Breakfast

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It is especially important that our kids eat breakfast. Some of us have gotten into the habit of skipping this important meal. Eating breakfast gives us a boost of energy to start the day. Our bodies cannot run on empty until lunchtime. Eating breakfast also helps with concentration, your mood, and it is a great way to spend a little time around the table with your family at the beginning of the day. I have a few breakfast ideas including my multigrain waffle recipe that comes from Eating Well. Please excuse the quality of the video, I was doing my own filming. I will post the recipe for the waffles at the end, but first, let me share with you a few of my breakfast ideas:

1. Cereal with milk and fruit - I really like cereal. We eat multigrain cereal (like Cheerios) with sliced banana or strawberries or other berries.
2. Breakfast Yogurt Parfaits - These are very tasty. Just layer fruit with any flavor of yogurt you like, and granola or other cereal.
3. Sausage, egg, and cheese muffin sandwiches - I make a breakfast sandwich out of a multigrain English muffin, a poached egg (you can do it scrambled or any way you like eggs), a turkey sausage patty (my husband also likes bacon or turkey bacon) and some shredded cheese. I put these together ahead of time and freeze them. Then all you have to do is take them out of the freezer and pop them in the microwave for an easy breakfast.
4. Oatmeal with dried fruit - I buy dried fruit in the bulk section of the grocery store. Whatever they have is what I buy, dried apricots, cherries, raisins, pineapple, you name it. I then chop it all up into small pieces. I make a huge pot of oatmeal and add to it some cinnamon, a little brown sugar, some milk, a little butter, and the dried fruit. I keep it in the fridge. Daniel LOVES it. You could also do this with apples or peaches.
5. Breakfast smoothies - I always keep a frozen fruit mix in the freezer for smoothies. We love them. For breakfast, I mix the frozen fruit with some milk, vanilla flavored yogurt, and silken tofu (yes, tofu, it has a TON of protein and takes on the flavor of whatever you are making) in the blender until smooth. Daniel also LOVES these!
6. Peanut butter toast (or almond butter) with grapefruit - I am a grapefruit fan. Love it! I usually will have a half a grapefruit with a slice of toast. I like peanut butter on my toast but since David has a peanut allergy, I can't really have it in the house, so I buy almond butter instead.
7. Multigrain Freezer Waffles- I love to make waffles and I make a ton of them and put them in the freezer. I got this recipe a couple of years ago from Eating Well. I like it because I can easily sneak a serving of vegetables into the batter. In the video I just made the basic recipe but a lot of times I will add some pureed sweet potato, carrots, squash or beets to the batter. Here is a link to the recipe: Multigrain Waffles.

I would love to hear your breakfast ideas! Until next time, happy and HEALTHY cooking!