School Morning Breakfast Ideas

[katmarie]

My DS is going into year 1, and throughout reception year he's been in breakfast club before school, where they have fed him breakfast every day. Prior to that he was at nursery, where they also fed him breakfast. My work hours have changed now so that he doesn't have to go to breakfast club any more, he can start school at normal time. This is great for him, he will have an easier day overall. It means though, that we need to feed him in the mornings, something that will fill him up through to lunch time. He has a hot lunch at school, and generally eats that very well.

On the weekends we tend to eat a cooked breakfast but I don't have time to make that mid week. He's not a big fan of cereal, other than coco pops which I don't want him eating every day if I can avoid it. With the information coming out about ultra processed foods, I want to avoid those as much as possible for him too. So what do other people's 5-6 year olds eat for breakfast before school?

What was he having at breakfast club? Is it just cold cereal he’s not keen on, would he eat porridge/ready brek?
Toast with peanut butter, avocado or marmite are good options, or a boiled egg if you have time - you can get egg cookers which you don’t need to monitor which could help as well.

Mine have porridge or Cheerios, with a smoothie. Today they got blueberry pancakes as I was up and organised early but that wouldn’t be the norm!

Mine have porridge, weetabix or toast normally.
Sometimes with fruit, sometimes jam

From time to time

• pancakes
• muffins (baked previously)
• hot chocolate with something toasted or baked

Porridge will keep him full, put a teaspoon of peanut butter into it, yummy and full of protein.

I personally have this every morning, it’s quick and easy. I also have nuts and fruit on mine. A smoothie is a good idea also.

Scrambled eggs on toast
Beans on toast
Weetabix
Oats porridge
Pancakes w fruit (make the batter the night before)
Boiled egg and sliced tomato
Toast w honey or peanut butter or smashed avocado
Bananas chopped over cereal

-https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/easy-egg-muffins

https://www.budgetbytes.com/freezer-breakfast-burritos/]]

Porridge is good with chopped apple, banana, berries if I’m feeling rich. If I’m feeling organised maybe something like French toast, if I’m in a rush there’s various cereals on offer. I’ll occasionally get crumpets or toasting waffles as a treat, and they’re always yogurt available with fruit and/or granola. My two often sort themselves out now but they’re a bit older.

Loads of inspriation thank you! Breakfast club have spoiled him a bit I think, his favourite day was friday when they had sausage baps for breakfast. But they have something hot every day plus a choice of toast and cereals too.

He likes porridge, boiled eggs, and pancakes too, and I can get all those on the table quickly enough I think. Adding fruit is a good plan, we always have loads of fruit. I will try him with smoothies too, that's a good call.

He'll eat toast, but only with chocolate spread on, so I try and keep that as a bit of a treat, definitely don't want him having that every day 😂

Those make ahead recipes look ideal, thank you! I can make a load and stick them in the freezer.

Thank you all so much 😊

PS I want french toast now...

https://www.tamingtwins.com/easy-breakfast-cookies/

these breakfast cookies are nice - I don’t put the choc chips on top

overnight oats are also a good option

smoothies

PS I want french toast now...

You’re welcome ☺️

Oh those cookies look perfect, DS will love them :) Thanks!

Porridge or overnight oats with fruit. Wholemeal toast with marmite or peanut butter. You could make little frittatas in muffin tins, if he prefers savory? And definitely be cautious of smoothies, especially shop bought ones - those Innocent smoothies have more sugar in that Cola. Much better to get fruit in whole form, same reason to avoid juice. Water only, or mine drink cooled Rooibos tea.

Mine are older now but when they were little it would either be dippy eggs and wholemeal toast soldiers or porridge in the colder months.

You can precooked sausages and just heat them up in the microwave for a minute or so then put into a bap.

OP if you’re worrying about UPFs then bread, cereal, sausages, bacon, pastries, pancakes etc are all out.

Or just choose not to worry about it :)

We do peanut butter and jam sandwiches, almond and blueberry muffins, banana, cashew and chia pancakes with some berries on the side and a glass of milk

Regarding UPFs, my approach is limit as much as possible, but I think you have to be pragmatic about it. I know he will have it in his school lunch so as much as I can reduce it at home, I will. Bread, we tend to make our own using a breadmaker so I know what goes in it. Same with pancake batter, I can make that up fairly quickly and control what's in it. But yes, sausages are on our menu regularly, and are UPF, so it's not like I am trying to ban them completely, just be mindful of them as much as possible.

Cereals also seem to have a lot of sugar, which I'd like to avoid as well.

DS is happy to drink milk or water most of the time, he likes squash and juice but we limit that.

We always have a selection of weekday and weekend cereals (Coco pops would come under 'weekend'), sliced bread for toast, some other bready thing such as bagels, crumpets or scotch pancakes that can be popped into the toaster, and a selection of fruit. DCs have helped themselves to whatever they fancy that day from about 4yo (I taught them how to set the microwave for the right amount of time for hot Wheetabix, and we have wooden tongs for getting toast out of the toaster). They know they should have fruit of some kind each day as part of breakfast. They have the choice of almond butter, hummus, cheese or marmite (plus fish pate when we have it) to put on their toast Mon-Fri, with the options of jam or chocolate spread added at weekends. That seems to be enough choice as we switch around the varieties of cereals on offer as well as the second bready option. Weekday cereals include choices such as rice crispies, corn flakes, bran flakes, muesli (fruit & nut, but unsweetened), shredded wheat, and multigrain hoops etc. The muesli and sultana bran disappears the quickest.

Assuming you have about an hour between waking up and leaving the house to get everything sorted:

Eggs: Poached / scrambled / French toast / fried / soft boiled.

Bircher style muesli / overnight oats with fruit / nuts / seeds

Homemade wholemeal breakfast muffins - obviously these are premade!