[UPDATE: This article is originally from Aug 2013. I’m republishing it for this year. Last year arriving early was a total flop! Being very sick from pregnancy put the kibosh on that plan. I was just very grateful for getting out the door at all and a Dunkin Donuts on our route to CC. 🙂 I have high hopes for this year, but also an infant. Hmmm…wonder how this will go!]
One of the many great perks of homeschooling is starting your school day at your choosing. For us, that means starting when we naturally wake up & after we eat our breakfast. But, on Classical Conversation community days, we don’t enjoy that same luxury. I must admit my family has a bit of reputation for hustling in the door at the last minute before (or a few minutes after) our morning session starts at 9 am. This is not how I like our day to begin! So, my goal for this year is to arrive 5 minutes (or more) before morning session starts, so we can drop all our things in place and settle in to a pew near the front (where we tend to pay more attention). Besides being (at least) on time, it is so important to me that my littles have a filling, nutritious breakfast so they can concentrate on the business of learning. Because we are all varying degrees of slow eaters, our breakfasts on CC mornings need also to be portable for on-the-way eating. Last year, I did some batch baking ahead of time to freeze. So far, I have one set of muffins frozen and some fresh fruit frozen for smoothies. My plan this year is to do some freezing ahead of time again and to prepare some breakfasts on Sunday evenings. Our Sundays are typically pretty relaxing through the fall and winter, so I should be able to do this.
Here are some of our favorite recipes:
banana crumb muffins
pumpkin blueberry muffins
chocolate chip buttermilk scones
baked egg muffins (can also be made without bread – gluten-free!)
baked french toast
triple chocolate chunk muffins (gluten-free!)
Here are some new recipes I’ll be trying out:
healthy shamrock shake
apple pie breakfast
pancake and sausage muffins
breakfast burritos
breakfast cookies
banana bread
And finally, quick breakfast ideas for when nothing is prepared in advance:
peanut butter on apple slices
cream cheese on bagels
yogurt & granola
green smoothies – I just ordered these lids for our mason jars to make it easier to take our smoothies to go!
hard-boiled eggs with toast
I’d love to hear what y’all do to make your CC community mornings run more smoothly! Are you early risers who scoot out the door in plenty of time or are you searching for the last pair of sneakers while checking the clock one more time? If you’ve got time saving secrets, I’d love to hear them! My campus would thank you for helping me arrive on time (or even early!)! : )
You would think that since we are pretty early risers and get to CC early, that we are somhow super-organized and have no mad scrambles. This is not the case. It usually is a bit of chaos whenever we leave the house, and I need time to recover at the church before CC starts. 😉 My kids usually eat cereal when we are in a hurry. Lately, they’ve been raising the clock to finish a bowl in under 5 minutes. We still have a mad scramble to find missing shoes, pack lunches, and so on, but we pack CC backpacks on Friday, try to plan lunch and lay out clothing the night before. We still have a rush out the door, but they are told we are leaving at 8:15 – which really allows us a 1/2 hour buffer in case of disaster any morning.
Ok, typos galore . . . I do know how to spell somehow, and we race the clock not raise it.
ha! no worries! i knew exactly what you meant. okay, so we had cereal this morning & it literally took my guys 20+ minutes to eat. we’re REALLLLLY slow eaters over here. 🙂
Love your list of breakfast foods! I too, am guilty of being the ‘late family’ far too often; but this year I’m directing so we have no choice but to be there early! ;o) Plus, we’ll be moving this Saturday to an apartment that is less than 10 minutes from our meeting facility, which is GREAT!
I’m doing breakfast burritos, sausage, egg, and cheese cupcakes, muffins, and banana bread for our freezer and keeping cereal bars, cereal, and crescent rolls and heat n’ serve sausage links to roll up for quick breakfasts for our crew. I’m uber-organized, but I think my desire to do ‘just one more thing’ before we leave is what honestly makes us late most of the time. Hopefully, this year I’ll give us a new rep by being ready to leave a wee bit earlier! :o)
your list makes me hungry!! : ) i’m pretty organized myself, but a very slow starter in the morning. i think that’s my biggest issue! i also found i was always aiming for the 9am start time, when really i should be aiming for earlier then that. i don’t want to walk in the door at 9am! duh! i’m glad to see you & i will both be working on our reps this year 😉 haha!
What a great post! I’m glad you reposted since I missed this last year! Love the recipes.
Hi Beth, Thank you for this amazing post! I’ve been hooked on your blog since discovering it a little over a year ago! It’s short, simple, encouraging and full of practical tips. Today’s post couldn’t be more perfect. I get stuck preparing the same breakfast time and again because there are so few things that all four of my kiddos will eat. (I have three boys- 9, soon to be 6 and 4- and a one year old girl. Another reason I like to read your blog.) They usually eat eggs and bacon or sausage. Thank you for the ideas! Now if only I could meal plan ahead of time… 🙂