Helen Peacocke looks at the healthiest and tastiest options

A full English breakfast is not the easiest meal to cook — fried eggs have a habit of breaking up when you take them from the pan, the toast fails to remain warm, the butter taken straight from the fridge refuses to spread and bacon fat often spills on to the floor as you attempt to dish it up. A quick cup of tea or coffee gulped down as you race around the house preparing for work is far more convenient and you don’t even have to sit down to drink it.

Breakfast, it seems, falls low on our list of priorities these days. Apparently almost half of us (47 per cent) skip breakfast at some point during the week and 15 per cent don’t eat a morning meal at all.

A satisfying breakfast should contain 500 to 750 calories, roughly half coming from carbohydrates such as fruits and vegetables, whole grain cereal and whole grain breads, a quarter from fats that can be found in eggs, nuts, seeds peanut butter, milk yogurt, meat and cheese, and a quarter from protein found in ham or bacon.

To encourage us all to fuel our body for the day with more than a cup of coffee, the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA) now stages the Farmhouse Breakfast Week at the end of January. This year it takes place from January 20-26.

Research shows that eating breakfast can make you healthier and happier and it doesn’t have to be the full English. One of the delightful things about breakfast is the variety of different foods you can combine to create a delicious balanced meal, many of which are very easy to prepare.

Breakfast is an ideal way of consuming the recommended five-a-day, with a smoothie, a glass of fruit juice and a generous spoonful of fresh fruit such as blueberries, banana or chopped apple stirred into a breakfast cereal. Baked beans, tinned or fresh tomatoes and mushrooms on toast can add a hefty portion of vegetables to the mix. Starting the day with a glass of water, fruit juice or herbal tea is important too if dehydration is to be avoided.

During Farmhouse Breakfast Week, hundreds of events will be taking place around the country — look for signs giving details in shop and café windows, pubs and restaurants. Activities will include tasting sessions, breakfast competitions, cookery demonstrations, and special breakfast menus. One way of celebrating would be to treat yourself to some quality ingredients and cook your own.

Dews Meadow Farm Shop, Oxford Road, East Hanney, is one outlet where you can buy fantastic dry- cured bacon that fries into crisp tasty slices that don’t weep white fluid as they cook. But the speciality of the house is home-made black pudding and Devonshire hogs pudding, both of which are hand-made by Jane Bowler, who runs the shop with her husband Andy. Jane uses recipes from an old family cookbook, The Butcher’s Manual of Hints and Recipes, a compendium of practical information for all branches of the meat trade by John A Palframan, dating back to the 19th century, which doesn’t call for preservatives or additives.

The Devonshire Hogs Pudding, which originated in Devon, where Jane spent her childhood, is flavoured with mace, nutmeg, parsley and ginger, whereas the black pudding is flavoured with herbs. Both are delicious. The pudding is made with their own pork and cooked in large casings, then cut to size, ready to slice to the required thickness, as with the black pudding. When preparing it for breakfast, slices just need to be popped into the frying pan and seared for a few minutes on each side. They taste great served with poached or scrambled eggs, or with Jane’s delicious hand-cured bacon and the works.

If you cannot get to East Hanney, you will find Jane’s van at most farmers’ markets in South Oxfordshire, where she sells her pork products along with the best bacon butties you can buy. They certainly add a warming touch to a cold January day.

A nationwide search for the country’s best breakfast dish is taking place as part of the Farmhouse Breakfast Week. Cafes, farmshops, restaurants, hotels, guest houses, B&Bs, food vans, stalls and canteens have entered under three different categories — hot breakfast, cold breakfast and most innovative, which contain dishes that offer something really tasty, but different. The winners will be announced on January 27.