That's just another reason it's the most important meal of the day.

When it comes to keeping your kids healthy, start early-early in the morning, that is. It sounds simple, but breakfast, which breaks the fast of nighttime slumber, really is the powerhouse meal of the day. Besides fueling young brains and helping kids perform better in school, breakfast provides an opportunity to serve up important nutrients that kids need to build a strong immune system and help them flourish.

Fortified cereals give kids vitamins and minerals they might miss at other meals, such as vitamin D, an immunity-boosting superhero normally absorbed from sunshine. It can be hard to get through food alone, but fortified cereals and milk can help. It's especially important if your kids are indoors a lot during northern winters or southern summers.

Fortified cereals also provide key nutrients such as zinc, iron and the immunity-enhancing vitamins A, B12 and B6. And here's a little secret: Let your kids slurp up their cereal milk. Vitamins sometimes settle to the bottom of the bowl, and you don't want them going to waste!

"If you have a decent cereal, it's also like taking a vitamin," says Rachel Brandeis, an Atlanta-based registered dietitian and mother of two.

Round out breakfast with fresh fruit or 100 percent juice for vitamin C, one of nature's best antioxidants.

When your kids want a little variety in their morning meal (or you want to add more nutrition), toast a quick breakfast pizza using ready-to-go flat breads or whole grain English muffins, says Bobbie Kalman, author of Breakfast Blast (Crabtree Books, 2003). Make a Tic Tac Toe pattern using strips of ham. Sprinkle cheese into the squares and top the cheese with pineapple or a few dried cranberries. She also bakes homemade granola (sweetened with fruit juice) and layers it with yogurt and berries for kid-pleasing parfaits.

• Put a banana and peanut butter on a whole grain hot dog bun.
• Roll up pancakes spread with apple butter.
• Top crunchy waffles with peanut butter and jam.

Peanut butter, Brandeis says, is especially good for school-age children because the protein helps keep them full until snack break or lunch.

• Granola bars with less than 10 grams of sugar and at least 2 grams of dietary fiber
• A cheese stick and an apple
• Do-it-yourself trail mix made with bite-size cereal, nuts and raisins or dried cherries
• Drinkable yogurt
• A 100 percent juice box paired with peanut butter on whole wheat toast

Another sweet option: smoothies you blend up with fruit, milk or 100 percent juice and yogurt that contains active cultures (they keep the gut healthy and strong for improved immunity).

"[Smoothies] are quick, they're easy, and you can pack in all kinds of nutrients with fruit and yogurt," says Brandeis. "They're a great power breakfast."

Strawberry-Banana Smoothie

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup Strawberry Kiwi Flavor NESTLÉ® JUICY JUICE® All Natural 100% Juice
• 1 packet Strawberry Sensation Flavor CARNATION® INSTANT BREAKFAST® ESSENTIALS™ Complete Nutritional Drink
• ½ to 1 cup frozen berries (strawberries, raspberries and/or blueberries)
• ½ cup ice cubes

Place Juicy Juice, Carnation Instant Breakfast Essentials, berries and ice in a blender; cover. Blend until smooth.