Transition: Summer to School

It's officially here: the school year starts Monday. MONDAY, people. 

Which means I need to get my little lunch-making and speedy-breakfast-making ducks in a row. Quick like.

How did we do on our summer goals? I think we got a passing grade, barely. We have one swimmer and one biker-sans-training-wheels: my oldest. So, perhaps the boys will join their big sister next summer. All three made great progress. We made it through our Real Food Fast with flying colors for the most part. We did not even begin to do any meal-prep training with the kids. Nada. Zilch. But we had a good time.

Last year, I did a breakfast rotation for the four mornings of the week that we had to be out the door on the double. I hate to leave a pile o' dirty dishes behind, I hate to subsist only on boxed cereal each morning, and I like for things to be reasonably healthy and affordable. It made SUCH a huge difference in our morning routine to know exactly what we were going to have on which days--even the kids knew and if I ever deviated, they questioned it. I guess when you stagger down to the breakfast table, it's comforting to have a known entity there on the table waiting. We have one church morning (leave by 9:00 a.m.) and three school mornings (University Model School; leave by 7:20).

Last year's rotation:

• Sunday morning: coffee cake plus hard-boiled eggs and bananas
• Monday morning: Oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts (bonus if there was any fresh fruit)
• Wednesday morning: Microwave egg sandwich plus fruit
• Thursday morning: boxed cereal plus fruit

This year's rotation must change a touch mostly because my grocery shopping day has been shifted from Monday to Thursday. Oatmeal is a great meal on those mornings because I can make it with water if we're out of milk and it doesn't need any other fresh ingredient. You'll see that reflected below plus some other favorite recipes we've now worked into our regular routine. Obviously, there's room for variation (different kinds of muffins, for instance), but this really helps us have a good breakfast without too much trouble.

This year's breakfast rotation:

• Sunday: coffee cake or scones plus hard-boiled eggs and bananas (if it ain't broke, don't fix it :-) )
• Monday: cereal plus fruit
• Wednesday: Muffins and smoothies (muffins made day before; we may reconfigure smoothies once it gets cold out)
• Thursday: Oatmeal with dried fruit and nuts