Getting the kids ready for school, feeding animals--it's all a bit harried for us. I have been trying to speed things up by making some things ahead of time. It helps if the night before I clean the kitchen up and take out the dishes/napkins for next day's breakfast. Also get the lunches and snacks ready (if they aren't having something that needs to be made in the am).

1. Crock Pot Oatmeal: I use very inexpensive oatmeal (not quick oats, but those may work too)and just follow the directions on the box as if making on stovetop. In the morning I add brown sugar and cranraisans and bananna.

2. Crock Pot Grits: I use the least expensive grits (I prefer the long cooking grits but the quick grits will work too. Long cooking are tastier). Follow the stove top directions. In the morning I add cheese.

With both of the above menus I make toast out of my homemade bread by slicing and buttering the pieces and put in oven to bake (I found that broiling always, for me, caused burnt toast).

If I get ambitious, I ground the coffee beans and get the pot ready the night before.

Hope these help--Do you know any other ideas?

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001

Answers

I will cook up crumbled sausage and scrambled eggs (or steak, onions and peppers), wrap in flour tortillas, layer in zip locks and keep in the fridge. A quick nuke and you have breakfast in hand. Being from California, my kids are big granola (and don't forget about dumping milk on it and using it as hot cereal) muffins, and cereal bar kids. I make the worst biscuits! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

I make mini breakfast pizzas with crumble bacon, scrambled eggs and cheese. Pop one in the oven as soon as I get up and by the time I ready to eat it's done. One recipe makes 12 mini pizzas.

-- Stacey (stacey@lakesideinternet.com), November 05, 2001.

Great ideas. I can't wait to try them.

A while ago someone on a group I'm on posted a wonderful recipe for oatmeal breakfast bars. I make up a batch on the weekend and vary the "extras" from dried currants, raisins, almonds, pecans etc. Fast, easy to eat on the run and very filling. Eat warm or cold.

-- Trisha-MN (tank@linkup.net), November 05, 2001.

Trisha, how 'bout that recipe for oatmeal bars? Would like it if you have time. thanks, LQ :)

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), November 05, 2001.

Me too please!! My family won't eat hot cereals..the freaks!! Nothing better on a cold winter morning than having porridge while I watch the birds at the feeders. Its really good with tiny chunks of apple cooked in it then some cinnamon sprinkled over the cream and sugar...YUM!

-- Alison in N.S. (aproteau@istar.ca), November 05, 2001.

I need warm recipes it's $#@%&*#@ snowing !

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), November 05, 2001.

My kids like cream of wheat that I add cocoa powder and sugar to. I'll try that in the crockpot and let you know if it works. Very filling.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

#1-Raw quick oats with apple juice. Just pour the apple juice over about 1/2 cup or less of oatmeal, as you would milk on cold cereal. Very filling, an aquired taste maybe.

#2- Raw quick oats or rolled oats with yogurt. 1/4- 1/2 cup of oats and then yogurt. Honey if the yogurt is plain, or canned fruit would be good too.

#3- Raw oats and applesauce (homemade, you can make a big batch and keep it in the fridge or use home canned).

These are all very fast meals and provide a lot of energy even if you're working hard.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@itss.net), November 05, 2001.

Hay Patty, Be nice to the snow it loves you. Wish we had some. Sally

-- (mallardhen67@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

Porridge? Oatmeal? AHGHHHHHHHGGHGHG!!!!

-- Russ (rwhitworth@sprint.ca), November 05, 2001.

Get yourself some English Muffins or bagels,toast em' then fry your eggs,add cheese if you want and/or sausage and/or bacon. Put in zip- lock bags,refridgerate and your set for several days. Heat in microwave for about 35 - 45 seconds. Everyother sunday night we do about a dozen up.

Same thing for waffles,make a batch of waffles up at night then thru- out the week come morning put a couple of them in toaster, add your butter and syrup,grap a glass of milk/juice and hear them scream LET'GO my EGGO'

-- TomK(mich) (tjk@cac.net), November 05, 2001.

i would also love the oatmeal bar reciepe. could someone post it? thanks.

-- amy (amy_tarr@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

I'm with Russ!Ugh to oats and porridge and granola. How about a nice quiche or leftover dinner or sandwiches from leftover dinner. ANything but cereal! Quesadillas?

-- Anne (HealthyTouch101@wildmail.com), November 05, 2001.

Nothing works better as a basis than rolled oats (call it porridge if you like, but you can also call it basic muesli). That complex carbhydrate gives good slow-release energy for many hours. If you wish, soak it in plain water overnight, add whatever, then nuke it by the bowlful. If you've got left-overs, add them to stew for tonight's meal (teach them to eat their breakfast). Poached egg and a rasher of bacon (protein and a little fat) add to it, and some fruit (at worst, apple or orange juice; better an orange; even if necessary a banana or an apple or a pear) will fill it out.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 05, 2001.

Ditto on the oats...but many a morning we've had scrambled eggs with (name a diced or ground meat) inserted into a tortilla. Add cheese, onion, lotsa salsa, a jalapeno maybe, the odd creme item (sour, yogurt, etc.) and we're good to go until early p.m. Of course, we also drink coffee. That might also keep us going...

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@hotmail.com), November 05, 2001.

I never thought much about this, but I don't ever really cook in the morning. What I do is make batches of things and set them aside. We generally re-heat stuff if it needs re-heating. I make all sorts of breakfast stuff. Pancakes and waffles can either be nuked or put in the toaster. They freeze well. Muffins of all varieties can be eaten cold or nuked. They freeze well, so you can make big batches. When I make cinnamon rolls, I mix up a triple batch of sweet dough and make the rolls in 6 cake pans. Each holds about 7 rolls. I dump them out of the pan, place them on paper plates, glaze them, then wrap and freeze. Take them out the night before and just grab what you want in the morning. I sometimes make my own granola bars. Again, just throw them on the table. I even rarely make donuts. Rarely because I eat too many of them so I try to limit myself. Jelly donuts or the cake kind. They freeze very well too. Sometimes I even serve up leftover pumpkin pie. Hey, don't look at me like that--it's nutricious! You've got your pumpkin or squash, milk, eggs, you know, nutrition! Well, it can't be any worse than a bowl of packaged cereal or pop tarts. My girls have eaten so much squash and pumpkin lately (in pies and muffins) that they jokingly begged me for eggs one morning for breakfast. Someone already mentioned a real cheap quickie....nuke your quick oats by the bowl. Only takes 1 minute. You can add whatever dried fruit or spices you want. You could perhaps mix up some pre-flavored with dried apples and cinnamon. I love breakfast. I just don't like to have to cook in the morning.

-- Nancy in Maine (paintme61@yahoo.com), November 06, 2001.

My family (brother, parents, with whom I do not live) tends to do the "nuke for a minute" routine. They either do it with instant porridge or quick oats or whatever you want to call it, or with muesli (which is mostly rolled oats anyway). Possibly Weet Bix or Vita Weets (biscuit-type bars), or All Bran.

Another tip I've seen in practice is to soak ordinary rolled oats overnight, then nuke for a minute. Works well.

Personally, I tend to go with toast, plus fruit (oranges, apples, mandarins, peaches, apricots, plums, grapes, nectarines, pears - whatever is in season). Occasionally, when I'm very lucky, Japanese persimmons are in season. My cereal dose is about four slices of dry toast with Vegemite. Of course, third-world countries don't have the privilege of Vegemite, so this may not be available to everyone.

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 06, 2001.

what is vegemite ?

-- gene ward (gward34847@aol.com), November 08, 2001.

Re Vegemite: See! I told you! Snigger.

Vegemite: yeast extract paste. Very concentrated taste. Very rich in Vitamin B. Australian. Definitively Australian. There are at least twenty million people who could identify it if you blindfolded them, them waved a matchstick-end (say quarter rice-grain) sized dose of it under their noses. For comparision, think Marmite or Bonox, but it's yeast, and it's STRONG - different. Also salty, but that really doesn't matter, because it's so concentrated that you don't use more than a smear of it (unless you're feeling a pang, in which case you take it by the teaspoonful-full).

-- Don Armstrong (from Australia) (darmst@yahoo.com.au), November 09, 2001.

Don, have tasted Vegemite.......I eat anything, but this you can have!

Breakfast around here is usually left-overs from last night. No prep necesary, just heat and eat. Even tastes better in the morning. Kids like cold pizza. I don't care much for 'breakfast food' anyway, and it makes me hungrier the rest of the day if I load up on carbs first thing.

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), November 09, 2001.