Breakfast time in my house is a little hectic, so we tend to stick with a quick and easy routine. I love to wake up half an hour before the kids and have a peaceful cup of coffee with my husband before the day gets crazy. We got a Nespresso machine for Christmas this year, and it has really upped our at-home coffee experience! I can’t recommend it highly enough. I had no idea the regular coffee pods come out frothy like a latte! I just add a small splash of oat milk creamer for a little sweetness and I honestly feel like a barista made my coffee every morning. Best gift ever. (Thanks, Mom!) I also got a cute little storage organizer for my pods, so I start my day feeling very fancy ;)

After coffee time, my husband and I alternate days getting a morning workout in while the other is in charge of breakfast for the kids. Our girls love cereal with milk (it doesn't get much easier than that, we just sneak in some fresh fruit like bananas or strawberries) or they like to have yogurt and fruit with a cereal bar (they love Earth’s Best brand). They also love smoothies. Eggs are also so easy and nutritious. We even have eggs with whole wheat toast and fruit for lunch a few times a week, since it’s one of the few proteins my kids will eat without a fight!

Once our preschooler is off to school, my husband and I start most weekdays with a nutritious smoothie. I alternate between a more filling recipe on workout days and a lighter version on rest days. I love starting the day knowing that I’ve already had some greens and it definitely gives me a burst of energy. I also love to make baked oatmeal or a breakfast casserole on the weekends, which can also be a leftover meal for a weekday breakfast or even lunch. We absolutely love Simple Mills pancake/waffle mix on the weekends, too. It’s a healthier alternative to high-sugar mixes, and I see that they also have a protein pancake mix now that I am excited to try! The first time I made these for my husband, he said “Why would anyone ever make regular waffles?” That’s a pretty solid review coming from him. When I make eggs or pancakes on the weekends, I also like to stick to chicken sausage or turkey bacon to keep things a little lower in saturated fats.

For special occasions or even just a snowy day, I love to bake my own healthy muffins or donuts. This stemmed from my husband being diagnosed with diabetes when I was pregnant with our first child. I love to bake, and he loves to eat :) so I wanted to find ways to incorporate the foods we liked into our new normal. We eat pretty healthy most of the time, so being able to include these “treats” that won’t throw him too far off track makes us both feel a little better. I found so many awesome recipe blogs that I have learned so much from. I wrote a whole other blog post on that, including some of my favorite healthy baking recipes, which you can find here.

Having a morning routine with as little stress as possible sets the tone for a much more relaxing day. I like to pack my daughter’s school lunches while dinner is cooking the night before to check that off of my morning to-do list. Also, I don’t always stay consistent with it, but laying out clothes the night before is a game changer. On good nights when I’m not too exhausted, I do that for my daughter and also lay out my own gym clothes. We like to have music on in the morning, usually Cocomelon ;) and try to have some special time before everyone heads their separate ways for the day. Or it’s chaos! And we’re packing lunches, pulling wrinkly clothes out of the dryer, and racing to get out the door… but we strive for Option A ;)