How Do You Manage... Breakfast?

At our house, breakfast is always made by me. It just happens to work that way. I get up with the baby (who ever that is at the time) who is always the earliest riser. So, mom is on permanent breakfast duty.

I am careful to give a little fruit, a little protein and a little carb with every breakfast. I don't plan them out like I try to do for other meals, I just try to have lots of breakfast items on hand.

Some of our common breakfast items:

Fruit Smoothies: Left over fruit, sometimes some protein powder, sometimes a little yogurt, a couple of carrots or spinach can even go in because when you use bananas they over power the taste of everything else, a bit of flax seed. The great thing about smoothies is that you just use what you have. I will often by red or blue band over-ripe bananas at the grocery store and freeze them in batches of two or three because they add such a wonderful flavor and texture to a smoothie.

Yogurt - My easy tutorial on how to make your own here.

Granola - Inventing a new recipe for granola is like beating a dead horse. There are millions! This is great stuff, though, and if you haven't ever made your own, now is the time. It uses cheap ingredients but is very tasty. Especially on yogurt.

Eggs - I am very thankful to be able to buy fresh eggs from a friend who has lots of chickens. She only charges us $1.50 a dozen, it is a blessing. I do hope to have our own chickens and our own eggs soon. Anyway, eggs are the perfect breakfast food, don't you agree? Egg sandwiches (McMuffin-like), fried eggs, boiled eggs, eggs with (veggie) sausage, eggs with cheese, omelets.

Oatmeal - Here are a few of my ideas on this grain. Did you know it has the highest protein content of any of them?

French toast / pancakes / waffles - I have an electric griddle that my mom bought me several years ago. What a blessing that is! I also received a professional Belgian waffle maker for mother's day. Yum! I don't make any of the things in this category very often but when I do, I make LOTS. Flash freezing them on a cookie sheet and then storing them in a gallon zip lock in the freezer is a time saver another day. Just pull them out and reheat on a cookie sheet in a 350 oven, or, for smaller amounts, in the toaster.

Fresh Fruit - There is an abundance at this time of year! Strawberries, cherries, grapes, bananas, you name it, we eat it for breakfast.

Bagels - When I find these on the discount bakery rack (Fred Meyer usually) for 99 cent or at the Oroweat bakery for the same price, I buy them and put them in the freezer. Cream cheese can sometimes be found on sale but, most often, I buy the big block at Costco.

Cold Cereal - There is a time and place for fast food! Once a week mom sleeps in (on Shabbat, which is Saturday) and I keep a good supply of cold cereals (sales with coupons) and rice milk (Costco) for that once a week treat.