Comments (0)Breakfast Ideas
Finding time for breakfast
July 2010By Amy Landsman
Breakfast at Lauren and Alan Sachs’ Pikesville home is probably pretty similar to breakfast at your house: a fast-paced rush to get the kids fed and everyone out the door to school or camp, depending on the season.
Like a lot of busy parents the Sachses just do not have the time to cook up a big breakfast every morning. Sometimes Lauren Sachs makes oatmeal, but even that has to be quick. “I do instant!” she laughs.
On Sundays, at least, things are a little more relaxed.
“When it’s our day home, they like omelets, or my husband will make chocolate chip pancakes. He’s the pancake maker. Growing up, his dad was the pancake maker, so he likes to do that,” says Sachs.
Things aren’t so different over at the Pikesville home of Stacey Needle and Michael Schwartzberg.
Jordan, 9, and Brandon, 6, are certainly up early enough — around six, which theoretically gives them plenty of time to eat before heading to school around nine. Trouble is, they just don’t seem to be interested.
“I think by the time breakfast rolls around, they’re so involved with other things that they don’t necessarily take the time to eat an actual meal,” says Needle.
“Unfortunately, frozen breakfast items have become pretty much our best friends, as awful as that sounds. We spend so much money on frozen breakfast items, it’s something my husband is not too happy about. But their staples are frozen Eggo waffles, frozen Eggo mini pancakes and, on rare occasion, the frozen chocolate chip pancakes from Eggo,” she adds.
Jordan and Brandon are very brand-loyal. It’s Eggo or nothing.
To keep breakfast at least a little healthier, the Needle-Schwartzberg family only allows the kids syrup every few days.
Cereal is a breakfast staple for most kids, but not for the Needle-Schwartzberg gang. Jordan won’t touch it, although Brandon will every once in a while. When he does, Brandon likes to mix his cereals, ending up with about four different types in his bowl.
Although Needle says she’s tried to get Jordan to try cereal, it hasn’t worked. “We’ve tried for years,” she says. “The only thing he will eat is the frozen waffles or the frozen pancakes.”
The Sachs family also keeps cereal on hand for busy mornings. “I don’t do the sugary cereals, the marshmallows and the Fruit Loops and the things like that,” notes Sachs.
Many kids, and adults too, are creatures of habit at breakfast. Needle says they’ve tried to get Jordan to try new foods, with no luck.
The Decheke family of Reisterstown, meanwhile, goes for a more substantial start to the day. Elizabeth Decheke often makes oatmeal with peanut butter, flax seeds and a little vanilla for her husband Paul and 19-month-old daughter Sophia.
“I think that’s so much better than buying the prepared. You can make a big batch and put it in the fridge and during the week we definitely finish it,” she says.
The family also eats cereal, but they avoid the sugary kid’s varieties.
“She (Sophia) eats what we eat. …the non-flavored, non-sugared boring type of cereal!” Elizabeth Decheke says with a laugh. “That’s the only thing she knows.”
As the kids grow, the families may have to start serving bigger breakfasts. Lauren Sachs says Asher’s appetite is getting bigger. In fact, there are time when he’s about to walk out the door and will suddenly announce, “I only had one bowl of cereal!”
For her part, Sachs focuses on packing her kids a good lunch. That way she knows that when they sit down to eat, they’ll at least have something healthy and homemade in their lunchboxes.
Recipes to get you out of the breakfast rut:
Nutty Granola
Very filling. We often mix the granola with Cheerios to lighten it up a bit.
4 cups old-fashioned oatmeal, uncooked
1/2 cup wheat germ
1-2 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup honey
1 Tbsp vanilla
1 cup chopped almonds and walnuts
1/4 - 1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit
1. Preheat oven to 300-degrees.
2. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
3. Combine oil, honey and vanilla in a Pyrex measuring cup and microwave until warm, about 30 seconds. Add these to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until all the particles are coated.
4. Spread the mixture in a greased, rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 1/2 hour, stirring with a spatula about 2 to 3 times, until golden brown.
5. Add raisins when cool. Store in a plastic container. It will keep for a couple of weeks.
Banana Coffee Cake
You can mix the dry ingredients and the topping in the evening and finish up in the morning. But no one will tell if you just go ahead and bake the whole thing the night before, then reheat for breakfast.
1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup shortening (vegetable oil is fine)
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, sliced
1/2 cup milk
Nut Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1. Preheat oven to 375-degrees.
2. Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt. Mix with the wet ingredients. Sift white flour, wheat flour, baking powder and salt together.
3. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, bananas and milk. Beat until smooth. Add to the sifted dry ingredients.
4. Spread in a greased 8x8 glass baking dish.
5. Combine the topping ingredients and sprinkle over the batter.
6. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.