Easy Breakfasts for Toddlers & Kids
Easy weekday breakfasts for toddlers and kids highlights.
- Just a few simple breakfast options in weekly rotation are just fine. In fact, toddlers prefer this.
- Stock your pantry, freezer, and fridge with wholesome and versatile breakfast toppings and sides to spice up your weekly breakfast routine.
- Our family's favorite weekday breakfasts are oatmeal, healthy toaster waffles, scrambled eggs, and savory muffins.
At Littlemore, our parenting mantra is "seek simplicity."
Simplifying day-to-day tasks and implementing routines creates the most precious resource you can offer your little ones - more of your time. More time to play, more time for adventures and outings, and more time for you to enjoy watching your babies grow up. Simplicity and routine also help you muster needed energy for the more 'challenging' days.
As weekday mornings are the most hectic time of the day for most families, simplifying your breakfast routine is critical. We like breakfasts that can be assembled in minutes so you can get everyone out the door on time!
Here are some ideas for easy-to-manage breakfasts, toddlers like eating that give them the nutrients they need to fuel their adventure-filled days.
We hope your family enjoys them as much as ours.
Choose a few weekday breakfasts for toddlers and keep them in rotation.
Apart from an indulgent weekend meal, we have only four breakfasts in our family's rotation. This is real life, not Pinterest, so your strawberries do not have to be cut into star shapes, and your wonky muffins are just fine.
In fact, toddlers thrive on routine and familiarity, so if you serve something once or twice a week, they are usually more inclined to eat it. In short, most kids are perfectly content with everyday, straightforward breakfasts.
Plan minor variations to keep your weekday breakfasts exciting and healthy.
You can create minor variations in your weekday breakfast routine by swapping out fruit based on what is in season or what's on sale in your grocery store’s freezer section.
Or, if your family, like ours, has a more indulgent weekend brunch, make extra and then freeze and reheat on weekday mornings. Pancakes, french toast, omelets, savory breakfast muffins, breakfast burritos, and breakfast casseroles can all be easily rewarmed for a fast weekday 'treat' breakfast.
When your choosing breakfast foods, just be sure to monitor the sugar in
packaged foods. We don't want parents to be hyper-paranoid about too much sugar, but the early years are the ideal time to shape your child's palate.
And, many seemingly healthy foods have lots of added sugar, especially typical breakfast foods like yogurt, cereal, granola, juice, frozen waffles, and instant oatmeal. So, read packages and choose options that are lower in sugar and higher in fiber and protein when possible.
Stock and prepare toddler-friendly breakfast sides and toppings in advance.
Most dinner and brunch leftovers can be repurposed for breakfast. Roasted yams or squash can be mashed and served on toast the next day. Left-over chicken or beans can be mixed into scrambled eggs.
Also, simple toppings add variety and extra nutrients to everyday breakfasts. We like to have some things on hand to sprinkle or spread on breakfast waffles, toast, pancakes, or french toast.
Frozen fruit is a fantastic freezer staple. It is often higher in vitamins and antioxidants than fresh fruit since it was frozen at peak ripeness. Store-bought fruits and veggies frequently travel on a truck then sit on a shelf for days or weeks as nutrients leach away with every hour. So, frozen fruits and veggies for the win!
Here is a list of our favorite breakfast pantry and freezer staples to get you started!
All of these are delicious on waffles, oatmeal, or french toast.
- Chia seeds
- Hemp hearts
- Ground flaxseed
- Chopped frozen or fresh fruit
- Chopped nuts (chop finely, so they are not a choking hazard)
- Chopped pumpkin or sunflower seeds
- Roasted mashed butternut squash
- Cooked and mashed sweet potatoes or yams
- Grated coconut
- Sliced bananas
- Any kind of nut or seed butter
Easy breakfasts for toddlers and kids have oats, oats, and more oats!
Oatmeal is a fantastic breakfast staple. It's cost-effective, quick to make, contains whole grains and fiber, and keeps tummies full for hours. Plus, the flavor and topping variations are pretty much endless!
We always mix nut butter into our oatmeal, usually peanut butter, to add even more protein, healthy fats, and flavor. Plus, adding a bit of peanut butter or chopped peanuts to oatmeal is a great way to regularly expose your little ones to this common allergen.
We also love to mix in frozen blueberries which makes the oatmeal purple, a fun bonus for easily amused toddlers.
Overnight slow cooker oats make cold winter mornings easy and scrumptious.
If you've never had steel-cut oats, prepare yourself for an oatmeal upgrade. Steel-cut oats are whole oats simply cut into small pieces.
Many people think that steel-cut oats have a more hearty, pleasing texture and nutty taste than instant or quick oats. They also take longer for your body to break down, have more nutrition and keep you full longer.
The problem is they take a long time to cook, about 30 minutes on the stovetop,
which is about 27 minutes longer than most parents have on a busy weekday morning. If you are anything like us, morning priorities are coffee and finding everyone a pair of matching socks.
A slow cooker solves this problem! Simply stir the ingredients together the night before, set your slow cooker to low, and in the morning, you'll awake to the heavenly smell of warm cinnamon.
The oats to liquid ratio are 3 to 1 for steel-cut oats. Use water or your favorite dairy or non-dairy milk. You can add chopped nuts, bananas, raisins, chopped dates, nut butter, a little cinnamon, and some nutmeg.
Expert tips are to spray or line the crockpot because oats do like to stick. Also, do not use regular or instant rolled oats in the crockpot because they turn to mush.
You can store leftover slow-cooked oats in the refrigerator for five days or in the freezer for months. To reheat, simply mix them with a bit of water or milk and rewarm them in the microwave or on the stovetop.
Baked oatmeal is also a fast weekday breakfast for toddlers.
Use the same recipe we outlined for steel-cut oats but use instant or rolled oats instead. Mix the oats with milk, water, fruit, nuts, and seasonings, and then dump them into a lined or sprayed casserole dish and refrigerate overnight.
Pop the dish in the oven while getting your little ones dressed or packing lunches, and let it cook for 20 minutes.
Baked oatmeal can also be refrigerated or frozen and then reheated.
Toddlers and kids love toaster waffles for breakfast!
The second most common thing on our family's breakfast rotation is waffles. Luckily you can find healthy frozen toaster waffles in most grocery stores. Chose whole grain varieties and look for ones with the least amount of added sugar or salt.
Our favorite is frozen waffles are Van's. Their original waffles have only 3 grams of added sugar per waffle and have 5 grams of protein.
We lather up our waffles with (you guessed it) peanut butter! Almond or cashew butter is also fantastic. Add a side of fresh fruit, and you have a well-rounded, wholesome breakfast.
Be sure to cut the waffles into small squares for young toddlers, so they don't pose a choking hazard. Older toddlers can handle quartered waffles.
French toast sticks are another easy breakfast toddlers love.
French toast is another easy and wholesome weekday breakfast little ones love. Just soak whole wheat bread in scrambled eggs, and then sear on both sides in a nonstick pan until the egg is cooked. Cut the bread into strips for older toddlers or bite-sized pieces for younger ones.
Or make extras french toast on the weekends, freeze them, and pop them into the toaster on busy weekday mornings as a waffle substitute.
Joana's banana and spinach muffins are a simple breakfast our families love.
Joana serves these nutritious and easy muffins at least weekly. If you feel adventurous, this recipe is also an excellent way to introduce your little ones to cooking. Let them pour and measure the ingredients or mash the bananas with their hands.
Served with a side of fruit, this is a perfect way to start the day.
Here's the recipe!
*Recipe can be modified to be gluten, dairy, and egg-free
1 cup sliced ripe banana
2 cups loosely packed spinach
3/4 cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
1/4 cup of honey (omit or use coconut sugar if your child is younger than one)
2 Tablespoons melted butter or plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup whole wheat or oat flour
Put all ingredients except the flour into a food processor
Blend until smooth
Pulse in flour to combine
Pour into greased or lined muffin tins
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes at 375
You can also substitute eggs with flax eggs. For every egg in the recipe, combine 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed and 3 tablespoons water, then let it sit for up to 15 minutes in the fridge to thicken.
Eggs, eggs, and more eggs make simple and wholesome toddler breakfasts.
Of course, there are endless ways to cook eggs for breakfast, but we find the quickest and most straightforward way is scrambled. Kids of all ages like and can eat scrambled eggs.
Here's a real-life mom pro tip. Crack those eggs right into the frying pan with a bit of butter and scramble them up quickly with a spatula. One less bowl to clean!
Since eggs are another top allergen, adding them to your breakfast rotation is an excellent way to continually expose your little ones and reduce their risk of developing an egg allergy.
We serve eggs with wholewheat toast, a toasted English muffin topped with butter or nut butter, and fresh fruit.
Breakfast quesadillas or burritos are delicious options for a quick weekday breakfast.
Simply add some cheese, diced leftover dinner veggies, and scrambled eggs to a tortilla and warm in the microwave or quickly grill it in a nonstick pan. Add some beans or diced chicken for extra protein. Serve with mashed avocados or a mild salsa blended with whole milk plain yogurt.
Burritos can be made in bulk in advance, frozen individually, and warmed up in the microwave for a super quick and wholesome grab-and-go breakfast.
We love to change things up at the weekend by making blueberry pancakes or going to our favorite local coffee shop for croissants and then eating them outside in the park!
We hope our suggestions help to simplify your morning breakfast routine and give you a few more ideas for simple, wholesome options to try out with your little ones.
From our families to yours,
Joana + Lauren