This is a wonderfully tasty and easy-to-make breakfast that is likely to become your favourite. It has a good balance of nutrients incorporating healthy fatty acids, good protein sources and a low glycemic carbohydrate load. You can have it warm or cold. I normally make a bit extra and keep some in the fridge for when my 3-year-old gets peckish later on in the day. It works as an excellent desert as well! It’s home-made with wholesome fresh ingredients and no added sugar. It’s a difficult-to-beat tasty breakfast choice. Give it a try and let me know your opinion. As with all my other recipes, it welcomes your own personal touches to make it more to your taste. Have a go at this:
Ingredients
- Porridge oats
- water or rice milk
- raisins/sultanas or chopped dates (or both) to your taste
- chopped nuts (which you should vary every time: my favourites are soaked almonds or broken peacans)
- 1 or 2 tbsp coconut puree (coconut puree normally solidifies at cold room temperatures, so just break off a piece or two). You could use coconut milk or cream but coconut puree is definitely a good “on a budget” choice and tastes just as good
Add the water and oats to a pan and start to cook on gentle heat mixing every now and again. Keep adding the rest of the ingredients and let it simmer until it reaches your favourite porridge consistency. Once it’s off the heat, I like to add a tbsp of whey powder to enhance protein value but if you are not using dairy in your cooking, you can still get very good protein value from the mixture of oats and nuts in this recipe. I sometimes add a tsp or two of coconut fat as it intensifies the coconut flavour and adds more healthy fatty acids (you can’t go wrong with coconut fat). For variation, I sometimes also add some cinnamon on top, just before serving. Other variations: try adding a couple of drops of natural vanilla extract and a tsp or two of a nut butter of your preference (I like almond butter but you could use peanut butter – providing you do not have any allergies or sensitivies to nuts). Grating an apple and cooking it together with the oats is another possibility to make it into an attractive healthy porridge/desert option (think apple & cinnamon here… hmm). I’d love to know your favourite combinations so do come back for a comment 🙂
Bom apetite!