This post is sponsored by Coles.
I admit I am a bit of a breakfast tyrant. I like my girls to have a filling, healthy breakfast and I generally discourage packaged breakfast cereal (porridge excepted), especially on school days. As a teacher I believe eating a good breakfast is essential to sustained concentration which obviously has a direct impact upon overall school performance.
So what do my girls eat? On an ordinary school morning breakfast currently looks a bit like this…
Fruit:
My girls are both mad for blueberries and will often start with a small bowl of fresh (when they are in season) or frozen blueberries. Strawberries and orange slices are also popular. Oftentimes we will mix this up with a fruit smoothie – blueberry, strawberry and banana are their favourite smoothie flavours.
While they eat their fruit or drink their smoothies I am generally preparing the rest of their breakfast.
Protein and Carbohydrate:
Option 1: Baked beans and a slice of toast (Immy’s current preference).
Option 2: Porridge with milk or rice milk. AJ will have hers with mashed or pureed fruit. Immy prefers hers without fruit. On special occasions our porridge is topped with coloured sprinkles.
Cereal: When Immy does really feel like a packaged cereal (which is actually quite rare as she is so used to having other things) the school day choice is Weet Bix.
Drink:
Water or milk, the latter on days that smoothies are off the menu.
As for me, I have to eat breakfast or else I feel tired and grouchy by 10am! Breakfast for me is generally two slices of gluten free toast thickly spread with avocado and a cup of black tea. Which is completely lacking in imagination as I have been eating the same thing pretty much everyday for about 20 months now – since we first starting looking into AJ’s food intolerances. So it is most definitely time to find some new breakfast alternatives.
Fortunately this isn’t difficult as this month Coles is sharing a range of easy, cost effective recipes and healthy breakfast meal ideas on Facebook, in the April edition of the Coles magazine and their weekly store catalogues. As it is estimated that half of all adults and one in seven children are skipping breakfast at least once a week, Coles has put forward the challenge to us all – to live healthy by eating a good breakfast regularly.
You can join the Coles #7daybreakfast challenge for a great start to the day for your family. I will be trying a few new recipes this week and will share how I am doing via Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Join me by tagging @Childhood101 and adding the hashtag #7daybreakfast. If you are looking for inspiration, check out the Coles website for healthy breakfast ideas (or gluten free recipes). I would love to see what you and you’re kids are eating.
To get the challenge started I whipped up a batch of homemade baked beans this morning as AJ and I can’t eat tinned baked beans and I have really missed them. AJ gobbled down a bowl, I enjoyed a good-sized dollop on my toast and Immy had both hands up for the Beans & Egg variation you will find below. Enjoy!
Homemade Baked Beans Recipe
You will need:
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 3 rashes bacon or 1 chorizo sausage, finely diced
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 1 400gm can diced tomatoes
- 1 400gm can borlotti or cannellini beans
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped (optional)
- Eggs – 1 per person (optional – see variation below)
To make:
- Heat oil in a frying pan and cook onion and garlic for 1-2 minutes until soft.
- Add bacon and cook until bacon is crispy.
- Add tomato paste and cook for 1 minute, then add paprika, sugar and tinned tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes. If you find your little ones prefer a smooth baked bean sauce, you can remove the sauce from the pan at this stage and blend it with a hand mixer (obviously this is completely optional). Return the blended sauce to the pan before continuing.
- Stir through cannelloni beans, parsley, salt and pepper and simmer for a further 2 minutes.
- Serve warm.
Beans and Eggs Variation
Prepare baked beans through to the completion of step 4 and then make a series of wells in the beans in the frypan. Crack one egg into each well and cover with a clear lid. Cook until eggs reach desired consistency. Scoop beans and eggs out onto plate and garnish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley.
I would love to know. What do your family enjoy for breakfast? Are school day breakfasts different from weekend breakfasts?
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
Last school holidays I worked on weaning my kids off processed cereal, which I am thrilled with. Most common breakfasts are now:
– Smoothies – with 1 or 2 eggs added for protein
– Eggs, bacon and toast
– Homemade porridge with a dash of honey
– Avocado on toast
Granola is on my next to make list and the homemade granola on the Coles website looks great!
I am going to give the Coles Granola a go this week, Nic, I agree – it does look good 🙂 I have been adding a little avocado to our smoothies but never thought to add eggs, great tip!
French toast with fruit and yoghurt is a quick and easy favourite in our house, liking the look of homemade bean recipe for winter and porridge will go back on the menu too.
We used to have French toast all the time, Lisa, and then somehow it fell off the menu! Thanks for the reminder.
Love reading about your breakfast menus. I struggle to get my boys to eat protein in the morning so I love your suggestions. We often do toast or oatmeal, with fruit or a smoothie. Weekends I sometimes make pancakes, or we eat breakfast at the market.
Love the idea of eating breakfast at the market. When Immy was small we lived near a farmer’s market that had a stall with the BEST organic egg and bacon rolls, yum! All this talk of food is making me hungry LOL
Sounds a great idea Christie (without the garlic for Pop) and it’s something that would be fantastic for we two oldies for lunch or perhaps Sunday night tea. Thanks for the idea and look forward to more of these from you.
Hope you enjoy it 🙂
Yum, I’m trying to go back to basic and didn’t even consider making baked beans from scratch and it’s so easy too.
It really is easy and it keeps well in the fridge too, Penny. It’s a bit like bolognaise sauce – it improves with age 😉
We really struggle with breakfast… it is the worst meal for my very picky eater and the other kids struggle to find something they like and actually fills them up also.
We do a lot of yoghurt with fruit and a dollop of homemade jam, and lately lots of whole wheat toast. I also make big batches of homemade muesli bars or pat muffins for the mornings when we are rushed… at least that way I know everyone got something substantial even if they eat it in the car!
Those beans and eggs look so yum… you are making me crave baked beans on toast now! LOL
They taste so good, Kate 🙂 I may have been eating them a lot recently!
I used to do a whole range of things, including bread with home made cashew nut spread and banana, and wholemeal drop scones were also a favourite. I confess though, that as we’ve been working on the morning routine, breakfast has gone to packaged cereals (as long as they don’t have obvious sugar or chocolate on them!), but I’d love to get back to more varied and healthy breakfasts, so this is something to work on!
I know how weekday mornings can be tricky, Melanie 🙂
I love to make pancakes with almond flour.
Yum, Cassie 🙂 Would love to see your recipe.
Yum! What an easy and wholesome breakfast! We will be making this soon!!
It’s really good, Rachel, and keeps well in the fridge too if you make a big batch 🙂
I love Greek yogurt smoothies with fruit for breakfast. I also recently made a batch of steel cut oats with fruit in the crockpot & it was delicious!
What a great idea to use the crockpot, Vanessa, genius!
How do you do oats/fruit in the crockpot? I would be keen to try this – thanks 🙂
I used this recipe and made some adjustments. I used blueberries instead of apples. It makes quite a bit so you might need to adjust the recipe to meet your needs. http://www.theyummylife.com/Slow_Cooker_Apple_Cinnamon_Oatmeal
Thanks for the link, Vanessa, I am looking forward to trying it 🙂
There was a long stretch where my girls wanted omelets every day. Now they tend to like more variety. We eat a lot of smoothies, yogurt, fruit, pancakes, and muffins.
Oh this recipe looks so delicious!! We are big fans of baked beans – though have never had them for breakfast! Our current favourite breakfast, since it is STILL rather chilly here, is oatmeal – we have been loving a crockpot oatmeal recipe, which makes mornings a snap! We like to add some fruit to ours as well – and sometimes yogurt. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have never thought of serving beans for breakfast. One of my daughters really likes beans so this might be something she would really like. On weekdays, we usually have simple and fast breakfasts like granola, oatmeal, cereal, or toast but on weekends, we have casseroles, egg dishes like frittatas or omelettes, waffles, pancakes, and potatoes.
It’s taken reading this post for me to realise we are in a bit of a breakfast rut at the moment… time to mix things up a little I think. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂