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Healthy Breakfast Foods For Children Organized By Food Groups

Maggie LaBarbera • RN, MBA • Feb 14, 2012

Making a healthy breakfast is important for a good start to the day.

Make sure you have foods from at least 3-4 food groups. If you can get in all five food groups for a balanced meal - that is the best. My Plate shows us to fill up half the plate with fruits and vegetables.

Vegetables are key at each meal and most children don't get enough. So you may need to use a little creativity, but vegetables can be served on the side with a dip, mixed with eggs, added to smoothies or served over brown rice!

Here is a list of foods to pack for lunch breakfast by food groups. This list is created from traditional breakfast food items but eating leftovers for breakfast and other foods is fine too.

The key is for children to eat breakfast every morning and to include healthy foods from 3-4 of the food groups.

Breakfast Meal Ideas And The Five Food Groups

Breakfast Meals	Vegetable	Fruit	Grains	Dairy	Protein
Whole grain cereal with fruit and lowfat milk and side of crunchy vegetables	crunchy vegetables	fruit	whole grain cereal	lowfat milk
Oatmeal with raisins and low fat milk and handful of nuts		raisins	oatmeal	lowfat milk	nuts
Waffles, turkey bacon and 100% fruit juice		fruit juice	waffles		turkey bacon
Bagel with cheese and slice of ham with lettuce and tomatoes	lettuce and tomatoes		bagel	cheese	slice of ham
Breakfast burrito: scrambled eggs, cheese and veggies wrapped in a flour tortilla	veggies		flour tortilla	cheese	scrambled eggs
Grilled cheese sandwich and 100% fruit juice		fruit juice	whole grains toast	cheese
Turkey sandwich and a cup of low fat milk			whole grains toast	lowfat milk	lean turkey
Rice bowl with chicken and vegetables on top	vegetables		rice	lowfat milk	chicken
Breakfast smoothie with fruit, carrots and yogurt	carrots	fruit		lowfat yogurt
Whole grain muffin, milk and bowl of fruit		fruit	whole grain muffin	lowfat milk
Nut butter toast, slce of fruit and glass of milk		fruit		lowfat milk	nut butter or soy butter
Fruit parfait		fruit	granola	lowfat yogurt	seeds
Poached egg, tomato with english muffin	tomato, celery		english muffin		poached egg
Egg with baked potatoes, pepper and onions, toast and milk	baked potatoes, pepper and onions		whole grains toast	lowfat milk	egg

Healthy Foods To Serve For Breakfast:

You can see that as you mix and match, you can easily make a breakfast made up of the three to four food groups!

Vegetable Group	Fruit Group	Grains Group	Dairy Group	Protein Group
low sodium tomato juice	mixed fruit	bran cereal	low fat or skim milk	boiled egg
salsa	100% fruit juice	oatmeal	slice of lowfat cubed cheese	scrambled egg
sliced tomato	sliced apples	whole grain bagel	mozzarella cheese	poached egg
baked potato slices	a small banana	whole wheat waffles	low fat sliced cheese	handful of chopped nuts
carrots (add to muffin recipe or smoothie)	handful of raisins	tortilla	cottage cheese	peanut butter
spinach (in scrambled eggs)	raspberries	cereal - 5 gm of fiber	lowfat or fat-free yogurt	soy butter
sweet potato	melon balls	whole wheat toast	fortified soy milk lowfat or skim	nut butter
mushrooms	sliced peaches	whole grains pancake	fortified lactose free milk lowfat or skim	ham slice
zucchini sticks	stawberries	crackers		beans
cubed baked pumpkin	blackberries	whole wheat pita		tofu scramble
broccoli trees	blueberries	whole wheat english muffins		diced seeds (added to cereals)
stir fry veggies	orange	whole grain french toast		lean turkey sausage patty
	slice of pineapple	brown rice		lean turkey sausage link
				lean turkey bacon