Here’s a question for you: who does breakfast in your house? You? Your partner? Your caregiver? How much variety do your kids have for breakfast, and — with the huge abundance of high sugar / high calorie breakfasts for kids — how strict are you in what they’re allowed to have?

Calories and sugar are always on my mind as a mom, but it particularly reenters my mind once school starts up because I don’t want my eldest (7) to have a sugar crash before lunch time! For us breakfasts tend to be one of the following:

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OK, ladies, let’s discuss: Which are your favorite fall recipes? Is it time to bust out your Crockpot or Instant Pot? Do you love oatmeal, soups, and stews? What meals do you make that the whole family eats, and what fall-centric things do you find easy to put in school lunches, either from a leftovers perspective or otherwise?

For our $.02, I don’t know what possessed me to buy pumpkin yogurt for my eldest to try (because I am definitely NOT a fan of pumpkin spice the way some people are), but he LOVES it, and it’s one of the few things he’ll eat right now. We just got an Instant Pot on sale at Amazon a few weeks ago, and coincidentally my beloved Crockpot lid just cracked — and after only 20 years, harumph (she said sarcastically) — so we’re probably going to be doing a lot of experimenting with the Instant Pot this season. A lot of the recipes that I listed in my easy weeknight dinners post (years ago, now!) are still favorites, and I also got a hot tip from someone recently that you can roast frozen veggies (freezer to hot oven!) so we’re going to be trying that. In terms of school lunches, my kiddo is still excited about oatmeal (I just make plain old-fashioned oats and add 1–2 Tbsp of a hot chocolate like Ghiradelli‘s*) so I’m curious to try that in a preheated Thermos jar* for him for lunch. (Hmmn, maybe with some peanut butter powder* for extra protein.)

How about you guys? Which are your favorite fall recipes to make for your families?

*This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Picture via Stencil.

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I will not make separate meals for kids. I, like every other new mother, told myself that frequently while my first kiddo was starting solid foods.  I am not going to be that mom! They can eat what WE eat, or else they don’t eat. I don’t have time to do dinosaur nuggets! I absolutely refuse to raise a child who only eats macaroni and cheese! 

Cut to five years later, and almost every night the boys get a separate meal from what we eat. Dinosaur nuggets, no, but they do get the Dr. Praeger fishies pretty often. On our very best nights, the boys eat disaggregated versions of what we eat. If we’re having Mediterranean Stew with stew meat, tomatoes, and zucchini, the boys may get a bowl of broth (strained so there are no “green pieces”), shredded stew meat, and — if I’m feeling really crazy — a zucchini or two on their plate, perhaps coated in cheese. (It’s a crutch, I know! I’ve started splurging on real Parmesan cheese after reading about how many wood chips are in the shelf-stable versions, though.) Another version of a “win” for me is when I can use the same oven temperature (and, dare to dream, time) for the boys’ food as for ours.

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