Breakfast Confessions

I love breakfast. I believe breakfast is an important start to every morning--my kids rarely miss it. I would say never miss it, but once in a while someone refuses to get out of bed and get dressed in time to eat. I believe that if the kids eat a good breakfast then their brains are "charged" for school, so to speak. So after a great summer of cold cereal sales I announced to the kids that there would be no more cold cereal on school days. Initially, we were all excited about it. I mentioned it to a clerk at a grocery store once and she said to me "So what do you feed them for breakfast?" in a very puzzled tone. Because there are some people in America who are totally missing out--cold cereal is NOT the best breakfast food!!! We would have cream of wheat, oatmeal (sometimes with blueberries, nuts, strawberries, cinnamon,etc.), oat bran, pancakes, waffles, pancakes, puffed pancakes, biscuits, eggs, muffins, frittata, coffee cake, low-sugar peach or pear crisp or cobbler, french toast, omelets, fruit,......... There are so many choices!! Once in a while I will even make bacon or sausage, turkey bacon or sausage if I have it. Seriously, what's not to love about breakfast? I wish we could eat breakfast most nights for dinner!!

So why am I now serving cold cereal for breakfast? Because Albertsons just had a kickin' sale on General Mills cereals? No, but it really helps. Because the kids started whining that they don't get cold cereal like EVERYONE else they know? No, because I'm not the sort of mom that cares about that stuff. They do complain, by the way--I like to think that's totally normal. But I don't take it too seriously because once I told them they could have a donut for breakfast and someone complained about that. It was funny and I laughed and from then on I don't listen to anyone who complains about any of my food because seriously, if you complain about donuts for breakfast then you are just complaining to complain, right? Back to the topic--I started serving cold cereal for breakfast again because my waistline is more important than charging my kids' brain, of course. You can always tell if our family is having great breakfasts when my clothes start getting a little tight. Because even though I try to use applesauce instead of vegetable oil, and sugar-free syrup, etc. I just do not have the self-discipline to exercise portion control when it comes to breakfast foods! So now I am trying to make them something I consider decent for breakfast once or twice a week.

I was pondering my breakfast obsession this morning when my kids opened 3 boxes of cereal so 3 kids could have a "toy car" from the box and I didn't get upset. Because I was 10 seconds from telling them all to pick a box so everyone would have a car because I hate contention in the morning. Somewhere in the world at least one cereal executive is chuckling and/or smirking and thinking "Suckerrrr!". I am a morning person and a breakfast person and yes, I am willing to let everyone open a box of cereal to have a toy to preserve the meal/day. And seriously, if Christmas were next month I would go back to the store and pay full price for a box of cereal (with a toy inserted, of course) for each kid and wrap them and put them under the tree. Because the stupid little .25 cent toy in there is apparently sooooooo superior to all the other much more expensive toys they own. They have been racing those stupid cars all over the walls and floors for the last 20 minutes and are asking to take them to school. So come November, please remind me that I do not need to spend more than $4 for each kid for Christmas--they only need a box of cereal. With a toy.