Breakfast - The most important and dreaded meal of the day

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Everyone knows it.  Then why, in the name of all that is good, is breakfast such a difficult meal for us?  Seriously.  I HATE breakfast time.  It is currently one of the most stressful, difficult things I deal with on a daily basis.  Why, you ask?  I think there are several contributing factors.

1.  I am always in a rush in the morning.
It seems like no matter what time I get up, I never have enough time to get everything done.  Shower, get dressed, exercise, pack lunches, wake up the kids, get everyone fed, dressed, teeth brushed and ready to go, brief grandma on the day's activities, get dinner prepped for the evening, and somehow get out the door early enough so that I'm not late for work.  Typically this results in a little yelling, a lot of coaxing, something forgotten, and Mama not taking time for her own breakfast.  Which is bad, because as previously stated: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

2. One child wakes up too early, and the other hates getting out of bed. 
Quincy will wake up and come downstairs as early as I will let him.  He just doesn't want to miss out on one moment of activity in the house.  We have had to establish a "wake up time" for him.  This is similar to a reverse bed time.  He is not allowed to come downstairs in the morning before 6:30 and if Mama and Baba are still sleeping (like on the weekends), he can not wake us up until 7AM. (unless of course it is an emergency or something).  Luckily, he can now read a digital clock.  Before 6:30 AM is really the only alone time I have, and I've come to learn that I need that time to keep my sanity.

Meg, on the other hand, requires some serious transition time between sleep and waking.  It doesn't seem to matter what her bedtime is.  She almost never wants to get out of bed in the morning, and is typically grumpy until after I leave for work.  We have the same routine every morning, and almost every morning it is a struggle to get her ready for the day.

3.  What is typically considered breakfast food does not work for my family.
As this may be difficult to understand, I will elaborate.  I have two children adopted from China.  My daughter was adopted when she was 10 years old.  So her food preferences are different than most American children.  In addition, she has Type 1 diabetes.  So she needs a certain amount of carbohydrates at each meal, but not too many. She should also ideally have some protein and fat in every meal.  And it is absolutely VITAL that she eat breakfast.

It's been nearly a year and a half since she has entered our family, and we have not been able to find ANY American "breakfast food" that she will eat.  Cereal? Only if she's forced to.  Which is fine.  It's not really that great for her anyway.  Oatmeal?  Never.  Toast? Bagels? Bread? Pancakes? Waffles?  Don't even think about trying to get her to eat bread products.  She just doesn't like them.  Eggs?  Every once in a great while, if they're scrambled hard and maybe have some mushrooms in them.  But mostly, no.  Yogurt? Yuck.  Smoothies?  Maybe, but only if they don't actually have anything nutiritious in them...  So what are we left with?  I'll tell you what.  A mama with a headache.

So how can I fix this mess and not start the day off with stress, a headache and a bad mood?

1.  As much as possible, I am going to try to prepare things for the next day the evening before.  I say "try" because I have attempted to do this in the past, without much success.  I just don't have much motivation in the evening.  But I will try again.  Hopefully this will give me time to eat my own breakfast in the morning, too.

2.  I have officially given up on breakfast foods.  If you think about it, it's absurd that only some foods are okay for breakfast.  Food is food.  That's what I say.  And with that in mind,  Meg and I have settled on a breakfast compromise. Soup. Yep. Soup.  It's the only thing we've been able to agree upon for breakfast.  It's easy and quick to heat up in the morning, and has appropriate nutrition for her.  And she will eat it.  That's really the most important thing.  Unfortunately, I've been feeding her a lot of canned soup, lately.  That's not so good.  Typically too much sodium, not enough protein.  That has to change.  I need to start making soup.  Making soup also supports my first commitment (not to waste food) because soups are a great way to use up some of those left over veggies.

So, the breakfast chaos has spawned two more commitments.
Commitment 2: I will prepare for the next day in the evening. 
Commitment 3: I will make at least two batches of homemade soup per month.