It’s Breakfast Time

Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. Anyone else a fan of The Sound of Music? Today instead of starting with Do Re Mi or ABC. Let’s start at the beginning of our day and focus on breakfast.

One important value of mine for teaching kids healthy nutrition is for them to know the building blocks of a balanced meal. At our house we teach there are three components: protein, fruit or veggie, and carbohydrate. What does that look like for breakfast?

Any given morning at breakfast I’ll ask my kids to tell me about their breakfast. Which really means what are your protein, carb, and fruit/veggie going to be? Protein options for us include cow’s milk (either to drink in a cup or with cereal), yogurt, string cheese, eggs, or peanut butter. Fruit or veggie – rarely do my kids have veggies at breakfast but they know it’s an option. My three year old has been known to have carrots with breakfast. The crunchier the better! When eggs are served it seems more likely they would have veggies in the form of mushrooms, spinach or peppers. As for fruit, strong contenders are banana, applesauce, berries (sometimes frozen). Carbs tend to be, toast, bagel, cold cereal, frozen waffle or oatmeal.

A quick way to incorporate all of these at breakfast time is in a smoothie. Use 1 cup of liquid (milk or water), ½ cup of frozen fruit, 2 tablespoons of oatmeal, 2 tablespoons of flaxseed. Blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Let me know what works for you. Do your kids have a go to breakfast? Is there one of these three areas that you struggle with for ideas of what to eat?

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