Top tips for harmonious family holiday breakfasts

Photo credit: Nadine Hill

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post

This week is Breakfast Week and so the most important meal of the day is on my mind. To be truthful, it’s on my mind every day, not just during Breakfast Week, as I can’t function without a filling breakfast inside me!

When I was growing up I’d skip breakfast, as I didn’t want food before school but then be really hungry later on, and I see this happening with my teenager. However her school has much better catering facilities than mine ever did and she can get a bacon roll or some porridge at morning break when she is actually hungry, whereas I used to have to wait until lunch then I’d typically overeat – how times have changed!

The one thing that doesn’t change however is how important I believe breakfast is for a family, which is why we make a point at weekends and on holiday, to enjoy a leisurely breakfast together. It is a great bonding moment in the day where we can enjoy a meal collectively and plan out our days, and everyone appreciates the experience of normal family life and feeling united. However as my family all have differing tastes and needs, I find that by being organised in advance, I manage to satisfy everyone’s food requests and make breakfast a real occasion – even if they are none the wiser to my orchestrations!

The author breakfasting with her family on holiday. Photo courtesy of Nadine Hill.

We all want our precious family holidays to go without a hitch, so here are my top tips for harmonious family holiday breakfasts…

If you are breakfasting at home or self-catering, check your supplies in advance (maybe at breakfast the day before) to stock up on the items you are missing. A happy breakfast is waking up to the smell of cooking and everything that makes your mouth water, not having to go to the shop for a loaf of bread.
Stick to what you know. This isn’t usually my advice for life in general. I like to encourage my family to push out of their comfort zones and try new things. However at breakfast, we are all still unfolding into the day and so comfort is key! Give everyone the foods you know they love for breakfast — fill their empty bellies and once everyone has fully woken up and been satisfied, they can try something new at lunch.
If you are breakfasting in a new place such as on holiday, when you arrive, explore the immediate area so you know where are the nice cafes or supermarkets to get your fresh bread and eggs. When everyone is hungry, you want to know where to get food quickly and easily without driving around on a desperate search while the are kids moaning in the back.
Ensure that everyone is catered for and has what they need. In my family, I usually like porridge with skimmed milk, as it is filling with fewer calories than some other breakfast choices, but not every cafe serves skimmed milk so I like to know where I can get it in advance. My son only likes one kind of cereal and if he can’t have that, then it would be toast and Nutella or some Billy Bear ham. So when we are self-catering or visiting friends, I take the cereal he likes. That way, I know that he will have what he needs. Fortunately my husband and daughter are more flexible and will both enjoy a cooked breakfast, which you can get pretty much anywhere.
Have a hoody handy! This may seem like an odd tip for breakfast, but if you are on holiday, you may want to dine outside as part of the “holiday” experience. Some countries are warmer than others first thing in the morning. It could be bright and sunny, yet still have a nip in the air, so have a hoody ready for all family members to slip on enabling you to breakfast “al fresco'”and stay warm!

Armed with these tips for a filling breakfast, you and your family can enjoy an active family lifestyle that will keep you fuelled for the day!

Want to keep your family happy at the breakfast table? We’re giving you the chance to win a luxury breakfast hamper courtesy of HomeAway. Tell us about your favourite holiday breakfast experience in the comments section below to be in with a chance of winning!

HOW TO TAKE PART AND ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

It’s easy and you could win a luxury breakfast hamper courtesy of HomeAway!

Simply leave a comment below sharing your best self-catering breakfast experience on holiday.
All entries must be received by Sunday 31 January 2016 at 23.59 GMT.
We’ll pick one lucky winner by random to win a luxury breakfast hamper that includes a stainless steel cafetiere, Machu Picchu coffee, Indian Chai tea, Heart shape egg and omelette frying pan, jam selection, personalised biscuits, personalised baking kit, La Chinata Spanish olive oil and more!
Read the T&Cs

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The winner is: Anne Dalzell

About Nadine Hill

Nadine is a marketer, digital creator and ex BritMums Editor who started blogging in the mid 2000's whilst working from home around her young family. Her blog JuggleMum won an award for video and covered many lifestyle subjects from fashion to food to entrepreneurship whilst also inspiring content creation for her YouTube channel @MrsNadineHill. Nadine loves hanging out with her teenage children who keep her (mostly) current - although apparently no-one says 'hanging out' any more! When she's not with her family she's at the gym or in a coffee house in Yorkshire somewhere (she's been to most of them!) - photographing her cappuccino for the grid. You can find Nadine on Twitter and Instagram as @IAmNadineHill

Sandy

Sunday 31st of January 2016

We took the kids to Philly a couple years ago. They always used to get up super early, so one morning we decided to watch the sunrise, snuggled in a blankets and then ate breakfast in the garden, or as they like to say yard. It was the most wonderful, memorable morning.

Sara Sudbury

Our family holidays, when the children were young were in a static caravan in South Devon. We lived very busy lives, the children always at playgroup, school and after school clubs. My husband used to work all the hours possible, sometimes night shifts and sometimes days - he often worked over the weekend too. Life was hectic, but we always made sure we had our annual holiday. The caravan always seemed magical, perched on the cliffs looking out to sea.

After unpacking the first thing we always did was pop off to the local supermarket for the essentials. For some reason breakfast always seemed a more important meal than any other. We would buy sausages, eggs, bacon, beans and bread - and lots of it.

Every morning we would all sit round the table and usually Daddy would do the cooking, not sure why it would be him, but it was the way we always did it!

Everyone would have something different, bacon sandwiches, sausage sandwich, bacon and egg, eggy bread, toast and marmalade, beans on toast! That was the joy of being on holiday though, we could all have whatever we wanted.

We used to laugh, at the non stick frying pan, where the eggs would always stick and burn, the thin horrid saucepan, where we had to stir the beans every single second or they would stick and burn. As a family of 5 we got through loads of toast, no toaster, just a small grill, cooking the meal would take ages, but it was always such a happy time. All five of us would sit round the table and plan our day ahead, other than Christmas time at home I can rarely remember us all sitting down to breakfast together, at least for more than a few minutes at a time.

We would make plans for our day ahead, chat about the day before and then tackle all the washing up together.

Gloriously happy memories of my lovely family, when my children were small. Such happy times.

Jo Bryan

Our best self catering breakfast has got to be in a cottage in Cornwall overlooking a creek, while we dine on fresh baked bread from the owners oven, freerange sausages and bacon, we overlook the water and grounds and see foxes, squirrels, egrets on the creek, eider and its like bing in a wonderland. All this on the holiday and not even left the accommodation for the beach

Denise Slater

We were in the Cairngomes a couple of years ago, and purchased a selection of Scottish meats, breads and coffees on the way. We had a BBQ one evening, and we decided to BBQ our breakfast the next day. We cooked sausages, bacon, mushrooms, haggis slices and toast, and sat outside as the early morning mist cleared, watching deer and red squirrels whilst eating our breakfast. Perfect ?

sian hallewell

Many years ago took the family to Centre Parcs, I made sure I packed all our usual breakfast favourites so we could have a leisurely breakfast eating what the children were familiar with. What made it so special was the wildlife, (squirrels birds & even though perhaps its a false memory a deer) thatwe could see from the table, the kids loved it.

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