01 November, 2013

Breakfast at Our House

Did you ever wonder what missionaries have for breakfast? Maybe not, unless you've gone overseas and find you can't buy your favourite breakfast goods.

This is what our breakfast table looks like
most days.
In Japan breakfasts usually include rice, fish, and vegetables. Many mums get up quite early to make breakfast for their husbands. As a result cereal is expensive and not easy to find. We get very shocked by the huge cereal aisles in Australian grocery stores. In Japan, you're lucky to get a cereal shelf.

Unless we're at a conference or on an aeroplane or ferry, we tend to have a fairly standard Australian breakfast. When we camp, we often have bacon and eggs, or pancakes, but six days out of seven at home we eat a combination of cereal, bread/toast, fruit, and yoghurt.

In winter the guys eat porridge (US= oats?), garnished with a combination of All Bran, corn flakes, dried fruit, and honey/sugar. Our youngest is off all cereal at the moment, I think, so he mostly has bread and yoghurt.

Porridge waiting for "decoration".
My home-made muesli before I put chopped fruit, yoghurt
 and milk on top.
I have been making my own muesli (unbaked, not granola, which is baked) ever since I left university in the mid 90s. Although I've had to adapt the ingredients according to what we can readily buy (and afford).

We buy cereal from various places, depending on what's available and the price. Costco provides us with granola for "garnishing" and Kellogg's brown rice flakes, as well as large bags of craisins, raisins, prunes, and large jars of peanut butter. We buy rolled oats and cornflakes via FBC, a foreign import company.

It is a convenient and healthy breakfast, if not very Japanese!

Occasionally someone will send us some iconic Australian cereal—Weetbix, something our eldest son is looking forward to in Australia. I'm not a fan, though, I'd rather my muesli.

"My" end of the table. Bowl waiting on
muesli. Decaf coffe waiting for milk,
and David's once-a-day tea waiting
to be drunk.
On Saturdays we often have something different made by David (as all our breakfasts are, unless he's away and I have to fill in). Pancakes, muffins, English muffins, etc. Yum!

I love having breakfast at home and as soon as I get up. I'm not a big fan of having to think about what I want to eat (as in, order at a restaurant), I just want to eat something that isn't too sweet or fatty.

What's your favourite breakfast? Are you an "always eat the same thing" type person, or, like our youngest son "like to change it around so you don't get bored" type person?


4 comments:

Judie said...

Mostly I'm an 'eat the same thing' person. Porridge in winter, a cold protein shake (or toast & Vegemite if I've run out of shakes) in summer.
For lunch when I work, I almost always have a tin of lemon pepper flavoured tuna, with extra lemon juice & pepper, between 2 crusts: like a hamburger bun with less bread.
And Sunday nights after church, I go to our closest Hungry Jack's for 'me time' tea. I love spicy grilled chicken burgers, but the coupon special has run out, so I've been trying other things. Very adventurous! for me.

Sarah said...

Change it around, most definitely. I'm trying to avoid cereals which are high in sugar so I rotate between Weetbix, Weeties, Rice Bubbles, Cornflakes and All Bran mostly (with Coco Pops as a treat on Sundays). I have a banana usually as well.

Wendy said...

Thanks for dropping in a comment Judie and Sarah. God made each of us so different, with different preferences. Amazing!

Wendy said...

Thanks for dropping in a comment Judie and Sarah. God made each of us so different, with different preferences. Amazing!