Avoiding UPF - Kids Breakfasts

[hopingforadvice]

In the process of trying to eliminate, were possible or sensible, UPFs as much as possible from our family diet. Had thought Shreddies and Weetabix were fine until now but now drowning in conflicting information. Obviously know porridge oats/natural yoghurt with fruit are ok … but has anyone got a list of breakfast ideas I could add to our meal planner? Thank you

We are batch making pancakes on the weekend and freezing, also we make granola, Greek yoghurt and fruit, plenty to be going on with!

Also banana and oat smoothies.

I bake my own Greek yogurt bread in the bread machine and they eat it toasted with butter/100% peanut butter or Bonne maman jam. Sure it's not perfect (the bread contains white flour, wholemeal flour, butter, coconut sugar, yeast, salt and Greek yogurt so it's better than shop bought but still processed ingredients). The jam isn't ideal but it's the best I could find. Failing that, a handful of nuts, slice of cheese, maybe a slice of cold meat and an apple. I've also baked my own crumpets and English breakfast muffins with minimal and decent ingredients, which are delicious but take a while to make.

Personally, I'm refusing to get too worked up about cereal, as long as my DC don't have it every day.

Other things we have regularly:

Granola (the ridiculous overpriced stuff that doesn't have all the shit in it. Or make your own) with greek yoghurt and fruit.

Home made smoothies - I add greek yoghurt for protein and oats to lower the GI.

Banana pancakes

Regular pancakes

Scrambled egg with toast (bread maker bread so not UPF)

Waffles.

I think our breakfasts are pretty much UPF free. Decent sourdough with peanut butter, butter and jam, cheese etc. Eggs. Oats and yogurt, porridge, oat muffins with fruit in. Baked oats / overnight oats. Pancakes (usually with blitzed oats as they're a better source of fibre for us). Fruit and yogurt and homemade granola.

Scrambled boiled or poached eggs
Tomatoes
Mushrooms

None of the above are loaded with sugar

Pancakes too (although never for breakfast) with random combos of spelt flour,oat, rye flour, buckwheat flour, milled chia seeds with water to make the "egg". Or flaxseeds. Topped with honey and fruit.

Omelette or scrambled eggs with mushrooms & grilled tomatoes. Apple slices with peanut butter. Greek yoghurt with berries. overnight oats.

Shredded wheat is not too bad - no additives and just wheat (although clearly processed and obviously marketed as a product but I’ve decided not to get too stressed about that)

We also do eggs, sourdough toast with peanut butter or honey or good quality jam, Greek yoghurt with fruit. I occasionally make pancakes or waffles when I can be bothered!

Some decent muesli and granola don’t have additives or much processing.

I’ve just read the book Ultra Processes People so trying to cut it out as much as possible!

Sorry, what is UPF? I’m interested in this thread for breakfast ideas!

@Dartmoorcheffy do you feel that other posters' suggestions are loaded with sugar?

I don't add any sugar to pancakes and up the eggs to increase protein. DD does have some syrup, admittedly. Although DS has plain or with pure peanut butter.

Granola can be a big high in sugar, and I'm the only one who likes my homemade version, but I mitigate that with lots of greek yoghurt and some fruit.

Jam isn't a big thing in this house but when we do have it it's in small amounts and, in DS' case, it's homemade from the local market.

Ultra-processed food

Thank you!

We've literally started on this non-upf journey too. So breakfast so far have been:
Homemade granola
And
Homemade bread with banana

So welcome any other ideas otherwise the kids will get bored very quickly, especially those that can be made in advance/or night before!

This chocolate granola may go down well with kids. Turns the milk chocolaty!

https://annajones.co.uk/recipe/malted-chocolate-buckwheat-granola

Two of my kids are cereal fiends.

I've started making bread in the bread maker and they enjoy that toasted for breakfast with eggs or just on its own with butter/peanut butter/honey.

I may make some raisin cinnamon bread for them to toast too.

Overnight oats - I like mine with raspberries and peanut butter!

Also OP, the Bear Alphabites cereal looks okay, if you can get your hands on that.

I agree with pancakes. It's about the only non-UPF breakfast my DS will eat (otherwise it's Cheerios and only Cheerios).

soda bread with butter and homemade jam.
Homemade granola.
Homemade yoghurt with fruit and honey.
Eggs and avocado with soda bread.
Banana pancakes with flaxseed and either homemade lemon curd/jam/or honey

Thank you everyone for such lovely ideas. I’m realising this diet shift is going to take a lot more time and preparation compared to whipping out the box of Cheerios!

A quick question…I have been checking things like Cornflakes / Bran Flakes etc on the Open Food Facts website and noticing that sometimes the same product is graded a 3 and a 4…any ideas why this might be?

Most of the previous suggestions included a fair amount of sugar. Which give a quick carbon energy hit but then a slump as the sugar wears off. Nutritionally slow release carbs and protein would be a better breakfast.

A good breakfast would be porridge with banana, or scrambled eggs on wholemeal toast.

Overnight oats - I add a bit of sliced apple/ grape in the morning. Actually pretty delicious!

Overnight oats are great. I sometimes make them using coconut milk, the stuff with no additives. And any fruit (fresh, frozen or cooked) that I have to hand. I also add a selection of nuts, seeds, goji berries, cocoa nibs, dried fruit, dessicated coconut, granola (homemade) or muesli, cinnamon, etc.

We also like pancakes made with just mashed banana and egg.

And I also make breakfast burritos and freeze them, when I have time. I don't make my own wraps/tortillas, but you could easily do this if you have time. I fill mine with diced potato, chicken, guacamole, grated cheese and salsa. We take them out the night before and then throw them in the air fryer.

And if I'm feeling really motivated (which is not very often), I'll make waffles and then freeze them so that they can be toasted in the morning. We would normally eat these on a Sunday with fresh fruit, Greek yoghurt, and some maple syrup.

Tim Spector eats yoghurt mixed with kefir, nuts, seeds and berries for his breakfast. I'm not really a breakfast person, but this sounds like it would be quite tasty and not too heavy. Great for your gut bacteria.

Carbs yes, sugar no. I do like to up protein as keeps fuller for longer. I wouldn't give porridge and banana - too many carbs and would be starving 2 hours later. Porridge with nuts or peanut butter, possibly amd ds does like that occasionally.

Pancakes on the other hand have plenty of eggs and a better balance of carbs to protein. Of course, totally negated if they are then loaded up with sugar/syrup! 🤣🤣 but I have managed to break my kids of that habit! Ds has plain or with peanut butter and dd does have syrup, but in small amounts with no additional.sugar!

I think there can be strange instinctive concerns when we hear "pancakes" which when you actually look, aren't actually true. Our banana pancakes for example are made with roughly 8 tablespoons of flour - maybe a bit more but I just use a regular spoon and wing it! - 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, pinch salt, 2 bananas, 3 eggs and just enough oat milk to bring it all together.

A friend does similar but uses oats instead of.flour and blends in a blender to make the batter. Another friend uses coconut flour. It's all pretty good.