I didn’t take a lot of pictures over the past few days so in lieu of a weekend recap for you guys this morning, I have a reader request! I’ve had more than a few requests to share more of our boys’ meals which is something I am happy to do if it’s of interest… although people can get crazy judgmental about kid food. Please know I share these meals because they are what works for our family. They may not be right for your kids or your family and that’s okay!
One Week of Kid Breakfasts in 5 Minutes (or Less)
I’m no stranger to understanding the stress that goes into feeding kids but we’re in a phase of life now where our boys’ meals are pretty much second nature to me and I can get them on the table in no time at all. Take breakfast for example! The vast majority of our boys’ breakfasts come together in 5 minutes or less and incorporate similar favorite foods. (Do I wish our boys were more adventurous eaters who would happily gobble down veggie-packed frittatas and avocado toast? Sure! But I do my best to make them breakfast plates that include fruit, fiber, protein and fat and am good with that for now.) The boys’ meals are not hard to make and there are some shortcuts I’ve recently started implementing that make their morning meals even easier which I will also highlight below.
A couple not-too-important notes I’ll share that aren’t crucial but still worth noting: Our boys eat a banana right when they wake up most mornings. After they get dressed, they often grab a banana from the kitchen to eat and this seems to help take the edge off their hunger while I prepare their breakfast plates. Also, if they’re still hungry soon after breakfast, they’ll often grab a Larabar, Bobo’s bar or a cup of yogurt from the fridge to eat as well to fill them up a little more. I share all this because while the plates below represent their breakfasts for the most part, they’re not comprehensive and other food may also be consumed on the mornings they eat the meals you see below, depending on their hunger levels.
And now here’s an example of one week of our boys’ breakfasts!
Monday: Scrambled Eggs, Toast with Butter and Honey, Strawberries, Chicken Sausage
This was probably the breakfast that took the longest to prepare all week and that’s saying something because it was still a meal that came together in about 5 minutes. It was a simple meal of scrambled eggs, toast with butter and honey (our boys like Dave’s Killer Bread or ALDI’s version of Dave’s Killer Bread — their Simply Nature thin-sliced organic bread), chicken sausage and strawberries. The frozen chicken sausage is the item on the boys’ plates that can take longer than 5 minutes to prepare but they were faster to cook on Monday morning because they were leftover from the weekend. I just threw the leftover sausage into the skillet with the eggs to warm them up.
Tuesday: Buttered Simple Mills Waffles with Maple Syrup and Strawberries
You guys saw this meal if you checked out my day-in-the-life blog post last week. I previously mentioned this “breakfast hack” but I’ll share it again in case you missed it and have kids who love waffles in your house as well. On Saturday or Sunday, I’ve started cooking up a whole box of Simple Mills waffles to throw in the freezer.
This makes getting waffles on the boys’ plates in the mornings a breeze because I just pop them in the toaster. Slicing the strawberries the night before also cut down on breakfast prep time in the morning. Another simple breakfast, ready in 5 minutes or less!
Wednesday: Buttered Honey Toast with Yogurt and Raspberries (Plus a Larabar)
This meal was extra easy but still one that had the boys clearing their plates. They ate organic strawberry whole milk yogurt (I buy them at Whole Foods) with buttered honey toast and fresh raspberries. Occasionally the boys will also eat a bar or something if they’re still hungry and the big kids grabbed a Larabar to eat this morning as well.
Thursday: Buttered Simple Mills Waffles with Maple Syrup and Clementines
Toasted Simple Mills waffles popped up again! The boys ate them topped with butter and dipped into maple syrup with a clementine on the side. Oh and one quick note: Rhett, at only 3-years-old is not a kid with a massive appetite and he’s not eating all of the food you see in this post (for the most part). He simply eats smaller portions of the same foods for breakfast. Here’s an example of Rhett’s plate compared with one of the big kids’ plates on a different morning:
Friday: Buttered Boomin’ Berry Bagel with Blueberries and Apple Slices
Dave’s Killer Bread bagels are our boys’ favorites and I like them because the ingredients are more simple than other store-bought bagels and one bagel has 11 grams of protein. (I love this because I think this give the bagels a little more staying power in our boys’ bodies.) Sides included apple slices and blueberries.
Saturday: Scrambled Eggs with Yogurt and Berries
This easy breakfast was a breeze to prepare and included scrambled eggs, whole milk strawberry yogurt and a mix of fresh strawberries and raspberries. I also ended up making buttered jelly toast for the big kids as they ate this plate, too!
Sunday: Organic Honey Nut Morning O’s Cereal with Whole Milk, Berries, Chicken Sausage (and RoRo’s Cinnamon Rolls a little later)
The boys are very much like me and often prefer to eat cereal as an afternoon or after-dinner snack but sometimes they request cereal for breakfast! This meal looked like organic honey nut Morning O’s cereal (I buy it at Whole Foods) topped with whole milk and served with chicken sausage and fresh berries. On weekend mornings, we’ll often do something a little more fun for breakfast (we’ve been on a German pancake kick lately) but when I saw RoRo’s cinnamon roles on sale at Harris Teeter last week, I bought two and we had them mid-morning after breakfast as well.
Questions of the Day
If you have little ones, what does breakfast look like in your house?
Are your kids usually eating similar foods for breakfasts? Any morning meal hits you’d recommend we try in our house?
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My kids favorite breakfast for going on 4 years now is smoothies! They are banana, pb, milk, yogurt and big handfuls of spinach. Sometimes I add in some berries or cocoa nibs. I put everything in the blender the night before and store in the fridge so in the morning I just pull it out and blend. Makes for a super fast breakfast they love!
Yes!! We do smoothies a lot for after-school snacks! They’re a favorite here for sure!
Julie. Thank you for normalizing kid good. I really appreciate your transparency AND the fact that it doesn’t like exactly like your plate – for all the meals. And thank you for the additional ideas!
We had the Grandson on the weekend, and he wouldn’t eat the cheesy scrambled eggs that my husband made. So I quickly made some cottage cheese pancakes and he gobbled those up! And truly the pancakes had egg and cheese as well, just a sweeter way of doing them. I didn’t find it too time consuming, but I think before he comes over next time, we will have something like that or your ideas already ready for him, so we don’t have temper tantrum 2.5 year old on our hands. Although the cheesy eggs that got thrown around were a big hit with the dogs, lol.
I’d love for you to do a similar post with lunches! Our breakfasts are very similar to what you shared! My biggest pain point with lunches and dinners is veggies. Only on very rare occasions will they eat them (no matter how they are prepared), so we do a ton of smoothies around here that I pack with them. 🙃
You got it — I’ll try to do a kid lunch/dinner roundup soon!!
I love this post, and agree that having a quick and easy breakfast for kids is crucial. One of my son’s faves – which also works as a snack – is a ‘banana cake.’ He named it and invented it – sliced banana, topped with some Siggi’s vanilla greek yogurt and sprinkles. I don’t mind at all that he gets sprinkles with this because the banana and yogurt are both so nutritious!
Aw I love this!! And I used to ad sprinkles to the boys’ pumpkin muffins when they were younger so I am all for sprinkles for breakfast. Haha!
Thank you for sharing! Great ideas for my girls breakfast (because I’m tired of cereal all the time during the week).
Where do you find Dave’s bagels? We love the Killer Bread, but I didn’t know they made bagels too.
I buy them at Publix!
Sorry that people are unkind and you feel like you have to do so much justifying for what you feed your kids. That being said, my kids’ breakfasts look very similar to what your kids eat daily. Mine also love avocado toast, one kid tops with everything seasoning, one tops with lime and salt. True kids of a millennial! 😉
Love this post! Thank you for sharing healthy food ideas many kids will eat!
How do you handle when your boys do the toddler thing “I don’t like that” when they just ate it yesterday and you know they do like it?
I strive to feed my kids healthy stuff but after too many uneaten foods (then saying they are hungry 20 min later) and getting pickier and pickier I’ve resorted to things I’m uncomfortable with (hello sugary cereal).
Thanks, always looking for kid food ideas! Would love a round up of lunch box meals too! Question – do you ask them what they’d like in the mornings or decide yourself? A lot of our morning battles start with “but I didn’t want that!” 😵💫
The majority of the time, I just decide! Weekends are when I’m more likely to ask if there’s anything in particular they want. I totally understand morning battles though and sometimes chatting about what breakfast sounds good the night before can help but also sometimes not because kids are kids — haha! I feel ya!
Thanks for sharing! We eat very similarly and sometimes I wondered if my kids (who are close in age to yours) are OVEReating breakfast. It’s nice to see that a hearty, well rounded breakfast is not necessarily unusual 😊