Breakfast Wars

Getting Annabelle to eat breakfast is still a struggle. I long for the days where she used to eat yogurt and fruit and be happy about it, sadly those days are long gone and I now have a toddler thats a picky eater on my hands. Annabelle used to eat breakfast at daycare, which meant I would nurse her at around 6:30am and she would eat breakfast at around 8ish I think. We switched daycares about 2 weeks ago so she is on a new schedule now, we let her sleep in a little later, so depending on what time she gets up she nurses anywhere between 5am and 7am and then she stays home with daddy for breakfast and she goes to school at around 8 or 9am, depending on the day. Since she is now at home with daddy for breakfast she has been getting crackers for breakfast on most days. Crackers!?!?! I know, I know! Annabelle has daddy wrapped around her itty bitty finger and when she doesn’t want to eat her breakfast she gets crackers because “she didn’t like her breakfast and she had to eat something” and she LOVES her crackers, especially bunny grahams.

For the last few months I’ve been desperatley trying new recipes, trying to get her to eat something remotley healthy for breakfast. I’ve made, pumpkin pie ‘cake’, pumpkin muffins, baked oatmeal and a myriad of other things. I’ve tried making smoothies but she just looks at me like I’m nuts and says “no, no, no” while pushing the cup away. I consulted with my sister in law (who really should open a business as a baby whisperer) and we threw around some ideas as I asked her how she manages breakfast in her house. Then it clicked in my head that Annabelle is still getting breast milk as part of her breakfast and it’s just like giving her a smoothie. It’s full of vitamins, minerals, protein, healthy fats. What more could I ask for? No wonder she’s not as hungry for breakfast. That doesn’t mean I’ve won the breakfast battle, it just means that I can loosen up about how much she eats for breakfast. And since she’s at home with daddy she obviously needs more than one breakfast option so that she’ll at least eat something on her plate and not sucker daddy into giving her crackers every day.

Instead of giving her one breafast option she now has a little breakfast buffet from which to choose. So here it is. Her breakfast plate that I prepared the night before. All pretty healthy options and I’ll be happy with whatever she chooses to eat off her plate. Shredded organic coconut, a beet pancake (I just couldn’t resist making the red pancake into a heart), omega 3 cranberries and organic cereal made with kamut, quinoa and barley (it’s a processed cereal but it’s better that cheerios and it’s better than crackers, and sometimes I just need to let go).

I recently discovered weelicious which has some good recipes and ideas for lunchboxes. Not quite as ‘real food’ as I would like but it gets the wheels in my head churning. So far I’ve made a few recipes from it, such as these beet pancakes (I used coconut oil instead of butter in the recipe and for cooking the pancakes in). We have also made an loved Spinach cake muffins (I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and whole wheat flour instead of white). I won’t give up, I’ll keep chugging along and staying up late to make Annabelle the perfect breakfast.

What are some of your favorite breakfast recipes? What do you have in your arsenal that you know your kids will eat?