Four Fast Breakfast Ideas

This blog post is sponsored by Simple Mills. The thoughts and ideas contained in this blog post are my own; however, I did receive financial compensation and free product from Simple Mills for this blog post.

Four Fast Breakfast Ideas

With 7 small kids and 5 in school, morning times are hectic at our house. I’m still streamlining my breakfast system - but here are 4 fast breakfast ideas that are helping me stay (relatively) sane!

1. Almond Flour to Keep Your Kids Full

I’m a mom and a dietitian, and I’ve probably heard this one 100 times, “Yeah, I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day...but eating breakfast actually makes me hungrier.” That can be true, but only if you’re filling up on carbohydrates and foregoing protein, fat and fiber.

Protein, fat and fiber are important components of a meal that will help keep you full - and your kids - fueled longer. One of the ways I love to incorporate protein, fat and fiber is with almond flour. If and when I have time to bake foods from scratch, I substitute 25% of white flour with almond flour in non-yeast dough recipes.

But, I typically don’t have time to bake up a storm when I’m getting my 7 kids ready for the day!

I recently discovered Simple Mills almond flour baking mixes and they’re saving me a lot of time with our morning routine. I love that the first ingredient in the Simple Mills mixes is almond flour, and whether we’re having muffins, bread, pancakes or waffles - with almond flour as the base, they keep me going for hours! The Simple Mills mixes are naturally gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, emulsifier-free and gum-free.

2. Bake Once for Breakfast + Snack

My quadruplets recently started preschool and one of my LEAST favorite parts of planning for school is picking out their snack. Muffins are an easy school snack to pack, but let’s be real - most commercial muffin mixes are really just cake mixes, and muffins are notorious for being super high in sugar. 

Simple Mills makes two delicious muffin and almond flour mixes that are about 25% lower in sugar compared to the leading baking mix brands. I can bake a batch of their almond flour pumpkin muffins or banana muffins and serve some for breakfast, but also have enough left over to send one with each kid to school for snack.

Keeping snacks super small has been a great way to help my kids eat the meals I’m preparing for them. I also use the Simple Mills almond flour muffin and bread mixes to make mini muffins and pair one mini muffin with a small serving of fruit for my kids’ school snack.

Simple Mills also makes a whole line of gluten free crackers and we use the individual 0.8 oz packets which are perfect for snacks for small kids.

3. Double Duty Baking Mixes for Pancakes AND Waffles

Another morning time-saving trick is to use the same mix to make pancakes and waffles. We have an electric waffle maker that also has pancake inserts, so one morning each week I do pancakes and on another I’ll do waffles.

I have a double duty whole wheat pancake + waffle batter mix I make from scratch, but I’ve never been able to get the texture right when I start substituting with almond flour. As mentioned above, I like almond flour because it keeps everybody fuller for longer - so I was on the hunt for an almond flour mix that could make pancakes AND waffles.

Simple Mills saved the day with their double duty almond flour pancake and waffle mix. These are gluten free too and the first ingredient is almond flour. The Simple Mills waffles and pancakes both have a really great texture and flavor that the kids and adults in our house love. You mix with water, oil and eggs and I’m particularly fond of the fact that there is less than 1 teaspoon of added sugar per serving and under 200mg sodium, which is incredibly rare for a good tasting pancake or waffle mix! I also love how easy they are to make and that my kids can help make breakfast with these mixes too.

4. Breakfast Pizza is the Best!

For each meal I serve my family I try to feature at least one serving of carbohydrate, one protein and then some sort of a fruit or vegetable. This can be particularly hard at breakfast because I don’t have time to make three different foods in the morning.

Enter: breakfast pizza. The crust counts as the carbohydrate, I top with scrambled eggs, a little cheese for additional protein, and it’s an easy vehicle for delivering a vegetable at breakfast, which otherwise can be hard.

I’ve played around with a few commercial pre-made pizza doughs, but most were made with white flour and were really high in sodium. Since I was already using the Simple Mills baking mixes for muffins, waffles, and pancakes, I was really excited when I found out they also have a pizza dough almond flour mix. (You can purchase Simple Mills at Albertson’s, Target and on Amazon). 

The Simple Mills pizza crust features almond flour as the first ingredient and is surprisingly low in sodium at 70 mg per serving. The texture and flavor of this pizza dough mix is really amazing (you mix it with apple cider vinegar, oil and water to make the crust) and I’m able to get a balanced breakfast on the table in under 15 minutes!

For my breakfast pizza recipe I use the Simple Mills gluten free pizza dough almond flour mix as a base and top with scrambled egg, cheese and then a vegetable. For the vegetable, I sometimes will slice zucchini (like pepperoni :) or top with bell pepper and sausage. I’ve found that sprinkling the pizza dough with cornmeal (also gluten free) helps prevent sticking. Bake the pizza at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes. It’s a one dish breakfast the kids love that is easy to make!

Thank you to Simple Mills for sponsoring this blog post and for providing me with product to review. For more information about Simple Mills, their breakfast mixes and their whole line of almond flour products, visit www.simplemills.com.