The beginning of school is always a whirlwind of activity, with meeting the teacher, getting supplies and finishing up end of summer fun activities. I feel like august just flies by, but also every day is jam packed with checklist items to do. Planning for the morning meal and getting ready time table along with daily lunches brings not a small amount of dread as September approaches, because I have a picky eater. I swear he may be part fern, because some days I feel like he lives on air and a spritz of water. This month’s article is a little different; because I want to share some ways we have reduced the mental burden of feeding kids when school starts again.
Making breakfasts with enough calories and a good mix of carbohydrates, protein and fat to make it to lunch time is hard to do. Not every morning can be a Denny’s grand slam breakfast. For this I take a note from Kendra Adachi, author of "The Lazy Genius" who talks about making a meal matrix to make decision-making less painful. For the mornings, Mondays can be egg sandwiches - egg, toast and they can pick cheese or ham or spinach (yeah, right).
The kids get to pick the fruit. Tuesdays is smoothies - some greek yogurt, a frozen fruit and a liquid and blend.). Wednesdays is overnight oats (a.k.a.: breakfast pudding) which you can prep while making smoothies for the next day because you will have most of the ingredients out already. Maybe Thursday is toaster waffles because, it's already Thursday. But you’ll pair it with some yogurt. And Friday can be bagels, because you have made it to Friday and should celebrate with a bagel.
Breakfast Pudding
Ok, this is actually overnight oats but if you "powderize" the oats by blending them dry in a blender, it makes it more pudding like once it sets overnight with the liquids, which my kids enjoy, and then will eat more readily. Truthfully, actual oatmeal is called ‘hot cereal’ in our house also. With the basic ratio it is easy to increase in amount and can be made in a variety of flavors. They provide a lot of protein to get kids and adults to snack or lunchtime.
The overnight oats ratio is: 1 cup rolled oats (powderize) + 1 cup milk + 2/3 cup yogurt (plain)+ 1 tbsp sweeter (honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, coconut sugar, half a banana mashed) + pinch of salt. As a note, if you use vanilla yogurt and not plain, reduced the sweeter or omit completely.
Preparation: First, mix all the base ingredients together in a bowl. These are the rolled oats, milk, yogurt, sweetener and pinch of salt. Add in any flavor additions. Pour the oat mixture into an airtight container, my favorite option is a mason jar, but any airtight container is fine as long as you seal it with a lid or cover it with plastic wrap. Place the overnight oats in the fridge overnight to let the oats fully absorb all the liquid. In the morning before you serve, give the oats a quick stir. Next, add any favorite toppings including, berries, sliced banana, shredded coconut, dried cranberries, raisins, apple slices, dark chocolate chips, nut butter, cinnamon. Whether it’s hot or cold oats, kids like to make it feel like their own.
Varieties:
- Chocolate: make your base like above, and add 2 tbsp of chocolate chips and 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- Apple Pie: ½ cup chopped apple (small dice), 2 tsp cinnamon and be sure to mix evenly all together.
- Carrot Cake: ¼ cup shredded carrots (about one medium carrot), ¼ cup raisins, 1 tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp ginger powder.
- Strawberry Cheesecake: a cup chopped fresh strawberries, ¼ cup crushed graham crackers, 1 Tbsp softened cream cheese (room temperature) – or softened mascarpone cheese, 1 tsp vanilla extract.
- Vanilla: If I just make vanilla (by adding 1tsp of vanilla extract), I like to top it with peanut butter caramel. Which the family dies for because it's "caramel" but not really. It is made by just 1/2 cup of maple syrup, 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 1/8 tsp salt if your nut butter has none. Warm it up and mix. I then put it on top of the overnight oats and chill it all together. In this way you might run the risk of the kids just eating the topping - so you may want to give it a stir before serving.
For my selective eater, lunch at school is very trying. A lot of the problem was the decision making. Asking him "what do you want for lunch?" Was too big of a question. After a lot of work (a lot of work) - I decided two things. One: he eats well at breakfast and dinner, lunch does not have to be a "Big Deal." And we were making it a big deal, so I decided that I don’t care what he eats at lunch. And two: he has total control because school is stressful enough, lunch with your friends should be easy.
We made a menu together, listing the things he could choose from each day and he had to pick at least one from each category. This took so much pressure off of the situation. Did he choose chicken and rice (microwave chicken tikka masala) and a side of strawberries for two weeks for lunch? Yes. Was this super repetitive? Yes. Did I feel like it was ok since his other meals had variety so it was ok? Also yes.
These are the categories for our lunch menu that we made. It is a laminated menu and if there was something that I can’t offer after grocery shopping I cross it off with a dry erase marker. He had to pick at least one of each. And these were all "safe foods," he knows he likes them and because he could choose so there was no surprise in the middle of the day at school.
Protein: ham sandwich, turkey sandwich, cheese sandwich, pepperoni sandwich, black beans and rice, cheese and crackers, pasta and meatball, chicken and rice, soup (black bean soup, Italian wedding soup), hard boiled eggs, cheesy eggs.
Fruit or Veggie: apple slices, grapes, broccoli and dip, cucumber and dip, strawberries, apple sauce or fruit pouch ,pickles (yes we count this as a lunch vegetable), carrots and dip, ants on a log (celery and raisins), salad (literally lettuce mix), tomatoes
A snack food: goldfish, pretzels, cereal, granola bar, graham cracker
Overall, I hope that you and your family can find something here that may help your school days run smoother. And here’s to a great school year for everyone.
