Breakfast ideas for stroppy DD...

[SilverLining]

Please help me coming across as the wicked witch of the west - DD (nearly 12) refuses to eat breakfast unless its sugary, fatty and generally v bad for her! AND then moans she is hungry at school!

We've talked about balanced diets etc and she is smart enough to know what she should be eating but won't! Doesn't like any porridge/Weetabix type cereals - thinks coco pops is a valid choice (!), won't eat toast/granary/brown bread in any form - at a push will have a bagel but its v begrudgenly...

Running out of ideas - is a smoothie type thing a valid option to offer her?? This morning after much huffing and puffing she had a banana and a yoghurt tube - but it was a real battle!

I'm really struggling and trying to teach her about making the right choices but right now am failing...

Mumsnet please let me have some ideas I can present to her later and make both our mornings a bit smoother...!

If she's eating healthily the rest of the time, a few crappy breakfasts a week isn't too much of a problem, surely?

Does she like cooked breakfasts? Grilled bacon & poached eggs with a slice of white toast is nourishing. Or how about good old fashioned eggs & soldiers?

I make THIS for me quite often. Very nice and satisfies my sweet tooth.

A healthy diet is all about balance, not forbidding any particular food group. In moderation, Coco Pops are fine.

i'm eating a bowl of coco pops now!!

Possibly breakfast muffins, granola as although they are quite sugary they do have nutrients too. Or try one of the sweetened bagels with bacon or something in. I'm already having issues with my 1 year old as far as breakfast is concerned. If she likes bananas why not use that with yoghurt, honey and oats in a smoothie maker? They are nutritious and taste lovely, try and use natural sugars to edge away from the processed maybe?

Thanks all - she isn't the greatest healthy eater to be honest and its a battle convincing her that vegetables and fruit are a necessary evil! I am quite relaxed believe it or not but worry that going out of the house with nothing in her but a quick sugar hit is not enough for a 25 minute walk to school and quite a lot of sport before her lunch at 1pm!
Will definitely explore the smoothie option - she loves strawberries so will try that one with the oats too!
Thanks so much!

Can you do a deal so she has a decent breakfast on school days and her choice at weekends?

Yoghurt plus flapjack an alternative to smoothie?
Eggy bread/french toast?

Good old fashioned jam sandwich?

Thanks bluechampagne - she loves flapjack so that's a great idea with a yoghurt. Today we had a smoothie and she quite liked it and I did say she could choose what she had at the weekends and I have compromised that if she does healthy all week then I will make both DDs pancakes on a Friday! Fingers Xed it works....!!
(jam sandwich good too but she will only have really nasty white bread! But I could make my own bread which would be better surely??? Will try that tomorrow I think - warm bread first thing hmmmmmm!!!!)

I have a similar issue with DD 13 but she won't eat lunch either.
She would eat a sausage roll or a chicken tikka pasty from the corner shop everyday but I won't let her, it's unhealthy and expensive.
She won't eat school dinners as they have to queue for ages and they are vile apparently.
Sandwiches are out because they have to be eaten in the social area and people throw food around in there, they also make fun of you if you have anything healthy, anything with any kind of aroma or anything childish.
She won't come home for lunch.
So she goes without, every day. Comes home starving and wants to fill up on crap.

Is a flapjack any better than cocoa pops though, both very high sugar content surely.

My 12 yo DS1 isn't a fussy eater but since I stopped buying boxed cereals these are some of the things he has:

-fish finger sandwich
-porridge sweetened with dried fruit
-cheese omelette (done a very cheaty way on a plate in the microwave)
-left over crumble from Sunday dinner (made with wholemeal flour and porridge oats, lots of apples cooked without extra sugar)

• Sardines on toast

She can have anything she'd have for any other meal really. What are her favourites? Can you cook extra for dinner so there's some for her to warm up for breakfast next day?

Notso - at least if you make the flapjacks yourself you can limit the sugar that you use as well as using honey/molasses (which I know are sugars but....less processed) and add lots of oats. Has to be more nutritious than cocopops surely?

I'm not sure cereals do have a lot of added vitamins and iron as well as the benefits from the milk. I know my DD will only eat the flapjacks I make with a tin of condensed milk, pack of butter and 1/4 of a can of syrup, healthier versions don't meet her standards.
Not meaning to pick on you by the way

Bacon sandwich
Beans or scrambled eggs on toast

If she likes pancakes why don't you make Lots and freeze ( baking paper between each). Then each morning they just need heating in a pan quick.

Yes flapjacks can be healthier. Ours are butter, wholemeal flour, oats, honey, crushed walnuts, egg and dried fruit. Ok not traditional but taste great

Give her a sandwich. I don't know why we get stuck on idea that breakfast equates to cereal or toast.

Domus DS1 loves to have leftover fruit crumble at breakfast. All the standard breakfast ingredients but in a slightly naughty, non-breakfasty combination.

Notso, imo the added vits etc in cereals are a bit of a con - artificial so debatable if they have the same benefits as 'real' vitamins from real food and in any case they gate washed off by the milk so unless you drink every last drop of the milk you're not eating them anyway.

I would far rather ds had flapjack made with condensed milk, butter and oats than cocoa pops

This is why the healthy eating campaign drives me mad, most of it is just plain wrong. Homemade flapjack aren't "bad" at all, unless youre having too much sugar overall or need to lose weigt

Dutch crisp bakes with cheese?
Crumpet?
Freshly baked bread (from frozen) with salami/cheese/jam?
Danish pastry/croissant occasionally?
Ryvita?
Muffins (with whatever you deem suitable, spinach, cheese etc).

She is 12, let her get her own breakfast.

TBH, if you're trying to convince her that fruit and vegetables are, in your own words, a 'necessary evil', then there's your problem...

Eggy bread with soy sauce

Some of these suggestions are making me feel nauseous.

Do people really eat fish finger sandwiches for breakfast?!

Would she eat brown toast if you compromised on what spread she has? Maybe peanut butter or Nutella, even just a small amount?

Shredded wheat? I love the summer fruits one with warm milk, I have a major sweet tooth and it's my fave breakfast.

Scrambled eggs on toast?
Poached egg and turkey bacon/ham muffins or bagels?

My 2 are a lot younger (5 and 4), but have similar problems trying to get fruit and veg in at least one of them. They tend to stick to a small choice of breakfasts, and neither very keen on cereal and milk. Can't persuade either to eat porridge any more, either.

They both have an innocent smoothie as they love it and I can kid myself at least a little fruit has gone in, albeit in a pasteurised carton...

Dd has whole meal toast and marmite most school days, and likes bacon sandwiches or boiled/scrambled egg and toast at weekends. Yogurt too sometimes, and fresh fruit in summer (berries).

Dis has weetabix and warm milk, or toast and marmite in the week. Bacon sandwich one day at weekend.

My biggest hit with him has been American-style pancakes. I started making these for a weekend treat, and realised they froze v well, so now make a huge batch and just defrost for a couple of minutes in the microwave each morning - quicker than making toast! Raisins and bananas are the only fruit he will eat without a drama, so I make Nigella's banana buttermilk pancakes
(recipe here food-and-family.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/wtsim-breakfast.html
usually use mix of milk and natural yogurt as a cheaper and easier substitute for buttermilk, and put in some raisins.
He eats loads of these, with a smidge of butter and maple syrup. filling because of protein from the dairy and eggs and very little added sugar in the mixture. Children need some fat too! I'm quite keen on them too with blueberries or raspberries from the freezer. They are soft enough to eat on their own, and if you make them quite small, then easy to eat on the run.

Cinnamon and raisin or blueberry bagel with cream cheese and banana? Something with peanut butter? I read a great- looking recipe on the girl called Jack blog for peanut butter granola - cheap too. That sounds as if it would make a lovely breakfast pot layered up with yogurt, banana, raisins.