Non-cheerio people

Well, the McBabies eat them.  They love them for snacks and wouldn't be opposed to them being a part of breakfast, but they would riot for more food.  I'm not sure if any of you share this experience, but my kiddos LOVE breakfast.  I mean, love like if I were to take them to the Omni Hotel Easter Brunch, they would make the place go in the red.  Our day normally consists of a big breakfast, a snack or maybe even 2, a decent-sized lunch, a long nap, and then they hardly ever eat any dinner.  Maybe a bite or two, but it is such a battle that I've decided to just thank my lucky stars that they eat pretty well the rest of the day and try to get those couple of meals/snacks nutritious and balanced and take whatever I can get at dinner.  This also makes eating out and evening family functions easier because I don't feel like there is a ton of pressure on dinner.  Don't get me wrong, there have been days lately where I question the whole philosophy and try to force McBaby #2 to sit at the table until his peas are gone, bribe him with ice cream, or sneak something into his mouth. He is Mr. Mellow until dinner comes around and he can flex his will.  That makes both of us, I suppose.

So, breakfast involves commitment and a huge mess. It involves getting veggies in eggs, veggies in smoothies, veggies as snacks, etc.  Today's breakfast was a fairly normal one and involved a skillet, my KitchenAid, a sauce pot, my blender, the toaster, measuring cups and spoons, servingware, and the ingredients.  Here was the ingredient list:

* Again, we're talking about organic ingredients...

(For the Scrambled Eggs)
3 Eggs
Milk
Butter

(For the Oatmeal)
Steel Cut Oats
Water
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon (good for the stomach btw)

(For the Toast)
Artisan Bread
Butter

(For the Smoothies)
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 banana
1/2 cup frozen blueberry/raspberry/blackberry medley
1/2 baked sweet potato
1/2 cup whole milk greek yogurt
4 Tbsp ground flax meal
2 cups milk

Getting all of this out and then, yikes, cleaned up daily often feels like such a chore to be honest. But, a simple bowl of cheerios wouldn't help me meet my nutrition goals for them/us.  So, I guess I feel it's worth it. Most days, I at least get the plates put in the sink and the food put away and then we head out for whatever activity is planned and I pick it all up during nap time. Right as I'm thinking through and prepping dinner... like the shampoo bottle, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat...

FYI, I set a timer for an hour before they can have their snack because they would graze the entire morning if I let them and I've recently decided that I can't spend quite that much time in the kitchen.   Today's snack was apples and pretzels.  Again, we left and didn't take snacks along so as not to "ruin" lunch.  Lunch was grilled cheese.  Then those kiddos went off to sleep and I had the most important meal of the day.  In a rampage to find some leftover piece of chocolate from the kids' Easter basket or Halloween or something, I found that McHusband bought ghirardelli chocolate chips at the store the other day.  Oh. my. yum.  Some addictions are better than others, right???