Breakfast - Making a Menu, Part 2

Breakfast. Long heralded as the "most important meal of the day." And I believe it. If I don't have a good breakfast I feel hungry all day and end up with the "munchies."

In an effort to get my family off to a good start each day, I like to have a breakfast that consists of more than high-sugar cereal and fruit. This is constantly one of my biggest challenges. Anywhere you look for breakfast recipes with lots of protein there is usually one common ingredient - EGGS.

Since eggs are out for us, where is a mom to turn for protein in the mornings? I admit, I have a long way to go in this area. Most of our protein comes from breakfast meats like ham and sausage. While it's not the best fat-wise that we could do, for the kids it seems to be working. Since my daughter is under-weight and needs as much fat as she can get, it certainly works well for her.

We like variety, but admittedly, I do not have many breakfast recipes that we can all eat. (Hint, hint: if you have some egg-free, protein-packed breakfast recipes you'd like to share, my Inbox standing with open arms!) My solution to our diversity-challenged morning meal is to have the same thing every week. Not every day, mind you, but we have the same thing each week on a particular day. For instance, on Sunday's we have Sausage Balls. On Monday's we have Baked Apples and Oatmeal, etc. This means we have variety during the week (not facing toast and sausage every morning) and it helps mom prepare ahead.

Because I know what we are having in advance, I can make extra batches and store in the freezer. I try to alternate which days I make the food and which days I pull from the freezer. So today (Tuesday) I made enough muffins for our breakfast this morning and enough to put into the freezer for next week. Tomorrow I won't have to cook because I'll be pulling biscuits I made last week out of the freezer.

This is my current breakfast menu plan. It might be changing soon to accommodate warmer-weather recipes.

Sunday - Sausage Balls
Monday - Baked Apples and Oatmeal
Tuesday - Muffins
Wednesday - Biscuits and Sausage
Thursday - Fruit and Oat Scones
Friday - Cinnamon Rolls
Saturday - Daddy Cooks (usually Pancakes)

Having a plan in place helps me be nutritious with breakfast instead of always throwing Pop-Tarts on the table (which does happen at times!). It also helps me be cost-effective since all of the meals listed are made from scratch using mixes I've prepared ahead of time. [I should probably figure up how much each meal costs to give you a good idea. I'll try to do that soon. ]

Just wondering... What do you serve your allergic kids for breakfast? Have you found a good protein alternative to eggs in the morning? Leave me a comment, I'd love to get some fresh ideas.

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image from art.com

Next, read about Lunch