Breakfast For Two

One of the things I love the most about the school holidays is the relaxed mornings. No rushing to get everyone dressed, breakfasted and out the house. We can take our time. We can make 'special' breakfasts that we can all enjoy.

In the Easter holidays I posted about daughter and I enjoying Carrot Cake Smoothies For Two, and these summer holidays have already got off to a good breakfast start as well.

Yesterday we shared baked oats.

Coconut Baked Oats
(serves 1-2)

• 50g oats
• 160ml coconut cream
• 1 medjool date, chopped
• 10g coconut
• few drops coconut extract (optional)
• splash of milk if necessary
• 1 chocolate Alpro pudding (as topping)

1. Mix all the ingredients except the Alpro pudding and divide between 2 mini loaf tins (I put about two thirds of the mix in mine, a third in daughter's)
2. Bake at 190C for 20 minutes.
3. Allow to cool slightly before turning out onto plates.
4. Top with a chocolate Alpro pudding, if desired. (This would of course also be great topped with coconut butter, melted chocolate, peanut butter etc!)

Before turning out:

Before topping:

And the finished product:

I loved how coconutty this was. Delicious. I think daughter agreed...

This morning we also had time to cook for breakfast. My Mum had stewed the plums I'd given her and loved them, so I decided to do the same with mine.

Mum's Stewed Plums

(serves 3-4)

• 425g plums, stoned and halved
• 115g brown sugar (roughly 25% of the weight of the stoned plums)
• 2 tbsp honey (my idea of a tbsp may have been a bit larger than Mum's!!)
• splash of water

Cook gently for 12-15 minutes until it looks something like this...

I served some of the plums on cinnamon raisin bagels with a blob of lemon yoghurt on top...

This was so delicious - the plums were sweet, but still with a slight tartness, yum!

Unfortunately daughter didn't agree...

but luckily baby was more than happy to eat her portion instead!

Ah well, you win some, you lose some!! Tomorrow daughter has requested that we make smoothies, and apparently as it's the "day of her party" I have to agree!! :-D

Did you get to choose special breakfasts when it was your birthday? I can't really remember what happened on mine - except that I was usually at school during exam period - but daughter is getting to choose breakfast tomorrow and has also, of course, chosen to have pasta bake on Monday - her actual birthday. I like getting her involved in choosing our meals anyway, so the fact that it's her birthday just makes it extra special in her eyes.

Right, off to decorate cakes!! I baked them last night and they turned out really well, so daughter and I are going to decorate them now whilst baby naps. I think lots of deep breaths are going to be needed on my part - I sometimes struggle with her helping me with baking as I want things to look how I imagine them...but they are her birthday cakes, so if she has fun helping to decorate them then (I guess!) that's more important than them looking perfect!! I'll show you photos of how they turn out tomorrow! :)