Starting Our Day Off Right with A Healthy Start-Jennie-O turkey bacon and cheese casserole #JennieO4kids #Cbias

I have told you all about Hayley and how I would classify her as the world’s pickiest eater. Day after day, she fights me to eat and very rarely has more than three bites before she exclaims she is full. While I have been dealing with her pickiness most of her life, one meal she does love is breakfast. While she loves breakfast, I have been somewhat lackadaisical in serving her nutritious breakfast choices in the morning. You know the drill- a bar here..a frozen pancake there…

Part of this reason is I was never much of a breakfast eater and had unfortunately related my failings for eating a good breakfast to my children.  I found every reason in the book not to serve a healthy breakfast and to resort to a quick and easy breakfast including not having time in the morning to feed/dress them both to the best of my abilities, and wanting to get in that extra few minutes of sleep. Well, I am happy to report that this is no longer going on in my house. I have found out that both my husband, my children, and I need a good breakfast to fuel and start the day off right. By giving children a healthy breakfast, you are helping them stay alert in class and more focused in their learnings. I can assure you (simply by doing this myself) that putting a hot, healthy, flavorful, and nutritious meal on the table takes no more than 20 minutes from start to finish. If you have time to sleep in an extra 10 minutes, you have time to allow your children the joy of eating a healthy breakfast. You might be asking what are some good options and the answer is very easy- you want them to have good proteins in their diet.  I find one low-fat food that provides them the necessary proteins and fuel to start the day off right is Jennie-O turkey bacon and sausage products. By serving these, you are starting your children for a great day ahead and gearing them up with energy, substance, and fuel!

If you are asking when you should start switching them to eat a healthy breakfast, my answer to you is there is not a better time than now! Actually, you could start feeding your children a healthy breakfast and in doing so, participate in the Jennie-O Champion For Kids Project. You have heard me talk about Champions For Kids and their Simple Projects over the last year, I will tell you that there really is no better way to feel gratified in your life, than making a difference and helping children out.

The premise for this month’s Jennie-O Champions For Kids Simple Project, is to cook a nutritious breakfast for children in your community (whether is be your child’s classroom, sports team, youth group, for example) and allow them to have the nutritious breakfast that will allow them to stay awake in school and give them the energy to do their best in school! By starting their day with low-fat healthy protein like Jennie-O Turkey Bacon and Sausage, you are giving them a great way to help kids grow and succeed inside and outside the classroom!

Every time you cook a nutritious breakfast for children in your community, let them know at championsforkids.org/share so that they can celebrate your participation and count you towards their goal of mobilizing 20 million people, #MobilizingMillions, by 2020 to become Champions for Kids! It is easy to do and  rewarding, so I urge you to participate this month! You can see below how easy it is to participate and feel good about giving back to your community!

I decided that I wanted to show Hayley and her friends the importance of having a good breakfast to start their day off right. Every month, Hayley gets together with her four-year-old friends and we find various activities to get them active. Usually we skip right to the activity but decided that by allowing them to eat a healthy breakfast before, they would have the energy and stamina to start their day off right. I decided I was going to make a Jennie-O sausage and cheese breakfast casserole, as it would provide great fuel for the fun day we had planned. Hayley and Zane both LOVE Jennie-O turkey sausage and bacon, and we always buy it in bulks at Walmart and freeze them. So I thought why not take out a package of Jennie-O turkey bacon, and make this wonderful recipe, which is altered from a recipe I found at My Recipes.

Ingredients: -1 package of Jennie O turkey bacon – 1 teaspoon Canola Oil – 2 cups fat free milk -2 cups egg substitute2 eggs -12 slices of whole wheat bread – 1 cup of reduced fat cheese -pinch of salt/pepper

Directions-

1. In a large skillet, cook sausage for about 3 minutes until browned. Cut sausage into pieces through the cooking process and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.

2. Combine milk, egg substitute, 3 eggs, reduced fast cheese, salt/pepper in a bowl and stir thoroughly.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Cut 12 slices of bread into 1 inch square cubes, remembering to cut off the crusts. Then add the bread cubes, turkey bacon pieces, cheddar cheese into the milk mixture (see #2) and stir with a whisk.

4. Pour #3 into a casserole and put into oven for 45 minutes.

5. Remove from oven, allow to cool for 10 minutes, and serve.

This recipe was so easy to do and absolutely delicious! It allowed my kids to have the essential proteins of Jennie O turkey bacon in it, without any added fats. They loved it so much and it was gone in no time at all!

Later that day, we all went to the local trampoline park to bounce around. They bounced around for a full hour and never had one lull. That is because they were fully equipped with a healthy breakfast and prepared to start the day full of energy!

Go ahead and challenge yourself to create a healthy meal for your children, their friends, a local community, or a school and start off the New Year right with the Jennie O Champions for Kids Simple Project. Children who eat a #JennieO4kids nutritious breakfast have an easier  time focusing and staying awake in class, which can affect their future educational and professional success! Give it a try today!  To learn more about the Jennie O Champions for Kids project visit them on their site today. You can also find out about the yummy Jennie O turkey sausage and bacon products on their Facebook/Twitter page.

 

 

 

 

* I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Jennie-O #cbias #SocialFabric”