Well, they broke me. The past few weeks have been filled with all the feelings as summer wraps up and the start of the school year looms. I have never wanted summer to continue harder until this weekend when Lincoln, my usual calm cookie, had a meltdown because Cameron was…smiling at him. To be fair, Cameron was smiling at him (littler brothers, man,) but either way, it was then and there that I thought to myself, “Yep! We are done here. Bring on school, schedules, and a little separation!”
We’ve got our lunchbox, new shoes, and can-do attitude — let’s do this!
Now, I’ve been warned by nearly every Mom friend of mine that packing school lunches is the literal worst but if you feel breakfast is a challenge too, I’ve got 20 wholesome, filling, make ahead breakfast recipes to to help make mornings— or at least breakfast— go smoothly at your house during back to school time. We feel lucky in that Lincoln’s new school starts a whole hour later than the school he attended last year (woof, that was a year) so hopefully the mad dash mornings will be cut down a bit, and these gluten free recipes will help too.
Cereal and milk, and frozen waffles are FINE, you guys — they are so, so fine!— and I don’t want you to think that I’m up here on some high horse saying your children need to eat a homemade breakfast every single day before school. What I AM telling you is that these back to school breakfast recipes are not only easy to make ahead, but yield multi servings so you can make once, on the weekend for example, then eat all week long.
I hope you and your family love these recipes – and may the force be with you as we all head into a new school year!
Love all these!!!!
Also- my kids are old enough now, they pack their own lunches! You too will make it there some day. Parenting milestones to live for- packing lunches, pouring their own milk and being able to unload the dishwasher.
Oh yeah!!!
This post is EXACTLY what I was looking for today. Thank you! All looks delicious!
I just made your breakfast burritos to send with our daughter at college, she loved them! I plan on making all your breakfast bars and freezing individually so she can take some with.
Breakfast Taco Casserole is a favorite in our house and is actually on the menu for this week ahead!
My biggest piece of advice for packing lunches is pack them the night before WHILE you are making dinner! This way you only have to clean up once and it makes the morning rush a little easier to handle.
Definitely adding a few of these easy breakfast ideas to our mornings!
I’m right there with you! Our son just started kindergarten, and the weeks leading up to it were the hardest for me, emotionally, since he was a baby! But we’re on the other side now – it’s been about two weeks – and I think it’s safe to report it is OKAY. :-) We’ve mastered the morning routine and the car line*, and he’s learning the classroom rules, where things are, his new schedule, etc. The first two weeks he was definitely moodier than usual (and so was I), but it’s all starting to level off.
We have some of your recipes to thank for our super smooth mornings! I make your Maple-Cinnamon Oatmeal Breakfast Bars, wrap them individually, and freeze them in a zipper bag. Then I take one out every night and put in my bag to have for breakfast the next day. We do a variety of mini muffins for our son. I freeze those in a big zipper bag as well, and reheat them in the microwave in the morning.
*Does anyone remember the scene in Mr. Mom where the dad does the morning drop-off for the first time? “Jack, you’re doing it wrong.” LOL That’s how I felt the whole first week.
Now that we have two kids going to school in the morning, I really need to prep things for the week ahead of time! I’m definitely going to be trying some of these!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
I love everything about this post!!
Thank you for this compilation! Do you think your gluten-free Breakfast Casserole (with the hash browns, eggs, sausage, cheese) would work well in muffin cups that are decently sprayed or with muffin papers? (Don’t judge, sometimes paper is just easier…)
I was *just* going to start hunting for make-ahead breakfasts so we don’t eat bagels every day ;-) Thanks so much for all of the wonderful recipes–as usual!