Even though I eat them for breakfast regularly, I think that Pop-Tarts are a lousy meal. The pastry is bone dry, the filling is overly sweet, and the frosting resembles old, flaking nail polish. I also find Pop-Tarts to be extremely unsatisfying—even when I eat more than one, I feel like I am lightly snacking at best. To make matters worse, I am unsatisfying myself with a lot of empty calories: two tarts (one package) offers 400 calories, 10 grams of fat, and little nutritional value.

Like a lot of the foods in my diet, I’ve been eating Pop-Tarts because they are cheap and convenient. But because breakfast is such a vital part of my day, I’ve decided to start improving the quality of the meal, even if that means investing a little more of my time and money.

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Common dieting advice suggests eating breakfast because it can jump start your metabolism and helps prevent you from eating more later in the day. Researchers in London may have finally figured out why — skipping a morning meal can fool your brain into thinking the body actually wants high-calorie foods, which, if eaten too often, can inhibit weight loss.

So What Is This Study Exactly?

A team from Imperial College London presented these findings at the Endocrine Society’s 91st annual meeting held in Washington D.C. in July. Scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, which measure blood flow in the brain, to see how eating impacted the brain’s reward center.

The study involved 20 healthy people who took an fMRI scan on a morning when they skipped breakfast and on a morning when they ate breakfast. During each test they were shown photos of high-calorie foods like pizza and cake, and low-calorie foods like salad and fish. On the morning they had breakfast, the participant’s reward center lit up more in response to the high-calorie foods. On the morning when they had breakfast, the reward center didn’t show any difference between high- and low-calorie foods.

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Since having a child I’ve made breakfast important. I mostly make meals from scratch and make the best attempt to stay away from anything packaged. The chickens have been such a blessing. We’re able to cook eggs most days any which way you can think of and have them for breakfast or “breakie” (what we call it here).

Pancakes are the biggest hit for breakie…just ask my son, he’ll tell you he wants *pancakes*! Before I knew about this recipe I’m going to share; I’d always thought I was making pancakes from scratch.

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Which means I’ll gladly embrace any way I can simplify life right now, particularly when it comes to serving that morning meal daily to our B&B guests. Here’s a serving of our favorite tips and ideas for hosting a summer breakfast of your own, showcasing the abundant local, fresh flavors of the season and featuring our house recipe favorite: Fresh Tomato Breakfast Pie.

1. Prep the Night Before

This Fresh Tomato Breakfast Pie recipe serves up a great example of my ideal B&B recipe: Looks and tastes much more complex than it is. My morning B&B routine is a whole lot simpler if I can prep and organize my dishes the night before and just cook them fresh before serving. This recipe works well for that: Make and bake the crusts the night before. Chop and prep the tomatoes and other ingredients, then just assemble the pie in the morning and bake.

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Individual grains of teff are extremely small, just 1/150th of the size of a kernel of wheat.  When cooked as a hot cereal, the tiny grains –  comparable to the size of a poppy seed — create a deliciously smooth texture.  In fact, the taste and consistency of teff porridge is more like cream of wheat than any other gluten-free whole grain I’ve prepared.

When you see teff’s impressive nutritional profile, you’ll see why it provides a compelling case for adding this gluten-free grain to your diet.

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For starters, the batter actually rose above and beyond the baking tin’s edge.  When’s the last time you remember anything gluten-free doing that? These muffins even manage to disguise shredded fruits and vegetables without coming anywhere near the dreaded dense description.

Goodbye flat, vaguely muffin-shaped globules.  It’s time to move on.

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Vegetarian breakfasts are easy: Greek yogurt sprinkled with granola, scrambled eggs, pancakes, French toast… The list goes on forever.  While I wouldn’t say that vegan breakfasts, on the other hand, are challenging, its certainly a good opportunity to think outside the box.  Unless of course, you don’t mind cereal with soymilk every morning for the rest of eternity.  Me?  No thanks.  Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and don’t think I let being vegan get in the way of that.  Here are some of my favorite vegan breakfast ideas that are filling, nutritious, and keep me away from the cold cereal.

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Back to school time means, healthy breakfasts are a must but there isn’t much time to make that happen. We’ve heard it over and over, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. This may be the case but I don’t believe every child or person is the “breakfast type”. Personally, I just want some coffee and maybe a piece of toast. I’m just not hungry or in the mood to eat in the morning. My husband loves breakfast food, my son nibbles and my daughter devourers her food and wants breakfast the minutes she wakes up.  Every person is different but that doesn’t change the fact that we all should eat something healthy to start our day.  With very little time in the morning how can parents have a healthy and nutritious meal and not rely on the frozen waffles and sugary cereal?

Here are my back to school, start the day off healthy tips:

1.  Make a breakfast casserole the night before and pop it in the oven.  I make quiches and call them breakfast pies, my son thinks he’s eating something special.   It is packed with protein and I’m controlling the ingredients (organic eggs, whole grain breads, organic milk, fresh broccoli, organic chicken or hormone free sausage).

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But unlike GIR, who has only a vague idea of what he’s put in the batter (What’s in ‘em?” Zim asks in one episode.  “There’s waffle in ‘em,” GIR responds), I can vouch for every single corn-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free ingredient.  Plus, the recipe is so versatile, you can practically customize the waffle to your morning mood.

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Instead of flipping and flipping and flipping these days, now I bake my girls these pancake muffin cuties–they’re pancakes, baked in the oven instead of on the griddle, and they’re delicious, portable, and amenable to the same yummy variety of toppings that makes pancakes so awesome.

Here’s how I make them:

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What do you like in your oatmeal? Today I like thin sliced almonds and dried cherries, blueberries, cranberries, golden raisins and a twirl of honey (shown below). This tastes delicious with my black-cherry tea.

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Everybody knows that they should start the day with a nutritious breakfast because it provides energy and gives the body enough nutrients to avoid snacking on unhealthy foods later in the morning, so it can actually help us lose weight. And everybody knows that healthy cereals are usually something we should be eating more of. And many of us are looking at our food budgets and wondering where we can save money.

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For quiche newbies, this is an ideal, simple recipe to start with since there is no crust. Plus it is an easy recipe to experiment with as pretty much any type of winter squash will work, including pumpkin. I’ll often steam several cleaned and cut-up squash at once, puree in the food processor and freeze in one-cup allotments in plastic bags, making for easy meal prep.

Recipe after the jump . . .

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The Story Behind Nature’s Path

The story behind Nature’s Path is kind of interesting. In 1971, Arran Stephens and a business partner opened LifeStream, Canada’s first large organic supermarket.  This store quickly expanded into a natural food line founded on the principle of “wholesome foods grown and processed in harmony with nature”.  Ten years later, an awkward partnership led to the sale of the company to Kraft/Philip Morris.  In 1985, Arran and his wife Ratana started Nature’s Path, which quickly grew to the point that they built the first third-party certified organic cereal plant in the world in BC.  Arran and Ratana were even able to purchase Lifestream back from Kraft, something you don’t usually hear of happening when giant corporations buy out smaller health food companies.

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We’re trying to balance our kids’ needs and our own time, our budget and our health, our relationships, our jobs, and our sanity.

It’s not simple.

It’s not really hard, either, but there are some tips and tricks to keeping your parenting fun, healthy, and inexpensive. Feeding your little people on a budget can be challenging, and making time to prepare whole foods seems impossible for parents on the go.

When we were oh, so young and unattached, with no dependents, and the robust health of youth, we could eat pizza and ice cream every day, live on coffee and granola bars, go out to eat for lunch and dinner, or let the pantry stay empty for weeks.

Then along comes baby. Big change. We now need to make sure the fridge is full and the cupboards are stocked. And we don’t want to feed our children junky stuff, no matter how cheap it is. We are what we eat, the saying goes, and our children learn about food by watching us shop for, prepare, and eat the family meals.

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In the meantime, I will share a few favorite breakfast dishes that you moms could, say, print out, circle in great big red ink, and leave out on the counter just before hanging the “Do Not Disturb Until 9:30, or My Breakfast is Ready” sign on the bedroom door. I will live vicariously through you.

Best French Toast Ever, Shirred Eggs, and Breakfast Panini recipes after the jump.

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