Monday, March 15, 2010

Off To A Good Start

Most of us have pretty early risers. Many kids like to get up at 5:00! But now with the new time change, yeah! 5 is now 6. Much better. If your child is like mine they're pretty hungry when they get up. So chances are they are not going to be very patient waiting for Breakfast.
I have a few quick standards that Ben loves, and I can feel good about:

- Yogurt mixed with applesauce and cereal- So this one started when he was pretty young, which is why we still use baby cereal. Most yogurt is loaded with sugar, and the milk has it's own sugars on top of that. So I prefer to buy the Plain Cream Top (with the fat) kind. Kids need their fats, so stay away from low-fat yogurt. I add Organic Unsweetened Applesauce to the yogurt, to taste (regular applesauce adds sugar you don't need). It's usually about 1 part to 1 part, but you could add a little more or little less of either. Then I add just enough oatmeal baby cereal to thicken it up a bit; otherwise it's pretty runny and difficult to feed to your child. I've been thinking lately Wheat Germ might work just as well as the baby cereal, and I think it has Omega 3's in it. I'll have to look into that. Of course you could add any additional fruit to this as well. I keep a bag of organic frozen blueberries in the freezer; they are easy to thaw and add to about anything. Also canned peaches packed in pear juice (not syrup) and pretty covieniant and tasty.

- Cottage cheese with fruit- that's about it. Just get low- sodium, full fat cottage cheese if you can. And watch the large chunks if you have a younger baby, you may need to chop it up a bit. Peaches, blueberries, pears, any fruit will do. Cottage cheese has tons of protein, and all the vitamins milk has.

- Blueberry Pancakes- can be made a head of time and frozen, which makes then very easy. I bought a whole grain organic pancake mix, and added some of the frozen organic blueberries I keep on hand. Ben devours them, and I know they're much healthier than white flour pancakes. I don't bother with syrup (which I can imagine makes a real mess). Besides, Ben doesn't know pancakes usually come with syrup, so he's pretty happy just with the pancakes. They are an easy finger food, too. This morning I spread a little applesauce between two pancakes, like a sandwich, before I cut it up. Worked pretty well.

-Oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon- I buy the old fashioned kind of oatmeal in a tube. Hannaford's makes an organic variety that is very reasonable. You just microwave the oatmeal and water for a couple of minutes (according to directions on box). Be careful, when I microwave it for the full time suggested the oatmeal usually rises up and spills everywhere- so many sticky messes I've cleaned up! Oatmeal is usually cooked fine in less time. Then I just add a handful of raisins (chop them up first if your child is younger) or dried apricots, etc. Add some cinnamon, then top it with a little whole milk. Easy, healthy, and he loves it. Just a note about dried fruit, I try to buy organic, and unsulfered. Not sure why unsulfered is healther, but I think it's considered a preservative. Maybe someone out there knows why?

- scrambled eggs are easy to make a head of time, I don't freeze them, I just make enough for a couple of days. You can top with a little cheese, too. I've experimented with adding herbs to the eggs too. Some success, some not. I've tried herbs de provence, and italian seasoning. I guess I'm just trying to expand Ben's pallette a little.

More breakfast ideas tomorrow. Have a great day.

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