrambled eggs with spinach and chicken sausage or an Italian frittata, she did amazingly well. And when I just added more egg white and less maple syrup to the french toast along with some chicken sausage, she had a better day!

It was amazing. 

So this week, I am going to share breakfast with you. Because we have a few busy mornings, there are also a couple get up and go meals. 

I hope you can find a few things in your menu and encourage variety for the most important meal of the day! (The prep work to these is fairly simple--if you have any questions, please email me at verybusymomwith4@gmail.com)

Monday: Red pepper egg white omelet with cheddar cheese and small scoop of ranchero sauce

Tuesday: Steel cut oats with walnuts, dried cranberries and (real) maple syrup (I eat this A LOT)

Wednesday: Broiled whole grain muffin with scrambled eggs, sauted spinach, cheddar cheese--put together like a sandwich and it's a meal to go!


Friday: Yogurt bar--start with PLAIN nonfat yogurt and serve with granola, nuts, fruits, honey (this is a bit sweeter than most breakfasts but I am going to be hosting breakfast after a sleep over!)

Saturday: French toast (be sure to use real maple syrup!) with berries and chicken maple sausage

Sunday: Migas  (I do not fry the tortilla strips but I am sure it would be very yummy!)

For more recipes be sure to check out Jen at Chive Talkin' :)

9 comments:

Brian and Staci said...

Seriously girl!!! YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!!!! I feel like such a loser...I've never been much of a breakfast eater, therefore, my kids are not. Because of YOU, I am going to give it a go :) Thanks for sharing!!!! You're the BEST!

Anonymous said...

This is awesome! So,what do you do when your kids won't eat eggs?? :)

Miss Lisa said...

No eggs is tricky!

I would suggest focusing on chicken sausage, plain yogurt smoothies, maybe protein shakes with frozen fruit. You might also be able to add some ground nuts to pancakes or waffles.

And if your kids would be OK with it, you could serve left-over meats from the dinner before. It sounds weird but they might think it's a lot of fun!

Best of luck!

Amanda said...

It's cereal and/or toast in our house. 7 days a week!
Your breakfasts look really good!

Stephanie said...

Perfect timing! I've actually been thinking about how to change up our breakfast routine. I could tell you a story about that, but I don't want to leave a superlong comment.

We usually do cereal, sometimes the Hubs makes smoothies and if we've had frittatas the night before, we'll eat the leftovers (if there are any!) in the morning. We're big fans of plain yogurt with fruit and honey or nuts too! But it usually ends up being a snack, not a breakfast. I'm not sure why I told you all this when I was going to keep it short. Oh well. I think we all like to talk about what we ate for breakfast! ;)

Anyway, I so appreciate the ideas/inspiration!

I'm interested in broiled muffins. How do you do that? Can you broil any muffins instead of baking them?

EatPlayLove said...

Yum! We love cooked breakfasts in our house as well.

dani said...

it ALL sounds scrumptious, lisa:P what do you do if your kids don't like what you have prepared???
love,
dani xxxxxx

Anti-Supermom said...

Very rarely do my kids have cereal for breakfast either, it's not that I'm against them, it just not enough protein for them and they really don't like them.

You are such an awesome Mom, Lisa.

the Preppy Princess said...

We love steel cut oats, they are so good! And what a good idea to do the breakfast menus!

Glad you are doing better Miss Mom,
tp