Some simple breakfasts from heaven

Some prompts to a fine toast breakfast: just for today, don't rush?

I'm sure you don't really need me to tell you the recipes for these things -- so consider them prompts to action?

French toast -- the eggy bread of my childhood. I remember eating this on summer mornings in the tent my dad put up every school summer holiday --despite what he knew it would do to the lawn. I still have tremendous waves of nostalgia at the smell of damp tent....

You just dunk your finely sliced bread in beaten egg and then it goes into the frying pan in which you have warmed some unsalted butter. Cook it gently so that it's crisp and golden on both sides. To serve, add a sprinkling of cinnamon, a grating or shake of nutmeg and some demerara sugar. OR, best of all, a good glug of maple syrup: the best you can afford, all malty and fragrant. This was also my pre-Brownie tea as a child - until I was removed from Brownies for naughtiness: reader, on the catering badge, I put a flapjack in brown Owl's tea and a squirt of washing up liquid. She was very grumpy. But it was wrong of me.

Sardines on toast. We're supposed to be eating more oily fish, so here goes. I think you need some good, hefty bread. Brown, wholemeal or a proper white with a crackling crust. Or rye bread. I toast my bread very lightly first, then I just drain off some of the oil --sardines in sunflower oil are my choice-- and put the sardines, gently squished, onto the toast. Salt and pepper. Good hot grill. Cook them, watching carefully, until they are sizzling and the skin even beginning to blacken --just a little, mind-- in places. Eat them immediately. I'd like this any time of day.

Tomatoes on toast. Supermamma I'm not (as my children both went to school today with toothpaste besmeared faces, I think), but I did manage a cooked breakfast for everyone today. Into a hot oven go as many cherry tomatoes as you think you will eat, with a big sprig of rosemary, some olive oil and salt and pepper. Cook for twenty minutes and then pile onto hot crispy toast. There may or not also have been coco pops on the table.

And some other tips:

Make a smoothie with raspberries, banana and milk plus a good scoop of Greek yoghurt.

Have a luxury bowl of porridge by dolloping condensed milk or shaking soft brown sugar on the top.

Fry leftover potatoes with a little turmeric, cumin and a little chili: check for seasoning and serve with a poached or fried egg.

Make a BAT: get some good bacon, grill or fry it and then stuff it in the bread of your choice with slices of avocado and tomato.

Boiled egg and soldiers in an eggcup that you like. This works for me. We have, as our mugs, a large and hideous collection of novelty eggcups. For me, though, it's the modest but jaunty, speckled blue eggcup that makes me smile. Proper butter on the bread?