Meal Planning (4)
Breakfast, Lunch and Snacktime

Supper is definitely the most labour-intensive meal of the day. Breakfast, lunch and snacks are easy to plan and prepare.

In our home, I usually serve cold cereal and fruit for breakfast. My kids love Honey Nut Cheerios at the moment. The also enjoy Fibre 1 cereal, surprisingly enough. I try to avoid overly sugary cereals. Too much sugar for breakfast practically guarantees a meltdown before lunch!

My boys also like toast with jam or peanutbutter, scrambled eggs, "toads in the hole", pancakes, cream of wheat porridge, and Red River hot cereal. Most of the time I serve calcium-enriched orange juice to drink, along with fresh fruit such as bananas or grapes.

We often have sandwiches for lunch. My kids favourites include peanutbutter and honey, tuna fish, or ham with cheese and cucumber on brown bread. I like to make homemade bread in my bread machine, but I mostly cave in to buying whole wheat Wonderbread at the supermarket. We also frequently eat leftovers from the previous day's supper for lunch.

Snacktime hits at four o'clock every afternoon. If I don't get a snack into my kids they are usually grumpy and ill-mannered by five o'clock. I always try to feed my children some fruit at snacktime. We avoid sugary, empty foods. Here's a selection of my favourite snack choices:

Apple slices with peanutbutter
Orange wedges
Grapes
Canned peaches or pears
Melon chunks
Bananas
Homemade muffins
Homemade banana bread
Fruit strips
Dried cranberries or raisins
Arrowroot biscuits
Teddy graham cookies
Pretzels
Crackers and cheese

My mom recently gave me a very handy gadget from The Pampered Chef. It is an apple corer and slicer. This little tool cuts up an apple in two seconds flat. I love it! My boys and I have been eating plenty of apples this week.