This year is our first year of homeschooling. I am teaching my two oldest children kindergarten and my third child, Dorothy, works on her preschool book. It has been fun so far, but I know I’ve got a lot to learn! One thing I am learning is that in order to stick to our routine school morning, I need to have breakfast on the table as soon as possible. Of course, children who are homeschooled can be taught at any time of day, but since we are just starting, I think doing school right after breakfast is a good place to start. So…the real question is this: how can we get our children fed with nourishing foods right away in the morning? I’ve got some ideas to share with you!

1. Soaked Oatmeal. Taken right out of the Nourishing Traditions cookbook, we have come back to this recipe several times already, even though we have only done about 22 days of school so far. I prepare this recipe the morning or night before (using lemon juice instead of a dairy medium to soak our oats), and it takes only about 10-15 minutes to make in the morning. An extra quick tip is to start soaking more oats for the following day right after I’ve started cooking the current batch. I’ve also added a couple of tablespoons of active sourdough starter to my soaking oats and the result was delicious! Mixing in a few spoonfuls of extra virgin coconut oil to add some of those special medium-chain fatty acids and lauric acid into our children’s diets is beneficial, as well. Oatmeal is great for mamas and daddies, too 🙂 
2. Homemade Yogurt. As my family LOVES yogurt, I make a gallon at a time. As a slight modification to the linked recipe, I place the Instant Pot insert into a sink full of cold water for 5 minutes and this brings the temperature down to 115 degrees Fahrenheit…much better than waiting over an hour for it to cool on its own. I thoroughly wipe off the outside of the Instant Pot insert, and when it is dry, I place it back into the Instant Pot, add my yogurt starter, and progress with the recipe. I top it with raisins, a little honey, and sometimes other extras like nuts, bananas, cinnamon, or soaked granola. This breakfast is so quick to make–the only problem is that honey is hard to wipe off the table! Haha.
3. Hard-boiled or fried eggs and a raw milk kefir/yogurt smoothie. This recipe is fast as long as the hard-boiled eggs are done ahead of time. I love this 5-minute hard-boiled egg recipe in the Instant Pot–the shells usually come right off!  
4. Overnight oats. This is probably the fastest breakfast out there: Simply put your bowl of soaked oats, chia seeds, and kefir/yogurt on the table. 
5. Leftovers. I always make extra at dinner time so I can serve the leftovers for breakfast or lunch in the following days. It makes life much easier to have a meal already made! All I have to do is warm it up. Some of the best leftovers for breakfast are pancakes and sausages, soups, or anything over rice (curries or homemade sloppy joes). I absolutely love the Nourishing Traditions pancakes recipe! 

These recipes provide a fast and nutrient-dense basis for our children to set them up for a day of learning, wherever they go to learn. Though I believe there are many benefits of intermittent fasting for adults (especially men), this is not appropriate for children. Our children need calories–especially calories that come from healthy fats, protein, and complex carbs to carry them through the day without causing blood sugar spikes or dips. Any breakfast that is based mostly on sugar and lacks important things like adequate protein, fats, and COMPLEX carbs, is likely going to affect the quality of learning a child will get at school or at home. We all know that it is almost impossible to study and focus when our stomachs are growling! So, instead of giving our kids sugary boxed cereals (even though they are delicious…trust me, I had a lot of those as a kid!) or just skipping breakfast, we can give them something better.

What quick breakfast ideas do you have for your own family?