Freezer Cooking #6: Toddler Breakfast Ideas

Loves Baked Oatmeal & Blueberries!  (traveling in this pic)

Breakfast around our house on weekday mornings means quick & simple!  It's hard enough to get out of the house with a toddler and make it to daycare and work on-time and in one piece let alone make extravagant breakfasts!!  Since I have a love for "freezer cooking" -- I replenish his stash about once a month with breakfast foods that easily thaw & heat in the morning.  Here is what he is eating for breakfast this month:

-Mini Veggie Omelets
-Baked Banana Apple Oatmeal
-Mini Pumpkin Pie Muffins

It usually takes me 1-2 hours from start to clean up to make 3/4 different items.



Here are the recipes!  Hope your little one enjoys as much as mine!

**My little one is allergic to cows milk so I use So Delicious Coconut Milk and Daiya dairy-free "cheese" in my recipes.  I also avoid cooking sprays that contain any sort of butter.  If your little one does not have a cow's milk allergy-- you can sub regular cheese & milk in these recipes.

Mini Veggie Omelets
(makes 24 mini muffin sized omelets)

Ingredients:

• 8-10 eggs
• 1 cup Daiya cheddar-style shreds (or 1 cup regular cheese)
• 1/2 cup Unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk (or regular milk)
• Your Choice Diced Veggies!  (I used broccoli, spinach, red pepper, onion for this time)
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder or Ground Mustard if you wish!

Method:

Mini Omelets cooling before flash-freezing.

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray mini muffin pan with non-stick spray.
2. Chop all your veggies-- I usually use whatever I have left in the fridge that I want to get rid of!  Be creative to your hearts content! ( I will estimate approximately 1 cup of sauteed veggies is what I end up with to mix into the eggs- so you may want to start out with 2 cups raw veggies if they are veggies that shrink when cooked!.)
3. Warm a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan over Medium Heat (approx 1tsp) and then throw all your veggies in.  Cook until tender (approx 10 min).  Set aside to cool a few minutes.
4. In the meantime- start cracking your eggs!   I usually do between 8-10 eggs in a medium sized mixing bowl.  
5. Next, add the shredded cheese, milk and optional garlic powder/ground mustard.  Mix well.  
6. Once veggies have slightly cooled evenly distribute in mini muffin pan.  Now evenly distribute egg mixture.  (will expand slightly while cooking so don't overfill any of the cups- but most of the time mine are filled almost to the top.)
7. Place in oven and bake approximately 15-18 minutes or until cooked through.
8. Once mini omelets have had a chance to cool a bit, transfer to cooling rack.  Once cool enough- transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen - transfer mini omelets to ziploc bag.

** To defrost-  I usually defrost these in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes before serving.


Baked Banana Apple Oatmeal
(makes 24 oatmeal muffins)

Ingredients:

• 3 Cups Old Fashioned Oats
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tsps baking powder
• sprinkle of salt
• 1 1/4 cup Unsweetened So Delicious Coconut Milk
• 3/4 cup Unsweetened Applesauce
• 1 banana mashed



Baked Oatmeal Cooling before flash-freezing.

• 1 tsp vanilla

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Spray (2) regular sized muffin pans with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Mix all of the above ingredients together in a mixing bowl.
3. Distribute evenly between the 24 muffin tins.  (I usually use my cookie scoop and put a heaping scoop of the mix in each tin) I would estimate you are filling them about 1/2 full.  I'll admit-- one time I made these I only got 18 muffins out of it so just use your judgement with how big you want your muffins to be!
4. Bake 18-20 minutes or until done.
5. Let cool and then transfer to cooling rack.   Once cool enough- transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen - transfer baked oatmeal to ziploc bag.

*I usually defrost these in the microwave for 1 1/2 minutes.


Pumpkin Pie Muffins
(makes 24 mini muffins)

Ingredients:

• 1 Cup Wheat Flour
• 3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
• 1/4 tsp  Salt
• 1 1/4 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp Baking Powder
• 1 Can Pure Pumpkin 
• 3 Tbsp Applesauce
• 1/2 Cup Vanilla Coconut Milk
• 1/4 Cup Vegetable Oil

Method:

1. Preheat Oven to 400 Degrees.  Spray Mini Muffin Pan with Non-Stick Cooking Spray
2. Mix together wheat flour, all purpose flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
3. In a separate bowl beat together pumpkin, applesauce, milk and vegetable oil.
4. Slowly add dry ingredient mixture to wet ingredients- beating slowly.
   Mix well.
5. Distribute batter evenly between muffin tin cups- do not overfill. (I used a heaping cookie scoop in each).  I had some extra batter so I used a regular sized muffin tin (6) to finish it off.
6. Bake approximately 12 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
7. Let cool and then transfer to cooling rack.   Once cool enough- transfer to cutting board/baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and flash-freeze.  Once frozen - transfer muffins to ziploc bag.