F is for Father's Day Breakfast

Here in Australia, Father’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday in September.  Which means I am trying to decide on gifts for hubby and grandad (it’s grandad’s birthday the day before too!), find things Bear and Bee can make for their dad as well as coming up with some kid friendly recipes for them to help prepare.

After much internet searching, pinterest exploring and magazine reading I have narrowed it down to 2 recipes – 1 for breakfast and 1 for lunch that Bear and Bee can help make.  As you may know from a previous post French toast is always a big hit in this household, so when I came across this recipe for French Toast Kebabs on the Martha Stewart website I knew that was what we had to have for Father’s Day breakfast.  Everything tastes better on a stick right? (Especially if you are 2 and a half!).  As for the Father’s Day lunch recipe, you will have to wait until my next post.

Now onto breakfast - I adapted the original recipe to suit our tastes and also to take advantage of the fruit that is in season here.  This is what I came up with:

Ingredients

4 eggs lightly beaten

6 tablespoons of milk

2 tablespoons of natural yoghurt (this is optional, you can add slightly more milk if necessary)

Pinch of nutmeg

½ loaf of unsliced bread (any type white, wholemeal or wholegrain is fine), crusts removed and cut into 2cm cubes

2 tablespoons of unsalted butter or low salt margarine

2 bananas, peeled and sliced about 1cm thick

1 punnet strawberries, washed and hulled

Maple syrup

Bamboo skewers

Here’s what we did:

Cut up the bread and the fruit.

It's a na-na!

 

Whisked together the eggs, milk, yoghurt and nutmeg.

Our egg cracking skills are improving.

Whisking together the eggs, milk and yoghurt.

Grating the whole nutmeg

 

Added the bread cubes to the egg mixture and stirred gently.

(The following steps need to be completed by an adult)

Heated a large frypan over medium heat and melted 1 tablespoon of butter.

Drained half of the bread cubes a little and placed in the pan.  Cooked until browned on all sides, turning occasionally with tongs or a spatula.

Removed cooked toast from the pan and placed onto a paper towel lined plate.

Repeated the above steps for the remaining bread cubes.

Threaded some toast and fruit onto the skewers. Make sure the toast has cooled a little before your child touches it.

Served with maple syrup straight away to a happy daddy.

What are you planning to cook for Father’s Day?

F is for French Toast

Every weekend we try to have a cooked breakfast on one morning – usually Sunday.  Lately Bear and Bee’s favourite dish has been bacon, French toast and maple syrup.  Sometimes we substitute pancakes for the French toast.  Bear loves dipping the cubes of toast into the syrup one at a time.  Bee likes to start with the bacon.

Making French toast is a great cooking with children activity for the girls and not too difficult first thing in the morning.   Breaking eggs is Bear’s speciality while Bee takes control of the whisking and dipping the bread into the mix.

There are many variations of French toast available if you do an internet search and it’s a reasonably healthy recipe for kids.  Some include cream in the egg mixture or use fancier bread like brioche but we keep ours plain and simple (except for a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg!).

 French Toast Recipe (for two adults and 2 children)

6 slices of thick sliced bread (wholemeal or white but day old bread is best as it soaks up more of the mixture)

4 eggs

8 tablespoons of milk

Pinch of nutmeg

Butter or margarine 

Bear is getting better at not dropping shell in

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk lightly.  Add the milk and the nutmeg and whisk again.   

Bee practising buttering the bread

Butter the slices of bread on one side (On reflection I am not sure why we do this.  My mum always did it this way when we were kids). 

Melt a small amount of butter in a frypan over medium heat.  Meanwhile soak a slice of bread in the egg mixture. Carefully turn bread slices over to make sure both sides are coated.  When butter is melted and foamy, add the soaked bread and fry on each side for 3 to 4 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  While the one slice of bread is frying, soak another slice of bread.  It is best to do them one at a time or they will get too soggy and difficult to pick up.

Serve the French toast with bacon, maple syrup, honey, jam, vegemite etc. 

Pouring and Mixing

Aside from the cooking which is best left until they are older, children can help with most of the steps of this recipe.  Get them to break the eggs into a bowl and whisk them, pour in the premeasured milk or measure out the milk if they are old enough and butter the slices of bread.

Bee dipping the bread

A great start to your morning!

What is your favourite breakfast recipe to make with your child?