A Week's Worth of Easy, Healthy, Before-school Breakfasts

Half of my children remember homemade breakfasts, prepared daily before school and early morning seminary (a daily 6:00 a.m. scripture class.) The other half remember cold cereal that they got for themselves. (Those were the years that I taught early morning seminary.)

For those of you who believe, like I do, that breakfast should be both filling and healthy but who are, like I am, on a tight morning schedule, here are five of my favorite, mostly healthy, quick and easy breakfast options. (It looks like we eat an inordinate amount of pancakes, but the recipes are all really quite different.)

#1: Oatmeal Pancakes
These pancakes are made from a homemade mix that I found online at Mel's Kitchen Cafe. They do require a little early prep to make the mix, but on the morning of, all you need is an egg, buttermilk, and a cup of mix. Here is the recipe:

OATMEAL PANCAKE MIX

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 1/2 cups rolled (quick) oats (optional: first grind oats in a food processor for a smoother mix)
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups all-purpose flour (or 2 more cups whole wheat for a heartier pancake)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 
  

1. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer or gently by hand, combine all the dry ingredients together. Slowly drizzle the vegetable oil into the bowl while stirring. When all the oil has been added, stop and squeeze a clump of mix in your hand. If it stays together, it is finished. (If still crumbly, add another tablespoon of oil at a time until the consistency is correct.) Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks at room temperature or longer in the fridge/freezer.
2. To make the pancakes: whisk together 1 cup of mix, 1 egg, and 1/2 to 1 cup buttermilk (depending on how thick you want your batter). Though the mixture may seem thin at first, the oats will soak up the milk as it stands while the griddle preheats. Spoon the batter onto your heated griddle. When the edges look dry and bubbles come to the surface and don’t break, flip the pancake over to finish cooking on the second side. Enjoy!

I don't always have fresh buttermilk, so I keep a canister of powdered buttermilk in my fridge. Using the powdered milk does change the texture of the pancakes but doesn't alter the taste.

#2. Puffed Oven Pancakes

These are easy, delicious, look fun, and are loaded with egg protein. One of our eaters is not a fan of eggs (hence the lack of egg dishes on this post,) but he loves these:

The recipe is an old one from a Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that may have been a wedding gift. Prep is easy, but it takes 25 minutes to bake, so you have to plan ahead. I double the original recipe to feed four, so I am giving you the doubled version:

Puffed oven Pancakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

4 T butter

6 eggs

1 c flour

1 c milk

1/2 t salt

Place butter in a 9x13 glass or metal cake pan. Place in a 400 degree oven for 3 to 5 minutes. In a medium mixing bowl, use a wire whisk or rotary beater to beat eggs till combined. Add flour, milk, and salt. Beat till mixture is smooth. Immediately pour into the hot pan. Bake about 25 minutes or till puffed and well browned.

Top with fresh fruit or your favorite pancake toppings.

Here is a similar recipe from realmomkitchen.com that cuts your baking time to 15 minutes because you bake the batter in muffin tins: 

mini puffed oven pancakes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

1 cup milk, 6 eggs, 1 cup flour, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/4 cup butter, melted

Blend first five ingredients in a blender to smooth out flour lumps. Blend in butter a little at a time.

Grease muffin tins well and fill slightly less than half full.

Bake 15 minutes or until puffy and golden on top. A crater will form on its own. Add your favorite toppings.

#3 Wednesday Waffles

I used to be a huge fan of  commercial mixes because they are so convenient, but as I learn more about what is in them, I rarely use them any more. However, I make an exception for this one:

I buy it at Costco, but I think it is available at other stores as well as online. Although I am not a nutrition expert, the ingredients in this mix seem simple and healthy. It is also a pancake mix, but I use it exclusively for waffles. The recipe calls for 1 cup mix, 1 cup cold water, and 1 T of oil. They are quick and delicious.

#4 Homemade Granola

I have no imagination and eat this every morning (almost.) It's delicious alone or mixed into yogurt. Find the recipe here on our blog.

#5 Wheat Muffins

I don't have time to make these in the morning, but they are great to make ahead to use later. They freeze well and can be pulled out of the freezer the night before. I don't know where I got this recipe, so I can't give credit where it is due.

Wheat muffins

1 c. all purpose flour
1 c. whole wheat flour
2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries
1 T baking powder
1/4 t salt
1/3 c butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
3 egg whites
1/2 skim milk
1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line muffin tin with paper baking cups. Stir together flour and whole wheat flour. Measure out 1 T flour mixture and sprinkle over blueberries; toss to coat evenly and set aside. Stir baking powder and salt into flour mixture and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Beat in egg whites until well combined. Stir in milk and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture, blending just until moistened. Stir in blueberries. Spoon into muffin cups, filling nearly to the top of each cup. Bake 25 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 12 muffins.

So here are five of our favorites. On the search for five more. . . .

Thick, Creamy, Delicious Oatmeal

I can clearly remember the time I first had delicious oatmeal. It was one summer during college when my boss took me out to breakfast. I imagine she peer-pressured me into getting the oatmeal because I never would have ordered it on my own.

Oh. My. Goodness. It was delectable. Sweet, creamy, utterly delicious oatmeal. Oatmeal. I mean, we all know that porridge is what people used to eat for breakfast before they invented real breakfast cereal. You know, the kind that comes in a box with marshmallows? We moved on; civilization progressed to something more delicious. Yet here I was, eating a hearty, healthy bowl of oatmeal, and I loved it.

Yet years went by without a repeat of that experience. Oh sure, I ate the stuff every now and again. Elin would buy the cinnamon roll oatmeal packets from BYU creamery on ninth, and they made a bearable bowl of microwaved mush. I tried Trader Joe's something-sugary-pecan oatmeal, and it wasn't bad. But none of the instant oatmeal packets quite did it for me.

So I went beyond the convenient packets and tried a variety of other methods. Old fashioned on the stove, overnight oatmeal in the fridge, slow-cooker oatmeal, oatmeal with cream, butter, and sugar, oatmeal with yogurt and berries... nothing ever had staying power. I just didn't like it very much. Yet oatmeal is something I wanted to like! It's a warm, whole-grain, minimally processed food full of protein and fiber. I saw mothers who fed their children oatmeal every morning and wanted to be just like them.

So eventually, I went to the source. Meet Natalie, my inexhaustible sister-in-law. Natalie is the kind of mom that inspires us all. She gets up at the crack of dawn, exercises, dresses her daughters in cute matching outfits, braids their hair, and, of course, feeds them oatmeal. I sampled some of her oatmeal once at the in-laws, and it brought back memories of that first time I liked the stuff. So I asked the expert for her secrets.

The answer maybe should have been obvious: steel-cut oats, my friends. It improves the texture and taste three times over. With steel-cut oats, you don't have to dump in a ton of cream, butter, and sugar to make it palatable (and ruin your "healthy breakfast"). Instead, all you need is steal-cut oats cooked in a little milk with fruit and a touch of brown sugar.

Why isn't everyone doing this??? Well, these lovely oats take much longer to cook, up to a half-hour, in fact. There are some shortcuts around this. Sister Natalie orders Coach's Oats, which apparently maintain the marvelous texture of steel cut but cook in 5 minutes. There are also 3-minute Steel Cut Oats one can buy at the store. I actually bought them on accident (and was mad.) Yet after trying them out, I find they are, for me, a cut above rolled or instant oats.

But my favorite remains regular steel cut. To be fair, my oatmeal guru also likes the old fashioned oats, but she always cooks them on the stove rather than microwave. Let me tell you what, though: pressure cooking is the way to go! Love my new pressure cooker.

With me so far? Mathematically speaking...

Steel cut>Old Fashioned>Instant

Pressure cooker>stove top>microwave

How to Make Delicious Oatmeal

Step one: Buy steel cut oats. Many stores stock it in canisters with the old fashioned or instant oats. Others keep them with the bulk bins and let you scoop out your own.

Step two: Buy a pressure cooker. Just kidding! But seriously. You can just throw in 1 cup oats, 2 cups water, and 1 cup milk, cook on manual for 3 minutes, and then go get ready for 20 minutes. (It takes about that long when you include the pressure buildup and natural release.) The result is perfect every time.

However, assuming most don't have a pressure cooker. bring 2 cups milk and 2 cups water to boil in a medium saucepan on the stove (you can adjust the milk-water ratio). Stir in 1 cup oats and reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will make about 4 servings.

Step three: Mixins! Again, from Natalie: frozen blueberries are an awesome mix-in. They're easy to have on hand and can quickly cool your piping hot porridge to an eatable temperature (such a perk when feeding them to kids, amiright?) As long as you don't mind purple oatmeal, that is! I like to add blueberries, canned peaches, and a spoon of brown sugar.

I'm sure there are lots of great combinations out there, and I intend to try some more. Yet this is a great staple: simple, sweet, healthy, and so delicious. It also keeps pretty well in the fridge to re-heat the next day in the microwave. Happy eating!

The Best Lunch Salad

Not too long ago, a friend observed that she wished people would stop serving salad as a meal. It doesn’t matter if you try to fancy it up with fruit or chicken, she said. Salad’s place is as a vegetable, a side next to the real food. This made me laugh for two reasons. One, I had just hosted a little lunch at my house where the main course was spicy honey chicken salad from the Our Best Bites blog.

The other reason for laughing, though, it that I used to completely relate to her opinion. I'd eat my greens for the pleasure of checking off my "vegetable" box and then quickly move on to more delicious fare. In the house where I grew up, most of us never even added salad dressing. Am I right, Elin? It was rabbit-food, basically.

Yet now for my confession: I eat salad for lunch almost every day. No, I'm not on a diet, and no, I don't hate myself. Rather, I have come to realize two important things. The first is that vegetables are crazy-good for you. While so many foodies advocate cutting out gluten, dairy, or any-oil-but-coconut-oil, I believe that the best thing many of us could do for our diet is to add more fruits and vegetables. 

I remember studying the Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet in nursing school. This isn't a "diet" as much as healthy eating guidelines to help lower high blood pressure. It mostly aligns with the original "Food Pyramid" which we all learned in elementary school: healthy whole grains, lean meat, low-fat dairy, healthy oils, limited sweets and, of course, fruits and vegetables. What startled me was the amount of servings it recommended for the latter two. Any guesses? 4-5 servings of fruits and 4-5 servings of vegetables.

That was twice as many as I thought we were supposed to get! That stupid "5-a-Day the Color Way" commercial deceived me! 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables sounded like so much. But the benefits to those who eat this way are remarkable. Aside from lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol, this diet also is associated with lower risk of several types of cancer, heart disease, stroke, kidney stones, and diabetes. And, no surprise, those who follow it also tend to maintain a healthy weight.  (Find out about it at http://dashdiet.org or here.)

My nursing and nutrition classes really helped me shift my paradigm on vegetables, and I have a goal to incorporate them into our families meals and snacks. One wonderful way to do that is by making delicious salads. At first, salads seemed like a pain. I felt like I needed lots of ingredients which would go bad before I used them all up. I'm too poor to waste food! Yet I finally found "The Best Lunch Salad." It's simple, and the ingredients will last from several days up until a week. Plus, it tastes like happiness.

The Best Lunch Salad

First, I use spinach. I'm sure there are other tasty greens out there; any will do! Yet spinach is packed with lots of good nutrients and lasts a whole lot longer than lettuce. I was throwing out so much romaine, but no more. I almost always have a bag of baby spinach on hand.

Next, I add roma tomatoes. I like that they are small and sweet, just the right size for a personal salad. Cherry or grape tomatoes work well, too. 

Next, avocado. True to form, I love my California avocados. I also love that you can buy a whole bag of them at grocery outlet for $2 when they are in season! Seriously! This bag only cost $2! I usually use half an avocado per salad and save the other half for the next day:

To make my salad filling, I like to add protein. Often, I'll keep a stock of boiled eggs in the fridge and slice one on top. Other times, I have a supply of cut up perfect chicken on hand to add.

Then I top it off with mozzarella cheese. Nothing beats expensive, fresh, soft mozzarella cheese that comes in those tiny little balls. Mmm. Yet I can't afford such luxuries, and so shredded mozzarella in a bag is also very tasty. I actually really like Walmart's mozzarella; the pieces are big and soft.

Can you see the healthy goodness? Toss it with some Italian salad dressing (yes, I do use dressing nowadays), and it tastes good, too. Happily, I find that as I eat more fruits and vegetables, I naturally eat less and less junk food, without even trying.