Moms and dads will pack healthful lunches and plan nutritious dinners but sometimes give their children a warm-from-the-toaster breakfast.
But a few simple tips can help make breakfast nutritious and easy.
“Studies show children who eat breakfast have better attendance in school, improved test scores, superior overall nutrition and are less likely to be overweight,” registered dietitian Kathy Belcher said.
“Everyone in the family benefits from breakfast, so take advantage of the opportunity to eat with your kids,” she said. “Breakfast is your first opportunity of the day to work in the food groups most Americans are lacking — fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy.”
Belcher, school program director for the Southeast United Dairy Industry Association in Louisville, recommends including milk, cheese or yogurt in the first meal of the day.
Parents can quickly:
–Blend strawberry or chocolate milk with banana slices for a delicious smoothie.
–Sprinkle low-fat cheese on scrambled eggs and roll it up in a whole grain tortilla.
–Layer granola, fresh berries and vanilla yogurt for a yummy parfait.
–Top a toasted raisin bagel with low-fat peanut butter and banana slices.
In the new cookbook The Gastrokid Cookbook: Feeding a Foodie Family in a Fast-Food World (John Wiley & Sons Inc., $22.95), authors Hugh Garvey and Matthew Yeomans suggest planning your family’s breakfasts the night before and reassessing your morning schedule and tasks so you can make meal preparation a priority.
With the pressures of school and work start times, parents need to come up with a few good tricks to provide a nutritious breakfast for the entire family.
Garvey and Yeomans suggest that parents prepare oatmeal by the batch. On Monday, make oatmeal for 12 and refrigerate the leftovers. During the next few days, spoon it into individual bowls, microwave it and serve it with milk, good dark maple syrup and fresh fruit. “Add to that a poached or fried egg and/or a smoothie, and you’ve given your kid a head start that didn’t involve boxed, over-processed, over-sugared cereals,” the authors wrote.
A smoothie is one of the easiest ways to get a healthy dose of nutrition into your child. Each time you go to the grocery store, buy:
–A few big containers of non-fat plain yogurt. It keeps for a long time.
–A big container of orange juice.
–4 or 5 packages of frozen fruit.
–A bunch of bananas.
Buy a blender if you don’t have one. Every morning, load the blender like this:
–A few cups of frozen fruit in the bottom.
–A cut-up banana
–A few cups of yogurt
–A pour of orange juice
Let it sit there for 20 minutes while you do other stuff (it’ll melt and meld and not take such a racket if you wait until the fruit isn’t frozen solid), then blend it. If it’s too thick, add more orange juice.
Another new book that’s filled with recipes for quick and easy breakfasts is The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to the New Food Pyramids by Elizabeth Ward.
Ward, a registered dietitian and mother of three, shares these quick ideas:
–When time’s tight, take breakfast to go: Layer a frozen, heated pancake with peanut butter, top with sliced bananas, roll and enjoy with an 8-ounce carton of 100 percent orange juice.
–Plan. Keep healthful breakfast foods, such as whole-grain breads, cereals, waffles, low-fat dairy products and fruit, on hand for quick breakfasts.
–Packing lunch? Pack breakfast too. Healthful, portable foods include peeled, hard-cooked eggs, low-fat yogurt, whole-grain crackers or rolls, and dried and regular fruit. For a quick breakfast, combine 1/2 cup whole grain cereal with 1/4 cup each sunflower seeds or nuts and dried cranberries or raisins.
–Family teamwork. In the morning rush, older children can fix their own breakfasts while you help the younger ones decide what to eat.
Date: Aug 13, 2009
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