Its 5am in the morning and you start getting busy preparing kids for school. One minute you hear the school bus blowing the horn outside, and oops the kids did not have breakfast because you were probably too busy to prepare one.
I say breakfast is the most important meal of the day. How about I give you a few quick and healthy breakfast ideas so that your kids can go to school nourished?
Why Is It Important To Eat Breakfast?
Before I give you the ideas for breakfast let me just enlighten you on the importance of the meal.
- Breakfast helps start the day feeling nourished
- It contains nutrients that give the kids energy to play later in school as well as to concentrate and participate in class. You don’t want your kid to be a sleepy head in school.
- Breakfast helps kids who are overweight control how much they eat during tea break and lunch. i.e if a child has had a good breakfast full of roughage or fibre, then they would eat their packaged lunchbox and get full before trying other kids unhealthy lunch boxes.
So What Are Healthy Options To Give Your Children For Breakfast?
I’m just going to outline a few fast meals and how to quickly prepare them:
Oatmeal – There is instant oatmeal as well as the normal one that you can cook when you have time. Instant oats require for you to just add milk to it then give to your kids to eat. If you have time you can prepare the oats from the beginning, by using either milk or water. The benefits of cooking oats with milk are that milk contains calcium and vitamin D which your child needs for bone development as well as to keep the teeth strong.
Toasty – Cheese and tomato toast or egg toast are good and balanced breakfasts. While you are busy getting the kids to put on their uniforms, you can quickly get the toaster on and put in some bread with cheese and tomato for a few minutes. The nice thing about toast is that even when the school bus comes to pick up the kids, they can take it to eat along the way.
Fruit Smoothie – You can use different fruits that your kids like and put them in a blender for breakfast.
Yoghurt – There will be some days where you have no time at all. A full fat yogurt can be taken and eaten along the way. Try to choose one that’s low in sugar by comparing different labels.
Milk & Bread – A glass of milk and a 2 slices of brown bread would provide protein (milk) and carbs (bread) to get your children’s day off to a good start.
Milk & Cereal – Warm the milk and have your bran flakes or weetbix. Other breakfast cereals are okay too, but watch the children’s portion sizes and save the sugary cereals for special treats. The good thing is that older kids can prepare their cereal themselves while mummy is busy getting the young siblings ready to go.
Fruit – Either a piece of fruit on it’s own or a fruit salad
Veggies – Some kids love their veggies, you can give them a carrot snack. Have them cut it into their favourite shapes and eat it or just a raw carrot that is not even cut.
Breakfast doesn’t need to be a chore. There are lots of quick and easy breakfast ideas. With that make sure that your kids do not skip breakfast. It really is the most important meal of the day. If you need further ideas or would like to speak about a particular issue you can contact me.
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