A good breakfast at home is just as important for children as a healthy mid-morning snack. Why? Because kids should eat something every few hours and their bodies need an energy boost to help get them through the day.
Fresh fruit, such as apples or bananas, are perfect, together with nuts, homemade cakes, cured-ham sandwiches with fresh tomato drizzled with extra-virgin olive oil or boiled-ham or turkey sandwiches with low-fat cheese.
The important thing is to make sure kids don’t get bored: give them a different snack to take every day of the week. Here are some ideas:
Homemade cereal bars
An energy boost you can make with kids at home using their favourite breakfast cereal. You’ll need 120 g honey, 150 g butter, 2 egg whites, 400 g breakfast cereal and 150 g nuts. Mix the honey, butter and egg whites together and beat well. Add the cereal and chopped nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, etc.) and you can even add some raisins. Spread the mixture out on a tray and bake for 20 minutes. While it’s still hot, shape the bars so they can be easily separated when cool.
Dorayakis like Doraemon’s
Kids are bound to love these little Japanese pancakes every bit as much as manga robotic cat Doraemon does! We recommend replacing the traditional red-bean filling with homemade chocolate spread. You’ll need 200 g flour, 50 g sugar, 1 teaspoonful of honey, 2 eggs, 1 teaspoonful of baking powder, 75 ml water and a pinch of salt. Beat the eggs, honey, sugar and salt together and, once you’ve got a smooth mixture, add the water and continue beating. Finally, add the flour and baking powder, beat again and set aside for half an hour.
Once the mixture is ready, grease a small frying pan or pancake pan with a few drops of extra-virgin olive oil to stop the mixture sticking. Fill a soupspoon with the mixture and pour onto the centre of the pan. Let it spread out naturally. Once you can see bubbles forming, it’s time to flip it over. It’ll be ready in just a few seconds! Fill with homemade chocolate spread made as follows: 100 g freshly toasted hazelnuts, 50 g cocoa powder, 60 g honey, 2 spoonfuls of extra-virgin olive oil and 25 ml milk. Crush the hazelnuts, add the cocoa powder and olive oil and crush again. Finally, add the milk and honey. Keep the filled dorayakis chilled.
Cream-cheese and apple and raisin sandwich
Just mix some low-fat cream cheese with chopped apple and raisins to make a quick-and-easy, tasty and healthy sandwich filling packed with vitamins. You can add slices of apple to the mixture or use chopped walnuts and strawberries instead.
