Breakfast and children

      Breakfast may be the favourite meal of the children because they can eat what they want and  even better they can eat sweet things... Well it depends where they live as we saw earlier in this blog. Parents had to be told that breakfast was an entire and very important meal because it is the first of the day and it is the one which brings what the child needs for the rest of the day.

    Teachers and middle class people in the 19th-20th century tried to make breakfast  more important by introducing it at school for poor children with a free breakfast of bread and jam with cocoa and milk.

     When I went to the Imperial War Museum in London, I read some things about children and breakfast. Lots of information given by Ministry of food during and after the Second World War such as menus and nutrition information about them. The menus were often divided by ages.

Before 5 years old: type of menu for a week: 

1rst day: porridge (medium oatmeal, water and salt), fried bacon, toast and milk.

2nd day: Groats (cream and water), creamed fish and rusk and milk.

3rd day: rusks (stale bread with vegetable yeast and water) and milk, eggs and toasted breadcrumbs.

4th day: wheatmeal, lightly boiled eggs and milk.

5th day: porridge and toast bacon with milk.

6th day: wheatmeal with milk and eggs.

7th day: rusks milk and coddled eggs, toasted breadcrumbs. 

5 to 12 year-old children: 

Porridge, milk, eggs, toasts and butter with cocoa.

Wheatmeal with milk and bacon and mashed potato. 

Potato fish cake with rusks and butter with cocoa.

Wheatmeal, scrambled dried eggs, potato, bacon and fried bread with milk.

     Children's Literature is full of Breakfast scenes especially when the story happens in a boarding school. Even if we do not have a full description of the different scenes, breakfast is mentioned more often than the rest of the meals. Books such as Malory Towers by Bhyton (1946) or Hetty Feather by Wilson J (2009) play with breakfasts. We had an example in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K Rowling (1997).

Now let's have some fun and try to make a Harry Potter's breakfast!
Scene: You are with Harry Potter and suddenly Fred, George and Ron come to help you  to escape from the  horrible Dursley house with a magical muggle car. After this little adventure, you are hungry and Mrs Weasley makes you a delicious hot breakfast with at least 9 sausages for you and Harry Potter.. (from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) Want to try? Well now find the Mrs Weasley who will make you this recipe: 


 Breakfast Casserole with Turkey Sausage, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes

Ingredients
Olive-oil cooking spray
14 ounce(s) spicy turkey sausage, casings removed
3/4 pound(s) mixed mushrooms (such as cremini, shiitake, and oyster), trimmed and sliced
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
1 small onion, diced
8 slice(s) (large) bread (4 whole wheat, 4 hearty white), cut into 1-inch cubes
5 ounce(s) low-fat Jarlsberg cheese, finely grated (1 1/2 cups)
NaN mls grape tomatoes, halved
5 large eggs
5 large egg whites
NaN mls low-fat milk

Directions

Coat a medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add sausage and brown, breaking up with a wooden spoon as meat cooks, about 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer sausage to a plate. Set aside.

Add mushrooms to skillet and cook over medium-high heat until they begin to brown, about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with salt and pepper. Add onion, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft and mushrooms are well browned, about 4 more minutes. Set mixture aside.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, toss bread, cheese, tomatoes, reserved sausage, and reserved mushrooms and onions. Coat a 9- by 13-inch casserole dish with cooking spray and spread mixture in an even layer in dish. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs and egg whites. Whisk in milk and pour over bread mixture. Cover dish with aluminum foil and let casserole sit for 10 minutes. Press foil down gently to ensure top layer of bread cubes soaks up liquid.

Bake casserole for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes more. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

source

     Books in Children's literature often try to educate the child with breakfast. The example of Let's eat Breakfast by Hibbert C. explains to the children some basic elements such as where chocolate comes from with lot of pictures that describes breakfast time. First elements described are porridge, meat, cheese and hot drinks and then the author introduces breakfast that can be eaten in the rest of the world such as in China or South America. Or another example in Golden Books published by Simon and Schuster firstly in 1942. It is a collection of stories for children and one of them is entitled Bobby the Dog. Bobby is a French dog who eats cheese and croissants and who drinks coffee and red wine. Here is a particular scene illustrated by Pierre Probst in 1967.