KNN: The most important meal of the day

Was preparing egg mayo for today's breakfast last night when I recalled how difficult breakfast used to be with the kids.

Mandy used to whine, cry and sulk every morning during breakfast. She would refuse to drink her milk and eat only a few mouthfuls of dry cereal begrudgingly. Barry used to throw tantrums, and... food. Both hated bread.

But I didn't allow them to go about the morning empty stomached and I know just how important the first day of the meal is. So I never gave up. I tried and tried. I introduced different foods, I played food games, I did food shapes...

I'm proud to say that now, they willingly eat quite a big variety of food in the morning, sometimes in big amounts!

Here's what they will eat:

- kaya and butter sandwich (they take white bread, enriched bread, wholemeal or softmean bread, occasionally fanciful bread like sweetcorn bread or banana walnut bread)
- jam sandwich
- butter sandwhich
- jam and butter sandwich (ya, I'm just trying to make the list longer!)
- cheese sandwich
- peanut butter sandwich (usually in shapes)
- egg mayo (+ seed mix) sandwich
- ham and cheese sandwich (only ham for the girl. And only cut ham, not the reconstituted meat kinda thing)
- plain bao leftover braised meat, egg and mushrooms, much like kong bak bao
- plain bao with scrambled egg
- ready to eat chicken bao (kong guan)
- store bought chicken/meat/charsiew bao
- garlic bread (ie plain hotdog bun with garlic spread, wrapped in foil and toasted for approx. 7 minutes)
- baby cereals (Heinz's banana or vanilla custard) + some instant oats + wheatgerm + seed mix, topped with dried apricot/cranberries
- pancakes (homemade)
- Hotcakes (Mcdonalds'), about once in 2 months
- french toast

Once in a while, I tabao noodles or chee cheong fun for them. Once in a longer while, I might attempt to bake. Recently, I tried an apple bread and butter pudding recipe. They seemed to love it! (Though Mandy only liked the toasted bread and Barry only like the raisins. Hmmmm) They ate quite a lot of it for snack and breakfast the next day.

I am also pretty into shakes and smoothies right now. But let me digress a bit.

We bought a juicer some time back and thought it was a great investment. If they're not sick, we can have fresh, yummy and nutritious juice once a week! By the way, pure fresh juice gives more nutrients then just eating the fruit!

Back to shakes. A few days back, I made avocado milk shake for the family and it's soooooooooooo delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Just blend avocado flesh with desired amounts of sugar/honey/sweetener and milk! Enjoy!

For now, it's the only way to get avocado into the kids' (and our) tummies. Raw ones are so...bleah!

Had banana and pear milkshake (with seedmix) just now. Yummy too!

Previously, I saw no reason to make milkshakes because they eat fruits and drink milk readily. But I'm quite sold. Might incorporate some shakes into their breakfast menu to spice things up a little. :)

I'm still trying to get some seeds into the kids everyday. Mandy hates them and she has such sensitive tastebuds! For Barry, all I need to do is this:

He eats it as a snack, in the raw. Me too. :p

Oh, since we're on the topic of food. Barry has mastered the kiddy chopsticks! And he's SO proud of it. He would hold whole cheery tomatoes and beckoned us to watch before he popped them in his mouth. He can hold slippery fishballs and mushrooms too.

Let him show you!