Breakfast Recipes

I didn't read all of the posts, but I think nutrition is key. It really saddens me when I see all the pastries & white flour bagels at our church on Sunday mornings. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit & God certainly did not design that processed junk for food!
LOL - Sorry to get off on a totally different topic there.
Fresh fruit is good - the things at room temp. like bananas, apples, etc. Produce at some stores is not refridgerated or you could go to a Farmer's Market the day before & take it straight to church.
Hope that helps a bit. Make sure to wash the skins off first though!
J. (who is into natural foods that God designed :)

Could you leave something in a cooler? What if you left ingredients for yogurt parfaits? They could assemble in the morning. Leave large containers of yogurt (for 50 people you would need at least 6 - the serving size says 4 @1 cup each but they wont use that much with all the other ingredients) have some fresh berries and a box of granola. I would use those 9 oz hard plastic cups to serve. That and mini muffins would be a nice change.

I'm sure you have a budget to consider as well as nutrition, but I would talk with the church administration about 'beefing up' support for the teachers' nutrition. I like the applesause idea and found that I could also get pear sauce in individual serving cups, which is refreshingly delicious. Some people like to spinkle fruit sauses with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. There are other fruit sauses as well as sliced fruits in jars. I like to make my own trail mix with fresh walnuts, pecans, almonds, and macedamia nuts along with dried cherries, blueberries, and raisins. This is a bit costly, but marvelously nutritious. Fresh grapes could sit out for one night and can be easily divided into smaller portions by snipping the smaller branches of a cluster. Also, boiled eggs could be left in a relatively small cooler and will keep nicely if there are leftovers. If there is hot water provided for making tea, you can also bring small packets of instant hot cereals like oatmeal. People often like to put a little milk on these, however. Milk could be kept in a thermal carafe and kept in the small cooler with the eggs. If you are serving breads, you can bring all-fruit jams and fruit butters, such as apple butter or pumpkin butter. I like to put things like pumpkin butter on a hearty bread and then sprinkle it with sunflower seeds or flax seeds.

All of this will likely cost more than bready foods, but will certainly support the teachers better. So many people today are having trouble digesting wheat because of the way hybrids have been developed for farming advantages. It isn't the same wheat our grandmothers grew up with and we are all having increasing problems trying to digest and metabolize the gluten in the new wheat. So, you are wise to remember that we were not designed to 'live by bread alone' {{:c).

Something else to consider is delegating a little help. If you leave things the night before and are not able to bring a few refrigerated items in the morning, you might consider asking one of the church members that lives near you or near the church to store the refrigerated items overnight and bring them to church in the morning in a cooler so it will keep.

Thank you for caring for the people who care for the children! They give so much!

Dried fruits or fruit leather, beef jerky or turkey jerky, granola, popcorn balls, or trail mix might be nice additions (though none really stand on their own for breakfast). Homemade granola bars or cereal bars would be good, too. My kids like "monster" oatmeal-raisin or ranger cookies made a little more healthy (add wheat germ and flax seeds, use whole-wheat flour in place of about 1/3 of the white, and substitute applesauce or mashed bananas for about 1/2 of the butter/oil, for a few examples) for a breakfast treat sometimes--at least it's better than donuts!

Anything that is already pre-packaged and shelf-stable, such as those little cheese-cracker snack packs, or even new, unopened jars/cans of cheese spread, would be okay, but could be costly if you do it very often. They even have shelf-stable milk available, so you could do cereal, although for 50, that may be too expensive!

Of course, similar to the breads you're doing (I assume you mean different kinds of sweet breads, like banana bread?), you could make muffins, yeast breads and rolls, corn bread, biscuits, cinnamon rolls, bagels, donuts, etc.

Try serving some of them with herbed butter, honey butter, or even peanut butter (if no one's allergic!). I've also served toast, bagels, and other breads with hazelnut butter, almond butter, and/or cashew butter, but again, those can be rather expensive for that many servings. Sometimes you can also get single-serve packs of jams and jellies donated from restaurants, or just buy a box of them yourself so you don't have to worry about refrigerating any open jars (not to mention the mess, lol).

You could even make waffles if the teachers don't mind them being at room temperature (just don't add any toppings or butter until serving time). I *wouldn't* do pancakes because they stick together and just get yucky after a couple hours. Even my "eat anything" 4-year-old won't touch them then, lol.

If it is in a *well-sealed* container, you can leave certain fruit cakes, like pineapple upside-down cake, at room temperature overnight (apple, peach, or pear can also be tasty in place of the pineapple), but be sure to refrigerate any leftovers. I've left fruit crisps, crumbles, cobblers, buckles, and even cream cheese danish at room temperature for up to 12 hours before serving (again, in well-sealed containers!), and they were all fine, so I'm sure variations of these would be good, too.

HTH!
--A.

Edit: forgot to add that washed but unpeeled, uncut, whole fresh fruit, such as apples, bananas, grapes, oranges, peaches, tangerines, etc. would be great, too!