Breakfast for Champions: Tips and Tricks

Published also on full tummies

So you want to provide a nutritious breakfast and save money this school year. And you don't have much time in the mornings. Hmmm... That can be a daunting challenge. Did you know that the following can all be frozen ahead of time?

1. Muffins
2. Egg McMuffins (yes, they can!)
3. Breakfast burritos (scrambled eggs, sausage, salsa wrapped in a tortilla)
   
4. Scones
5. Quiche (bake/freeze crustless quiche in muffin cups for individual servings)

What about simply making something the night before? The following can all be made or assembled the night before:

1. Oatmeal (premeasure oats/water)
2. Quiche mixtures (re-stir and pour in pan in the morning)
3. Muffins (dry ingredients and wet kept separate until morning)
4. Pancake mix
5. Hard-boiled eggs

I use all of the above strategies, but what has helped me the most is having a breakfast routine. Lots of people follow a "if it's Monday, it must be spaghetti" type of plan for dinners, each weeknight consisting of roughly the same type of thing each week. I use that same idea for breakfast, and it helps keep variety in our menu while making it easier to get breakfast on the table (and saving me from scrambling every morning with three fussing kiddos). Every week isn't exactly the same, but here's a rough idea:

• Sunday: hard-boiled eggs, muffin/breakfast cookie, fruit (all is made ahead of time; this is our busiest morning)
• Monday: cold cereal with milk, fruit
  
• Tuesday: something egg related
  
• Wednesday: oatmeal
  
• Thursday: muffins, cheese stick or smoothie, fruit (our second busiest morning)
  
• Friday: cottage cheese pancakes or egg sandwiches
  
• Saturday: pancakes or eggs, sausage, and homemade biscuits

If I ever plan to serve quiche for dinner, I automatically make sure there's enough for the next morning's breakfast. I frequently keep frozen egg mcmuffins, breakfast burritos, or something similar for my husband to grab on his way to work. I'll be posting the egg mcmuffin and breakfast burrito recipes soon at full tummies.

What's your best breakfast strategy? Have a favorite recipe? Link to it in a comment.

Breakfast for Champions: What Makes a Good Breakfast

Simultaneously posted on full tummies.

Breakfast has become recognized as the most important meal of the day--and that means a nutritional breakfast, not a breakfast that subsists merely of a pop-tart, bowl of Frosted Flakes, or a Toaster Strudel. Perhaps you made vows at the end of last school year to start this school year off right: no more racing out the door, grabbing a McDonald's coupon on the way to the car.

I don't have school-aged children I'm trying to get out the door on a deadline, but I do face 3 very hungry urchins every morning and am looking to save time and money like most of you. Here are some tips to help you start this school year off on a better breakfast note--it will help your budget, your children's attention span, and your mornings!

First, it's important to know what constitutes a healthy breakfast. My general rule of thumb: some grains (preferably whole), some protein, and some produce; my kids generally also drink milk in the mornings, not juice. Those three categories plus the milk can appear in many forms, and sometimes you have to think outside the box. The following are some examples of breakfasts we eat in our household (some are fast, some take more time to prepare/eat):

1. eggs, toast, fruit
2. quiche with spinach, muffin
3. muffin, cheese stick, fruit
4. cottage cheese pancakes, fruit, some dry cereal as an "appetizer"
5. regular pancakes, sausage, fruit
6. granola, yogurt
7. smoothie, muffin or dry cereal or toast
8. oatmeal with milk, fruit
9. egg sandwich, fruit
10. hard-boiled eggs, breakfast cookies*, fruit

*sometimes we do eat cookies for breakfast--homemade oatmeal cookies are about as sweet as a nutrigrain bar or a pop-tart, have no corn syrup in them, and more whole grains.... Who knew!

Check out the full tummies breakfast index for some more ideas. What's your favorite breakfast to feed your family?

Tomorrow I'll post some ideas for freezer-friendly breakfast treats as well as a new way to plan your breakfast "menu" for the week. Stay tuned!

Summer Days

Summer's full upon us, and Carrie and I have been busy traveling and enjoying all the summer activities we can! So, when we're busy (and hot), what do we eat?

It's easy to cave into convenience and eating out when you're on the road, playing in the pool all day, and so forth. But there is no easier season than summer to eat fresh, local produce with minimal effort. A reminder of some classics that keep you cool, take minimal effort, and celebrate the season:

• BLT (add some fresh basil!)
• Watermelon (can be anything from a snack to a dessert)*
• Peaches (sliced with some cream--an amazing dessert)
• Grilled food (meat/seafood, veggies, corn on the cob,--even peaches and pizza crust can be grilled!)
• Pasta with quick sauces and summer veggies (tomatoes, zucchini, etc.)
• Cold salads (pasta, lettuce, chicken, tuna, tomato-basil-cucumber--there are lots of summer salads)
• Cold meats (ham and chicken are both good cold)

*In our family, eating watermelon is serious business. Here's how we ate it growing up: my dad would quarter a smallish watermelon. Then, each of us would get a quarter 'melon on a plate, a fork and knife, and a large napkin. Mmmmm.... that's a lot of melon and it makes a great end to a simple meal. Of course, it's best cold.

Power Cooking

My friend Bridgette and I spoke at her MOPS group recently. (Check out Bridgette's great Favorite Things blog--she reviews all her favorite kid-related products, including her MOPS group!) We spoke about Power Cooking: cooking meals for your freezer, whether you spend an entire day cooking an entire month's worth of meals, or simply do a "daily double" here and there (doubling recipes here and there to keep a steadily rotating supply of meals in the freezer).

This is a great time of year to stash a few extra goodies away in your freezer. Comfort food (think chili, chicken pot pie, etc.) usually freezes well and is so welcome after a day out Christmas shopping or just in the midst of a busy holiday season. You can even freeze cookies and other desserts if you need to get a head start on holiday treats.

I'll try to get our MOPS handout up at full tummies soon, but if you're interested in Power Cooking, check out full tummies--it's loaded with freezer meal recipes, a great original post on cooking for your freezer that Carrie wrote (she used to work at one of those assemble-your-own-meals-for-your-freezer places and has lots of experience). Carrie contributed the Stuffed Braided Bread and Maple Honey Mustard Pork Chops recipes in particular. They're yummy!

You Can Buy Coupons!

I had a whole post devoted to saving money on groceries without using coupons (haven't posted it yet). I figured that I couldn't be bothered with buying the Sunday paper, flipping through for the one or two coupons I might actually use, and then keeping up with those one or two coupons.... We just don't use many products that we need coupons for, and I can often beat the deal with the in store specials on generic products.

Or so I thought. Enter the new coupon clipping system: you can buy the coupons you want over the internet! Someone else is clipping all those coupons, organizing them, and selling them for about a dime apiece. When the coupon you want is for $1 off a certain product, you're still coming out ahead after you've forked over the dime. Both of these sites I'm going to link below also charge roughly a dollar or so extra for the total order by the time the shipping and handling is factored in. Not a problem if you're ordering a lot of coupons.

I ordered coupons for products I actually use--brands I'm committed to and such. Now, I'll wait for them to go on sale at the local stores. If they haven't by the time the expiration date is nearing, I'll just use them on the regular priced product. Every coupon I ordered was either $1 off or more, once doubling was factored in (Kroger doubles up to $0.50). Pretty neat, huh? I even ordered 12 coupons for my favorite organic peanut butter which I never, ever buy because it's too expensive. Just so happens that the local co-op has it on sale this month plus my new $1 off coupons! Brings it down to the price I normally pay for the inferior store brand!!! Hooray!

Here are the sites in case you're interested in computer-style coupon clipping:

The Coupon Clippers
The Coupon Master

I thought The Coupon Master was a bit pricier, but they have different stuff. So, check them both out! You can probably search your local grocery store flyer online as early as Saturday, then order corresponding coupons and have them by the end of the week.

What's for Dinner?

Published simultaneously at full tummies

School days are just around the corner! Many moms work these days, but even if you don't, chances are good that you are just as swamped with homework help, running errands, and taking care of your family; it seems that almost everyone needs help with healthy, affordable meal planning.

If you don't want to utilize the drive-thru, the processed grocery store food, or take out, what are your options for quick meals? You can cook for you freezer like I've been discussing at full tummies. Or, you can opt for a service that tells you what to cook and gives you your shopping list. These two websites are worth checking out if you're interested in a prepared menu and shopping list:

Saving Dinner (See my earlier review)
E-Mealz (Not tried yet, but intrigued by its link to grocery store deals!)

However you choose to go about it, feeding your family healthy food is important, but not the only thing in life. Try to find a plan that enables you to enjoy dinner time with your family, not spend all day in the kitchen, and works for your budget. Sometimes, shortcuts are worth paying for--especially if you are in a major life transition (new baby/babies, new job, recent move, etc.).

Meals for a Month--Cooking for your Freezer

Recently, my 2-year-old daughter spent the weekend with her grandparents (my in-laws). I seized my opportunity and made a whopping 40+ meals for my freezer. I learned a lot and am already reaping the benefits of this labor of love, so I'm writing a small series on full tummies to share my experience.

My small family (2 adults, 1 2-year-old, 2 1-year-olds) can polish off half a pan of lasagna per meal. However, since we certainly can't polish off an entire pan of lasagna, I merely split the lasagnas I was making up into two smaller square pans. I did this with meals like chili and bigger casseroles. I really only needed 4 servings per meal. That's partly how I was able to make so many meals--it wasn't 40 separate "family-size" entrees.

With school fast approaching, it seems to me that this cooking approach might really benefit any who are attached to the academic calendar (for me, my husband was going back to work after the summer off--I knew my "dinner-time" referee was not going to be around; I needed to simplify the dinner routine so I would be available to referee). If your kids are headed back to school and its accompanying whirlwind of activities, if you are heading back as a teacher, if you plan to homeschool--you might benefit tremendously from a Saturday of cooking. Check out the series at full tummies these next couple of weeks if you're interested. You'll also need to round up some family-favorite recipes that freeze well, whether gathered from your existing cookbooks, or checking out a cookbook designed especially for this sort of cooking.

Happy Cooking!

Toddler-Friendly Restaurants

Are there any toddler-friendly restaurants? Better yet, are there any restaurant-friendly toddlers? Hmm.... For those brave enough to attempt going out to eat with young children, here are our family favorites (in no particular order):

1. Buffets (we have a Chinese buffet we particularly like; food is practically instant; you can get small servings of only the foods the toddler might like; most have SOMETHING your toddler can/will eat; our Chinese one only charges about $1/year of age... truly a bargain!)
2. Fast Food: most have healthy kids' meal choices now, especially Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A, and McDonald's. Chicken nuggets or even a cheeseburger paired with fruit and milk isn't too bad a deal. McDonald's has the BEST toys; Chick-Fil-A will let you substitute a small ice dream cone for the toy; Firehouse Subs even gives away kid-sized fireman hats. Chick-Fil-A wins this family's top vote, however, because they have bent over backwards to accommodate my crew--bringing us placemats that stick to the table, refilling our drinks (while we're at the table), etc. Three cheers for customer service and yummy food!!
   
3. Mexican Burrito Bars (Moe's, Salsaritas, Chipotle to name a few): these operate like Subway, only with burritos/tacos/quesadillas. Almost any toddler loves a cheese quesadilla and the prices for these are often pretty reasonable. Again, you get your food quickly.
4. Pizza Buffets: CiCi's is the best known one here. The pizza isn't outstanding, but again, you get your food quickly and in toddler amounts.
5. Small or Family-Owned Ethnic Restaurants: Believe it or not, many smaller ethnic restaurants are very accomodating to young children. Rice, beans, tortillas, etc. all are accessible to young children and generally available at ethnic restaurants. Go early and you'll likely get great customer service. It's also a fun chance to encourage your child to try something new. Our daughter once wolfed down a considerable portion of Chinese pork dumplings--who knew?!
   

South Beach Diet

Well, it's been more than a year since my twins were born; I've resigned myself to the fact that the extra pounds I'm still carrying can no longer be blamed on them. I've just been lazy and gluttonous (sigh). So, my husband and I are launching Phase 1 of the South Beach diet (we've done this diet in the past with great success). No time like the present, eh?

Any diet worth its salt will include lots of fresh produce. For Phase 1 of the South Beach diet, fruit is off limits (sigh), but in two weeks, we can bring on the peaches, cantaloupe, blueberries, etc. The picture above is from my morning run to our local produce market. It's cheery to see such beautiful colors all waiting to be sliced, diced, and served up. I'm encouraged to persevere.

Just had to share! Summer is a wonderful time to at least enrich the fruits and veggie side of your diet, even if you're not aiming to lose weight. So, take advantage of the glorious growing season and eat tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and lettuces to your heart's content.

Going Green, part 3: the 3R's for Food

To see the first "Going Green" post and links to subsequent ones, click here.
This post is in honor of my mother who taught me how to cook, how to shop with a list, how not to be wasteful when I cook, and how to use that freezer!!

Can you practice the 3R's of Going Green (reduce, reuse, recycle) with food? You betcha.

Food
Learn to cook from scratch; you'll need less prepared food which is more expensive and typically comes in wasteful packaging. Make a menu for the week and then make a corresponding grocery list. This will save you from buying food you won't end up eating (and therefore wasting). Use that freezer for leftovers! Vegetable soup tastes great with odds and ends of leftover, seasoned veggies that have been frozen. Don't have time to use the whole stalk of celery? Cut it up and freeze it for use in soups. You can even freeze milk if you don't have time to use it before it's date! There are whole books written on how to use your freezer; Carrie also wrote a good basic article for our full tummies blog.

Packaging
You can certainly recycle and/or compost your food and food-related trash. In addition to such obvious solutions to help your kitchen get a little greener, you can also buy from bulk bins in local stores (typically, you can find stores selling grains and herbs/spices in bulk; Fresh Market, Whole Foods stores, farmer's markets, co-ops, etc. usually fall into this category). This allows you to buy the small amount you might actually need of wheat bran and also avoid extra packaging (and this also can save you money!). You can also buy in bulk from places like Sam's Club, BJ's, etc. This can also help reduce packaging, depending on what you buy (for instance, we buy a big 5-pound block of American cheese; each slice is not individually wrapped, so we save all those little plastic wrappers.)

Eating Out
How can you be greener when eating out? Consider the following: bringing back a reusable cup to coffee shops. Tell the person taking your order what you don't/won't eat. (I don't like tomatoes on my burgers; if I tell them that up front, then there's a tomato slice saved from the trash.) In fast food places, don't take more napkins (or ketchup packets, sugar packets, etc.) than you will need. Don't order more food than you should eat; this will save you from over-eating and/or wasting the extra food. You could also frequent places like Panera, which use regular dishes, over places like McAllister's, which use disposable dishes.

These are just a few kitchen and food strategies to get you started on your greener quest. Start looking around your kitchen as you prepare food. What can you reduce? What can you reuse? What can you recycle?

Freedom to Eat Junk Food!

I (Betsy) try really hard to feed my family healthy, inexpensive meals. This is often a big challenge because inexpensive usually means more work (chopping vegetables instead of buying pre-chopped, etc.), healthy stuff is often more expensive than junk food (mac and cheese is awfully cheap!), and my children, like their peers, often prefer salty, sugary food over a healthy alternative. So, planning my weekly menus can take forever as I try to figure out what everyone will eat, what's healthy/nutritious, and what is most affordable given that week's sale.

Here's a solution that has helped me tremendously for lunch time options that I'm expanding now for dinner and breakfast: one meal a week is junk food. I plan it that way! I've been doing that for lunch since I first got pregnant with my twins. For the duration of that pregnancy, my toddler and I had mac and cheese every Friday. Sometimes we threw in a side course of fruit, sometimes not. Why does that help? For some reason, it's much easier to "be strong" the rest of the week if I know there's a free day coming up (dieters often use this strategy, allowing themselves to eat dessert one day a week). Mentally, I know one meal is taken care of, is easy, something I don't have to think about. This also helps me resist swinging through various drive thrus if I'm out running errands with the kids. My hope is that the same principle will help us, at dinner, avoid ordering pizza or getting takeout from the local cheap Chinese place quite as often. After all, we'll still be coming out ahead in the cost category even if we're not doing any better nutritionally at home.

So, I'm expanding junk food to include one breakfast and one dinner a week. I'll be posting some easy recipes/meal ideas in the coming days on full tummies, so check it out if you're interested. We'll no doubt be eating our junk food dinner on Saturday nights since that's generally the day my husband and I have been working in the yard or perhaps gone out with the kids--a day when I don't have as much time in the kitchen. In addition to hot dogs, corndogs, fish sticks, pb&j, and grilled cheese, there are lots of other options that feel a little more like a real meal, but are really no more effort. Homemade hot pockets, anyone?

I'll also be posting some sandwich/wrap ideas; these can be quite healthy, but often feel more relaxed than a "meat and three" meal. Perfect for those nice, warm days when you just want to pack up a meal and head to the park for a picnic (or eat on your screened in porch!).

Easter Leftovers

Check out Full Tummies for a list of ways to use up leftover hard-boiled eggs and Easter ham. You likely don't need any encouragement for ways to polish off the few jelly beans, random pieces of chocolate, or cake still lying around!

Quick Shine: Outside Table and Chairs

A "quick shine" is a polishing job you can do to your home in approximately 10 minutes. Generally, it's a task that needs to be done, but you might be tempted to put if off (or have been putting it off already). Just remember, you can get a lot done in 10 minutes!

My husband really loves to eat out on our screened in porch. I usually grumble about the work it takes to clean off the table and chairs before we can sit down to dinner. A few days ago, we had a nice, warm day (70 degrees), so I decided to quit grumbling and do a quick shine. 10 minutes later, my toddler and I had cleaned off the table and chairs and the place was ready. In retrospect, this didn't take me long to do and was so worth it! We even pulled the babies' high chairs out there and all enjoyed the fresh air. It's so easy to make a task bigger in your mind than it is in reality. Besides, my toddler LOVED wiping down the plastic chairs with her paper towel.

Special Day Extras-Continued

I forgot to mention a couple of breakfast ideas:

1. Colored pancakes and shapes: Besides sprinkles, you can add food coloring to your pancake batter and turn them into green, blue, red, etc. pancakes. Let your kids pick the colors. You can also place a cookie cutter in your pan (ONLY metal ones) and pour your batter in the cookie cutter to make a shape.

2. Egg in a hole: This is fun too. Cut a circle (or other shape) out of a peice of bread. Melt butter in a skillet. Place the bread on the skillet, then crack an egg in the "hole" and fry it that way, flipping when needed.

Special Day Extras

Since it is my birthday, I thought I would share some little extra things you can do to brighten someones day. We have done many of these:

1. Ecards. Betsy had at least 30 ecards sent to me. OK that's a lot, but it was fun. Family and friends I hadn't heard from in a long time responded too!
2. Breakfast sprinkles: My boys love this for their pancakes, waffles, or anything similar you usually add syrup to.
3. Sandwich shapes: Take cookie cutters and cut your sandwiches into fun shapes.
4. Special cake: Make that extra special cake for that extra special person!
5. Flowers: Who doesn't like flowers! Or plants. Kids like to pick them too to give.
6. Cards: Forget email, I still like snail mail too! Fun to find it in your mailbox.
7. Special dishes: We had growing up (and now too) a special "birthday" plate, you got to use it on your birthday.
8. Pick your dinner: If it's your birthday, you get to pick what you eat.
9. Growth charts: For little ones, chart their growth every year on their birthday. Date it-or you may not remember the year later.
10. Phone calls: Emailing is too easy, pick up the phone and hear someones voice.

That's just some...there are lots. Think of your own special treats to do.

Cooking Class

Carrie and I took two cooking classes together at the Williams Sonoma store in our mall last year. This was a great way to learn something new and spend some fun time together. We looked over their class offerings for the coming month (available at the cash register if that store offers classes; many do), picked ones we wanted, and told our husbands to get us that for Christmas. The first class we took covered souffles and was very helpful. We have each made souffles a few times since! Seeing the instructor make them in front of us was very educational. Since we both took the class, we've been able to help trouble shoot for each other with those same recipes. The other class we took featured weeknight meals using chicken. Now, I have to admit that most of those recipes were not exactly weeknight fare for someone with young children at home, but I have made one recipe a lot: Chipotle Cheddar Chicken Cakes with Honey Pear Salsa (believe it or not, it's quite child friendly and fairly simple to make!). We came away from these classes armed with some great recipes we got to see made and tried when they were done; we also have some fun memories. If you enjoy cooking and/or have a friend/spouse/relative who also enjoys it, consider taking a cooking class together or giving a cooking class to someone.

Our souffle cooking instructor, Kevin Weeks, has a blog with most of his recipes on it. The recipes we tried were the Cheese Souffle (very kid-friendly; recipe minus his commentary is at our recipe blog, Full Tummies), the Souffle Provencal (also very kid-friendly), the Low Country Souffle, Make Ahead Mocha Souffles (recipe coming soon on Full Tummies; to die for!!), and a very tasty Frozen Citrus Souffle (called Key Lime Mousse on his blog).

Two of the chicken recipes can be found on the Williams Sonoma website. The Chicken and Basil Roulades with Mustard Sauce are yummy--good company fare since it's a great presentation. The Oven-Crisped Chicken is good family weeknight fare.

Cottage Cheese is on Sale!

Carrie and I were brought up in a frugal household; when something we use a lot is on sale at the grocery, we stock up! So, I stocked up on cottage cheese recently. Really, I stockpiled it.... My kids LOVE it, so I figured that 6 24-ounce containers would get eaten in the 4+ weeks we had before the expiration date (it was a really good sale!). Well, I didn't bank on 2 weeks of sickness during which we consumed Cheerios (dry), chicken soup, and water.... So, now I'm faced with a refrigerator full of cottage cheese and about 10 days to go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I'm now armed with lots of delicious, healthy recipes that the entire family (10 months, toddler, adults) can eat and enjoy. They sound sort of "earthy" or super-healthy, but I promise they're good. And, really, the entire family likes them, even my husband! Here's a short list:

1. Cottage Cheese and Spinach Gratin (essentially a crustless quiche; my toddler can consume her weight in this)
2. Refrigerator Cheesecake (yummy!); Yogurt-Cheese Pie (untried); Cottage Cheese Pie (untried)
3. Cottage Cheese Pancakes (taste like cheese blintzes; my boys loved 'em, and my toddler ate 10 of these at one sitting--no joke!)
4. Vegetarian Casserole (beans, rice, cottage cheese, shredded cheese--simple and so tasty)
5. Meatless Manicotti (we grew up eating this; filling is zucchini and cottage cheese--and I'm not normally a zucchini fan)
6. Black Bean Lasagna (very, very tasty--even for meat lovers)

My Favorite Convenience Foods--Revised

As the mother of three children under two, I (Betsy) must depend on convenience foods. I'll probably always have Little-House-on-the-Prairie-nostalgia. I know, I know...if I'd actually lived in that little sod house on the prairie, no doubt I'd be championing lots of modern inventions (indoor plumbing, central heat, and electric/gas ovens and stoves anyone?). Given my Prairie ideals such as homemade food, it's been hard to come to grips with my true need for convenience these days, but there are some products that are winners in my book. These don't sacrifice much, if any, of the original nutrients, are true time/energy savers, and generally are reasonably cost-effective. The list is in no particular order.

1. Frozen veggies and sometimes fruits (like blueberries)
   
2. Tuna/Salmon in pouches, not cans (especially the salmon that's already been skinned and boned!)
3. Boneless, skinless meat products (pork loins, chicken breasts, chicken thighs--all come in handy)
4. Frozen rolls (Sister Schubert...mmmm)
5. Ginger paste (a touch expensive, but great to use!! in the produce section at my store)
6. Wanton wrappers (who needs these? Those with hubbies longing for their time spent in China during college. Ever made wanton wrappers from scratch? Don't.)
7. Crackers (ever tried making your own? A disappointment.)
8. Canned chicken broth (I do make my own periodically when I happen to have a chicken carcass left over from a roasted chicken, but in general this is something I buy with no qualms that it's both more expensive, less tasty, and less healthy--sodium-wise at least--than my homemade. Sometimes, you just gotta have it!)
9. Mac-n-cheese. (What toddler home would be complete without a few boxes stashed away? We even had "mac-n-cheese Friday" for a while. mmmmm...that processed cheese taste. Yes, it bears no resemblance to the homemade variety, but who doesn't love it?)
10. Diced canned tomatoes (and other canned tomato products). (I still don't understand the benefit to buying whole canned tomatoes and cutting them up yourself. And I never cut up fresh tomatoes for sauces--just dump in that can! We buy these by the caseload at Sam's.)
11. Salad dressing. (While I do make some of my own vinaigrettes, I see no need to make Ranch when Hidden Valley Ranch lurks on the shelf at my local Kroger....)
12. Hot dogs. (sigh) We love hot dogs in this house.
13. Canned fruit in juice. (A true time saver in this house since I would have to cook some fresh fruit still for my twins to be able to eat it. Applesauce also falls into this category.)
    
14. Just-add-water pancake mix. (This is great when you're out of everything! You can always make pancakes.)
15. Bread products other than bread: bagels, pita bread, English muffins, tortillas, etc. (I have recipes for all of these, but no time to dabble in experimentation for those quick breakfasts and lunches!)
16. Canned pumpkin (For some reason, all three of my kids are addicted to pumpkin. We make pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin muffins,...even mix it into plain yogurt or make yogurt smoothies with it!)
17. Pre-made pie crusts (Pillsbury's are the best--why make your own?!)
18. Canned beans (black, great northern, pintos, .... Just rinse them so you can lower the sodium. My kids love 'em straight from the can, too!)
19. Bread crumbs (I've actually made my own before, but it's hard to beat the convenience pre-made bread crumbs offer: a quick coating for fish or chicken....)
20. Bottled lemon juice