Cooking in Japan--Breakfast

I am always curious about what people eat in other countries, so I thought I'd post a list of what we eat here. I also want to use this list to remind me of meal ideas and to also help the teachers that move here and have no idea what to eat. I really struggled with food the first time we moved here, but now I have a much easier time figuring out what to feed my family. I count this as a great blessing in my life!

A few points about this list:
A.) A lot of this food is totally American. I am slowly learning to cook some more Japanese food, so hopefully more Japanese home cooking gets on this list!
B.) So much white flour. For shame! Unfortunately, you can't buy whole wheat flour in Japan unless you want to pay a TON of money. You in the U.S. can always substitute whole wheat flour, of course.
C.) Most of my recipes are from allrecipes.com or random food blogs. I like Favorite Family Recipes.
D.) Most of the stores here carry different specialty items, so sometimes you have to shop at a few stores to get the best deals or to find particular items, like good pickles, pesto, etc. But it's amazing the things you can find here if you're willing to travel!
E.) Expect to see ALOT of rice on the menu. Rice is Japan's bread and is pretty much eaten at every meal.

Okay, the meals. We'll just do breakfast today:

Breakfast

Norwegian Pancakes (basic crepe recipe but in our family we fill them with lemon and brown sugar). Crepes are very popular in Japan, too!

Pancakes--no buttermilk in Japan, so you can make your own by putting a couple of Tablespoons of lemon juice into a cup of milk or so.

Oatmeal--*this is a specialty item you have to order from Foreign Buyer's Club or Costco here, and it's about $20 for a bulk box of whole oats. My sis Laris will love that I am totally sold on the whole oats now, not quick oats. Worth every penny!

French Toast

Scrambled eggs and toast

Chicken and Rice--Fox doesn't eat eggs, so in the mornings, I toss in half a cup of rice and 2 frozen chicken breast halves in the rice cooker with a little broth. The chicken cooks perfectly by the time the rice is done. Awesome!

Miso soup and rice--Occasionally, we'll do the traditional miso soup, but I'm still perfecting my recipe. Instant miso soup is another option, although salty. We buy a big tub of mixed red/white miso. So yummy! The internet is full of miso soup recipes.

Fried rice--I like fried rice for breakfast, especially if we had rice for dinner the night before and had leftovers. Just rice in oil with green peppers, onion, garlic and a little soy sauce. Sometimes I add cabbage, shrimp, or scrambled eggs.

Brazilian rice--? Not sure if this is the correct name, but this is Fox's second favorite breakfast. He just puts rices in a bowl with some milk and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. He has always loved this for breakfast, although I'm not sure how he got the idea to eat rice like this.

Frosted flakes--Ack! I can't believe I'm saying this, but sometimes I buy the only cereal you can buy here, which is frosted flakes. For when I'm feeling lazy or we're in a rush out the door. My kids eat this and an hour later have a huge sugar crash.

Yogurt parfaits-- I follow a variation of this Stovetop Granola recipe, which is amazing! It works perfectly, since I don't like baking granola in my tiny ovenwave (microwave that doubles as an oven). Plain yogurt is super cheap, too, so I flavor it with vanilla and put in the granola and bananas. Yummy!