The alarm clocks shatter your sleep and the challenge of feeding the family before the bus pulls away looms large on the horizon.

As easy as it might be to plop a box of doughnuts on the table, you're just shortchanging your kids' dietary needs. On the other hand, it doesn't have to feel like a multi-course ordeal, either.

Serving a nutritious breakfast, still considered the most important meal of the day, can be easy and much less of a chore with just a little strategic planning.

Just as the name implies, breakfast is about breaking the fast, that long period of sleep when you're not taking in any nutrients. "Your body and brain both need a steady output of energy," says Blair Blair (yes, that's really her name), the manager of the nutrition therapy department at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., and a registered dietitian and licensed dietetic nutritionist.

Which is why you should never skip breakfast, she says, adding that a balanced meal of whole-grain carbohydrates, low-fat dairy products, eggs and fruit give your body what it needs to perform in the morning.

Which brings us back to that doughnut. "Foods that are high in sugar don't give the same sustained effect as whole grains, milk and fruit. With sugar you get a quick boost, but in an hour or so, you're hungry again and feeling tired."

That crash comes well before lunch, and when you're feeling tired and hungry, you're drawn again to fatty and sweet foods. It's also hard to concentrate on fractions when you're hungry.

So what can parents do to make sure nutritious foods end up on the table during the morning rush? Here are a few strategies and some recipes to get you going.

• Try to prepare some of the meal in advance. That can include chopping fruit, making a casserole or assembling ingredients.

• Encourage everyone to sit at the table, if only for a short while. You can make the table more inviting by setting it the night before.

• Start emphasizing breakfast to your children at an early age, and don't give up on exposing kids to different foods, even as they become finicky. Eating habits, both good and bad, are learned and developed through repetition.

• Keep frozen whole-grain biscuits in the freezer. They can be used in all kinds of ways to deliver meats (chicken patty, sausage, ham), eggs and cheeses.

• If you buy pre-made breakfast bars, frozen waffles or pancakes, make sure they're whole grain. That includes cold cereals, too.

• Substitute maple syrup or honey for table sugar.

• Use low-fat milk for cereal.

- You can make pancake batter in advance and keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

- To cut the cooking time of Irish (steel-cut) oatmeal, soak the oats overnight. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add one cup of oats. Remove from heat, cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, cook over low heat for approximately 12 minutes.

SIMPLE BREAKFASTS EVEN KIDS CAN MAKE

STRAWBERRY SMOOTHIE

• 1 cup low-fat milk

• 1 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

• 4 large fresh strawberries

(or 1 cup frozen strawberries)

• 1 small banana, cut up

optional: 2 tablespoons peanut butter

Blend on high for one minute.

Serves one.

BAKED OATMEAL

• 16-ounce bag of frozen fruit of choice

• 18 ounces Irish steel-cut oats

• 1 and one-fourth cups unsweetened apple sauce

• 1 cup water

• 1 and one-half cups milk

• 3 large eggs, beaten

• one-half cup butter, melted

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ginger

• three-fourths cup packed dark brown sugar

• 4 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Put fruit into bottom of a greased 9-inch-by-13-inch ovenproof pan.

Mix remaining ingredients and pour over fruit.

Bake, covered, at 300 degrees for 50 minutes and uncovered for another 35 minutes.

Note: Can be made in advance and then sliced into squares and heated in the microwave the next day.

Serves eight.

Source: Adapted from Southern Living

BREAKFAST TACOS

• 4 strips bacon

• 4 eggs

• one-fourth cup sour cream, more for garnish

• salt and pepper to taste

• 4 flour tortillas

• one-half cup Cheddar cheese, shredded

• mild picante sauce

Fry bacon in a skillet. Drain on paper towel, then crumble and set aside. Save bacon drippings.

Beat eggs together in a small bowl. Add sour cream and salt and pepper to taste. Pour egg mixture into skillet and cook for a few minutes, then stir with a spatula and cook more until well cooked.

Place scrambled eggs in the middle of the tortilla. Top with crumbled bacon, cheese, sour cream and picante sauce.

Fold over and seal with a little sour cream.

Makes four tacos.

Source: www.easy-kids-recipes.com