Tuesday 3 January 2012

Powered by Porridge

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! ;-)

11 comments:

  1. You are so creative with your porridge combinations! One of my favorites recently is oats with crumbled carrot cake muffin, sliced banana, and coconut butter.

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  2. Sarah - that sounds amazing! I love crumbling muffins on porridge too, but I finished up my freezer stash of muffins before Christmas, might have to make some more soon! ;)

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  3. Do you find the fresh cranberries to be a bit tart? I have some frozen ones (left over from when I tried to make superjam!) and I did wonder about adding them in, but then I think they are quite sour?
    This morning I had porridge with some tinned peaches which was lovely (one of those small tins of sliced peaches in juice), but anything with melty pb is a winner for me!

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  4. All sound amazing! I have porridge pretty much every morning regardless of the weather. I love it with a mashed banana and peanut butter or a mashed banana and stewed apples like this morning.

    I liked it with Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter over xmas but brought back a tub with me from hols and ate the ENTIRE thing in 24 hours. Didnt even make it onto the oats! The shame!

    Can I ask wear you got your coconut butter?

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  5. I have porridge every morning, my current addiction is Dorset Cereals gingerbread porridge,
    but plain oats with raisins and cinnamon is my usual go-to.

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  6. Your porridge with white chocolate and peanut butter sounds incredible, think I might be having that tomorrow morning!x

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  7. Maria - yeah the cranberries are a bit tart, but I like them. I always cook the porridge with a few drops of vanilla stevia in when I add cranberries to take the edge off a bit. (you could just use sugar). I love porridge with tinned peaches, cinnamon & pb...mmm! :)

    Baje - I bought my coconut butter from iHerb, sad it's all gone now. You can make your own by whizzing desiccated coconut in a food processor...does take a while though! I love Justin's choc hazelnut butter too, that's another one that I want to order more of at some point!

    Laura - I've never tried Dorset Cereals gingerbread porridge...heard lots of good things about it though!

    Celia - thanks, that was one of my favourites - the first thing I ate in 2012! I hope you enjoy it if you make it :)

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  8. I love pumpkin porridge with a whole load of cinnamon to boot! I had never thought of making porridge with juice rather than milk, though I've made it with water and ended up with a bland lumpy mess. Ick =S

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  9. All of those look so good! I love my mince meat porridge but only really around Christmas! Berries and nut butter always do it for me though :-)

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  10. Your so creative with your porridge! Its what I've been eating at the moment, but I've been a bit lazy and bought chocolate brownie flavoured sachets as a treat, and they are so good, but I should get in the habit of making my own as I don't think having too much sugar in the morning is such a good idea!

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