Quick Tips

With the return of school comes the age-old question, “What do you want for breakfast?”

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day — or at least it’s the first meal of the day, and the day always seems to go better when it starts with a good meal. I still remember being a kid in class and watching the second hand on the clock ticktock as if in slow motion just waiting for lunch to come because I was so-starving-I-could-barely-concentrate!

But kids can be picky and annoying in the morning — like this morning when I made smoothies. My littlest said she didn’t want one at all, but my teenager did, yet the results were that my littlest declared it “was a GREAT smoothie” while my teenager said it was good but she couldn’t finish it.

As a parent, we take every little victory we can. So here are my top 10 suggestions for back-to-school breakfasts that are organic and healthy and will put your kids in a good mood to start their day:

1. Smoothies. Smoothies are a great way to get rid of too much fruit, especially fruit that no one would eat whole. Plus, you can sneak all sorts of healthy things into them. And they’re easy because a good smoothie consists of just three things: Fruit (and vegetables, if you’re adventurous), liquid, and ice. For liquid you can go dairy, dairy substitute, or juice. I love to use coconut water because, honestly, coconut water is gross to drink by itself (my personal opinion). For protein you can add organic protein powders or nuts. There is no right or wrong here — just experiment!

2. Eggs. Yes, we are a high egg consuming/whole egg household. We make them fried, scrambled, in sandwiches, hard-boiled, in omelets (add some spinach or kale), and poached. But if you know another way, you could make that, too. One of the classic breakfast egg dishes my mother made for me was cut-up hot dogs scrambled with eggs. Yum. Now my kids love it, too. Just make sure the hot dogs are organic!

3. Speaking of hot dogs, BACON, and other proteins…. School-day mornings can be a hard time to make bacon (leaves the kitchen a mess before work!), but there’s something deeply satisfying to the stomach about eating good breakfast meat, which is really any meat — especially cold leftover meat. Even fried chicken! You can try my breakfast sausage patties, too. If you eat some meat for breakfast, you won’t be starving before lunch.

4. Fish. Fish is another great breakfast protein. We love smoked salmon on toast or a bagel (with cream cheese or without). Or even leftover cooked salmon or trout from the night before. I mean, you do have to wash up well and brush your teeth so you don’t smell like fish all day, but fish is good for your body and great for your brain. And if there’s one thing you need for school, it’s a well-fed brain.

5. Yogurt. Particularly organic probiotic yogurt. I love to add ingredients to it — especially a protein like nuts. One of our favorites is plain Greek yogurt with applesauce, maple syrup, and walnuts. YUM! Add some fiber-packed chia seeds so you can feel current with the times. Just check your teeth before you leave the house.

6. Soup. I know this sounds crazy, but my kids love soup for breakfast — especially if it’s homemade (which means it’s leftover soup because there’s no way I’m making soup from scratch for breakfast).

7. Cheese. Again, a little protein and some fat can do wonders for getting you off to a great start. An organic slice or two or a cheese stick, along with some fruit (an apple or even dried fruit), makes a quick, easy meal — with no dishes to clean up!

8. Quesadillas. Take a whole grain flour or corn tortilla, heat it in a pan; add a filling like cheese, fried or scrambled eggs, or anything you want, including hot sauce/salsa, and voilà, olé! It’s a brand-new day! It’s even portable for eating on the bus or in the car (unless your car is new).

9. Carbs. Carbs are OK (and I’m talking about breads, cereals, muffins, croissants, donuts), though they’re not the best for keeping your stomach happy all morning long, in my humble opinion. But in a pinch they work — and they are quick, easy, and mostly nutritious. Again, adding protein like a nut butter, cream cheese, milk, or just plain butter (is that a protein? Doesn’t matter, it’s good!). There’s also oatmeal. Instant is fine, but homemade tastes so much better. Try it with a bit of brown sugar and walnuts!

10. Leftovers. Don’t be afraid to eat dinner for breakfast. Or lunch for breakfast. As long as it tastes good, isn’t too old, and fills you up, it’s great! Don’t limit yourself to what breakfast is “supposed” to be. The most important thing breakfast is supposed to be is nutritious and filling — fuel to start the day off right.

Enjoy!

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ISSAQUAH, Wash. (AP) — Costco’s August sales at stores open at least a year climbed 7 percent, which was much better than industry watchers had expected.

Comparable-store sales are a key gauge of a retailer’s health because it excludes the volatility from stores that have been recently opened or closed.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had been looking for an increase of only 4.8 percent.

Domestic sales led the way, rising 7 percent, compared with 6 percent internationally.

And if the impact of lower gas prices and foreign currency fluctuations are stripped away, global sales at stores open at least a year climbed 8 percent. By that measure, sales rose 8 percent overseas and 7 percent in the U.S.

Revenue for the four weeks ended Aug. 31 increased 10 percent to $8.8 billion.

For the fourth quarter, Costco Wholesale Corp. said that sales at stores open at least a year rose 6 percent. The U.S. and overseas both posted 6 percent gains.

Excluding the impact of lower gas prices and foreign currency fluctuations, sales at stores open at least a year climbed 7 percent. In the U.S. the figure rose 6 percent. It increased 8 percent abroad.

Fourth-quarter total revenue climbed 9 percent to $34.8 billion.

Full-year sales at stores open at least a year increased 4 percent. The U.S. reported a 5 percent rise. Internationally, the figure rose 3 percent.

Taking out the impact of lower gas prices and foreign currency fluctuations, sales at stores open at least a year climbed 6 percent. In the U.S. the metric rose 5 percent. Internationally, the figure increased 7 percent.

Total revenue for the year climbed 7 percent to $110.2 billion.

Costco, based in Issaquah, Washington, ended fiscal 2014 with 663 locations, including 468 in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, 88 in Canada, 33 in Mexico, 26 in the U.K., 20 in Japan, 11 in Korea, 10 in Taiwan, six in Australia and one in Spain. It plans to open up to an additional nine new warehouse stores before the calendar year ends.

TOKYO (AP) — The multi-nation fisheries body that monitors most of the Pacific Ocean has recommended a substantial cut to the catch of juvenile bluefin tuna, a move conservationists say is only an initial step toward saving the dwindling species.

The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission announced the decision Thursday after meeting in Fukuoka, a city in western Japan. It said the catch should be cut to half of its average level in 2002-2004.

The commission, a grouping of more than 20 nations that monitors the western two-thirds of the Pacific, also endorsed catch limits for adult bluefin and set a 10-year target of rebuilding the population to 8 percent of its original size.

Japanese eat 80 percent of the world’s bluefin tuna, or “hon maguro,” a sushi mainstay, and demand elsewhere in the world has kept growing. At a ritual new year auction, the top price for the fish jumped to about $7,000 a kilogram in 2013 but was a more reasonable $300 per kilogram this year.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, which is trying to save the species, said the plan to cut catches is only a first step toward saving the bluefin tuna, which has been decimated by overfishing.

“There must be a strong recovery and rebuilding plan put in place for Pacific bluefin across its full range,” said Amanda Nickson, director of global tuna conservation for Pew.

“Countries have the responsibility to agree on a strong recovery plan that does more than simply move the population from severely depleted to slightly less seriously depleted,” she said.

The fisheries commission left a decision on longer-term efforts for later. It also approved a recommendation that stocks of albacore tuna do not drop more than 20 percent from their current level. Stocks of swordfish were judged to be healthy, it said.

Nations that manage the eastern Pacific bluefin fisheries are due to discuss their management plans for the species next month, and a final decision on the catch limits for the western Pacific is expected in December.

A stock assessment by the International Scientific Committee for Tuna and Tuna-like Species in the Northern Pacific Ocean found the levels of bluefin in 2012 at near their lowest ever of just 4 percent of original stocks.

Most of the fish caught are juveniles that have not had a chance to reproduce, the scientific body said.

Cutting the catch in half would reduce Japan’s annual catch of juvenile bluefins to about 4,000 tons from next year, out of a fisheries-wide catch of 4,725 tons.

The catch of adult fish weighing over 30 kilograms would be 4,882 tons out of a total regional catch of 6,591 tons, according to an announcement posted on the Japanese fisheries ministry’s website.

Fisheries experts in Japan are rushing to devise techniques for commercially viable aquaculture of the deep-sea species.

There have been other recent measures to help bluefins, which sometimes grow to the size of small cars.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last month issued stricter quotas for bycatches, or unintentional catches, of Atlantic bluefin tunas on surface longlines meant to catch other species.

Earlier this year, the EU proposed banning all use of driftnets in its waters and on its vessels by the year’s end to better enforce the protection of dolphins, sharks, swordfish and bluefin tuna. Such nets, which stretch for miles close to the surface, tend to have huge bycatches, and often were used illegally to catch bluefin tuna.

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