Monday, September 15, 2008

Question of the Week - Breakfast Foods

Apparently the joys of having an 18 month old include another sleep regression AND an eating regression! Having been blessed with a very good eater, we have only had a few days here and there when the Pumpkin would not eat much. Those times were usually concurrent with really bad teething days or a sickness, and they did not last more than a couple days.

It's now been three days of very little eating, and that's after about three days of eating less and less. How can someone who has SO MUCH energy eat so little food? How can someone who's body is developing like crazy subsist on a few bites of crackers and maybe a few spoons of yogurt? It boggles the mind.

Just in case she's not eating because she is bored with the same old foods, I've been trying to think of new things to make. Since breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I am especially trying to find new breakfast foods.

Which brings us to our Question of the Week...

What is a favorite breakfast food in your house?

Usually, pancakes are a big hit in my house. And I am the Queen of Pancakes, as some of you twitters already know. I have use some delicious recipes I've found on allrecipes.com (which I've reviewed here) and make them from scratch! I'm really proud of my mad pancake-making skillz!! However, they take time, so usually I save them for weekends and freeze a couple for later in the week.

Regular breakfasts I cook before I leave to work include scrambled eggs with cheese, cream of wheat and oatmeal.

How about you? Do you flip the pancakes regularly or simply make toast?

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh wow! We go with frozen whole-grain/Kashi waffles, cereal, or english muffins (the whole grain lite ones are pretty good and have some fiber) with peanut butter for me, cream cheese for the baby. I completely let our 4 year old have frosted mini-wheats whenever she wants for breakfast. Cooking eggs or anything from scratch during the week for breakfast is totally out of the question.

electriclady said...

We rotate a standard selection, frozen waffles with cream cheese (Whole Foods has these mini blueberry waffles we like), Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread (yes I'm a dirty hippie) toasted with cream cheese, carrot or zucchini muffins (I bake big batches of mini-muffins and freeze them), sometimes eggs if my husband is feeling ambitious. This morning when I left for work she was gnawing on a hunk of leftover baguette. We try to get some fruit in there too--sliced apple or peaches, blueberries--but that's hit or miss. She also eats Cheerios while she's watching TV (shh!) before breakfast.

On weekends she likes to sneak bites of my breakfast (fruit, yogurt, granola, and flaxseed) but if I make a portion just for her she won't eat it.

AmyinMotown said...

My fantasy job is Pancake Chef. I too am queen of the pancakes -- we make them every Saturday and Maggie helps.

Weekdays, though, toast, cereal, and toaster waffles are our staples.

Dont sweat the food thing, Maggie goes through phases where she eats, like, nothing and then suddenly she'll eat like a horse. Also remember she may be eating a lot at daycare, too. We're in the "I hate that food I was enjoying voraciously 2 days ago do not feed it to me nOOOO sisdustging mommy I do not like it" phase so I feel your pain. Thank God for carbs and yogurt.

Becoming Mommy said...

Sasha's been in an eating regression more or less since mid-July, when we got back from vacation. The good news (for Pumpkin, too) is some how a steady diet of milk, cereal, and raspberries has some how allowed for another 2 lbs to be gained and lots of energy and development.

For us, Sasha will not eat breads (never has) so no pancakes. But he does like a bowl of cereal in milk. The Healthy Start stuff? Is 200 calories a bowl, before milk! And so we like to give him that. And fruit. I can ALWAYS rely that he will eat raspberries. And most days? Papaya, mango, strawberries, oranges, bananas, grapes...whatever.

We also do cheesy potatos.

Hardboiled egg mixed with cream cheese

Eggs florentine with hollandaise

And sometimes...dinner or lunch he didn't eat the day before.

OneTiredEma said...

If we have enough leftover challah from Shabbat my husband makes French toast on Sundays.

During the week, my kids are incredibly boring. AM wants cereal and craisins every day. Miss M asks for choices and usually picks cereal and craisins "with milk on the side." So.

Yogurt/cottage cheese (girl eats/boy eats) and TJ's whole grain frozen waffles are also popular.

Pancakes take too much time in the morning, but I usually make them for dinner once every week or two--I have an excellent banana oatmeal one that is very low in sugar. If I can get the kids to eat veggies for snack I feel better about pancakes for dinner :-)

- Dana said...

One week night every couple weeks I make waffles, pancakes or muffins for the freezer. It's a little bit of an obsession and a stress reliever because I enjoy cooking. My husband does breakfast with our little girl since I'm already at work, so it always makes me feel good that he has plenty of back-ups to break up the cereal, oatmeal or bagel mornings. He'll make her an egg here and there too. We usually also throw some fruit in there to top her off!

Our doc told us at the 18mo appt to not be suprised if she starts eating a lot less. We haven't really seen her slow down much though. But still, it's nice to know that on the days here and there when she is a little pickier than normal.

Anonymous said...

We(the 4 of us) have a huge breakfast. I start off with bran with prunes ( to keep me regular)and skim milk, then my full-cream yogurt with honey, then on to these Italian toasty things with jam (4 of those). I have a glass of OJ, or a freshly squeezed one if possible and then at around 10.00 a cappuccino, which generally takes me up to 12.30 when I have lunch. I am very very anal about my breakfast and have it in that very order, and if something is missing, my body retaliates. I know, it's embarassing, isn't it.

I'm Not Skippy said...

Wow, you people eat some fancy stuff. What happened to a good, old-fashioned bowl of Cheerios?

I'm Not Skippy said...

Oh and either bonus point or more apropos "geek cred" for being on twitter. I won't get an account myself, but I follow some of the twitter wars on TWIT.

Wineplz said...

My kids eat breakfast at school because I just cannot get more done before leaving the house each day. On weekends we frequently have dry cereal, though sometimes one of us will make waffles, pancakes or eggs/hashbrowns/bacon. One of these days I will get my lazy butt to make some French Toast. Otherwise I will just go to IHOP. :)

sheSaidC2 said...

I make two eggs fried for myself along with coffee, fruit (apple or berries or melons), and sometimes a poptart or small cup of cereal. When that fails I have oatmeal with apricots and walnuts in it.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and I worship it.

babySaid nurses.... he's not as into breakfast as I am (also, thanks to his nursing I can eat all of the above said and still have room for elevensies)

Anonymous said...

we do eggs or bagels along with fruit at our house. pancakes/french toast are a weekend endeavor.

Anonymous said...

We've been in an eating regression for about 2.5 years. When will it end???

I just suggested to my husband, who is now in charge of school readiness, breakfast, and dropoff that he take the boy out to breakfast every day for the next week or two. Go somewhere they can get a $1.99 breakfast with eggs and pancakes or waffles or something because staying home, the usual response is "I am not eating breakfast today, thanks." RRRRGGGG. He does much better in a restaurant, so to me it's worth the cost. Not sure if my husband can get his act together early enough to get the boy ready and out the door in time to eat in a resaurant and still get him to school on time but.....it's my latest solution.

Weekends: eggs or pancakes. Yogurt. Lots and lots of fruit. And so far, I'm holding firm on the "no popcicles for breakfast rule".

We do not enjoy mealtimes in our house. They are very stressful and filled with power struggles we know we will lose, so we end up swallowing our stress and saying "Oh! You don't want to eat? Okay, let me know when your body is ready" which is better than the battle but still feels like crap.

Karen said...

All this food talk makes me hungry! We don't do breakfast. I know, I know - it IS the most important meal of the day. Can I say that we scavenge if we're hungry?

Heather said...

We usually do whole wheat toast and either homemade preserves or some cheese. We will have a big breakfast on Saturdays. My daughter is so hungry when she wakes up that I don't have time to really cook. Oh, we do yogurt, oatmeal or cheese grits too.

Don't worry too much about Pumpkin's lack of appetite. It'll come back. At that age, they just go through phases like that. Court's pediatrician told me once that as long as she eats one good meal a day (and healthy snacks) that she's good.

Anonymous said...

Pancakes are a big hit in my house as well. the boy and the husband adore them, but I'm more of an eggs and bacon kind of girl.

THE BEST pancake out there is Aretha Frankenstein's http://www.frankensteinmills.com/

Can't beat them, I swear.

Anonymous said...

Axel's a lot smaller, but he adores this fruit/tofu/yogurt mix we make him. It's mango and banana, plus some soft tofu and yogurt thrown in. It's really yummy! I bet you could do the same thing with any fruit you have on hand that your girl likes. The only downside is that it's a spoon-required food, and sometimes his burning desire to feed himself is too strong to allow for spoon feeding.

Shellie said...

Don't stress too much over the lack of eating, when she's ready, she'll go back to it with a vengeance! I even let my kids eat things that are not traditional breakfast foods, like carrots and dip or leftover meat and potatoes from the night before. As long as it has some nutritional value, I'm alright.

Anonymous said...

We just bought Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook "Deceptively Delicious", which has a pumpkin oatmeal recipe that my son & husband both like. You can make a bunch on the weekend and have enough for a few days during the week. Or we have cheerios, life cereal or cream of wheat. Weekends my husband makes whole wheat pancakes once and a while.

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