We’ve been posting some breakfast makeover ideas this week in honor of the return of rushed school day mornings (here’s a link to the article we wrote for the San Jose Mercury News on this topic). As they kids get older, I realize more and more how important it is to start the day off with a nourishing meal and a full tummy (especially given the shrinking lunch periods at school).
With breakfast on our minds, we even found ourselves talking about it at the dinner table recently. We were eating Chinese jook which is a simple, thick rice soup that you dress up with lots of yummy condiments (I will post a recipe next time we make it). The kids were intrigued and surprised when I told them that jook is actually considered a breakfast food across Asia since we always eat it for lunch or dinner. It’s not unlike a savory variation of oatmeal, but I guess jook is enough of a departure that the kids found the idea quite intriguing. Our conversation about jook got us thinking about other things we would like to eat for breakfast that are not on our typical morning menu of cereal, toast or eggs here in the US. Without hesitation they shouted out things like “quesadillas”, “fish”, “crackers”.
We cracked up at this non alcoholic cat-nip infused wine for cats, so that of course made it into our journal as well.
Again and again my kids demonstrate that they’re often more creative thinkers than us adults when it comes to food (and this proves itself over and over again in our kids’ cooking classes too)… it also reminds me that I should remember to get their input more often!!
I’m curious to know how other kids and families would answer the question “what would you eat for breakfast?”
[My family has been doing this simple dinnertime journaling project for the last 3(!) years. Whenever we sit down at the table for dinner we pull out an index card and draw and write together. We capture a few highlights from the day, ideas, funny thoughts, or just some crazy drawings. It's been a lot of fun an]
