Breakfast
We stopped eating cereal a few months ago. We used to have Shreddies, bran flakes, or Weetabix. While these all seem like fine cereals, bran flakes are 15% sugar. Shreddies are 13% sugar. Weetabix are 4% sugar, but they are also gross (my opinion) and messy.
I don't even know if Weetabix is a thing in the US. It looks like this:
When you add milk it turns into a sort of paste, like an ultra processed porridge with not flavour at all.
Anyways, I digress. We still need breakfast. Our current rotation is as follows:
- Crumpets (with peanut butter and/or cream cheese) (The kids like peanut butter & cream cheese and that seems so gross to me)
- Toast (with peanut butter and/or jam. Or Avocado)
- Eggs (with toast or crumpets or wrapped in tortilla)
- Porridge
- Baked Oatmeal (this is great!)
- French Toast Casserole (chunks of bread soaked overnight in egg and milk mixture then baked in the oven. Probably the same as bread pudding)
- Waffles
- Andy usually makes normal waffles but I am excited for pumpkin waffles!
- Pancakes (This recipe is my current fav)
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| (That background pumpkin is not long for this world) |
We also always have apple or banana or pear with our breakfast. Sometimes melon, if I'm feeling fancy, and if I've chopped it the night before.
Grocery Delivery
We are figuring our the best day and time for grocery delivery. We were doing our meal planning on Friday night with a delivery saturday morning, but this had the logistical challenge of needing to get the order in by 9pm. We also needed to be home to collect, and I am not paying £2 more for a 1 hour delivery but it meant the groceries showed up sometime between 8am and 12, which could be fine or could be chaos.
This week we tried a friday delivery, again between 8 and 12. Unfortunately the timing was pretty much the worst - both babies woke up at 10, the delivery came at 10:20, and as he arrived I was halfway downstairs with two babies (we are still working on stairs) when lilah came to the bottom of the stairs holding a beeded necklace (ie massive baby choking hazard) which she proceeded to break and drop all over the bottom of the stairs. Then she started crying, which caused nora to start crying, and I could neither get down the stairs (because the two babies) or up the stairs (because the two babies). Thankfully Andy was not in a meeting so he came and helped unpack the groceries.
What are your go-to breakfasts? Are you a breakfast person? Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day. I would love to eat/make hash browns and home fries more if the kids ate them. I used to make Shakshuka sometimes but I know the kids will give it "a million thumbs down" so it's not worth the effort now either.
Crumpets!!!
ReplyDeleteFeeding a family is a lot. I haven't had pancakes in ages, though. I love them, but I'm usually the only one who eats them, so they don't happen. Breakfast around here is usually: 1. Eggs and toast. 2. Yogurt and fruit. 3. Smoothy (variation on @2). 4. Cereal (raisin bran or shredded wheat). 5. Oatmeal. 6. Toast with peanut butter and berries, or Avocado Toast. Our daughter is 28, so we're all adults, which means everyone makes their own breakfast. I like both cream cheese and peanut butter, and wondering if the two together might be kind of like peanut butter cheese cake? Which I've never had but might be really good.
ReplyDeleteWe also do yogurt and fruit sometimes but haven't in a while... Fruit is so expensive in the winter. Also my kids would be so happy if I did smoothie for breakfast. great idea!
DeleteAnd yes, I understand the concept of peanut butter and cream cheese, and I have had peanut butter cheesecake (super rich), but I just can't combine those two spreads myself.
Rachel, as a fellow American and traveler, I can tell you that we do NOT have Weetabix, and I have had it while traveling and I agree that it is gross. However, we do have Shredded Wheat, and when I was a kid, they also made them in a large version (like Weetabix) and they were also gross. However, as a kid, they did not taste sweet in the least, so the fact that they have that much sugar is interesting to hear. I often eat Cheerios as a go-to cheap cereal that has "less" sugar that some of the others, but it also does have sugar.
ReplyDeleteAlso! For those Americans that do not know, a crumpet looks and feels like a pancake. You can buy them in a package as a pre-cooked cold item, and people from UK/Australia will toast them and eat them with butter or jam or whatever. Also as a side note, I was surprised when I had my first UK/Australian scone, as they remind me of English muffins, not the scones I am used to in the States.
I love breakfast and my favorite is some sort of scrambled egg or omelet with lots of goodies, mostly cheese and meat and some veggies, and crispy hash browns and a side of French toast or pancakes, oh and also biscuits and gravy, IF they are good homemade biscuits and a nice thick and salty sausage gravy. None of that powdered stuff. And yes, I would like all of those things at the same time!
Hmm I may have to do a deeper dive on crumpets! I think Pancakes are more light and fluffy than crumpets. At least, the store bought ones we get. We also eat english muffins (although I think they just call them muffins here, which is weird because they also have normal muffins!) .
DeleteI just showed andy a picture of a US scone and he said he had never seen one before. US scones are so good! and yes, very different than british scones.
I also love an omlette with lots of goodies. Mushroom omelettes with siracha are a favourite of mine too. Your "at the same time" breakfast sounds epic!
I love this granola recipe https://www.budgetbytes.com/super-crunchy-oil-free-granola/ I wasn't sure about the tumeric but it works. I'm in awe of you making pancakes on weekday mornings. That's a slow Sunday thing only for us. The kids usually have cereal - rice crispies, cornflakes, Weetabix. Sugar free options I've found are mini shredded wheat, wheat puffs or Kallo puffed rice, they all taste a bit wholesome but the kids are ok with them. Although, usually have a few raisins on top.
ReplyDeleteOOh thank I will try that! It actually wasn't the sugar that put us off cereals as much as that we found they weren't as filling as other things. I don't often make pancakes on weekday mornings, maybe once every two weeks, but also our mornings can start SO EARLY right now that in a way it's easier than making dinner haha.
DeleteThe kids' favorites for breakfast are now scrambled eggs with the orange juice, or bagels with cream cheese. We have settled on these for the last few weeks, and just when I think: "Aha, it is going really well, I need to buy more eggs", the kids would start saying that they are tired of eggs, and need more bagels. Their mood and favorites change every few weeks ;)) My husband and I eat breakfast at work. It is more peaceful this way after the morning chaos and school drop-offs. He has his almond-butter and banana toast, and I usually either pack some oatmeal & banana, or whatever leftovers we have after the kids' breakfast :)
ReplyDeleteOn the weekends we usually have something special, like a French toast, pancakes, or crepes with some jam, honey, or maple syrup. Kudos to you for making weekday mornings so special for your kids :)
My kids love bagels! So do I! I can't always get very good bagles, I need to go back to Costco soon to stock up. Almond butter is delicious too. I like your family food rotation! And yes, I feel like my kids either eat 2 dozen eggs a week or no eggs a week.
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