What do you feed your 5-yr olds for breakfast on school mornings?

My kids are picky eaters and I'm trying to figure out a few quick options for breakfast on school mornings. If they had it their way they would eat a bagel every day, but I want to offer more variety than that. So what fo you guys do for quick school breafasts?

 

We do a lot of oatmeal (not the flavored packets, the plain "quick oats" kind), with fresh fruit if we have it or otherwise with dried fruit. We also do Cream of Wheat (Sarah loves it - Amy usually has Cheerios instead), but that takes a little longer because I make it on the stove with milk.

 

Favourite weekday breakfasts in our house are Carnation Instant Breakfast, instant oatmeal (the flavoured kinds), eggos(with Peanut butter), cold cereal with milk, scrambled egg cooked in the microwave with a bit of shredded cheese (takes no longer than instant oatmeal). 1/2 a bagel with a slice of ham and cheese on it, 1/2 and english muffin with meat and cheese, Toast. Both kids generally have a bit of juice with it (unless they are having instant breakfast) My son will sometimes have a fruit, but not often. My daughter never has fruit.

I do not make them have the same thing for breakfast.

On the other hand my husband basicaly eats the same breakfast ever week day, and has for 15 years (bowl of Miniwheats and then either a bagel or an english muffin with PB and honey and a glass of OJ), so Variety is not needed if they don't want it.

 

I make big batches of pancakes and waffles. Heat for 30 seconds, add a bowl of fruit, and glass of milk. We also do cereal, bagels, and English muffins.

FWIW, I ate a bagel everyday for 20+ years with no adverse effects. Maybe change the topings if needed.

 

Quick breakfast here include:

frozen waffles/pancakes (from previous batches)
hard boiled eggs
a scrambled egg cooked in the microwave (seriously under 1 minute)
bagels with PB, creamcheese or jelly
PB & J
cereal
cereal bars
Fiber One granola bars
Quaker breakfast cookies
yogurt
toast with Nutella

 

Whatever they'll eat. I'm allergic to eggs, so as babies they didn't get exposed to much variety in breakfast. So, now they're a bit picky about breakfast and it's my own fault.

Cereal, any kind as long as it doesn't contain food dyes
Pop tarts (daddy introduced those)
Homemade pancakes (I use 1/2 whole wheat flour and Sarah will have blueberries in hers)
Yogurt
Cheese sticks
Homemade cinnamon rolls (Timothy's favorite)
Homemade kolaches (Sarah's favorite)
Frozen sausage biscuits

Marissa

 

waffles
cereal (most common option)
english muffins
cinnamon toast w/ fruit
sausage & cheese biscuits (reheated)
eggs & toast
bagel



Those are the options we cycle through...with bagels and cereal being the most common.

 

Wholegrain cereal in almond milk (DH is lactose intolerant) with OJ to drink. This also what DH and I eat, and we eat with the girls. I offer variety on weekends, as a treat, but we just eat the same breakfast every morning during the week. It's quick and easy.

 

We do everything from cold cereal to homemade waffles. My only criteria is that it is healthy. I just can't let them eat crap in the morning.

French toast is super quick & easy and my go to breakfast for the kids.


Personally, I am loving Chorizo Rolls lately

 

This is my biggest worry about the girls starting school this year! I am watching the answers as closely as the OP! Currently we have homemade waffles, pancakes (neither girl likes syrup but I spinkle them w/ a little confectioner's sugar), blueberry bagel, brown rice with cheese, MultiGrain Cheerios, Strawberry Frosted Mini Wheats. PBs- they don't like the jelly so we have fruit on the side, blueberry or cinnamon muffins & fruit w/ a cheese stick. I can barely get them to drink milk...I pour glass after glass....into the sink.

I am also concerned about lunch - they don't eat sandwiches......

 

My girls are not in school yet, BUT having taught- I will offer some of what I have seen w/ K kids.

Pack a healthy snack.



Often if a child sees peers eating a sandwich- it is desirable and you 'never ate a sandwich' child may eat them. Also easy lunch fix-its: are cheese/meat/whole grain crackers, yogurt, fruit, tortilla w/ fixing (put in small dishes and they can build their own, bagels, lots of snacks (healthy) instead of a giant lunch (grapes, cheese, dry cereal, pretzels, etc).

One of the most common lunches are school lunch (hot and cold) or sandwiches/make your own stackable crackers type things ( can be store bought but those are unhealthy!! make you own for cheap). Some kids dont eat much at school so be prepared for HUNGRY kids coming home!! It is noisy in the cafeteria and that can be distracting.

You can do breakfast at home or school. School often has bagels/ cold cereal & milk, or a hot option. You could try that too. They have improved health-wise from when we were kids, but still sometimes are not very appealing- but othertimes very good!

 

Some of our breakfast before school/camp are
oatmeal
cereal (if dh is home it is usually a mix of 3-5 different open cereals) with or without milk depending on their mood.
frozen pancakes
eggs if they ask

If we have fresh fruit in the house they will have that as well. I know my girls will have to get up a little earlier when school starts since the bus will be picking them up earlier than the camp bus and around the same time as we left for school.

 

KC gave you some great ideas. Something we try to make sure as well is that they have some kind of protein to help them get through the morning. Isabel's lunch was at 11:25 this year and they did not get a morning snack, but got an afternoon one around 3:00 or 3:30 pm.

Some things you can do is pack soup, pasta, mac & cheese or other things in a thermos. They have really cute ones at Target and I saw kids bring hot food in those a lot. Or even things like packing cold cereal and they can buy some milk at school.

 

Usually my three eat cold cereal every morning (we try without the dyes in them but every now and then they get a treat and get a cereal with dye in it). They usually have three different cereals all mixed together when one goes they pick out another one.

Oatmeal (flavored but ones without the red dye in it)

homemade blueberry waffles or pancakes (no syrup just plain). We make big batches and freeze the rest and then I reheat them in the toaster oven or toaster.

Sometimes scrambled eggs on the stove but that is rare.

My kids prefer eating cereal the most and the oatmeal, especially during the week. On weekends dh makes french toast with powdered sugar on it as a treat.

 

When my kids were in day care I had to send breakfast because we dropped off very early. I would send, fresh fruit of their choice, a quick bread (zucchini or carrot or banana) and either a hard boiled egg, or pancakes or waffles.

At home before camp or on late school days, and what I will do next year of K is their choice, usually one of the following: scrambled eggs, eggs in a nest, homemade pancakes or waffles (I make a batch and freeze on the weekend), or cereal. Always with fresh fruit of their choice.

For lunch ( I sent lunch to day care) cold pasta with marinara dip, lunch meat (applegate farms has nitrate free) and cheese with crackers, pasta salad, sandwiches or varying types, usually trailmix of some sort (homemade), fresh fruit and carrot and celery sticks).

 

Poptarts. My boys would live off of them if I let them. Once in awhile I sneak a waffle into them or scrambled eggs .. but I have to pretend like I didn't prepare it for them .. but for someone else .. that always makes them seem to want it more.

 

I would experiment the next couple of weeks before school starts trying new breakfast foods. See which ones they are willing to eat, how long they take you to make them, and how long it takes them to eat it. It might also be good to know when their lunch period will be and if their snack time is before or after lunch. One year DD had lunch at 1030, with the snack in the afternoon. Another year she had lunch at 1 and snacked in the morning. As for variety, I ate poptarts (brown sugar cinnamon ones at that) for about 10 years every day except on weekends. Now I rotate between yogurt and a low carb granola bar, or a cottage cheese and a low carb granola bar. Day in and day out. Much else and my system doesn't like me. So if after the next few weeks they really fight you on changing their breakfast up, I say let them eat a bagel everyday. I would offer some cheese and fruit to go with it (maybe only let them split a bagel so they have room for the other stuff).

 

I usually have eggs, bacon or sausage, toast, and sometimes fruit. I boil eggs the night before so I don't have to do it in the morning. I use different spreads on the toast for variety (jam, hummus, cream cheese, American cheese). Milk or water for drink. I alternate between regular bacon and turkey bacon and different kinds of sausage.

If I have time, I'll cut up some tomatos and cucumbers for a simple salad. Sometimes I'll put some cut up veggies and ham on bread topped with sliced cheese and toast it to make instant pizza toast.

 

My kids are huge cereal eaters. They also love french toast. Brown sugar oatmeal is our favorite in the winter. My oldest daughter loves carnation instant breakfast and drinks that almost every school day sometimes with a bagel. We have never missed breakfast and try a bunch of different varieties but they stick to their favs. If I get up early enough on a school day they get bacon and eggs.
Nikki...have you tried carnation instant breakfast with their milk? My kids love that stuff!

 

Great thread Trish!

We really struggle with breakfast. Hannah is super picky/grouchy in the morning and I can't seem to get anything healthy in her. It drives me insane. Forgot about hard boiled eggs. She loves them and that would be a decent source of protein first thing in the morning.

Our usuals are:

cereal with fruit
scrambled eggs/cheese in a whole wheat tortilla ("egg-urritos")
whole wheat toast with peanut butter (sprinkled with flax seed)
whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter, rolled up ("peanut butter wrap")
pancakes (I make a bunch and freeze them)

I really try to limit sugar (aside from fruit) in the morning. It is hard because that is all they seem to want.

 

My pickiest eater gets to eat two Nutri-grain bars most mornings. He wants to eat more but I have to cut him off. The other kids eat cold cereal, english muffins, toast, cheese slices, etc.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll be trying some of these out in the coming weeks.

 

Trish, doesn't your school start SUPER early? :faint: I guess that's the need for quick and easy.

We are cereal eaters!