Monday, January 21, 2008

Quick Easy Breakfast Ideas

Even though I am a stay-at-home mom, time is short around our house too. I still try to fit in time to make allergy-free pancakes or a balanced breakfast meal (we try to make it the most important meal of the day). Here are some suggestions to make breakfast easier:

Try to make breakfast the night before:
-mix up a gluten-free pancake or muffin mix, combining all the dry ingredients and putting them in a plastic bag. Then you just have to add the wet ingredients. Get a large 2 burner griddle so you can cook a lot at once.
-make swiss oats (oats soaked overnight with rice milk or regular milk/water, honey if you want), then add dried fruit/nuts/sunflower or pumpkin seeds in the a.m. Bob's Red Mill makes a new GF rolled oats
-how about granola made the night before?
-Muesli made the night before (make your own with GF rolled oats, dried fruit, sunflower or pumpkin seeds)
-A fresh vegetable "salad" like fresh chopped zucchini, summer squash, and chickpeas with a little flax seed oil and lemon juice is also a good option to make ahead at night and keep in the fridge until the a.m. Also, coleslaw, a cold rice or quinoa salad with fresh vegetables are other good options (see the "Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook") You can pack these salads for lunches too.

Fast morning ideas:
-try Bob's Red Mill Mighty Tasty GF Hot Breakfast Cereal - it's like quick-cooking Cream of Wheat (without the gluten). Arrowhead Mills also makes "Rice n' Shine" another quick-cooking hot rice cereal. Cream of buckwheat is good too.
-A few frozen vegetables steamed in the micro or on the stovetop for 5 min. is a great way to start the day (broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, peas) If it's hard to get your kids to eat fresh or steamed veggies, try a wide variety of sauces/dips - hummus, a roasted red pepper or eggplant spread, homemade yogurt sauces if your kids can have milk, homemade dressings or vinaigrettes...you can stock your fridge with these sauces/dips ahead of time.

Try menu planning for the week or even for a few days so you don't waste time getting up wondering what you can cook or if you have the ingredients on hand.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow, and to think my quick and easy breakfast is a Nutragrain bar!!