The battle of breakfast: Family breakfast ideas

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. How seriously do we really take breakfast? #breakfastideas #breakfast #food
Mornings are busy times. Both of us work, so we leave home early. With a pre-scholar on board, the rush is real. Today, I (Dear Mom of Dear Son) am going to share our breakfast battle along with some family breakfast ideas.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Yet, we can give so little time to it. Over the years, we found some ways of making breakfast a tad bit easier. We have a long way to go before mastering the art of breakfast. Here are some of the things we try to do nowadays for breakfast.

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Dear Son

Dear son loves fruits. So we make sure to stock up on fruits. Apples, strawberries, grapes (choking hazard), watermelon are some of his favorite fruits. So, every morning there is at least some fruits on the table. Lately it has been apples and strawberries.

We started to ask Dear Son to pick up something from the store that he would like to try for breakfast when he was around three. Involving him meant less guesswork on my part and more excitement about breakfast on his part. He started picking up a thing or two and we would try those out. He liked to pick up Froot Loops.

Now, most of Dear Son’s selections are from the frozen section. The French toast was a big hit for a long time. Currently, we are on the mini-pancake season. We grab frozen mini buttermilk pancakes when we are in the grocery.

At first he used to eat the pancake without anything. Slowly he started adding strawberries in them. Now, he likes to make pancake sandwich by using two pancakes and a slice of strawberry in between with a dollop of cool whip! Fancy, I know!

He needs exactly ten pancakes in the morning. One less or more than that and I can see the sadness of betrayal in his eyes. Counting is important in life!

Dear Mom and Dear Dad

We usually have the same breakfast. Some days it is a toast with cream cheese and some sort of jam, jelly, or preserve. Some days it is hash browns, the microwavable kind. 🙂 Some days it’s oatmeal. We get those single-serve packs with dried fruits and different flavors. Pour some milk, add some raisins, and microwave for some time. It’s done. Some days we microwave the frozen French toasts. Usually, it’s a mix and match between some of these things.

Most of the microwaveable food items need to be microwaved in two phases. The oatmeal, for example, will need to be cooked for 90 seconds in the first phase and then a bit of stirring followed by another 40-50 seconds of microwaving, then it is ready to eat. Less milk or more time in the microwave means there is a mess waiting for us to clean! Potato patties have some heating requirements too. We use a kitchen towel or two to soak up the oil from potato patties.

We try to have some form of egg, boiled or scrambled. Boiled is good time-wise, I can warm up the pancakes, cut the strawberries and apples while the egg is being cooked. The only problem with boiled egg is that Dear Son tends to eat only half of it! Give him a scrambled egg and he can eat two of those same eggs without complaining!

Since we try to keep breakfast time short, I don’t make coffee or tea. We drink a little juice if we have a few extra minutes. And that’s the end of the battle, at least for another day 🙂 I wish we could manage more time to prepare breakfast.

Continuing with the battle

As you can see, we depend a lot on frozen food. And we try to have some carbohydrate (bread, potato, pancake), protein (egg), and fruits in there. Shopping critically for the success of the battle is essential. I have a few things in my shopping list that I check or uncheck each week depending on our supply. We may pick up something different for a change or try new things, but we make sure there are at least a few breakfast items in the cart.

If the weekend is slow and I am ambitious, I try making a batch of pancake or French toast or cupcake or quiche for the week. The quiche was my most recent try which ended up as a disaster. I realized it may not be a wise idea to cook a big batch of a new recipe. Lesson learned.

We would love to hear your breakfast story and any family breakfast ideas. Would you very kindly share your breakfast strategies? Hope you have a wonderful rest of the week.

From a Family Blog: Settle in El Paso



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40 thoughts on “The battle of breakfast: Family breakfast ideas

  1. Awww I like that you tell both the parents’ and childrens’ challenges with getting a healthy breakfast for all and quickly too. It’s the most important daily meal and requires effort amidst a race against time! I’m a fan of cereal because it’s fast and like that I can mix it up with different kinds on different days to keep me from getting bored of it. Sending your family a big hug 🙂 Sharing across social networks!

  2. I am a night owl, which means I work late night, sometimes until 4 in the morning. Since I work in the night, I sleep all through the morning. When I wake up in the morning is is already 9. By the time, I freshen up, drink coffee, check emails and facebook and twitter, it is already 10. By then wife will be almost ready with lunch. I don’t eat breakfast, the first thing I eat in the morning is junch which is around 11. There is no battle for breakfast.

  3. Honestly, it is not always that easy for me to take breakfast before going out for work. I mean I sometimes decide to leave it while I take some meals at the restaurant close to my office. It is not always easy when my sister does not make it for I will be busy preparing for work.

  4. That is the one battle that most children win in the morning. Sometimes they will throw a tantrum or they don’t want to eat because they are used to tha same breakfast everyday. If you present another kind of healthy breakfast they will not eat it, until after all things have been said and done. This is a struggle of many parents. How can we encourage the children to eat proper breakfast?

  5. I’m not a morning person and I don’t eat breakfast. I don’t know why I don’t have an appetite in the morning. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day but I can’t take it. I wish there’s a solution for us so we can have a proper meal.

  6. Yes, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Breakfast gives a lot of energy to our brain and body, without breakfast, you might feel running empty. It is also one way to get family together or to eat together. I usually don’t take breakfast because I am not a morning person but I am starting to practicing it! Great article again!

  7. My son is the same. He has eaten 3 apples today. We do have some time for breakfast but he wont eat things like eggs or oatmeal. He wont even drink milk of any kind so he eats his cereal dry. He likes the Jimmy Dean Sausage biscuits which is a good hearty breakfast but it s not the healthiest choice. Its not the worst thing but it drives me nuts!!

    1. Haha … It is a miracle how kids like to eat the same food again and again. My son now demands the same breakfast everyday. Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful evening.

  8. Breakfast is always a struggle because during the week when it’s time to get up early and rush off to work, I don’t want to put a lot of time or effort into breakfast. At the same time, breakfast is a rather important meal of the day. It’s the first meal of the day and the food that is suppose to keep you going until lunch. As a teacher, I need to be ready as soon as I arrive at work and keep on my toes all morning long. Another dilemma in my personal breakfast battle is also that my stomach just doesn’t want much food first thing in the morning. Ultimately, I keep my breakfast pretty simple. Generally some healthy, multi-grain toast with either peanut or almond butter. Thankfully, a couple hours later I usually have a little break time (either while the kids are at recess or in a specials class) that I can then have a small “second breakfast” of either a granola bar or apple. Weekends however, those are much better for breakfast. My husband and I like to pick at least one day in the weekend when we can make a nice, large breakfast together.

    1. That second breakfast is quite important. Similar to that a snack a few hours after lunch is also good. That allows a stable energy supply to the function properly. Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful evening.

  9. On the weekends we like to have a big breakfast and sit down to eat together. During the week it’s too hectic in the morning to do a big breakfast. Usually it’s a bowl of cereal or a pop-tart for breakfast during the week.

    1. That is great. Weekend breakfasts are something the family looks forward to. Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

  10. I myself don’t eat breakfast but my uncle, aunt and cousins are a firm believer that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This will have me waking up early everyday cooking when i’m babysitting my cousins when they are on weekend business trips and it can surely be a challenge to start of there day the right way. But I have gotten into the rhythm, I wake up before there up make myself a cup of coffee, get there cloths in the drier, while waiting for the the laundry I start making breakfast. Then I make my second cup of coffee and go sit on the couch as they wake up and I go help them get ready and then we eat breakfast. Thing don’t always go that smoothly but it’s a great way to start of the day when it does.

  11. I totally feel you! Even more nowadays that mom’s are multitask. Early morning there are a lot of things to do and sometimes it’s easier to go for the cereals and milk, almost every single day. Not healthy! What I try to do it’s to plan healthy breackfast for the week and the night before I put things handy for next morning.

    1. That is such a cool idea — Keeping a breakfast plan for the week. Thanks for sharing what you do for breakfast.

  12. I used to be terrible eating breakfast first thing in the morning, yeah I have gotten a lot better out of these days. Before I would only drink coffee and head out for work or school. Yet as I have gotten a little older I understand I need to eat more, and breakfast I found really helps with my mental health. That might sound funny but what I mean is it helps people to be a more attentive early in the day. Then throughout the day that person has more mental energy to go about their day.

    1. I agree. Breakfast not only gives the energy to start working, it also gives a mental boost to be organized and productive throughout the day. Wish you a wonderful week ahead.

  13. You are lucky because your son eats so many fruits and to the first hour of the day. We struggle to make our son eat an apple a day. I like jelly fish at breakfast too, but my son likes to eat only cheese or eggs, or butter with milk in the morning!

    1. Haha ? there are different battles at different times of the day. We have hard time feeding our son during dinner. Thank you for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

  14. I feel your pain! Here, it’s also a daily ”struggle” to make sure to eat the breakfast because of the time rush. I can admit that for ages I didn’t eat any breakfast at all… I just fed my husband and my boy. I felt like I wasn’t hungry after I’ve put the food on the table. However, I always felt without energy throughout the day… so my husband started pointing out how much I miss by not eating any breakfast at all. He even showed me studies that proved how vital breakfast is for your body.

    Now, we always wake up a tiny bit earlier just so we can sit down and eat together. I have to admit that it gives me a nice extra boost of energy in the morning. My favorite meal is a simple oatmeal with chunks of banana (fresh) and warm milk over it.

    My son sounds like yours though. He also has phases where he LOVES eating one particular food then switches to another. We are currently on the crunchy cereals season.

    1. Thank you for reading the post and leaving a great comment. I too used to have no appetite for my breakfast. Specially since I don’t like to rush my eating. Just like how your husband explained the importance of breakfast to you, my husband kept asking me about my breakfast and kept sharing his. Which was sweet but annoying because then he was eating half. So, I had to make sure I have something. Aah, there are stories behind our stories. 🙂 I wish you have a wonderful weekend.

  15. Breakfast is the most important part of daily diet. It is recommended that people must take breakfast early as possible. But due to the work schedule and busy morning most people do have it us hard to have breakfast in the morning. Now some have turned it in to brunch; breakfast/lunch. I think we should work out a schedule that will allow us to have our breakfast at the appropriate period.

    1. I agree with you. The time gap between dinner and breakfast next morning is already large. There is no point delaying the breakfast. Thanks for visiting and commenting. Have a wonderful day.

  16. You forgot a boiled egg -not even scrambled or poached – just a simple boiled egg that will give you all the proteins you need for the day. Not to say that you cannot make it a bit differently. It has all to do with wanting to do it . Yes. Just wanting to do and then you will find atleast ten to twelve different ways of using your egg.
    Happy egg-ing

    1. Yes, definitely egg is important. As I mentioned in the post, we try to have some form of egg, either boiled or scrambled. I find that boiled eggs are good time efficient because I can in parallel prepare pancakes and do other items while the egg is being cooked. Thanks a ton for visiting and writing a valuable comment. Have a wonderful day.

    1. It must be wonderful to start the day with a favorite meal. Thanks for reading and taking the time to leave a comment.

    1. Haha ? Definitely, it depends on many parameters and choices! Thanks so much for visiting and leaving a note.

    2. The meaning of breakfast is to break fast and it is important for our system to start the day pumping in some proteins and carbohydrates that will sustain us throughout the day

      What’s for breakfast? (lol)

    1. A great question. Haha ? Dear Son is not into it. He thinks that whipped cream is ice cream ?. So he is now in a phase of eating pancakes with ice cream (whipped cream) and strawberries . Thanks for visiting and commenting!

  17. Ah, breakfast 🙂 My favorite childhood memory was waking up to my mother’s cooking. I don’t have children, but your post reminded of all the breakfasts I had with my family.

    1. I am glad to know that my post reminded your childhood memories. Really, those are the best memories! Thank you for visiting and sharing your thoughts. Wish you a wonderful weekend!

    1. I definitely agree. Weekend breakfasts are something that we look forward to, as well. Thank you for visiting and leaving a beautiful note. Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

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