Quick and Easy Breakfasts

With the start of school, quick breakfasts are more than welcome. In our own family we undergo the typical morning rush. For several years I served mostly cereal. My kids got tired of it. As a matter of fact, this morning I served them cereal and they moaned. I honestly tell you that I haven't served them cereal in over a week, so they have no excuse. Crazy kids, what are you going to do. :)

So, without further ado, I will give you some ideas. If you plan ahead you can serve your kiddos something different every day of the week!

• Smoothies. There are tons of recipes on the web. (Check out Allrecipes.com, Cooks.com and Tasty Kitchen just to get started - these are linked to their smoothies pages)

• Frozen waffles or pancakes - if you have time you can make your own, but I prefer buying them.

• Toast with toppings - some ideas: cream cheese, peanut butter, jam, gouda cheese, nutella, plain butter. Here is a special treat that my Dutch friend taught me: butter with chocolate sprinkles (it is most delish, but ssshhh. We don't want the kids asking for that all the time.)

• Muffins. You can make these the night before so they're ready for your morning. Here is a banana muffin recipe I have recently fallen in love with. 

• Mini bagels with cream cheese

• Scrambled eggs or hard boiled eggs you've boiled the night before

• Parfaits. I love these. First place fruit (fresh or thawed frozen) on the bottom of a bowl. I like berries the best. Cover with your favorite yogurt. Top with your favorite not-too-sweet cereal or granola.

• Instant oatmeal if you're into that kind of thing. :) Try to add fruits or nuts.

• English muffins topped with pasta sauce and cheese then toasted.  Mini pizzas. They'll love it. :)

I hope this gives you some pointers. Please let me know if you have any others. 

Take a few minutes to check out my other back to school posts if you haven't done so already. ~Michelle

Lunch Packing Ideas

It's Sunday night and I just finished making a batch of Marbles Cookies. With the kids back in school I find this the perfect evening of the week to make a batch of cookies.

When they are cool enough I put two at a time into baggies. (I usually prefer plastic wrap, but mine is giving me issues lately!) For this week I made 12 little packages. That's enough for 5 school lunches for two kids and 2 husband lunches.

I keep them all together in one handy place, so they're easy to put together when I need them.

It's also easy to do this with pretzels or veggie sticks. Whole fruits can be put aside. Canned fruits, yogurt or applesauce can be put into containers if you don't buy the individual cups. When your morning flurry of activity begins, the lunches are put together so much more easily with these short cuts on hand.

I am no where near being an organized person. Planning ahead and keeping up with things before they occur does not come naturally to me. However, I can assure you that simple short cuts such as this one will save you lots of time and stress in the end.

Take a few minutes to check out my other back to school posts if you haven't done so already. ~Michelle

Thank you Mrs. Fields for this recipe. :)
Marbles Cookies

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) sour cream
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 300° F.

In medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.


Combine sugars with electric mixer at medium speed. Add butter and beat until batter is grainy. Add egg, sour cream and vanilla. Beat until fully combined. Add the flour mix. Blend at low speed until just combined. Do not overmix!

Melt chocolate chips in double broiler or microwave according to package directions.

Cool chocolate for a few minutes then pour over cookie batter. Using a wooden spoon, lightly fold melted chocolate into the dough. Do not mix chocolate completely into the dough as you are trying to create a marble effect.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 20-22 minutes. Do not brown. Quickly transfer cookies to a cool surface.

Space saving desk

Tabitha is happy to be using her desk for the first time this year. I bought all the supplies for it last school year, but only got around to putting things together the week before school started this year. (Seth also has one that is baseball themed.)

One of the supplies from her hanging pencil pouch along with an animated expression:

The cork board thingies for future use:

This was simple enough to make. If you're strapped for money or space this is a good answer.  I keep mine folded and off in a corner. The kids like that they can have their own privacy and all the supplies they could possibly need for their homework.

I read about this in Family Fun magazine. They always have lots of fun ideas.

Take a few minutes to check out my other back to school posts if you haven't done so already. ~Michelle

Supplies

• one tri-fold poster board cut in half
• small cork board and thumbtacks
• plastic hook
• magnet friendly ruler and magnets
• extra strong double sided tape
• pencil pouch filled with student's needs
• paper decorations (cut outs from magazines, children's art, memorabilia from a day trip, etc)
• decoupage glue, paint brush and bowl

Directions
Attach ruler and cork boards in desired locations with double sided tape. Apply plastic hook making sure to leave enough room for the pencil pouch to hang.

Have your pictures ready to go. Paint the decoupage glue in the area for your first picture, place picture on top, then paint liberally with more glue, making sure it all looks even. Continue doing this until you are content with the outcome.

Set the poster board aside for 4 hours or so, laying it flat so everything dries nicely. Now you can hang your full pencil pouch. Place magnets on ruler and push thumbtacks into the cork board.

Time: 30-40 minutes or work. 5 hours til usable.

School binder

I am a BIG collector of memories. I think, in part, its because I have such a bad memory. Storing things away helps me remember them when I look at them. For my children, who I know will forget much of their early years, I feel like I have to store their memories for them.

For a couple of years now I have stored "special" school papers in a big closed folder type thingy. One for each child per year kind of thing. I think that system works ok, but the folder can get ripped if it's handled too much and the contents can get all out of sorts, so I am trying something new this year.

Behold, The Memory Binder:

Da, da, da, dun:

Inside I store all sorts of things (obviously). Today I'll be demonstrating Tabitha's Kindergarten binder.

When you open it up I have her class picture in a page protector. Easy to see and not so easy to bend or smudge. Well, I suppose with kids it will still be easy to destroy, but hopefully it won't be too bad.

Enoch saw this picture hanging in the school office and asked if he could have it when they were done. They said yes! I glued the glasses she's wearing in the picture on top. (Tabitha is the one with her head turned in the yellow shirt and overall dress)

I like to keep at least one copy of papers that she does regularly.

This is a certificate she earned during the year.

Larger art work gets folded in thirds and hole punched in.

Some pieces were too small to be punched or I just wanted to keep them whole. For those, I glued them onto construction paper and added them to the book.

Right now they are sitting on my book shelf, but they'll eventually make their way to a more secure storage location. Assuming I do this until about 5th grade for the four kids I should have about 24 binders. YIKES!

Do you have any good memory storage ideas I should know about???

For other tips, check out Works for me Wednesday at We are THAT family.

Take a few minutes to check out my other back to school posts if you haven't done so already. ~Michelle