Weekday Breakfasts
WEEKDAY BREAKFASTS
It’s no small feat to get my family out the door on time in the morning. Although we’re a family of early risers, we have to leave for school at 7:30AM and that doesn’t give us a lot of wiggle room. I personally notice a large difference in my productivity and my ability to curb my cravings during the day if I start off with a nutritious breakfast. Multiple studies have proclaimed the benefits of breakfast including lower risk of heart disease or type 2 diabetes,
better probability of weight control, and increased cognitive function. Another recent study found that children that ate breakfast outperformed their non-breakfast eating peers on tests by double. These are serious benefits! But actually yielding them during the busy weekday mornings can be a challenge. I’ve come up with a easy method that helps me determine what graces our breakfast table. I remember
it with a simple acronym: F.A.C.T.S.
F –Fiber
Fiber is important to me. It’s proven to keep you full longer, improve the function of your digestive tract, and help decrease the likelihood of certain cancers. If I’m buying cereal or considering a recipe for our everyday morning repertoire, it needs to be a high fiber, mostly whole grain food.
A–Appetizing
Food should taste good. It just should. But on busy mornings it’s especially important that what I serve is something my kids will quickly eat without any complaining from them or cajoling from me.
C–Cost
I like to keep weekday breakfasts inexpensive. That means more money leftover in our
monthly food budget, and more opportunities for me to experiment with new recipes or fancier breakfast foods on the weekends.
T–Time
It has to be on the table with less than 10 active cooking minutes.
S–Sugar
It can’t have too much sugar. I don’t have a solid definition here of what
too much is. Yes, I put maple syrup (the real stuff) on our whole wheat pancakes, and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on whole wheat toast. But I don’t overdo it because if I do, the sugar crash follows not too much later.
Some of the recipes that meet my F.A.C.T.S. requirements and have become weekday standards include:
- Overnight oatmeal
- Granola and Greek yogurt
- Whole wheat pancakes with fruit syrup or maple syrup (I’ll make a batch of this recipe and leave in the fridge so the pancake mix is ready and waiting)
- Whole grain waffles (I usually make this recipe on Sunday and then freeze the leftovers so they’re quick and ready during the week)
- Muffins
- Whole grain bagels with cream cheese
- Eggs with whole wheat toast or hash browns
- Scrambled egg burritos on whole grain tortillas
- Migas
- Certain cold cereals
Whatever your current weekday mornings look like, make time for breakfast. It c
an be easy and delicious if you stick to the F.A.C.T.S.
