Bored at breakfast time

I get bored with food very easily. I can't be doing with eating the same thing more than once every few weeks. Conversations like this are not uncommon in my house:

Me: "What would you like in your packed lunch today?"
C: "Ham sandwiches."
Me: "No. You had ham sandwiches on Monday."
C: "But I like ham sandwiches!"
Me: "I know, but you wouldn't want them every day, would you?"
C: "Yes, I would. They're my favourite!"
Me: "How about soup instead?"

And the worst meal for sheer repetition is breakfast. I mean cereal and toast every damn day? No!!

None of the rest of my family share this horror of eating the same thing every day. I try to enforce variety upon them, but when it comes to breakfast they know what they like and they like what they know. G and O are the worst.



G is happy to eat a bowl of oats and milk for breakfast. Not even muesli. Plain oats are fine. At least, though, he is happy to eat other things if pressed.

O is even more extreme. She has eaten one weetabix plus a handful of shreddies, followed by toast with strawberry jam, every single day since she was six months old. She will not be persuaded that anything else is acceptable for breakfast.



In the face of this conservative approach to breakfast, I make a lonely case for variety. Here is my list of good things to eat for breakfast, that are not cereal or toast:

• American pancakes with fresh blueberries and maple syrup
• scrambled eggs
• stewed apple with natural yogurt
• fresh figs, ricotta and runny honey
• fried slices of black pudding with fried cherry tomatoes
• a bacon sandwich
• boiled eggs and marmite toast soldiers
• a banana smoothie
• porridge made with apple juice and with grated apple stirred in
• french toast
• a bowl of strawberries
• half a grapefruit, sprinkled with sugar and flashed under the grill

Very occasionally I will have a bowl of cornflakes followed by some wholemeal toast with peanut butter. Just for a change.