Breakfast ~ at our home

So, what does breakfast look like in our house?  Each morning, for the most part, we gather around the table together.  Before each "school year" begins, I work on menu planning.  Our menu plans include:  breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.  These are guides providing benefits like:  eliminating the famous "what's for ...?", saves time and money, is designed to make meals manageable on busier days of the week, includes input from the whole family based on their favorites which makes for happy children & husband.

My breakfast and afternoon snack menus (unlike our lunch and dinner) are a one week plan, which means every Monday we have "x", every Tuesday we have "y", etc.  This makes the start to our day easy and keeping breakfast items on hand simple.

Here's our breakfast menu (click here for my printed form):

~ Sunday: Homemade whole wheat pancakes (a large batch is made and the leftovers are frozen in a gallon sized Ziploc to be eaten on Tuesday)...some mini chocolate chip, some cranberry chocolate chip and the others are plain

~ Monday:  Scrambled eggs, fried seasoned hash browns, toasted bagels

~ Tuesday:  Leftover frozen pancakes

~ Wednesday:  Eggs, bacon or sausage and biscuits

~ Thursday:  Homemade whole wheat muffins (made on Wednesday night in three batches...millet, mini chocolate chip and either blueberry or apple cinnamon)

Millet and chocolate chip muffins cooling while more are baking

~ Friday:  Yogurt, fruit and homemade whole wheat coffee cake or homemade cinnamon rolls

~ Saturday:  French toast or waffles

Typically, breakfast preparations are done by our oldest sons or on the weekends my husband...no, I am not the breakfast maker (only on rare occasions ;-D ).  We try to incorporate all the children in the kitchen at some point or another, giving them basic cooking skills that will help them when they have their own homes someday. 

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day...TEACH a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."  This statement applies to so many areas of child training...basic life skills are an important part of our family ~ cooking, doing one's laundry, helping with household chores, etc.  Not only are the skills learned helpful to them for when they are on their own, it is always a means of teaching them responsibility, building character and allows them to contribute to the family.

The few mornings when our oldest leaves early for work or classes or when my husband has to leave early for work, have been planned as easy to prepare breakfasts.  For example, Tuesdays...one of the older children can easily help heat up pancakes for everyone in the microwave.  Those that are home, gather around the kitchen table and have a time of prayer and enjoy our simple breakfast together.

Other breakfast favorites include:

~ Ham n' Jam croissants (quick and EASY)
~ Brunch Egg bake (usually make for special occasions and for Christmas morning breakfast)
~ Breakfast tortillas (when I make homemade tortillas, sometimes we will use the leftover tortillas to wrap scrambled eggs, shredded cheese and sauteed veggies or sausage altogether...delicious)

The sign of a tortilla maker on our table is a happy day!

What does breakfast look like in your home?  Who handles the preparations and is it a time everyone is still home, able to sit and start the day together or do schedules dictate a more varied start to the day?  Are your children incorporated into the morning preparations and if so, what parts do they play?  Every home is different, with different needs, schedules and priorities...what have you found to work for breakfast time?  Any tips or no-fail recipes?  Your comments are welcomed and a blessing to be able to glean from.

Blessings ~

To see how other families do breakfast check out 4 Moms:  35 Children where they are hosting Breakfast themed.

Also linking to Diary of a Stay at Home Mom for Cooking Thursday.