Plan ahead with an easy breakfast schedule! How to get healthy, real food breakfasts on your table FAST.

Collage featured image for EASY and healthy real food breakfasts

In our efforts to eat wholesome, real foods, one of the biggest challenges has been weekday breakfasts. School and work mornings are busy, and we’d gotten into the habit of eating packaged cereals most days. Especially with the kids.

Yes, it’s easy and convenient to pour a bowl of cereal and be done with it. But cold cereal doesn’t fuel our bodies with lasting energy. And, depending on which kind you buy, packaged cereal can be filled with added sugar, preservatives, and other questionable ingredients.

What is the alternative? A nutritious breakfast made from real foods, that satisfies both your hunger and your tastebuds! Sounds difficult and time-consuming? It doesn’t have to be!

A few months ago, if you looked into our pantry you’d find at least 8 boxes of store-bought cereal. It was the “healthier,” lower sugar varieties, but still processed cereal nonetheless. The kids were asking for a bowl of cereal constantly. When they woke up in the morning. For a mid-morning snack. After school. Even at dinner time. And every time we went to the grocery store, they wanted to buy more of whichever kind was the favorite of the moment. I was even tempted way too many times to eat a bowl of cereal for an afternoon or late night snack.

I didn’t like the way that my body felt after eating a big bowl of cereal, and I really didn’t like the amount of cereal that my family was eating. So we decided to stop buying cereal and start planning ahead to make nutritious breakfasts happen every day. We talked with the kids about our plan, so they understood that we wouldn’t be buying any more boxes of cereal. They didn’t like it at first (surprise, surprise), but it only took a week for them to adjust and stop asking for it altogether. They even tell our family and friends how we aren’t buying cereal anymore. 🙂

making a green smoothie

What do I mean when I say real food breakfasts? The easiest way to explain it is to say what it’s not. Real food is not packaged or processed. It’s made from whole ingredients, like fresh fruits and vegetables, eggs, whole grains, plain yogurt, and milk.

I believe in moderation, and hey, I do have three kids and a crazy busy life. I don’t judge anyone for buying a box of cereal or graham crackers. We still buy plain Cheerios for emergencies (like keeping the one-year-old busy during a trip to the grocery store). And while I love to make homemade graham crackers when I have time, most of the time we buy our favorite (healthier) crackers at the store. Most of the time, though, we’re starting our day with a healthy, homemade breakfast.

So how do we make homemade breakfast happen even on our busiest days? It all comes down to organization, and I have two tricks up my sleeve. 😉

1. Take advantage of make-ahead breakfasts and prep foods ahead of time.

When I have time on the weekend or on a less-busy weekday, I’ll make a batch of healthy muffins, breakfast cookies, or mini frittatas and freeze them. Homemade granola and overnight oats are other favorite make-ahead breakfast options that you can keep in your refrigerator for quick breakfasts.

When I do my weekly snack prep, I’ll also cut up fresh fruit and hard boil some eggs for breakfasts. When the healthy foods are ready to go, we are more likely to eat them. 🙂

2. Plan ahead with an easy breakfast schedule.

This is my favorite trick because the thinking and planning are done in advance. I don’t know about you, but I’m much more likely to eat a healthy meal when I have a plan.

To keep things simple, I’ve created a breakfast theme for each day of the week. Wednesdays are for oats and Fridays are for breakfast smoothies, for example. Then we switch it up with different recipes and flavors from week to week, so things are always delicious and never boring.

Having a schedule takes the guesswork out of it. I can easily plan for our grocery shopping. On the weekend I make notes on my calendar of which prep ahead tasks I need to do each day so I don’t forget. Here is a printable breakfast plan that I like to keep on my refrigerator.

Here’s the schedule, along with 4 recipe ideas for each day of the week. So all together I’m giving you a whole month’s worth of easy breakfast ideas! These are the recipes that we make over an over again, to fuel our bodies and start our day off right.

Mondays: healthy muffins and quick breads with fruit. Add yogurt or a hard boiled egg for protein.

collage of banana bread and muffins

  1. Favorite Healthy Blueberry Banana Bread
  2. Maple Banana Pancake Muffins
  3. Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies
  4. Light and Fluffy Blueberry Banana Muffins

Tuesdays: quick hot breakfasts.

How we stopped our packaged cereal habit: An EASY and healthy real food breakfast plan! | www.kristineskitchenblog.com

  1. Easy French Toast (Whisk together 1 egg, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla in a shallow dish. Dip 2 slices of whole wheat bread and cook in a nonstick skillet over medium heat, 2-3 minutes per side.)
  2. Make-Ahead Mini Frittatas
  3. Yogurt Waffles or Pancakes
  4. English Muffin Egg Sandwiches (Egg, cheese, and veggies on a whole wheat English muffin)

Wednesdays & Thursdays: oats.

Make these the night before, and they will last for a few days in the refrigerator.

collage of breakfast oatmeal recipes

  1. Our Favorite Easy Overnight Oats
  2. Peanut Butter and Banana Overnight Oats
  3. Easy Baked Oatmeal
  4. Strawberry Banana Baked Oatmeal

Fridays: smoothies.

collage of smoothie recipes

  1. Apple-Pear Breakfast Smoothie
  2. Blueberry Spinach Breakfast Smoothie
  3. Pumpkin Apple Breakfast Smoothie
  4. Peanut Butter Banana Smoothie

Saturdays: eggs and toast.

collage of egg frittatas

  1. Broccoli Cheddar Mini Frittatas
  2. Ham, Cheese, and Veggie Quinoa Frittatas
  3. Scrambled, Fried, or Poached Eggs
  4. Egg and Veggie Omelet

Sundays: pancakes, waffles, or french toast.

(Freeze leftover pancakes and waffles for quick dinners later in the week.)

collage image of waffles, pancakes, breakfast casserole

  1. Lemon Greek Yogurt Pancakes
  2. Overnight Cranberry Orange French Toast
  3. Healthy Chocolate Chip Waffles
  4. Best Waffles

What is your favorite healthy breakfast? Share your favorite easy breakfast tips in the comments!

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