Breaking away from storebought cereal--breakfast ideas needed.

[Farmfresh]

It is like a work out - you have to press on through the initial "pain".

Our children are SO used to eating garbage (even foods that are "good for you" are loaded with preservatives and sugars these days) that this is a kind of withdrawal. There will be occasional tears. Remember they are crying because that want super duper sugar pops - instead of a nutritious meal.

Palates need to be re-educated. Fruit is incredibly sweet, especially dried fruit. There is molasses and honey that are actually nutritious sweeteners. Even if you don't eliminate the super sweet cereals entirely, you should eliminate them for a season - like a month. This will give the taste buds a chance to re-adjust to real food. Then go ahead an occasionally offer the other stuff. I did this with my kids (now 25, 23, and 21) and was suprised by the results.

Kid one - prefers All-bran or oatmeal for breakfast. Kid two starts the day with an egg and fruit (alas) Kid three brought us doughnuts this morning - you can't win them all.

 

[keljonma]

Sarahs31 - I think my kids would say the same thing!


and

 

[country freedom]

I also grew up on oatmeal, cream of wheat, eggs any way you wanted, bacon, sausage, toast, pancakes, French Toast, fresh fruit, milk, juice, hot tea.......any combination from above on any morning. Except once a week - Friday - Thursday eve, my Daddy would grocery shop at Fort Knox Commisary and bring home boxes of cereal - that would be supper for Thursday and breakfast for Friday. Mama didn't have to cook on Thursday eve and Friday morning, and on Sunday morning, Daddy would cook a great meal from above, plus biscuits and sausage gravy - YUM !

 

[Farmfresh]

Lucky mama!

 

[me&thegals]

Yes--Red River Cereal! It was so expensive, though, that one day I looked at the ingredients and saw cracked wheat, flax and cracked rye. Finally the lightbulb went on and I realized I could easily make that myself for a fraction of the price. Then, one of my mom's bed and breakfast cookbooks had another hot cereal recipe with loads of other whole grains. So, these days, I just toss in whatever looks good or is handy I'm amazed at how my kids wolf that stuff down!

Ha! That's because they had to suffer through Tofu Peanut Linguini the night before and are "starving" At 6am they'd wolf down sawdust....

 

[unclejoe]

I read through the entire thread and didn't find anything comparable so I decided to add mine. It is rather time consuming to prepare but the kids look forward to it when they see me starting it.

I dice up 5-6 potatoes into 1/2"cubes and fry them in a large deep skillet in a little oil with some onions and garlic powder ( season to your own taste). While they are cooking, I slice up a few sausage links and fry them in another pan. When they're both done, I put the sausage in with the potatoes. Next I whip 5-6 eggs in a bowl and pour that over the potato/sausage mixture and cook until the eggs are done. Finally I grate a lot of sharp cheddar cheese over the whole concoction, cover it, and let it melt.
The whole process takes about an hour so it's not something you can throw together when you oversleep, but for a Sat. or Sun breakfast it makes a great filling meal that stays with you all morning.
You can use any kind of meat. I've used ham, bacon, or those "Lil Smokey's". They eliminate 1 pan because they're already cooked and you just throw them in with the cooked taters.
These amounts feed 5 of us with a little left over to pick at as you walk by the stove. Bon Appetite

 

[sufficientforme]

We love that sort of breakfast here also UncleJoe, however we usually reserve it for a weekend treat. Green chorizo is our meat of choice with the potatoes and eggs.
I also do a lot of waffle mixes the night before for a quick breakfast. Our favorite are a cottage cheese waffles or oatmeal waffles.

 

[me&thegals]

Unclejoe reminded me of a treat our friends make us when camping (actually, Sarahs31 ).

They mix hashbrowns and, I think, onions and chopped pepper. That is dumped in a greased cast-iron skillet to fry for a bit. Then, they make a bunch of wells in the hashbrowns, dump in raw whole eggs, 1 in each hole, and cover the whole mess until the eggs are cooked through. Very yummy!

 

[hennypenny9]

I posted this on my journal, but here it is again! Growing up I almost never had boxed cold cereal. Just didn't happen. Nowadays I do sometimes, but it's not something I enjoy like a hot breakfast. (I can't imagine being served oatmeal and crying, LOL)

I also like oatmeal with various things, such as bananas. Or hashbrowns. I rarely have sausage or bacon, simply because I save them for a special breakfast. The quality I like is too expensive for a daily, or even weekly event!

Toast with a fried egg on top is fast and cheap. Every once in a while I'll do breakfast burritos, yummy!

 

[keljonma]

Here are some recipes I posted earlier...

http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1481


http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1476