Breakfast is often touted as the most important meal of the day. Is it? Maybe. But either way, it is certainly a great opportunity to get nutritious, wholesome food into your little ones' bellies. Food that will fuel them through their mornings at childcare, kinder, gymbaroo, playgrounds and school.

But for many families, breakfasts are tricky too. While you’d like to get a wholesome meal into your little ones, the reality of the ‘morning rush’ means breakfast is often a piece of toast, consumed in sporadic chunks while also navigating getting dressed, locating lost hairbrushes and re-packing unpacked backpacks.

Enter: Breakfasts on-the-go. The whole concept may not be gold standard in social/family eating, but it’s practical and perfectly good enough. After all, eating a nutritious meal in the pram or on the way to school is still eating a nutritious meal, and a million times better than nothing.

So, to help you on your ‘breakfast on-the-go’ journey, we’ve got 5 great dietitian-approved ideas for you that will both save you time and boost your nutrition intake.

Breakfast smoothie

With a little knowledge and preparation, you can make a nourishing ‘meal-in-a-cup’ smoothie for your little ones to enjoy on-the-go. And while you're at it, whizz up a little extra for yourself, too.

The trick to making sure your smoothie is really nutritious is to include some grains and protein in there, along with your fruit and milk of choice. Try adding a crumbled weetbix biscuit or oats, and a spoonful of nut butter or seeds, to make this a filling and nourishing meal.

Our favourite combination? 1 heaped cup of frozen raspberries, 1 banana, ¼ cup of instant oats and 1 tbsp of chia seeds, all blended with your milk of choice. Delish!

Frittata

If you like baking, a frittata cook-up on a Sunday will give you portable, protein-packed breakfasts for days. There are plenty of recipes online, but essentially you are just bake an eggy mixture (beaten eggs and milk) with some veg (we like roast pumpkin, finely chopped spinach or cherry tomatoes) and cheese.

Try baking them in muffin pans to make them super easy to just grab-and-go during the week.

Note: for little ones <12m, skip the cheese to keep the salt content nice and low.

Raspberry Bircher bites

If you’re after a really easy solution, Audrey & Alfie’s Raspberry Bircher Bites are as simple as it gets. These little balls are made with Organic rolled oats, Greek yoghurt (for protein), delicious raspberries and chia seeds for extra fibre and healthy fats. They tick all the boxes for a balanced, nutritious breakfast by themselves, so no more meal prep needed!

Super portable (perfect size for little hands), just pop them in the fridge the night before ready to grab and go in the morning. And if you forget to defrost? Don’t worry, older kids will love them semi-frozen (particularly on hot mornings!), or save them as a nourishing morning tea (they typically take between 2-4 hours to defrost).

Wholemeal, oat-based muffins or bakes.

Muffins for breakfast? Approved by a dietitian? Bet you never thought you’d see that. But, you see, not all muffins are created equal. While many café-style muffins are packed with (unhealthy) fats and sugar, if you bake your own muffins using a base of rolled oats and wholemeal flour, leave out the added sugar and add fruits and vegetables, home-made muffins can be a practical and nutritious breakfast-on-the-go for mornings when everything else is just too much.

There are plenty of recipes online, and if you’d rather not cook… Audrey & Alfie’s Apple & Carrot Mini Muffins have done the hard work for you. Naturally sweetened with apples and dates (no refined sugar), and made with organic rolled oats and wholemeal flour, these little muffins are nutritious AND delicious. Plus, they’re moist enough not to be crumbly. Pop them in the microwave straight from the freezer to enjoy warm, portable, mess-free muffins.

A nut butter sandwich and a banana

Breakfast really doesn’t need to be fancy to be nutritious. A simple nut butter sandwich and a banana ticks off three of your core food groups and has enough fibre and protein to keep your little one going into the morning. Choosing a wholemeal/wholegrain bread will keep the fibre content as high as possible, and looking for a nut butter that is close to 100% nuts will help to maximise the protein/goodness content, too.

Shop Audrey & Alfie Raspberry Bircher Bites

Shop Audrey & Alfie Apple & Carrot Mini Muffins