first day of school breakfast

Happy Labor Day!  Hope you're doing something fun to celebrate the end of summer today.  Hoping to play some tennis with my favorite boy, do some kayaking on the little lake behind our house, grill something up, and drink something cold.

Tomorrow, Tommy heads back to school to start 1st grade.  First grade feels so BIG to me.  I mean, Kindergarten was big, but 1st grade is BIG.  When you go to first grade, you're definitely not a little kid anymore.  He's excited, I'm excited because he has a great teacher, and I think this will be a good year for him.  

I found a really easy first-day-of-school breakfast to share here this morning.  We tried them last week and they were a huge hit with the kids.  This recipe, created by J.M. Hirsch, comes from the newest issue of "Every Day with Rachel Ray."  It's super simple and really good.

Mini Meaty Cheesy Quiches
Recipe by J.M. Hirsch in Every Day with Rachel Ray

1 package of frozen mini phyllo pastry cups
shredded cheddar cheese
sliced ham
2 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place phyllo cups on a sheet pan or in a mini muffin pan.  Add some shredded cheese and sliced ham to each cup.  Pour the beaten egg over the ham and cheese to fill up the cups.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the egg is cooked through.  Sprinkle each one with salt and pepper.  Serve hot, at room temperature, or straight from the refrigerator. 

We ate every one.

You could definitely change this recipe up to include whatever you like in a regular quiche.  Spinach...diced potato...sauteed onion...broccoli...asparagus...whatever.  The great thing about the ham and cheese is that it's super fast to throw together, but if you cooked extra veggies for dinner the night before and had leftovers, you could just add them right in and call it a day.  If you have any leftover mini quiches, they would be perfect in a school lunch the next day.  

Good luck to all the kids going back to school tomorrow (and those that went back last week or even the week before)!  Hope it's a fun year!

P.s.  We have so much craziness going on at our house (good craziness - more on that soon!), and amidst all of it, the only logical thing I could think to do was try a new sweater pattern for my girl.  Knitting brings me so much calm in the crazy.  The pattern seems pretty straight forward so hopefully it'll come together easily.  I'll keep you updated on my progress!

P.p.s.  This whispered exchange between my babies happened last night as the three of us were laying in my bed listening to the thunder from a fantastic end-of-summer storm roll over the house.  Be still my heart...

Tommy:  "Love you big girl."

Annabel:  "Love you, Tommy."

Tommy:  "Night night."

Annabel:  "Night, Tommy."