Another Great Holiday Tradition – The Second Breakfast

ARAGORN: Gentlemen. We do not stop 'till nightfall.

PIPPIN: What about breakfast?

ARAGORN: You've already had it.

PIPPIN: We've had one, yes. What about second breakfast?

MERRY: Don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.

PIPPIN: What about elevenses? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?

MERRY: I wouldn't count on it.

Remains of second breakfast at the Davies Green home

One of the wonderful things about being on holiday together is the luxury of time. We’re not rushing in the morning to get ready for school, getting dressed, breakfasted, brushed and packed for the day ahead. Instead we have the leisurely wake up followed by a lazy get out of bed. I am very fortunate this holiday that my beautiful daughter seems to have adapted from her usual 7.30 wake up time to a far nicer 8.30 wake up! My son has always enjoyed a lazy lie in and even when he does wake up first, likes to read in bed with a lovely book – his current favourite being Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.  

The children like to play in their pyjamas for a bit and one of them is usually hungry for an almost immediate breakfast. Depending on what we’ve eaten the night before, the grown-ups may or may not join the kids. Husband is quite likely to be either: already out running, or just returned from a run, or about to run a great distance; so he’s not always ready to eat when the kids are, but the joy of a holiday is that we can eat when we want to and I like to treat myself with a holiday breakfast!

On school days we almost always eat porridge. If I don’t eat porridge in the morning I feel ravenously hungry by about 10a.m and lunch in the Spanish system is at 2pm in the afternoon, so porridge is a good start to a long morning!

A holiday is a chance to move away from porridge for a while and the kids love their holiday fix of Weetabix or Chocapic (a chocolatey cereal we have discovered in Spain) or Smacks – another Spanish cereal suspiciously like sugar puffs but with more sugar!!

I also like to indulge my sweet tooth on the holiday and can either make pancakes or, as we have a Carrefour supermarket close by, we are lucky enough to be able to buy lovely frozen partly baked croissants. Pop them in the oven for 20 mins and they are done, nice warm croissants out of the oven, what more could a girl want?

Well, a girl could want quite a lot really. A lovely warm croissant has to be accompanied by the following:

·         Butter for spreading

·         Freshly trimmed strawberries or other fruit

·         A good cup of coffee

·         A tall drink of water or juice

·         Some jam

Also nice but not absolutely necessary:

·         Nice table linen

·         Some good music in the background

·         Drinks for the children (so I don't have to keep getting up and down like a Jack in the box)

·         Mini chocolate muffins, another Carrefour speciality

·         Yoghurt or cream or any leftover pouring sweet stuff from the fridge

·         At Easter, any bits of chocolate egg that can be scavenged from the children

So, this is my holiday treat, a breakfast of champions and of course, inevitably, the children want some croissants and strawberries too, so they sit down and feel very proud that this is their second breakfast of the morning. Even as I am writing, they’ve gone back to the table to demolish another croissant and I guess that will count as elevenses...

After second breakfast.....or was that elevenses?