Breakfast ideas please for DD1 aged 9yrs - doesn't like cereal, eggs, yogurt

[CherryPlum]

DD1 is 9yrs old and seems reluctant to eat any breakfast unless it's filled with sugar, but I can't allow her to live off pain-au-chocolat and chocolate muffins.

She's not fussed on cereal, doesn't eat scrambled or boiled egg, will eat a fried egg at a push (but tends to leave the yolk?!), not keen on yogurt. She loves fruit but that's sugar again and not hugely filling, so I'm really stuck on how to get a decent filling breakfast into her. She will eat a couple of bites of toast but she won't have any topping.

Does anyone have other ideas for brekkie, or have I tried them all? Also what amount would be suitable for a 9yr old girl, surely she needs to eat a bit for breakfast? She has a fruit snack in school mid-morning, usually a small apple or a sliced kiwi, and she takes a sandwich/yogurt/biscuit/for school lunch.

Thankfully her younger sister is easier to please and has porridge or scrambled eggs followed by fruit.

Blueberry pancakes?

Non typical breakfast foods? E.g.some left over dinner?
Bacon sandwich?
Savoury muffins?

Banana wrap. Tortilla wrap, spread with peanut butter, sprinkled with cinnamon, wrapped around a banana. Yes, still fruit, but with some savoury too. It's the compromise I have reached with my 9 year old.

How about continental style - cheese and ham with some bread ?

Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel? Egg white omelette with veggie/cheese/ham? Crumpets? Scotch pancakes, drop scones, oatcakes

My eldest doesn't eat cereal either so tends to have an omelette, beans on wholemeal toast or cheaters eggs benedict.

I also make "pancakes" from oats and fill them with blueberries etc to make them slightly sweet and therefore appealing!

Could you try a breakfast smoothie, savoury muffin or make your own oaty bars?

I was also going to suggest a wrap.

Oooh I forgot the overnight oats,DD loves them!

Cheese and crackers?

Things which will tempt my fussy 11YO: waffles, crumpets, French toast (eggy bread) or pancakes. A grilled potato waffle or a couple of hash browns with beans go down well also.

If you are filling her up with balanced meals and lots of veg don't worry too much about the amount of sugar in a croissant or pain au chocolat: it's one meal a day and certainly the one meal worth putting lots of calories into.

If she's happy with a bit of toast, then I couldn't get too worried about it tbh. At 9 she's old enough to know if she isn't a breakfast eater

My 5 year old doesn't have much of an appetite in the morning, so I make a plate of small snacks for her to pick at. It usually includes mini oatcakes, sliced cheese, sliced pear, raspberries, homemade smoothie, wholemeal toast cut in fingers. It's the only way I can get her to eat before school.

Bagels, croissants, pancakes? Alternate with her, a compromise could be her choice one day, yours the next?

Omelette/frittata/quiche
Mushrooms/beans/cheese/grilled tomato on toast/English muffin/other bread product
Potato cakes/scones
Crumpets
Salmon (off cuts) and cream cheese bagel

Corned beef hash

Homemade smoothie. You can add in nuts and seeds too to make it bulkier and more filling. I'm an adult and it sustains me through the morning.

Croissants aren't the worst food in the world when it comes to sugar (around 1 teaspoon per medium sized croissant). Yes, they are made with white flour, but the fat in them actually slows down the absorption of the flour so they will cause much less of a blood sugar spike than regular bread.

The bad thing about them is the absence of good nutrition if you see what I mean. They provide energy but not vitamins, but as pps said, if you have a balanced diet for the rest of the day they aren't too bad. Berries, etc are pretty low in sugars (around 5g per 100g) so you can feel free to let her have loads of those to make up the nutritional deficit from the croissant.

It depends how you feel about sweeteners but I sometimes make a cake with raspberries, ground almonds, egg and sugar substitute that would actually be perfectly acceptable for breakfast. Lots of protein and good fat and packed with nutrients.

You could also google paleo muffins and try something like this empoweredsustenance.com/banana-ginger-bars/

These go down well in my house, they are freezable so I just whip some out in the morning and defrost in the microwave. I also cut the sugar recommended by half and they still taste good
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/bananabranmuffins_77392

And yes to overnight oats, although I do find you have to play around with quantities to get it right. There are loads of ideas for these but essentially just oats, yoghurt/milk/coconut milk or similar and fruit

I also do a cheat porridge sometimes (I know you said she doesn't like porridge but this is very sweet so may be worth a go) - I blend up a banana with some coconut cream, mix in some ready brek and bung on the hob to warm through. I add a tiny bit of honey still. So it's still sugary but very filling.

How about avocados, nuts, seeds etc, would she eat them?

I never liked cereal either as a child (still not keen). My mum often cooked a potato waffle and served with baked beans, or fish fingers and beans. They worked well.

I like marmite on toast or a bagel from time to time. DS isn't a big breakfast eater either. He's nearly 7 and just grazes on whatever he fancies - cheese, ham, jam sandwiches, toast, fruit, orange juice etc.

When i was growing up,at home we ate our main meal in the evening, at about 19:00. I never had any appetite for breakfast. When i moved to a boarding school, where the main meal was at lunch time, i was suddenly ravenous at breakfast. Just sayin.

Breakfast smoothie
Homemade turkey burger
Bagel with sliced chicken
Stir fry veg
Banana, oat and egg pancake with strawberries
Banana, split down the middle spread with peanut butter

Baked beans on toast
Pancakes
Overnight oats
Poached eggs
Bacon sandwich
Crumpets
Fruit toast
Sausage sandwich

Thank you so much, there are some great ideas here and I'm going to try out lots of them, particularly the smoothies, also she does love cheese & crackers with fruit but I've never served them for breakfast as I've always thought of them as a mid-afternoon food which is silly really. She likes to have variety in everything - at 9yrs old she's quite a madam I suppose as she will like something one day but wants different the next, which is hard to keep up with and can mean lots of wasted food.

CMOTDribbler - I hear what you're saying and that she's old enough to know whether or not she wants breakfast, but the problem is that she'll just nibble at a small piece of toast and I've seen for myself that by 10:30am she looks pale and tired and keeps yawning if she hasn't eaten a filling breakfast, she gets mood swings too so I really want to tempt her to eat something before school or else I'm sure she can't concentrate well.

Lurking with interest as my dd alternates between a chocolate brioche, Nutella on toast or pancakes with Nutella. See the theme?! She will eat eggs but they take too long on a school/work day.

passthecake, do you have a slow cooker? If you do you can do omelettes in it overnight ready for the morning

www.food.com/recipe/crockpot-breakfast-omelette-410913

I often do this or porridge in the slow cooker overnight so there is nothing to do but eat it in the mornings when we are in a rush.