I don’t know about you, but mornings in our house are a chaotic rush – getting the kids motivated to get ready on time, and then getting them to eat a good breakfast is a pretty tough call. A new year called for a new method, so we called in the big gun – negotiation! After a family meeting we discovered 2 things – 1. the kids don’t like surprises for breakfast (they like to know what they are getting in advance) 2. we all agree that a hearty breakfast is a good thing and we don’t want to ditch that.

So with those 2 things in mind we designed a breakfast menu for the week, and agreed that 1. the parents would get up early to get breakfast prepared and 2. the kids would get up and dressed and get ready for school in time without fussing. One week and it is working so far. We lapsed one day and we (the parents) slept in and so the kids got cereal for breakfast and everyone was late.

Here is our breakfast menu:
Monday:eggs how you like it (some like them scrambled some like them fried)
Tuesday: sushi (not such a big deal – just have to get up early to prepare the rice – and its great to have some left over to send to school) [here is a recipe - but we use a sushi flavoured vinegar + then fill with leftover chicken breast marinated in soy+mirin for 5 minutes, sometimes we do a quick omelette, and sometimes its avocado + cucumber - whatever you have available - the only essentials are the sushi rice, sushi flavoured vinegar and nori sheets]
Wednesday: Muffins (2 kinds – berry and double chocolate – see recipe below – and again these are great to take leftovers to work and school)
Thursday: eggs how you like it (yes again – we have chooks so having eggs on the menu is a must)
Friday: French Toast (again sounds fancy but it actually super easy – served with cinnamon sugar or maple syrup) [here is a recipe, but you don't need fancy bread - just any day old thick sliced farm break will do]
Saturday: Crepes (again these are easy to make – take a bit of practice but are yummy served with lemon and sugar or even filled with fruit and yogurt) [here is a recipe - you can even make the batter the night before and cover and keep in the fridge]
Sunday: lazy day - get your own breakfast – I am sleeping in.

Other breakfast menu options include: pancakes, rice pudding, toast with tomato/ham/cream cheese/avocado/, toasted cheese sandwich, fruit smoothies (add frozen fruit, banana, LSA, yogurt, egg, honey, nuts), oatmeal (porridge), omelette etc… [our parameter are - 20-25 minutes max to cook/prepare, healthy - high in fibre + protein + energy to get us through the day]

Recipe for easy no-need-to-weigh-anything muffins

1 cup regular cake flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
4 tablespoons of powdered milk (could substitute coconut or soy powdered milk)
4 tablespoons of LSA (finely ground linseeds, sunflower seeds and almonds, is full of fibre, magnesium, omega-3 fats, vitamins E, D, B1 (Thiamin), B2 (Riboflavin), B5 (Pantothenic acid), biotin, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc and numerous other micronutrients.) You could substitute ground almonds as it has a similar texture.
4 tablespoons of quick cook oats (not instant – these are finely sliced oats and cook quicker than regular ones – if you use regular ones – let them soak in warm water for 20 minutes before using them so they break down a bit)
1/2 cup of white sugar (you could also use a combination of brown sugar + honey for a different flavour)
1/2 cup of melted butter
3 eggs (or 2 is fine but I like to add extra eggs where I can for added nutrients)
1 cup of water
pinch of salt if you like

Mix all the dry ingredients together
Whisk the wet ingredients together
Mix them both together (should be a medium batter – not to runny not too stiff)

This makes 12 good sized muffins – take a 12 muffin pan try and line with paper muffin cups – spray with spray oil. Spoon in the muffin mix and sprinkle with brown sugar – bake for 15 mins on medium/high heat.

Because some people in our house like berries and others don’t, I make 6 with berries and then add some extra ingredients to the other half of the batter for a different version:
Version 1 with berries: Spoon these 1/4 full of muffin mix and then spoon in a few frozen berries into each one – then fill the muffin pans 3/4 full of the mix and bake (top with a sprinkle of sugar if desired).
Version 2: chocolate muffins – add 4 tablespoons of milo powder or other powdered chocolate, and a few spoonfuls of choc chips to the mix.
Version 3: add dried cranberries and flaked coconut to the mix
Version 4: add mashed banana and peanut butter to the mix (substitute for some of the liquid)
Version 5: (if you are not a sweet person then omit the sugar first) then add grated cheese and chopped fresh herbs (like parsely).
Version 6: add a cup of muesli instead of oats to the dry batter.

If you mix up the dry ingredients the night before then this takes only a few minutes to get in the oven and you have a good breakfast in 20 minutes.

Homemade Muesli:

Lately I have been making a big batch of homemade muesli too – sometimes we have our hot breakfast then a bowl of muesli with yogurt to follow – sometimes I take a plastic container filled with muesli to work and add milk for a very nice lunch. Often the kids will have muesli for an after school snack – again this is such a versatile recipe and so easy to switch up and mix up to suit your own personal tastes.

Bag of organic 5-grain (rolled whole whoatseat, rye, oats, flaxseed, barley, and triticale) if you can’t get 5-grain – regular oats are fine too
Handful of dried cranberries
Handful of chopped dried peaches and pears
Just a few chopped dried strawberries (just a few of these luxurious treats chopped up make for a tasty hit)
Other dried fruits of your choice (we are not big on sultanas so we leave them out – but other dried fruits could include dried blueberries, dates, figs, apples, apricots etc)
Cup of mixed seeds – (pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds)
Cup of puffed rice (we added sweetened puffed rice to ours for a sweet hit every now and again)
Cup of whole almonds

other options to add include:
coarse LSA (ground linseeds, sunflower seeds and almond), coconut flakes, Wheatgerm, soy grits

Mix all this up and store in an airtight container – serve up with milk (we like with rice milk) or yoghurt – try adding some fresh fruit too.

mmm… enjoy