Ok, I have admitted before that I do not like to make breakfast in the morning. With having many little ones waking me up all night, and then the mad rush of cranky toddlers and babies in the morning, I needed a way to make mornings run smooth.

For years I resorted to making cheerios and milk for its ease.  I just recently started doing oatmeal for them as a “healthier” alternative.  Which has been great, it is simple and quick and that is what I like in the morning.

Now that life has gotten easier, I still don’t like to wake up early to make breakfast, but I know that if I spend some time cooking one day, I can make my own convenience breakfast foods and feel good about serving them to my children.

The problem is that we have many laying hens which equals ALOT of eggs–about 15 chicken eggs, 3 duck eggs, and 1 goose egg per day.  I do not like to waste food, and we live in a land of farmers—not a huge need for eggs. We only make breakfast dinner usually once per week and that will only go through about 2 dozen eggs, I had to find a way to utilize the eggs we had and still make quick and easy breakfasts.

I came up with a bunch of freezer breakfast foods.

The great thing about this is that I was able to complete this in about a days worth of hard work, in addition to my usual workload.  Plus I used up a HUGE abundance of eggs– about 12 dozen and I was able to stock up on great tasting breakfast foods for my family.

Now all I do is get out whichever items I am going to feed my children for breakfast the next day and let thaw in refrigerator overnight.  As soon as the baby wakes up, I put it into the oven and by the time it is done, everyone is up and ready for breakfast.  Makes a nicer breakfast for the children without all the extra stress for me in trying to make a meal, while taking care of little ones.

French toast sticks

This is super easy to make, uses ALOT of eggs and my children, especially the little ones love to make and dip into syrup.

We went through 4 loaves of bread and 4 dozen eggs with this one.

 

Breakfast burritos

These are great for on the go or just a simple way to eat a mess-free breakfast.  Unless your toddler is into unwrapping to see what is inside.  I make these plain with no funny green veges, or anything that might spark a preschoolers curiosity of wanting to know if there is something yucky in her burrito.

We use our duck and goose eggs for our burritos.  They are a little heartier and meatier.  We went through 8 dozen eggs and it gave us about 130 breakfast burritos.  Sounds like many but when you have 10 children to feed that equals about 13 breakfasts for the month.  Not bad.

Pancake muffin

These were probably the little ones favorites as far as our freezer breakfasts go.  We tried to copy the pancake on a stick convience food and I think it worked.  We just put them into a muffin tin.  We made blueberry ones and sausage kinds.

We just pop them into the oven to thaw and serve with maple syrup.

cinnamon rolls

These taste great for special occasion mornings but who has time to whip up a batch before the troops rise??? Not I. That is why I love my freezer breakfast foods.  I make a mess one day—ALL DAY—and then I have these great foods already prepared in my freezer.

Cinnamon rolls are great to have for special birthdays or for when guests are over.  I just pop these out of the freezer the night before and let them thaw.  After rising, I place them into the oven and bake.

Now who doesn’t love the smell of cinnamon rolls baking in the morning?

One of the greatest ways to wake up:)

My children enjoy breakfast much more nowadays. It is nice giving them a “choice” for breakfast. Plus I like to surprise my husband with freshly baked cinnamon rolls on the weekend.

I encourage you to take the time to “stock up” on some freezer foods, it will make your days go smoother, will save you money, and is better for you.

Anyone else have a recipe for using up a large abundance of eggs?? Preferably something I could freeze???

 

 

The challenge: to praise your spouse and/or children:

You might think this one is easy to do, but I know for myself it is something that can easily become forgotten during my days.

Our days are filled with a whirlwind of things that just keep coming and going and moving and changing and it makes our days filled with busyness.  If I don’t purposefully make a point to praise my husband and child, then I most of the time just get so busy and I just don’t say it.

Why make the change:

This  answer to the question is very easy…..Because we ALL crave praise.  Each and everyone of us, enjoys getting praise from someone.  It should come from the people that are the closets to us, our spouses, parents, and children.

Praise a child and they will have a happier attitude, a better outlook on their day, and you can usually get a better work repertoire out of them.  But forget to say encouraging praising words to them and suddenly their days are filled with drudgery jobs and parents that bark orders.

Same is true for our spouses.  We both go to work just in different environments.  If we forget to say positive words of praise to each other, then when days get hard and long, it is much easier to look at things and become bitter towards the other individual.  But have a smiling happy spouse say to you, “Wow, you are doing a great job, even though that is really tough,”  and life suddenly gets more bearable.

How to make the change:

This week, focus on speaking positive words to your spouse and your children.  Think that the words that come out of our mouths, will go into our own ears as well as other people’s, and then they will drop down into our souls where they give us either joy or sadness.    We want to be people who speak joy and happiness into other’s lives.

Set your phone alarm clock to have to go off at different intervals throughout the day.  When it goes off, send a positive praising text to your husband.

When working with your child, over emphasize what they are doing by praising them.  Do it “too much” so that they know that you really do care.  Once you have a realization of doing it “too much” you will be able to notice more when it needs to be said.  It becomes more of a routine and more easily remembered.

Who are you going to start thanking today?