WFMW - Breakfast Menu Plan

Works for Me Wednesday
Breakfast Ideas
Last year when I wrote about school lunches, David left the following comment: "I think it was the 12,000 hot breakfasts that will have the longest positive impact. I contribute good breakfasts to any success I had in school or athletics," and that got me to thinking about the importance of breakfast on school mornings. So, here are some of the things that have "worked for us" over the years.

To be honest, I would have preferred fixing cold cereal for breakfast every morning - quick and easy and the kids love it. However, it was too expensive for our budget, so we alternated between pancakes, oatmeal, and scrambled eggs. (Our family tradition is to have cold cereal on Saturday, but that story deserves its own post.)Several years ago I devised a breakfast schedule as part of our summer planning, and that worked so well we've kept it ever since. Here's the basic outline:

Saturday - cold cereal
Sunday - eggs
Monday - pancakes/waffles
Tuesday - hot cereal/muffins
Wednesday - cold cereal
Thursday - eggs
Friday - French toast/Dutch babies

(Yes, we added a second day of cold cereal, but that works for us now.)

It's a very flexible plan. For instance, there are so many ways to cook eggs - scrambled, fried, omelets, soft-boiled, poached. One variation I called "reject eggs" and it was my standard breakfast for quite a while. I'd fix easy-over eggs for the kids and serve them with toast. After they used the toast to eat all the yolk, they'd leave the whites. Then I'd take their leftovers, sprinkle on a bit of cheese, reheat it and eat it myself. (What can I say? I was raised with the "think of all the starving kids in Africa" mentality, and germs don't particularly bother me. Besides, all the calories are in the yolk anyway, so that helps my diet.)

Another version we used a lot for "I'm running late" days. Cook the egg, but break the yolk just before flipping. Top with cheese and bacon bits and serve as a sandwich between two slices of toast. This is particularly delicious using a bagel and ham slices.Michelle doesn't like anything with syrup (waffles/french toast/Dutch babies/pancakes) and since those aren't particularly healthy, I'm not going to insist that she eat them. So on "pancake" day, she usually has a smoothie or a piece of fruit. Since our school district serves free breakfast to all students, I don't have to worry too much about breakfast now; they can always get something from the cafeteria. But breakfast is still a very important part of the day and I love the chance to experiment with new ideas, fall back on old ones, and send my family off into the world knowing they're prepared with a satisfied tummy.

If you're looking for specific recipe ideas, go to our "Family Favorites" and click on the breakfast category. It's filled with what works for us. And if you're looking for even more ideas, be sure to scroll through the list at We are THAT Family!