I was never a picky eater, so I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of patience for those who are, but seemingly coinciding with our move to China and continuing forward from there, our Sweetpea, in particular, has decided that most breakfast foods are not her thing.

And yet some years ago, after talking to someone about concerns about allergies, the advice I received was to have a lot of variety in our food choices. Up until then, our kids had pretty much eaten oatmeal every morning.

Funny enough, one of the things Sweetpea now has challenges with is oatmeal. So I created a new breakfast food: “Buffet Oatmeal.”

We pull just about everything out of the pantry and they’re allowed to “dress” their oatmeal in whatever they like. The only rules: eat everything you take and everyone has to help clean up.

Here are our favorite formulas:

Me:

• bananas
• walnuts
• coconut
• honey
• peanut or almond butter
• cocoa

Pumpkin:

• raisins
• coconut
• almond milk
• maple syrup
• peanut butter
• almond butter
• cocoa
• walnuts

Sweetpea:

• maple syrup
• honey
• almond milk
• peanut butter
• cocoa

Sprout:

• bananas
• peanut butter
• honey

What’s for breakfast at your house today?