The Well-Sourced Life

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I’m dying to know. What are mornings like at your house? Are you & everyone up early and hungry right away or are you more of a slow morning soul? I’ve always been a slow morning person. My ideal morning is the early-but-not-TOO-early quiet, with the sun just barely rising and my daily cup of coffee in hand. I’ll fiddle with some latte art, then sit for a good 30 minutes on the couch either reading, or not doing ANYTHING until I fully wake up. Then I get dressed and get the twins, who by that time are happily talking to one another from their cribs and waiting eagerly to see me. Then I’ll eat breakfast an hour or so later – after the kids have eaten, gotten dressed and are settled into whatever play activity seemed most appealing. Sounds magical, doesn’t it?! 

Well, let me tell you something. My life was actually like that, until recently. A month and a half ago, my twin toddlers learned to climb out of their cribs. Yep! It’s time for that converter from crib to bed and it makes me SO SAD because they’re getting way too big. 😦 The other sad thing about that is that they can climb out of their beds and wake ME up, instead of me coming to get them after I’ve had my glorious “morning quiet”. Why is it that all of the sudden they have to get up at the crack of dawn?! 

All of this to say, I have had to do some SERIOUS improvising in order to help calm down our mornings, and now I love our routine because it simplifies and organizes our mornings so that I’m not running around figuring out what to feed them—again. 

Below I’ll share with you three things I now do on a regular basis to help our mornings feel more like a breeze! Being a mom is already busy enough, so I’m always looking for ways to make our life simpler, without sacrificing the things that are truly good (in this case, a good breakfast). 

So here we go: 

1)  Meal plan! 

You guys probably know by now that I am a huge advocate for meal planning. I do this for my family on a monthly basis. Toward the end of each month, I start working on our meal plan for the next month and this has been a huge time saver AND a huge money saver for us (If you want more details on how I do this, I really recommend checking out my post on How to Save on your Grocery Bill)! I know a lot of people who plan meals for dinner, but when I started meal planning for breakfast too, I realized a few things. One, that I didn’t have to make breakfast or plan for something every day. Otherwise, let’s be real, we would be eating cereal every day. Or at least every other day. Secondly, if I just put a little premeditated time into it, I could actually have a relatively scramble-free morning (pun intended…). So, rather than breakfast being ANOTHER thing to think about for that morning, I already know exactly what to do. 

2) Make larger quantities of items that will store throughout the week 

This is the other thing I started doing! As much as I love pancakes,  I only make pancakes, waffles, or other things that don’t store well on the weekend or if I’m feeling a particular craving for that item. Instead, I’ll make bigger batches of something that will keep throughout the week, so that I only make 2 or 3 breakfast items total in a week (that’s only 8 or 9 breakfasts per month!!!). I highly recommend this! Here are a few examples of breakfast foods that store well: 

• Breakfast casserole
• Quiche 
• Quick Breads (i.e., Banana bread, pumpkin bread, cinnamon swirl bread)
• Homemade Granola 
• Bagels (store-bought or homemade)
  • *If using homemade, they are really best within 3 days  

Each of these items are quick-grab foods that are relatively easy to make, and will save you time and effort through the rest of the week! 

3) Recycle your Recipes

This is just the best thing ever. I like to take each of the items above, plus a few more and give little twists or variations to make it feel like we’re not eating the same thing all of the time. For your breakfast casserole, throw in new veggies, a different kind of meat or Feta cheese instead of cheddar! It will give your casserole a whole different flavor and style and can also be a great way to clean out your refrigerator. 😉 For your quick breads, if you read that suggestion and thought, “wow, high sugar content for a breakfast item……”, I don’t blame you. But don’t worry! You can always reduce the sugar amount and make the bread with whole wheat or home-ground wheat like I’ve started doing to up the nutrition. Your kids will still love it as long as there is SOME sugar, and as long as you put a little butter and cinnamon on top. 😉 

So ultimately, I’ll rotate my set list of 6 or so items throughout the month with some variations and that way I’m not starting all over from scratch each month, but we’re also not eating the exact same thing every week. It’s a win-win! 

I hope these tips are as helpful for you as they have been for me. Most of all, I hope that this is something that you’re able to incorporate into your weekly and monthly life for better, scramble-free mornings!