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As I mentioned yesterday, I have been trying to get back on track with healthier eating for the last few days. One of the main bad habits that had crept in over the last month or so was not having breakfast. I'd been making myself a large latte first thing, and then not eating anything else (or perhaps picking at chocolate/cake) until lunchtime.

Since Wednesday I have been focusing on making time for breakfast. My favourite winter breakfast is porridge, and it doesn't take any longer to cook it in the microwave than it does to heat up the milk for my latte...so I have no excuse!

I've actually really enjoyed getting back into porridge to be honest. I used to eat it all the time during winter 2010, and it's been great re-discovering some of my favourite combinations. Here are some of the porridge breakfasts I've been enjoying recently...

Porridge made with fresh cranberries and vanilla stevia, topped with crunchy peanut butter:

Porridge cooked with chopped fresh plums and cinnamon, topped with spiced plum jam:

Porridge with cranberries and vanilla stevia, topped with a couple of squares of Lindt sea salt:

Mmm, chocolate is a good addition - sweet & melty!!

You might not be able to see much porridge in this bowl, but this was porridge cooked with chopped fresh pear and ground ginger, topped with a mix of melted white chocolate and smooth peanut butter - delicious!

Finally, this morning's breakfast. Porridge cooked in tinned pineapple juice instead of milk, with the leftover pineapple pieces as well. Mixed with agave and desiccated coconut, and then poured into a near-empty coconut butter jar:

Cooking the oats in pineapple juice instead of milk made the porridge quite tangy, but the coconut butter soon added back lots of creaminess :)

What is your favourite porridge combination? Which breakfasts do you find keep you full for longest? I love all types of breakfasts - French toast, pancakes, cereal etc, but I definitely find that porridge keeps me more full, which is ideal at the moment as one of the other things I'm trying to focus on is cutting back on how many snacks I have. I don't want to miss out on all the other breakfasts I love though, so on Sunday I had porridge for breakfast and then French toast for lunch...with a maple banana sauce...it was New Year's Day after all! ;-)

Food From The Weekend

Hello! How have all your weekends been? Good I hope :) We've had a relaxed one here - bit of tidying, bit of exercise and, of course, lots of eating!

I've been trying to eat a bit "better" this weekend - cutting down on my snacking and processed foods - as I realised that it is less than 2 weeks until Liam's graduation ceremony and I have nothing to wear, eek!

This has resulted in some quite yummy meals - going back to basics + trying new things is good! :)

Saturday morning I had a smoothie for the first time in ages. It was a bit cold, but delicious - about a quarter of frozen avocado, frozen blueberries, a banana, milk and a little agave...

This was really tasty, I love how thick the avocado makes smoothies!

After this Izzy and I headed to the gym. She started going to a gymnastics club which she really enjoys. Last week I stayed to watch to check she got on ok, but this week I spent the time in the gym (just down the corridor) instead - a bit of exercise for me while Izzy has fun, win!

Lunch on Saturday was a big plate of roasted red kabocha squash, with a couple of scrambled eggs and ketchup randomly on the side!

I've got majorly into roasted squash recently, I just wish it wasn't so difficult to cut! Luckily at the weekends Liam is home to do the knife work for me. We had squash again today, and I asked Liam to chop some extra up for me to use tomorrow/Tuesday - save my fingers from getting chopped off!! :)

Dinner last night was a quick stir fry - courgettes, peppers, basil tofu, noodles and soy sauce:

Simple but tasty. We hadn't had stir fry in ages for some reason, despite Liam often asking for it, so this was appreciated by all of us.

After dinner treat of a Halloween "Scream" Egg! I love Creme Eggs and this tastes just the same, with a seasonal colour, yum!

*****

This morning started off with another smoothie, but an even better one - Oh She Glows' Pumpkin Gingerbread Smoothie. Minus the chia seeds as I really don't like them, this was delicious. The recipe says it makes only 1 serving, but I managed to fill the glass below 2 and a bit times - no complaints here! :)

This was fantastic...I'm planning to have it again tomorrow! It somehow didn't seem as cold as Saturday's smoothie, although I'm sure that was just psychological - pumpkin is such a comforting food no matter what temperature it's served at.

Lunch today was a random assortment of foods that needed eating. The others all had cheese on toast, but whenever I have that I end up having two slices, and then wanting another two slices immediately after! Not such a good idea on day 2 of "better" eating! Instead I had this warm salad that filled me up and kept me full for much longer than cheese on toast would have.

Cooked quinoa/bulgar mix, last of a bagged salad that needed eating, roasted beetroot (thanks Mum!), avocado and Munchy seeds. This was delicious - I'm always pleased when I make a bit more effort with my food. Trying to improve my eating has made me realise how much we rely on bread, especially for weekend lunches (yesterday the others had poached eggs on English muffins when I had my squash egg combo) but I never find that bread fills me up for long so finding other alternatives is great. This salad was perhaps a bit too filling - I spent a good 20 minutes unable to move after finishing eating!!

Tonight's dinner was another one that we haven't had in ages - butternut squash risotto. This time without spinach, and with a red pesto "sauce"...

I love this recipe. It's actually really quick to make, but tastes like more effort has been put into it. Today I used a mix of red kabocha squash and butternut squash (with half the butternut left for another day) which worked just as well. I did miss the spinach - next time I must remember to buy some. I used to always have some in over the summer, but I haven't been making any green smoothies lately.

What was the best thing you ate this weekend? Pumpkin smoothie for me I think - I loved all the meals I've had but my sweet tooth always wins! Also, any suggestions for what I can wear for Liam's graduation??? I'm thinking black trousers and a nice top maybe? I'd quite like to wear a dress, but I always have an issue with shoes (size 8, wide, flat feet = shoe-shopping nightmare!) and I can probably squeeze into the black trousers I already own which would cut down on the new clothes I need to buy. Feel free to link to any nice clothes you've spotted recently please - I'm thinking a shopping trip will be needed later in the week!