Breakfast

I quit buying cereal.

Sometimes I feel like a food freak.

I hear things on the morning talk shows about sugar and health and how we should try to limit it in our diets - how addictive it can be - and it makes me go crazy looking at the food labels and thinking about how I can cut back. I decided that breakfast cereal was one place I could cut back.

I like Cheerios. The kids eat them okay. With sugar or honey on them. But I end up feeling like I've wasted milk when they don't drink the milk out of the bowl, and while Julia might eat 2 bowls (especially if it's a cereal like Honey Bunches of Oats) there were mornings that Holly wouldn't eat. And we'd run out of cereal halfway through the week.

What a ridiculous complaint.

Anyway. Because I got tired of trying to decide what cereal to buy. Whether or not it had too much sugar. Should I limit how many servings they had of it at breakfast. I quit buying it.

I used to make Alan oatmeal in the morning. Sometimes I still do. He loves it. The girls - not so much. They all like toast and jam. Some like toast and peanut butter. We were going through a lot of bread when I made toast every morning.

Eggs they all eat. They all like them baked. Kind of cheese frittata style. But it takes some time to bake it in the morning, and irritates me when not everyone eats it all. Holly loves to make her own scrambled eggs. She's even made scrambled eggs for the others in the morning. I just don't want to be a short order cook in the morning and so if I'm making eggs I tend to bake them... less attention needed from me and everyone eats.

Pancakes and waffles. I've made them so often I've heard the kids say they're tired of pancakes. I ran out of maple syrup and have been giving them cinnamon sugar on them instead. I like it. They like it okay - not as much as maple syrup.

So I've been looking for new breakfast ideas. Maybe it's time for banana bread or muffins. Pumpkin waffles. Peanut butter waffles or pancakes. And the thinking about new breakfast foods got me to wondering what people eat for breakfast in other countries. And then I started thinking about our dinner menu for the week and got the idea to try out some recipes from other countries. Maybe have the kids put names of a country in a jar and pull one out every so often and cook a few meals from that place. Less decisions for me... learning experience for us all. Holly announced she wants to use chopsticks. Alan picked English food.

Anyone have any miracle breakfast recipes to share? You know - quick to make, healthy, and everyone loves it even if I make it every day for a month?