Menu Plan Monday: Kid Friendly Breakfast Ideas!

Hi! How was your weekend?  Ours was pretty good!! The weather here was kind of yuck...which definitely put a damper on things...but we still managed to get out and about!

Today is my oldest daughter's last day of school!  How this school year went by so fast is beyond on me!! She had such a wonderful year in kindergarten....next up- FIRST GRADE! Eeekk!

Now that we are starting summer break and not having to rush out of the house at 7:10 am every morning, I wanted to be a little more organized with what my kids are eating for breakfast every morning.  During the school year- it is NOT fancy around here- cereal or peanut butter toast is what is on the menu most mornings!  

So, when I sat down to make our weekly dinner menu plan, I also came up with a breakfast menu plan.  As you will see, it is SIMPLE.  My goal in creating a plan for our breakfasts was to make sure there was a little more variety in the kids' breakfasts as well as a fruit included in each of their breakfasts.  My daughter Cora Maye absolutely LOVES fruit- so I know this will make her happy :)  My other two daughters are pretty picky when it comes to eating fruit (I have no idea what is wrong with them- HA! I LOVE fruit!!), so one of my goals this summer is to get them eating more fresh fruit!  

Here is our super easy, simple plan for breakfasts this week!

Today, with it being the last day of school- we are keeping it easy and rocking cereal.  My kids' favorite is Cinnamon Toast Crunch- I get the Aldi version of it!  I am not super hard core about "sugary" cereals...I am an "all things in moderation" type of mom when it comes to feeding my kids.  The cinnamon toast crunch from Aldi has 9 grams of sugar in a serving and while that isn't super low- I am not worried about it as I know the rest of their meals and snacks are very low in sugar.  

For Tuesday's breakfast, we are going to have banana/pumpkin muffins with some yogurt and mandarin oranges.  You can find the recipe I use for the muffins here!  I have a heart shaped donut pan and I baked a recent batch of muffins in it!  They turned out SO cute and my girls LOVE eating a "heart" muffin!  The girls eat vanilla greek yogurt- I love the extra protein they get from the greek yogurt!  And I get the mandarin oranges canned in FRUIT juice.  I drain and rinse them off and then store them in a tupperware in the refrigerator.  Cora Maye could eat a whole container of oranges by herself :)  My other two girls kind of like oranges...meaning they only semi- gag when they eat them- HA!

Wednesday morning we will have pancakes!  I get a pancake mix from Aldi that only requires adding water to it.  SO easy and the pancakes are SUPER yummy.  My baby boy LOVES pancakes, so I will make several extra and put them in the freezer for him to have as snacks throughout the week!  When I serve the pancakes, I give my girls a little bowl of syrup as their "dipping sauce."  I only give them a small amount- so they have to be careful not to over do it with the syrup :)  When they are done with it- that's it! They don't get a syrup "refill."  We usually always have a conversation about moderation when someone runs out of syrup too soon- HA!

Thursday morning we are going to have whole grain waffles- I get mine in the freezer section at Aldi- they are the "Fit N Active" brand- $1.29 for 10 waffles!  James likes to eat his plain and the girls will get cinnamon sugar "sprinkles" on their waffles since we had syrup yesterday morning.  Cora Maye loves fresh pears, but the rest of my kids prefer the softer ones- so I get pears canned in their own juice- and do the same thing I do with our mandarin oranges- drain them, rinse them off and put them in a tupperware.  I really like the fruit canned in 100% juice for James...it is the perfect texture for him and he LOVES it!  

Friday morning, Charlotte and I have dentist appointments, so we will all need to be ready to go fairly early.  The kids will have cereal along with some greek yogurt.  I have found that giving my girls a serving of greek yogurt with their breakfast really helps them stay satisfied longer and the requests for snacks and the "I'M HUNGRY's" are not as frequent!  Also, something I really like about "cereal" mornings is that Charlotte and Cora are able to totally get this breakfast by themselves- they also get Celine's cereal too!  There might be a few milk spills- but that is fine with me!  I LOVE them being independent and they feel very proud when they have gotten their own breakfast ready!

Saturday morning, we will go to the gym pretty early- so I plan to pull some banana muffins out of the freezer the night before so they are ready to go when my kids get up at 6:00 am!  Aldi is currently carrying organic "summer strawberry" individual applesauce cups- it is SO good!  The girls will have one of those and some yogurt with their muffin!

For the last month or so, on Sunday mornings, I have been making the same thing, and it has kind of become our "Sunday morning meal."  I make cinnamon rolls and cheesy scrambled eggs.  We all eat together between 7:00 - 7:30 am and then go get ready for church.  I love all of us sitting down together before it gets a little a lot crazy getting everyone dressed and ready for church.  My husband and girls LOVE cinnamon rolls...so they look forward to Sunday morning all week :)

So- now your turn- do you plan out what your family will be eating for breakfast?  This is new for me- but I am looking forward to being more organized and thoughtful with what I am serving my kiddos for breakfast this summer!

Hope you have a wonderful day and a great week!

I am linking up with Laura today!