Breakfast Idea Number 5 - Yoghurt and Granola.

Home- made granola served with banana yoghurt.  I had it with honey yoghurt today.  It is Christmas cranberry granola based on this BBC recipe.

I love this recipe - you can vary it every time and make new and exciting breakfast dishes.

Also, please visit this post and leave a comment to win a copy of Nigel Slater's Appetite.  This is a wonderfully inspiring book for any cook.  This giveaway is part of The Inspiration Chain which is a brilliant idea to get us all sharing our favourite cookbooks and trying something new.

Breakfast Idea Number 4 - Daring Cooks - Poached Eggs.

I am loving doing my challenges.  The Daring Kitchen is one of the most popular challenges for either cooks or bakers.  And, in fact, Shelley of C Mom Cook has included a couple of pictures of my boys in her latest Food Talk article on getting wee ones to help in the kitchen.

Jenn and Jill have challenged The Daring Cooks to learn to perfect the technique of poaching an egg. They chose Eggs Benedict recipe from Alton Brown, Oeufs en Meurette from Cooking with Wine by Anne Willan, and Homemade Sundried Tomato & Pine Nut Seitan Sausages (poached) courtesy of Trudy of Veggie num num.

I chose to do a version of eggs florentine for this challenge and was really chuffed at how easy it actually is to make a Hollandaise sauce and to poach fairly good looking eggs.  Usually I leave this dish to Steve to make but I guess I have no excuse for doing it myself now.  I LOVE spinach and this makes one of my favourite breakfasts.

Two eggs each for Mummy and Daddy and one each for the kids.  I will definitely be poaching more eggs from now on.  And without using the microwave and the plastic poacher thingy!

Breakfast Idea Number 1 - Croissants with Mulled Carrot Jam.

The very lovely mangocheeks from Allotment 2 Kitchen sent me some of her mulled carrot jam.

I had it this morning for breakfast on a croissant.  The natural sweetness of the carrot gave me a fantastic shot of sweetness which helped to wake me and get me ready to cope with the kids.  She has kept any flavour from the spice really subtle so that the carrot is very dominant.  Works extremely well with the croissant.  Adam declared it a success too so that is a big compliment!

Dear Love Blog has challenged herself to do a different breakfast every day for a week so I have been following this and enjoying the variety of breakfasts.  I have breakfast every day but during the week it is usually just cereal and can get a bit monotonous.  Weekends are more adventurous if we're not too busy.  I think I would like to document a few breakfast ideas too so I'll start with the croissant and carrot jam - I think that's one that won't be on a lot of people's breakfast lists!  And, believe me, it is so easy to prepare if you get your friendly, local, blogging friend to make the jam for you then just spread it on shop-bought croissants. Now, I like breakfasts like that which don't need any faffing in the morning.