Picture the scene:

You've woken up late again, nipped into the shower, dried and dressed yourself with lightning speed. You've hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen because no matter how late you are, you just can't miss the most important meal of the day. You open the cupboard usually reserved for breakfast items, and all you see is a cardboard box filled with bits of flaked cardboard- you know it's bad when the word "bran" features prominently on the packaging.

Breakfast Blues

You can't get something more interesting on the way to work (or school), and you're certainly not going to be able to survive until lunchtime. So what do you do? Bite the bullet and risk an unfortunate experience which will leave your tastebuds hating you for the rest of the day? Some brave, desperate souls may take this route, but there are other, more palettable solutions.

A Better Solution?

Try the following recipe out for size. You'll need the following ingredients:

• Inedible cardboard scraps- type breakfast cereal
• Chocolate flavour milkshake powder

Method

1. Pour out a hearty bowlful of the inedible scraps of cardboard-type breakfast cereal. Don't be shy, just pour as much as you would of a more tasty (albeit less healthy) breakfast cereal
2. Sprinkle a few teaspoons of the chocolate milkshake powder over the dry cereal. It's down to individual tastes as to how much, but a general rule would be to sprinkle as many teaspoonsful as the instructions on the packet indicate for a normal glass of milkshake, then add one for luck if you're feeling choclatey
3. Pour ample quantities of ice cold milk all over the lovely mess
4. Mix it up a bit
5. Eat it all up
6. Repeat as required. Rinse if necessary

Of course, any flavour milkshake mix can be used, but chocolate is the all-rounder. With other flavours such as banana, strawberry and white musk you really need to be a bit more careful- some combinations don't work quite so well as others. Why not try mixing your flavours as well- a couple of spoons of chocolate and a couple of strawberry sprinkled over a bowl of plain old rice or corn based cereals could make your morning start with a sugar-rush bang.

Variations on a theme

Now you've been introduced to the fascinating world of breakfast augmentation, you could try other interesting combinations. For instance, golden syrup acts as an interesting alternative to sugar in hotter oat-based breakfast delights, and a sprinkling of chocolate chips or banana slices can add a whole new dimension to your early morning dining.