The family breakfast

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Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

The family breakfast

Post by Yamin151 »

Quite a bit of talk about food lately and I wondered if anyone else has looked at breakfast more closely as a positive family meal.
We've always eaten dinner together, but my boys are fussy and everyone is tired and sometimes not quite as jolly as we'd hope.
Breakfast snatched, grumpily, while I make packed lunches and they help themselves and sit seperately.
Decided to pull breakfast together and now lay table and insist on us sitting together. It's working so well! Boys are actually talking to each other in the morning now. We often, nay every day it seems, have a laugh and giggle and all the other things that 'they' say should happen at the dinner table. We've even ended up playing little games like story cubes or dobble.
Granted, we are early risers, one boy away by 7.30 so we are all up at 6.30, but if you can possibly build it in (impossible for some I know), I highly recommend it. Of course we've always known the importance of breakfast and we all eat it properly, it was just seperately because I figured we ate dinner together. But I think now I would prioritise breakfast, especially since my 'exceedingly grumpy in the morning ' son said to me last night how much he looks forward to breakfast now! Warm glow!
Not a panacea for all ills by any means, but an opportunity for us to build in some positivity to start the day.

Thoughts?
hermanmunster
Posts: 12817
Joined: Fri Sep 15, 2006 9:51 am
Location: The Seaside

Re: The family breakfast

Post by hermanmunster »

That's sounds lovely and well done for getting it to work, a breakfast all together is one of my favourite times.

However since 100% of this household are incapable of anything approaching comprehensible speech until after brekkers on a work / school day I am afraid it tends to have to wait until weekends.
Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Yamin151 »

Big weekend breakfasts are great too! Less time pressure and more chance of a post 13 year old appearing with some chance of conversartion I'm thinking. Don't forget mine are 11.....................still happy chatty on the whole!
Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Yamin151 »

Which reminds me! Any other breakfast ideas?

Currently managed to ease off the real sugary cereals (coco pops and hone nut cornflakes) for the weekends only. The boys have crepes and american pancakes, which I make ahead of time so do sneak in wholemeal flour and protein powder, but would love to get them off the sugar altogether on some mornings.............

Fussy little chaps.......
Peridot
Posts: 2195
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 5:02 pm

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Peridot »

We are much better at family breakfasts since having the kitchen extended. We've now got one of those island thingies with cupboards/drawers on one side. It doesn't have the hob or sink in it so I don't use it for food prep; we tend to sit around it (on cheap ikea bar stools) or even stand around it to eat or drink far more than we sit at the table. I didn't expect it to have such a beneficial effect on us! The only problem is it gets silted up with paper, laptops, junk etc so has to be cleared again every time we want to eat...

Food ideas: porridge (Dorset cereals sachets yummy); toast and peanut butter; English muffins with butter and proper jam; muesli with yogurt.
Yamin151
Posts: 2405
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2013 8:30 am

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Yamin151 »

I know what you mean about the island unit! Ours is exactly the same! I'm looking at it now, load of veg, fruit, old magazines, two cookery books, some headphones, two kitchen towels, a book of paper and an ipad. Sigh. Apparently though its invisible to everyone else in the house!

Thanks for the food ideas, I eat yog and meusli everyday, yum! Am hoping for a few savoury ideas though as we seem to be having awful trouble minimising sugar!
Snowdrops
Posts: 4667
Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Snowdrops »

We shall stick to eating our evening meal together, 17 year old girls with hair and make up to do before school is not condusive to family get togethers round the breakfast table. Mind you I'm usually in front of the mirror at that time too, staving off the years for me though :roll:

My favourite get togethers are when the whole family (those who have left home, but return for the day) get together for a birthday/celebratory meal, bringing new partners with them.

Ahhh, such happy times :D
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Snowdrops
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Joined: Wed Nov 21, 2007 5:20 pm

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Snowdrops »

PS: i have a huge island in the middle of my kitchen, it's very handy for dressmaking etc :lol:
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Peridot
Posts: 2195
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 5:02 pm

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Peridot »

My DD has learned an egg dish from a friend which she cooks herself and eats on a Saturday morning. Cut a circle out of a piece of wholemeal bread with a biscuit cutter. Start frying the bread gently in a little butter and break a whole egg into the hole. The tricky bit is turning it over to cook the other side! She's getting quite good at it though. It doesn't matter if the yolk breaks as it soaks into the bread. She cooks the bit of cut out bread at the same time and eats that too.
Peridot
Posts: 2195
Joined: Thu May 16, 2013 5:02 pm

Re: The family breakfast

Post by Peridot »

Snowdrops how do you manage to keep an island clear enough for dressmaking? Very impressed!
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