the Weekend Breakfast Basket

It’s the little things that help us choose joy, like Saturday mornings with no where to go.  We have been so busy with Upward basketball lately that we’ve missed those slow, lazy beginnings when Kevin and I sleep in, take coffee upstairs, and sip and talk, and our kids curl up in the chairs in the living room in their pajamas, watching cartoons.  Next Saturday will be our first morning like that in a long time.

Since I have two diabetics in the house, I came up with a fun way to see that my children still find the nourishment they need the one morning a week when their feet hit the stairs before mine.  Unfortunately, this won’t help you much if your children haven’t hit the golden years when they can manage a little on their own without destroying the house in your absence.  But trust me on this one: If you’re not there yet, you’ll get there.  Hang tight, and store this idea away later.:)

For my kids, it’s all about the packaging.  So, I bake up, mix up, and stash up a few tasty, healthful, and easy things they can eat for breakfast, add a little ribbon and a few labels, and sit the pretty basket full of goodies in the middle of the kitchen table on Friday night so that they find it waiting there Saturday morning (while I, mercifully, am still sleeping:)). Sometimes, I even pick up some of those low-fat boxed chocolate milks and add them to the bounty as an extra treat.

In this basket, I included Marbled-Chocolate Banana Bread (Cooking Light), Peanut Butter and Jelly Muffins (Cooking Light), Mom’s Cereal Mix (My kids love this, but it’s just 1/4c each of two different cereals I have on hand—in this case, Cinnamon Life Cereal and Banana Nut Cheerios—, plus 1 tsp mini chocolate chips, and 1T miniature marshmallows–spin, I tell you, spin), some instant oatmeal packets, and a reminder that there are Vitatops (my kids love the chocolate varieties and don’t realize they’re loaded with healthful stuff)  in the freezer (and instructions about how to unthaw those in the microwave).  Since I have diabetics, everything’s also labeled with carb counts for calculating insulin.  I like to mix it up and put in different kinds of muffins and quick breads, sometimes healthful cinnamon rolls or bagels, sometimes boxed juices.  My children LOVE this, and it makes their Saturday (and ours) feel like a celebration.  Just something simple we do to slather the joy.:) I thought I would share the idea, in case some of you are as desperate for a sleep in day as we are!