While I enjoy cooking up a good homemade breakfast on weekend mornings, the weekdays around here are a very different story. Those days we have places to be, deadlines to meet, and rarely do we have enough time to cook, let alone clean up after a big meal.
It’s those days that I’m very grateful for my snooze button, which in turn makes me grateful for anything that helps save time in the morning. And, if my solution is easy to eat or great for on-the-go, that makes mornings a whole lot easier on me as I get us out of the house on time. When I heard about Safeway’s Buy 4 Save $4 event, I knew this was the perfect time to stock up for quick weekday breakfasts. I was even more excited when I saw the Safeway ad for the week and saw how many of our favorite breakfast foods were listed, and then even more so when I realized that the prices in the deal are so good that I could afford to stock up.
Because my kids love grocery shopping, I decided to take them with me as I took advantage of Safeway’s Buy 4 Save $4 promotion so they could pick their own breakfasts for the week. And, you would have thought they were headed to Disney Land with how excited the two were to get to the grocery store.
Once we got to Safeway, we headed to pick up our fresh veggies and fruits for the week, and then we picked up a few bakery items we needed. Next, we headed down the dairy aisle to find my favorite grab and go breakfast: OIKOS Greek Yogurt. I eat a carton most mornings with granola and pack some in hubby’s lunch for him as a mid-day snack, so we go through it pretty fast.
We finally made it to the breakfast aisle and I let the kiddos loose to pick up a few things that they wanted to eat for the week. Not surprisingly, my daughter chose way too many cereals and my little guy chose all the NutriGrain bars. After explaining that we were getting 2 boxes of cereal and 2 snack bars as part of the promotion, I let my daughter do most of the deciding on what items we all would eat, not just that she liked.
I was thrilled when she figured out which tags went with the sale and then used that to narrow down her favorites. She finally chose Mini Wheats because they would be something that she and daddy both liked but she went with a new flavor she has been excited to try along with Corn Flakes, a family favorite.
After that, she helped out in the snack bars and chose Apple NutriGrain Cereal Bars that she knew her brother would eat. As sweet as that is that she consulted him and helped him choose, I was especially proud that she also noticed the coupons on the back of the Apple NutriGrain bars and announced “that means we can buy more later”. Ah, so proud!
With two boxes of cereal and a box of cereal bars, I then let them choose a box of PopTarts as a treat that are great for quick mornings when I need them to eat while we walk to school or drive. Since this isn’t something we get very often, they took the decision making process very seriously and debated for over 5 minutes about what flavor would go over well for everyone.
Finally we headed home with our haul, which the kiddos were so excited about that they made plans to eat everything as soon as we walked in the door. I talked them into letting me put away the perishables first, and then I let them help themselves to some of our new goodies.
In planning ahead for the rest of the week, I placed the PopTarts and NutriGrain Cereal Bars in the door of the pantry that the kids can help themselves to, and I poured the cereal into the easy pour Tupperware containers that make it easy for my 4 year old to get her own breakfast ready.
Now while we’re getting ready in the morning she will ask what kind of morning it is: breakfast bar, a cereal, or cooking. There’s no arguments or discussions, she just knows that depending on what my answer is she can start getting it ready all by herself as soon as she’s downstairs. This saves me a huge headache each morning and sure beats standing in the doorway of the pantry trying to reason with preschoolers and talk them into eating something – anything – before you can leave the house.
Here's some more tips for quick breakfasts with preschoolers:
1) Just like you plan ahead for busy mornings and choose outfits the night before, you can also easily lay out breakfast ahead of time in baggies or bowls with lids and just add milk and other perishables in the morning.
2) Make breakfast foods easily accessible to kids and let them get their own food. If they get more Corn Flakes on the floor and table than they do in their bowl, add sweeping {a great hand/eye coordination activity for preschoolers} to their chore lists for when you get home.
3) Many cereals are great without milk and perfect for on the go. Pre-pour little snack baggies or little containers full of dry cereal and always have it easy to grab as you leave the house.
4) Keep a cereal bar or baggie of cereal in your purse or diaper bag at all times. It's a fairly clean-to-eat snack that won't weigh down your bag, and you will be very grateful you have something the next time you have to leave without eating and the kids are melting down.
5) Preschoolers want to assert their independence and choosing breakfast is a great place to start. Always have a few cereal types on hand as well as granola bars, cereal bars, and fresh fruit and it will make morning battles over food all but disappear.
Knowing how easy the mornings have been with all the great on-the-go items we got during the Buy 4 Save $4 promotion has got me convinced I need to keep these in stock at all times. The fact that they can get and serve their own breakfast and have foods they can eat quickly at the house as well as on the road makes our whole morning routine less stressful for everyone.
And, most days I even get to sneak in a quick OIKOS and granola breakfast as well, which is good because I need my energy these days keeping up with these two. And trust me, as a mama of a superhero princess girl and a sweet action hero, I need my energy these days.
You can see more of our shopping trip in my #BreakfastSavings Google+ album. I don’t know about you, but I’d call our Buy 4 Save $4 shopping trip a success, no?
Find out more about how you can save on great breakfast foods for the whole family at Rise And Shine With Savings. Need some inspiration for quick and easy breakfasts for your crew? Find some great recipes on the National Breakfast Week site.I
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shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® and Safeway #cbias #SocialFabric. As always, all opinions remain 100% ours.
