Breakfast is the most important meal of the day...

...Or so my mother used to tell me every morning of my growing up years.  Being a person who would rather not face the morning, I would usually mumble something under my breath about the stupid sun and need more sleepy, slide into my seat at the table and eat whatever it was she put before me.  Cereal, oatmeal, toast with peanut butter, English muffins.  If I didn't have to make it or give it a second thought, I was good to go.

These days, I make Abby a breakfast menu each week because honestly, I don't like to get up (I put my coffee on delay brew before I go to bed so that it's ready for me before I even get up in the morning!).  And also, she's in 7th grade.  She can make an egg without burning our house down.  I make sure to double or triple the recipe for pancakes and waffles so that I can have them in the freezer for easy toasting in the morning.  I make extra french toast and yummy little breakfast biscuits that are full of cheese and sausage.  She can make hot cereal or oatmeal and we leave the cold cereal as a special weekend treat (because more often that not, it's a somewhat sugary cereal and I'd rather she eat something before school that will stick with her.).

As for me, breakfast is a little bit more of a struggle.  Being on a pretty tight food budget, I really do have to plan out my breakfast in the same way that I plan out my lunches and dinners.  In my previous life, breakfast consisted of a mocha from Starbucks and a blueberry muffin.  Then I got wise to the carb-induced free-fall my morning would take after that gigantic muffin and started making my own, significantly smaller muffins, at home; I thought I was being thrifty.  But as easy as yanking a muffin out of the freezer is and warming it up in the microwave to have with my coffee is quick, I know that it's probably not going to last me until lunchtime. I've started supplementing my breakfast with fruit and yogurt.  I sacrifice a little bit more of my budget (both food-wise and monetarily) with Noosa yogurt, it is the best yogurt I have ever had: raspberry, mango, strawberry-rhubarb...flavors that almost make it worth getting up in the morning.  I said almost.

I used to think that eggs took so much time in the morning and oh, the cholesterol!  Be still my ever burgeoning arteries!  The fact is, eggs are brain food and they will stick with me all morning long.  I've taken to having an egg (fried in little bit of olive oil, not butter.) on dry whole wheat toast, a little bit of fat free cottage cheese and a piece of fruit.  It takes less than 5 minutes to put together in the morning and it keeps me full all the way until lunch...and even a little bit beyond!

My super favorite these days, though, is oatmeal.  I love oatmeal with fresh strawberries.  I love oatmeal with apples and cinnamon.  I love oatmeal with craisins.  I love oatmeal.  And Finn loves oatmeal, too, so we usually share one serving.  I sweeten it with a little bit of honey and I always make my oatmeal with milk instead of water - it makes for a little bit thicker oatmeal plus I get to count it as a serving of milk.  Since I don't drink milk by the glass (a hold-over from my low-carb days.), I need to sneak my calcium in however I can.

I'm sure you're wondering why I don't just follow Abby's breakfast plan.  Truthfully, I probably could, but right now I don't want to sacrifice that many points on breakfast; I'd rather save them for dinner or for a mid-afternoon snack.  Having pancakes or waffles in the morning isn't the best use of my current food budget.  Someday, when I'm at a comfortable weight, I will be able to slip in a morning of rainbow pancakes with my kids or Uriah's biscuits and sausage gravy.  In the meantime, I'm content with something that I know is going to hold me over until lunch.

What about you?  What are your go-to breakfasts?  How do you keep your tummy from grumbling before noon?

...Or so my mother used to tell me every morning of my growing up years.  Being a person who would rather not face the morning, I would usually mumble something under my breath about the stupid sun and need more sleepy, slide into my seat at the table and eat whatever it was she put before me.  Cereal, oatmeal, toast with peanut butter, English muffins.  If I didn't have to make it or give it a second thought, I was good to go.

These days, I make Abby a breakfast menu each week because honestly, I don't like to get up (I put my coffee on delay brew before I go to bed so that it's ready for me before I even get up in the morning!).  And also, she's in 7th grade.  She can make an egg without burning our house down.  I make sure to double or triple the recipe for pancakes and waffles so that I can have them in the freezer for easy toasting in the morning.  I make extra french toast and yummy little breakfast biscuits that are full of cheese and sausage.  She can make hot cereal or oatmeal and we leave the cold cereal as a special weekend treat (because more often that not, it's a somewhat sugary cereal and I'd rather she eat something before school that will stick with her.).

As for me, breakfast is a little bit more of a struggle.  Being on a pretty tight food budget, I really do have to plan out my breakfast in the same way that I plan out my lunches and dinners.  In my previous life, breakfast consisted of a mocha from Starbucks and a blueberry muffin.  Then I got wise to the carb-induced free-fall my morning would take after that gigantic muffin and started making my own, significantly smaller muffins, at home; I thought I was being thrifty.  But as easy as yanking a muffin out of the freezer is and warming it up in the microwave to have with my coffee is quick, I know that it's probably not going to last me until lunchtime. I've started supplementing my breakfast with fruit and yogurt.  I sacrifice a little bit more of my budget (both food-wise and monetarily) with Noosa yogurt, it is the best yogurt I have ever had: raspberry, mango, strawberry-rhubarb...flavors that almost make it worth getting up in the morning.  I said almost.

I used to think that eggs took so much time in the morning and oh, the cholesterol!  Be still my ever burgeoning arteries!  The fact is, eggs are brain food and they will stick with me all morning long.  I've taken to having an egg (fried in little bit of olive oil, not butter.) on dry whole wheat toast, a little bit of fat free cottage cheese and a piece of fruit.  It takes less than 5 minutes to put together in the morning and it keeps me full all the way until lunch...and even a little bit beyond!

My super favorite these days, though, is oatmeal.  I love oatmeal with fresh strawberries.  I love oatmeal with apples and cinnamon.  I love oatmeal with craisins.  I love oatmeal.  And Finn loves oatmeal, too, so we usually share one serving.  I sweeten it with a little bit of honey and I always make my oatmeal with milk instead of water - it makes for a little bit thicker oatmeal plus I get to count it as a serving of milk.  Since I don't drink milk by the glass (a hold-over from my low-carb days.), I need to sneak my calcium in however I can.

I'm sure you're wondering why I don't just follow Abby's breakfast plan.  Truthfully, I probably could, but right now I don't want to sacrifice that many points on breakfast; I'd rather save them for dinner or for a mid-afternoon snack.  Having pancakes or waffles in the morning isn't the best use of my current food budget.  Someday, when I'm at a comfortable weight, I will be able to slip in a morning of rainbow pancakes with my kids or Uriah's biscuits and sausage gravy.  In the meantime, I'm content with something that I know is going to hold me over until lunch.

What about you?  What are your go-to breakfasts?  How do you keep your tummy from grumbling before noon?