eating whole: breakfast time

I like our family to eat as many whole and unrefined foods as possible. I believe the more whole foods children eat when they are young, their palates will develop to appreciate whole foods and they'll have less of a craving or taste for more refined foods (which I believe leads to healthier habits). With that said, we still do occasionally eat some sugary cold cereals and some other refined things, but I try to keep it to a minimum. We try to have them as treats rather than meals.

A little more prep and cooking with children. Eating whole usually means there is a little more preparation involved (and clean-up). But instead of thinking as prep and breakfast time as something to hurry and rush through so we can move onto the next thing, I'm embracing that mealtimes are important moments during the day. It's a time to talk, a natural process of daily life, a time to move through creating and cleaning up, and a beautiful time to spend together as family. Even very young children enjoy helping and talking through what goes on during meal, and instead of hurrying up to move onto the next thing, we are making a greater effort of making it an important time of the day. Also, cooking is one of my children's favorite activities for homeschool--so many lessons from cooking!

Buy in-season and local and organic (where possible). It's a simple idea, but buying in season matters. I'm no expert, but I believe buying and eating food in it's season is healthier than buying items that were picked very green and shipped a long distance for us to buy in the store. I love gardening--so whenever we can grow our own food and bring it in, it's a joyous experience. Where possible, I love to buy local for many reasons; it's fresher, it's healthier, it supports a local economy, and it usually tastes a lot better. And organic. I'm a huge believer in organic. Pesticides and chemicals are not healthy for our bodies. And they aren't healthy for the earth either. A barrier to organic is that it's typically more expensive than non-organic produce or meat--that's the reality and one has to be wise with the pocketbook, but where possible, I love to buy (and better yet) grow/raise organic.

Have good things on hand. When it comes to making healthier eating choices, having good food on-hand goes a long way. At breakfast time, for example, it's a lot easier to eat well if you've got good things on hand. I love making a fruit bowl with whatever is in season and dishing that up to my kids. When something amazing is in season (and on sale) I try and buy it in bulk and flash freeze it to eat over the next months.

Here are some of our favorite breakfast meals:

steel cut oats, honey, cinnamon, freshly-ground nutmeg, freshly-ground flax seed, milk
scrambled eggs, grapefruit, whole wheat toast with peanut butter (and honey)
whole wheat pancakes or waffles, in-season mixed fruit
whole wheat toast with nut butter and honey, green smoothie (I'll share some favorite recipes on another post)
pesto egg sandwich; toasted english muffin, Jarlsburg cheese, scrambled egg, green
home made granola (I'll share our favorite recipe soon)

As you can see, we like to incorporate eggs into our breakfast. Scrambled eggs are one of my favorite protein-rich foods to add in. Here's how we like to prepare eggs:

desired quantity of eggs and a little dash of milk in a bowl; whisk together
heat pan with a tablespoon (or so) of coconut oil over medium-high heat
allow oil to melt over pan
add eggs and constantly push eggs to the center of the pan (scraping the bottom of the pan). Eggs should always be in-motion
when eggs look finished (they should appear fluffy), remove eggs immediately from pan so they do not over-cook
add freshly ground pepper (we like a lot of pepper around here!) and a little freshly-ground salt to taste

Doing our best to eat well makes me happy. I'd love to hear any wonderful breakfast ideas you fix in your home. xo