Healthy School breakfasts

Not as hard as they think....

The other day I attended a school breakfast with my children. They had a special day for "Moms and Muffins". But at that time, not only was I eating a muffin and a little plastic container of OJ, but I was watching the other kids eat a normal school breakfast, which is now free to all kids at the school.

The free breakfast is a great idea. It is very nice to know that my kids will have something to eat at school no matter how rushed or out of groceries we are in the morning.

While we sat there and ate a decent size muffin and drank our OJ, I saw the other children walk out of their line with a small cup of highly artificially colored and flavored (highly sugared) yogurt, a small muffin and a milk. And it struck me that there was nothing in that breakfast that had any real nutritional benefits. (except the milk).

And I also noticed that all the items were easy to serve in individual throw away containers. UGG! I realized that it made it all easy to serve, but in exchange it was not easy on the Earth or the Children's bodies.

You would not imagine stuffing you highly tuned car with junk- sugar and solid oils?, SO why do we stuff the children's highly tuned bodies with junk and then want them to sit still and listen and learn?

So- I have thought up several options for easy, healthy school breakfasts that kids would love and it would be nourishing to them.

1- Yogurt parfait. You serve each kid a serving of plain yogurt in a bowl. Then they walk down a yogurt bar where they can add items to their yogurt. These items include fresh (or previously frozen) cut fruits, sliced nuts, rolled oats, granola and honey.

This simple idea includes whole grains, protein, pro-biotics and fruit.

2- Whole wheat cinnamon rolls with fruit and a cheese slice. The keys here are to make the cinnamon rolls healthy and serve serve real- not processed cheese.

3- Breakfast burrito bar. Each child gets a wholegrain tortilla and then walks down the bar that offers scrambled eggs, black beans, shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, onions, fresh green, salsa, plain yogurt (to use as sour cream) and of course a side of fruit.

4- Oatmeal bar. Serve them a bowl of oatmeal and let them top it off with thier choices of the following: Raisins, brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, nuts, plain yogurt, other dried or fresh fruit.

5- Breakfast sandwich- use a wholegrain english muffin or bagel and put real cheese, eggs, and ham inside. Bake until warm. Great, warm and filling. Offer with fresh fruits.