How Sara Does Breakfast

I have to say that probably the best skill I learned while being in school the last five years, was time management.  I had little free time, and no time to waste. This was especially true for the last year and a-half. Somewhere along the way, I started worrying that I was sending my girls off to start their day without a decent breakfast. But, with classes that began at 8am I didn't exactly have time to whip up a batch of pancakes, or ham and eggs in the morning. That's where my time management comes into play.

Before each semester would start I had a few weeks of down time. During this break I would cook my heart out, making muffins, and waffles, and pancakes. All kinds of breakfast food. I would make double and triple batches of scones, and the like. I got to where in one day I could whip up six weeks worth of breakfasts for my family and freeze them for later use. I love the convenience of this. I can stumble out of bed in the mornings, to get the kids ready for school, and not have to give a thought to what I'm going to feed them that morning. This was so wonderful while I was in Italy last year. I made a full 30 days of breakfasts for Jason. He loved it!

Here is an example of what a typical week looks like. Keep in mind that I take weekends off. I buy  "healthy" cereals that they can eat on Saturday and Sunday while Jason and I sleep in. (heaven!)


Monday - Blackberry Muffins
Tuesday - Whole Wheat Pancakes
Wednesday - Blackberry Scones
Thursday - Breakfast Burritos
Friday - Waffles

I use whole wheat in all my recipes, and fresh fruit as much as I can.


What baking day is like:
I begin with a baked good. Muffins for example. Lets say for this month there is a killer deal on Blackberries. I'll buy three or four packs of blackberries. I start with making a double batch of muffins (about 24 muffins in a double batch) cutting all the blackberries at once. While those are baking I've got pancakes going on my griddle. I triple the recipe, making about three dozen pancakes.
Once the muffins and pancakes are done, I start on the scones. Again, I double the recipe. I've already cut up all my blackberries from the muffins, so the scones are pretty much ready to go. While those bake, I get my breakfast burritos going. (These usually go the fastest.) Sausage, egg, cheese, roll, wrap done.  Lastly, I work on waffles. These take the longest for me since I can only make two at a time, and I have to watch the waffle iron the entire time. I usually make one more kind of muffin while the waffles cook. If I've already got blackberry or some other kind of berry, I will add in banana or apple cinnamon as well. With my muffins and scones I stick to whatever fruit is in season. For example, I make orange cranberry in the winter, and strawberry in the spring. I don't like using frozen or canned since fresh is usually cheaper in it's season.

Yes, I know this is a long day of cooking. I can expect to be in the kitchen for at least two hours. But the result is wonderful, and so worth the effort.

After the baking is complete, I bag everything up. I have four kids so I put four muffins in a quart size freezer bag. The same with the pancakes, waffles, scones, and burritos. I then place a bag of each food into larger freezer bags. Four bags total for four weeks in a month. If I managed to make more than four weeks worth, I often do, I keep filling gallon bags with five days worth of meals till I run out. Then I stack them all on a shelf in my large freezer and take a week of meals out at a time. I put muffins and scones out on the counter the night before so they reach room temp. by morning, and reheat the rest on the day I need it.

My girls love having breakfast this way. I feel good knowing they got a good home made meal in them before school, and they look forward to having their favorite meals each week. They have even started requesting the muffins and scones they want for the next month. I won't lie, the chocolate chip muffins are huge favorite, but they love the waffles too because they can just throw them in the toaster like an Eggo.

I've had several requests for my recipes. I am going to type them all up and put them in one downloadable file. Look for that in the upcoming week.