<p>My S’s HS sports team has very early morning practices before school. Some years ago (it was definitely not my idea) it became a tradition that the parents provide breakfast for the team after practice. Since D also competed in this sport, with the same morning practice times, I’m now on year five of doing breakfast a few times during the season. Typically by this time the kids are tired of breakfast burritos, egg casseroles, etc. I usually make a baked apple French toast casserole for a change, but I’m bored with it. I asked S what he thought about a variety of cereals, etc.–no go. A typical breakfast might consist of some type of hot food, breads, juice, milk, yogurt, and fruit. Anyone have any great suggestions, recipes, ideas? A few things to keep in mind: I will need to prepare everything the night before. I’ll have about an hour to an hour and a half of cooking time in the morning so something that can be baked or warmed up in the oven is ideal. There will be a group of about 45 students on my morning this week. Three families will fix/bring food for that morning.</p>
<p>How about a blintz casserole. I think someone posted a recipe on another thread</p>
<p>We use to pick up chicken biscuits from a local fast food place, but that was with a smaller team than you have. Could you use frozen chicken or sausage patties with frozen or refrigerated biscuits; you could then add fresh fruit to the menu. Egg biscuits could also be an options.</p>
<p>Kids like lunch foods for breakfast, so you could make breakfast pizza or even a cheese pizza would be filling.</p>
<p>What about a real old fashion quiche lorraine? It has meat, eggs, cheese and pastry crust. Very portable.</p>
<p>Zucchini and Potato Frittatta
<a href=“http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-review/recipe-review-zucchinipotato-frittata-062252[/url]”>http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/recipe-review/recipe-review-zucchinipotato-frittata-062252</a></p>
<p>How about steel cut oatmeal with apricots and buttermilk in a crockpot
Overnight Oatmeal with Apricots and Buttermilk
1 cup steel cut oats
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup dried apricots, snipped into small pieces
3 1/2 cups water
1 cup buttermilk, milk, or cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 tablespoons wheat bran (optional) </p>
<p>Spray a Crock-Pot liner with cooking spray, or rub with butter. Mix the oats, brown sugar, salt and apricots. Pour in the water, milk, and vanilla and stir. Add the wheat bran, if you want. Turn on low and cover. Cook for 7-8 hours. Serve with extra milk and sugar.
You can adjust the amounts to provide for more.</p>
<p>Kids DO like lunch foods for breakfast (my kids would much rather have leftovers than any breakfast food). What about a couple of those big subway sandwiches that serve a crowd?</p>
<p>M&S, that oatmeal sounds awesome. Just curious, have you tried that oatmeal as a leftover (if I made a crockpot on Monday, could we heat it up for the next few days for breakfast?).</p>
<p>Not sure about all HS kids, but the kids I know would not like oatmeal! I love the stuff and this recipe sounds really good, but I’d bet my paycheck that most HS kids would turn up their noses! And unless you really enjoy working with pie crust/shells, don’t waste the energy on quiche–kids won’t appreciate all that hard work–just my two cents!</p>
<p>I like the idea of burritos, sausage biscuits or egg casserole along with a starch-- banana bread, bagels, biscuits, croissants. My kids prefer egg casserole with a side of salsa! You could make a boatload of pancakes well ahead of serving time and keep them warm in crockpots. Pancakes and sausage would be a big hit…</p>
<p>I like pizza for breakfast , yogurt, cinnamon toast… But personally while I think it is a nice idea, I think expecting the parents to make the whole team breakfast a few
times a year is too much. The only time daughters team has expected to provide for the whole team was during rugby season when it is traditional for the home team to host the visitor after games and during soccer season when we provide oranges at halftime and snack after the game.</p>
<p>My kids would love the breakfast pizzas idea and you could do several different varieties. There are lots of recipes if you google.</p>
<p>Couple more ideas depending on what’s available. Kebabs of fruit to dip in yogurt, fondue of some sort? Smoothies? You would probably need a few blenders</p>
<p>My kids like chili for breakfast – and their friends love to come to our house cause we often have it here. As a matter of fact, S2 has a friend who likes to give him a ride to school so he can stop and have breakfast here on his way. </p>
<p>I make chili with beans and then corn muffins that I serve with butter and honey. Serve it with oranges and tangerines.</p>
<p>We have a local bagel shop that’s really good. I’ve done team meals before afternoon/evening games (they do meat/cheese sandwiches as well as egg/breakfast meat/plain ones). Do you have a great bagel place nearby? So easy and the kids love them.</p>
<p>This recipe for make-ahead french toast is really great. I suggest using cut-up cubes of challah bread, which makes the best french toast. All you need to do is heat it up in the morning. [Make</a> Ahead French Toast - All Recipes](<a href=“http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Make-Ahead-French-Toast/Detail.aspx]Make”>http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Make-Ahead-French-Toast/Detail.aspx)</p>
<p>noodle kugel with the cornflakes on top</p>
<p>Good heavens! Parents take turns providing breakfast for 45 kids after every practice? </p>
<p>What about a student whose parents both need to be at work at the time that the team is done practicing and wants to eat breakfast? </p>
<p>This sure does not sound friendly to working families…</p>
<p>Good luck. (The Make Ahead French Toast sounds great.)</p>
<p>I’d buy 'em those little packs of cereal and let them go to town!
I agree with midwestmom2kids. What an assumption, that there’s a parent who has nothing more to do in the morning.</p>
<p>How about a frittata? It’s kind of like an Italian quiche, but with potatoes instead of a crust. It’s cut into wedges - hearty, easy to make and holds up well. Epicurious has several recipes.</p>
<p>I also like the suggestion of bagel sandwiches - toasted bagel, egg, cheese - you can add sausage on a few - wrap them in foil and they’ll stay hot for a long time. My guess is that the kids would like these best.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions! milkandsugar, I don’t know if many of them would eat the oatmeal, but I would! Actually my DD is a big oatmeal eater so I think I’ll surprise her with it before she goes back to school this weekend. I just need to pick up some dried fruit. </p>
<p>I agree with those of you that suggested this is asking a lot of families or might present some hardships for working parents. In general though I end up doing this 2 or 3 times in a season. At least three families share the responsibility on the days when both boys and girls teams are there. Other days it’s two families when a smaller group is there. Practice ends at 7:00 so typically by 7:30 we are done. Most people where I live have drives of less than 30 minutes to work. If a parent needs to leave early or can’t be there often they will send in fruit or bagels or something with the student. Over 5 years I’ve played this out mentally many times. In the end I guess I’m willing to do it so that on most days I don’t have to worry about my child getting a good breakfast after an early morning practice. </p>
<p>I’m going to look all of these suggestions over again and make my shopping list. Thanks again!</p>
<p>this is making me very hungry for bread pudding… And I think quiche lorraine would be great too but I’d use prepared pie crusts. (thank you, fate, for my d’s klutziness…if I had to make breakfast for 45 kids more than once or twice a year I do not know what I’d do!)</p>
<p>As I’m a big fan of simplicity and advance prep, my choices from these suggestions would be:</p>
<p>Pancakes kept hot in crock pots, with sausage or bacon, also kept hot in crock pots or</p>
<p>Bagel sandwiches wrapped in foil.</p>
<p>In any case, these kids are really lucky to have such perks! Hats off to such hardworking moms/dads…</p>