Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Breakfast Club

Do your children eat a good breakfast?

I watched a short news clip this week, about a new trial taking place in Blackpool, England, offering primary pupils a free school breakfast. Blackpool is not the first place to test such a scheme, in Wales, over 75% of children now enjoy a free breakfast at school after a similar scheme was implemented in 2004 by the Welsh government.  This year, the Welsh government is pledging £12.7 million to the Free Breakfast Initiative. These articles really got me thinking about the breakfast we have in our house. Even if we are extremely pushed for time, I always make sure the children sit down to eat some porridge or Weetabix with whole milk and some fruit. At weekends, we’re more likely to have boiled eggs or something a bit more substantial. But that’s certainly not the case across the country.

Smoothie

The Primary School Free Breakfast Initiative in Wales was prompted by the fact that Wales has the highest rate of child poverty than any country in the UK. This surprised me and I was encouraged to read that we are seeing the scheme pilot in other poorer areas, too, such as Blackpool and in some parts of London. As a child of the North, I like to read about good things happening close to home, and it seems to me that Breakfast Clubs are a small, but positive step towards helping to improve children’s health as well as their concentration.

Often, children skip breakfast before  school because time is tight in the morning. A study by the Kellog’s charitable trust also revealed that, “parents are leaving children to fend for themselves in the morning. This is because some parents simply don’t have the time or inclination to prepare breakfast, let alone supervise their children or encourage them to eat it.”

The Free Breakfast Initiative in Blackpool revealed that some children arrive at school having eaten no breakfast at all, or having had “last night’s KFC for breakfast or a packet of custard creams.” Of course, there are infinitely higher rates of child poverty and malnutrition around other parts of the world, but it still shocks me to think that many children in the UK have no idea what a good breakfast is. They either arrive at school hungry, with poor concentration or are hyperactive as a result of eating sugary cereals or packets of biscuits.

Schools taking part in the Free Breakfast Initiative Scheme offer fresh fruit, milk, yoghurt and cereal. Some children enjoy bagels or toast and there is evidence to suggest that the scheme promotes better productivity in pupils, which, in some cases meant that there was “an average of two months more progress by pupils at key stages 1 and 2.” Children taking part in free breakfast scheme were also less fussy about what they ate at home.

Sadly, the current financial climate means that we likely won’t see this scheme expanding to any significant degree. However, there are a number of charities and trusts working to ensure that there is a greater understanding of healthy eating, beginning with breakfast, such as Magic Breakfast and Fare Share, which focuses on waste, too.  Kellog’s also have a Breakfast Club Funding  program called ‘Help Give a Child a Healthy Breakfast,” which is worth investigating if your child’s school has an existing program and would like a grant.  

Swiss Scramble

Here are some healthy breakfast ideas to explore –

Honey Nut Toasted Oats with Ribena Berry Sauce

Healthy Hot Chocolate Breakfast Smoothies

Tomato and Parmesan Scramble

Netmums Breakfast Ideas for Kids

Fuss Free Flavour’s Breakfast Club archives

The Better Breakfast Campaign

Smoothie

 

Do your children eat a good breakfast?

 

Brunch: Swiss Scrambled Eggs, Croissants and Shakes

Believe it or not, this breakfast-brunch was not a hangover cure. We have been recovering from the winter flu bug and I’m trying to cram in as many vitamins and as much goodness into us all as possible. So, here are my Swiss Scrambled Eggs – a warmed all-butter croissant, filled to the brim with spinach, ham, Gruyère cheese and scrambled eggs. You could use cheddar, but then it wouldn’t be a Swiss Scramble. On the side, a shot of raspberry and oat, live yoghurt shake. I think that’s us feeling a whole lot better already.

Repair, restore, recover – that’s my theme today.

Swiss Scramble

Swiss Scramble with Croissants

Serves 2

Ingredients:

  • 1 teaspoon olive or rapeseed oil
  • 50g ham or bacon, chopped
  • A handful of fresh spinach or about 5 frozen balls of spinach
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 50g  Gruyère cheese, grated
  • 2 large croissants

Method:

  1. If you are using frozen spinach, put it in a bowl and microwave it for a minute or so, until defrosted. Drain any excess water. Put it to one side.
  2. Take a frying pan and add a teaspoon of oil. Add the ham or bacon to the pan and fry for a few minutes. If using bacon, make sure it is cooked and a bit crispy.
  3. Add the spinach and stir into the ham/bacon. Add the beaten eggs and stir the eggs around the pan a little. Before the eggs are fully cooked, add the grated Gruyère cheese and mix until the eggs are scrambled/cooked to your liking.
  4. Split the croissants in half lengthways. Heat for ten seconds in the microwave if you want them warm. Fill with the scrambled eggs and serve.

As an alternative, or for a treat, use smoked salmon in place of the ham/bacon.

Good Heavens

Good Heavens!

A word about the shakes. No, not those kind of shakes. We’ve been trying some Good Morning breakfast drinking yogurts by Good Heavens! They are a great alternative to making your own smoothies if time is short, or if you’re sick, like we were. Little shots (125ml) of creamy yogurts at less than 100 calories per bottle. If you are five years old, then 100 calories in an otherwise pretty unadveturous diet is an extra hit. If you are me, and every 100 calories count, these drinks are creamy enough to taste indulgent, but are not off the scale. They are aimed at adults, but my kids liked the ‘Luscious Strawberry’ flavour the best, as it was smooth. I liked the ‘Raspberry, Oats and Honey’ flavour, they were quite tangy. I also like the fact they are made in a boutique dairy, yet you can pick them up fairly easily at the supermarket.

Swiss Scramble

Hope you try the stuffed croissntas. On Christmas Day, I like to make these with smoked salmon, spinach and swiss cheese.

Swiss Scramble

That’s Captain Barnacles trying to get in on the action. We’ll let him.

Sending this across to Helen’s Breakfast Club this month themed as ‘Brunch’ and hosted by Bangers and Mash.

With thanks to Good Heavens! for the drinking yoghurt samples. You can find the Good Heavens! dairy on Twitter @GoodHeavens1

Late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio

A beautifully bright Saturday morning! If you are on a health kick, or as in my case, feel like you need to be, then this salad is the perfect prescription – my late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio.

Late summer fruits are always the most delicious. They’ve had lots of time to soak up the sunshine. My nectarines and purple plums here were honey-sweet. So fresh, so pure, I ate two of them whole while I was chopping the rest. The raspberries, at this time of year, absent of any sharpness. Tiny pomegranate pearls capturing crimson essence. A little bit more crunch from finely chopped pistachio. A drizzle of plain yoghurt was a last minute thing, just because it was breakfast. Pretty violas, organic and edible, because I was just in that kind of mood.

 

Print

Late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe plums
  • 2 ripe nectrines or peaches
  • A handful of seasonal raspberries
  • A handful of pomegranate seeds
  • 1/4 cup or 25g shelled pistachio nuts, finely chopped
  • 1/2 cup or 125ml plain, natural yoghurt
  • A drizzle runny honey
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Instructions

  1. Slice the plums and the nectarines, removing the stones and scatter on a large plate.
  2. Sprinkle over a handful of raspberries, the pomegranate seeds and the finely chopped pistachio nuts.
  3. In a small bowl, whisk together the natural yoghurt, runny honey and a tablespoon of milk to loosen. Drizzle over the fruit and decorate with edible violas. Serve immediately.

Notes

You can add any fruit of your choice, figs would work, fresh apricots, ripe pears etc. Substitute a flavoured yoghurt if you prefer.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 2

Amount Per Serving

% Daily Value

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

Fuss Free Helen’s Breakfast Club is being hosted by Urvashi over the The Botanical Baker this month with a theme of fruit…do join in if fruit is your thing in the morning. And if it’s not, perhaps this salad will convince you to try.

Fuss free flavours breakfast club

This whole plate screams of Simple and in Season so I will be linking up to Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter who is hosting for me this month.

I’m looking forward to seeing all the seasonal offerings around this month as well as all the fruitiness of Urvashi’s Breakfast Club.

If you’re lucky enough to find some fresh pomegranate fruit and want to know how to get the seeds out take a look at Sally’s beautiful Pomegranate Season post here.

Have a lovely weekend – and thank you for all your kind comments about my refreshed blog!

 

 

Honey Nut Toasted Oats with Ribena Berry Sauce

This is a quick breakfast post in response to Helen’s Breakfast Club challenge this month hosted by Helen herself over at Fuss Free Flavours.

The theme this month is cereal and we are asked to do something interesting with it. So, I made homemade ‘granola’ using rolled oats very lightly coated with honey, rapeseed oil and mixed nuts gently toasted in the oven.
Granola is very popular breakfast cereal in America, essentially it is a cereal made of oats that are baked until crisp and then dried fruits are added. Muesli (Swiss) is also a well-known breakfast cereal, but in muesli the oats are not baked. Granola is really easy to make, stores well in an airtight contained and best of all as you are making it yourself you can adjust the flavours, for example, to include more cinnamon. I used cinnamon sugar as I had it in my cupboard but if you don’t have that use brown sugar and add a teaspoon of cinnamon powder instead. This granola can also be sweetened with maple syrup too instead of honey before baking.
Once baked the granola is crisp and crunchy and can be eaten either with milk or yoghurt. You could also make it healthier by adding fresh fruit to your bowl. This weekend we had ours with little pots of homemade blackcurrant compote – calling it ‘Ribena Berry Sauce’ encouraged my kids to add some to make their cereal purple! I also slightly defeated the pursuit of crunchiness by pouring hot milk over mine – but that’s just because I am fan of having hot milk with all kinds of cereal.

Add your fruit, whether dried or fresh to the oats and nuts after baking. You are looking out for a gentle golden colour so be careful not to burn!

 

Honey Nut Toasted Oats with Ribena Berry Sauce
Oats inspired by a recipe for ‘Crunchy Granola’ by Michelle Stern
The Whole Family Cookbook

Ingredients

300g rolled oats (not quick cook)
50g pecan nuts, finely chopped
50g almonds, finely chopped
75g cinnamon sugar
A pinch of salt
60ml honey or maple syrup
60ml rapeseed or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
50g raisins and/or chopped dates

For the Blackcurrant Compote/Ribena Berry Syrup

150g blackcurrants
2 tablespoons caster sugar
60ml water

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius

2. Put the oats, nuts and cinnamon sugar into a bowl and mix well.

3. Combine the honey, oil and vanilla in a separate bowl, mix and then pour over the oats and nuts. Stir well to combine – it won’t be greasy.

4. Pour the mix onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof or baking paper and spread into an even layer.

5. Bake for 20 minutes and stir after 10 minutes to ensure the top bits don’t get too toasty.

6. While this is baking, put the blackcurrants, sugar and water into a small pan. Heat until the mixture begins to bubble, stir and cook for five minutes. (Check your oats in the oven!!) If you want the blackcurrant sauce to be thicker, cook for a further few minutes on a low heat. Take off the heat and leave it to one side.

6. Take the oats of the oven and leave to cool. Add the raisins and/or chopped dates.

7. Serve with cold or hot milk or yoghurt. Store the rest in an airtight container.

 

Blackcurrants are in season in the UK at the moment – they are a wonderful summer fruit – so I will link this up to Simple and in Season too.