Those of you that know me well know that organization is my bain. I am about as scattered as you can get (at least I hope no one is more scattered than I am.) This past month I had a brilliant thought that might just save me some confusion and stress in the morning. With 5 little and now big Byrds to get up and ready in the morning I can't face my kitchen stove at 7:00 a.m. in a panic thinking "what do I feed them this morning??" I don't have time for that. So I have taken a leaf from the books of several organizational gurus and have set up a weekly Breakfast plan. Each day of the week has a set aside breakfast so I know the day before what I will be fixing for breakfast. It is making life so much easier for me and there is a lot less parental stress before the bus gets here. I planned the week according to our time and mood constraints.
If you want to do it too look at:
- What is easiest for you to do in no time flat?
- What are you willing to eat? (that sounds weird but if you can't deal with cereal than don't think of it as an option)
- What can you fix in advance to make breakfast a snap (ie. freezing and warming up stuff)
- What can your family help do when time permits? (Saturday or Sunday morning traditions that everyone participates in, learning great self help skills)
So with that in mind here is what I came up with:
- Sunday - Cereal/granola (busiest day of the week for me with church so we need a no stress breakfast)
- Monday - Cereal/Granola (we are all dead heads on Monday so we can slide into our day without too much stress.)
- Tuesday - Toast and Cocoa - (this changes according to what is on hand, homemade whole wheat bread, muffins, bagels, cinnamon rolls, etc. and from scratch cocoa or homemade mix cocoa)
- Wednesday - Oatmeal
- Thursday - Biscuits, eggs, sausage
- Friday - Eggs and Toast
- Saturday - Pancakes, waffles, or something fun like that
Now each of these meals has many variations. I might stick muffins in place of biscuits, or we might have biscuits and sausage gravy instead of eggs. The egg and toast day could be any kind of bread (bagels, muffins, etc) and any way of fixing eggs (boiled, scrambled, fried, toad in the hole, etc.) The oatmeal is always from scratch with old fashion oats and we add things we have fresh on had to it.
I have lots of different recipes I use and have posted many of them here under good food and breakfast.
3 comments:
I love your breakfast menu! It sounds great!
I too have 5 kiddos or birds. I have found there are certain days they don't want what I have made or on the list. Do you have this happening? If you have this what do you do? Sometimes it is so upsetting. Gotta love the kiddos though. Hugs, Bobbi Jo
Bobbi Jo, that is a great question actually. Yes I have had this happen and that is a teaching moment for you and your children if you want it to. First off what I do is make sure we have a variety so that each week isn't just the same-o same-o. Like I mentioned in the post about subbing differente "breads" on toast day and different cocoas and such. With 5 kids I have 5 different sets of likes and dislikes. When we run into the "I don't Like this" we have the opportunity to talk about things. I won't let a kid leave the house hungry but I also won't allow rudeness. My mom was old school with me and she taught me now to voice my dislike for something without giving offence. I work with my kids on that at these times. They know that they don't each like every breakfast BUT each of them has a favorite and it is represented in the line-up. So we discuss how on Tues. we had your fav. and today is brother's fav. and we can deal with that. I start talking to them like that when they are 2 and 3 so when they are 12 and 13 I don't have a battle. If they get snarky they get the raised eyebrow over the glasses and they know that their comments are rude and won't be acceptable at the table. I am also pretty flexible with add ons that make a "not my favortie" go down easier such as ketchup on eggs (nasty I know), jam on toast, brown sugar on oatmeal or something little like that which lets them know I care about their feelings but that they still have to respect the food offered, the cook and those eating with them.
I think this is why I like family mealtime. It is the platform for teaching your children about social behavior, courtesy, and just plain good manners.
Thanks for commenting.
Have you ever tried steel cut oats? They take a little longer to cook but are sooooo gooooood!
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