Royal Chef Mark Flanagan made a special journey to Howes Community School in Coventry to talk about the importance of breakfast last Thursday as part of the schools "Jubilee Breakfast"
All the pupils at the school, along with parents, brothers and sisters, were treated to either a sausage or bacon roll served up by Mark who then talked to them at a special assembly about the importance of breakfast and took part in a question and answer session. The breakfast rolls were kindly supplied free of charge by butchers Aubrey Allen.
Head Carol Brammer said: “We want to emphasise the importance of a healthy breakfast and we are also working to bring the community together by getting parents and children to have breakfast together.” Carol said the event came about through the parents who used people they knew to get the whole event organised.
Mark, who has been Royal Chef for 10 years, said: "I am really looking forward to the jubilee year. It is going to be very exciting. We enjoy getting involved with schools and helping with the message of how important breakfast is, it is a meal that is often overlooked. This is also a great opportunity to let people know real people work at Buckingham Palace.”
Here at Shake Up Your Wake Up, we have always known that breakfast is good for us but new research released today has once again confirmed that it improves cognitive functions too. The study has been conducted by the Mindlab laboratory at Sussex Innovation Centre and shows that eating breakfast improves physical and mental performance as well as reducing anxiety. 89% of participants who had eaten breakfast coped better with stressful situations than those who hadn’t eaten anything. They were also able to deal with problems 7% faster.
Breakfast eaters are brainier too – 61% showed an improvement in English and arithmetic tests so a hearty breakfast will soon have you adding sums like Carol Voderman! Hand-eye co-ordination was greatly improved as well with the number of mistakes made falling by a staggering 75%! Of the participants who hadn’t eaten breakfast before the tests, some couldn’t even concentrate long enough to complete them.
48% of adults admit to skipping breakfast at least once during the working week but then complain of feeling lethargic, stressed, unproductive and grumpy, so by just making a little more time to enjoy a good breakfast in the morning you can reduce these symptoms and have a much better day!
We have lots of tasty breakfast ideas for you to choose from to help make you brainier. And remember eating breakfast has lots of other benefits to your health too! So whether you’ve got a day at work, school, or at home ensure you make time for the most important meal of the day.
We hope that you’ve all recovered from the excitement of Farmhouse Breakfast Week. We’ve spent the last few weeks going through all the coverage and have been delighted to see so many events being covered by their local media. We’ve put some of the images we’ve received on our Facebook page.
We’ve also been reading through the entries to the Breakfast Week Challenge. Thanks to everyone who got involved. Hundreds of you took part and, if your comments are anything to go by, we’ve managed to convert many of you from breakfast skippers to breakfast fans.
We randomly selected one entry from all of those received and want to congratulate Bedfordshire mum Carrie Brimmell who receives £1,000 in holiday vouchers. Carrie told us that the challenge had made her feel less sluggish in the morning, more approachable and helped her to stop snacking in the week. This mirrored many of the comments received on Facebook during the challenge too – we just hope you’ve all now picked up the breakfast habit. Please do keep it up: if you need to remind yourself why breakfast is so essential to start your day click here.
Twenty runners up will also receive a copy of Melinda Messenger’s Family Cookbook which includes her Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Egg Breakfast Tortilla.
Thank you again to everyone who helped make this year’s Farmhouse Breakfast Week such a huge success.
Full list of winners:
First Prize: £1,000 Holiday Vouchers:
Carrie Brimmell
Runners Up: Melinda Messenger’s Family Cookbook
Lorraine Rosser
Emma Annetta
Carla Knight
Emma Lloyd
Jodie Smith
Jessica Whitehead-Stevens
Isabelle smith
Susan Hall
Clare Cheetham
Kirsty Cooper
Cathy James
Erjon Munguli
Nicky Hawley
Martina Pichova
Jason Crouch
Sarah Lee
Sinead Moss
Victoria Cosgrove
Abby Bookham
Julie Booth
It’s been a whirlwind week spreading the breakfast cheer around the country and we hope you’ve enjoyed Farmhouse Breakfast Week as much as we have! But, it’s not all about fun - we’ve been sharing the benefits and importance of breakfast all week.
We have been overwhelmed by the huge number of breakfast fans and breakfast skippers (hopefully, now converted fans), who have taken part in the Breakfast Week Challenge. We’ve had hundreds of people sign up and they have been tweeting us daily updates of their morning meals, including tips and pictures. One of our twitter followers told us she had lost 4lbs within the first few days of Breakfast Week because it had helped her to avoid mid-morning snacking! Others have said it’s helped them to branch out and try different breakfast recipes and foods. Please do keep your experiences, breakfast recipes and tips coming in; we’d love to hear from you.
Congratulations as well to the 20 lucky winners of a Melinda Messenger’s Family Cook Book - your prize is on its way. Remember though, you still have until Tuesday to submit your challenge entries to be in with a chance of winning the grand prize, £1000 worth of holiday vouchers!
Hundreds of brilliant breakfast events have been taking place across the UK and we at HGCA were very lucky to work with some of our cereal farmers who visited various schools to show children where their food comes from. Many thanks to all of those involved who have made this week such a huge success. We’d love to see pictures and we have started an album on Facebook so please send any to breakfast@hgca.com.
We got up early on Monday to make sure our nation’s radio DJs didn’t miss the celebration. Magic FM, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, Capital FM, Kiss FM and Heart FM were delighted to receive a beautiful breakfast hamper full of scrumptious goodies with their very own personalised breakfast cereal box. Capital FM’s Dave Berry was so pleased he tweeted a picture of his Crunchy Berry Snow(don) Flakes and thinks they should be on every supermarket shelf - what do you think? Did you hear Neil Fox on Magic FM talk about Farmhouse Breakfast week on air as he tucked into a bacon roll? If not you can still catch a picture of him on our Facebook page enjoying his breakfast!
You may have also heard us on your local radio station where nutritionist Angela Dowden talked to the nation about the importance and benefits of eating breakfast and which are the healthiest options to go for. We also featured on a double page spread in the Daily Express with recipes by Angela, showing the best breakfast option to suit different lifestyles and needs. If you haven’t checked out Angela Dowden’s Ultimate Breakfast Guide yet please click here.
All that is left to say is a very BIG THANKYOU and we really hope you have had as much fun as we have. But don’t forget, breakfast is not just for Farmhouse Breakfast Week!
Well here it is everyone: the final day of the Breakfast Week Challenge and my final blog here on shakeupyourwakeup.com. Thank you all for joining me this week – I hope you’ve found my recipe suggestions and tips useful.
From today until Tuesday you’ll be able to submit your challenge entries to our Facebook page. To be in with a chance of winning £1,000 holiday vouchers remember you need to tell us what you ate each day this week and how it made you feel – did you have more energy? Did you generally feel healthier? How easy did you find it to make time for breakfast?
We’re looking forward to hearing what you have to say. Hopefully we’ve managed to convert some breakfast skippers into breakfast fans during the week. There are many benefits to breakfast: improving concentration, mood and health. And ladies one of these benefits is that breakfast eaters are less likely to be overweight than breakfast skippers, so that’s definitely an added incentive to make time for it each day!
As well as the Breakfast Week Challenge there’s been a whole host of events happening across the country this week celebrating breakfast so I hope you’ve all enjoyed Farmhouse Breakfast Week as much as I have.
All that’s left for me to do is tell you about my breakfast today, Honey and Yoghurt Porridge with Banana. This was a great balanced breakfast – the porridge gave me the energy an active mum like me needs, and the banana counted towards one of my five a day. Porridge may be considered a winter food but it can be enjoyed all year round – just mix it up by swapping the topping: raspberries in summer for instance.
That’s it from me. Thank you all once again. Don’t forget to record your challenge entry over at Facebook before Tuesday night and good luck – remember there’s a great prize on offer for one person. Although if you ask me, by making time for breakfast each day I think you’re all winners!
Melinda
