The first semester is almost over and I'm glad to have a break from having to wake up early in the morning to prepare breakfast and packed-lunch for the kids. It is important for me to make sure that my kids eat breakfast before they run off to school. Even if they're late and would say they won't eat breakfast, I would still tell them to have a quick bite or have a healthy drink at the least.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It's a cliche. Unfortunately, many people, including school kids don't eat breakfast. And these people would suffer, in terms of health and performance, unless they have a healthy breakfast each morning.
After six to eight hours of sleeping, the body needs fuel for the day. If not eating a healthy breakfast at home, your options may be to have something from the fast-food joint that has too much fat or too much sugar. So, it's better to spend that fifteen minutes to fill your belly with something healthy at home.
Now, what are some quick to prepare breakfast for kids that is also nutritious for them to eat? Here are my top breakfast ideas:
1. Oatmeal – Oatmeal is high in fiber, which is an important nutrient that could help to keep you feel full longer. It gives many other health benefits including cleaning the gut and preventing constipation. The way I prepare this is I simply put some hot water in a mug, then add to it a sachet of Energen instant breakfast cereal or sometimes chocolate milk powder and three scoops of quick-cooking oats. It's ready to eat in a 2-3 minutes.
2. Cereals - This is one of the quickest breakfast they could ever have. They just pour some cereals in a bowl, add some milk to it and dig in. Sometimes, my kids (not all of them) add sliced bananas to their cereals.
3. Fruit smoothies – Smoothies are perfect for breakfast. If you can prep the ingredients, like cutting the fruits, the night before, it would be easy to just toss everything in the blender in the morning. It's a great way to let the kids have their fruits (and even veggies). A good tasting smoothie is the Banana Strawberry smoothie.
4. Eggs – My children love to eat eggs, be it scrambled, sunny side up, with cheese or boiled. They eat them with pandesal / bread or rice. Eggs are the easiest to cook and they're budget-friendly. They're also very nutritious, giving them the protein and fats they need.
5. Sinangag or Fried Rice – Filipinos love sinangag or fried rice. If I have enough time in the morning, I prepare sinangag for breakfast. It's not that hard to prepare. If it's just garlic fried rice, then simply saute some garlic and then add pre-cooked rice (preferably the leftover from the night before). To make it a complete meal, you can add scrambled eggs, some sliced meat like ham or sausage and vegetables (frozen veggies like carrots and corn will do for convenience). The children could eat this without any other viand.
Of course, my kids almost always drink their chocolate milk drink every morning. Sometimes, if they are running late, they just drink this and have a sandwich I prepare for them or crackers to go. For me, it's very important that my kids fill their stomachs with at least something in the morning before going out.
How about you? What breakfast do you prepare for your kids and family?
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