Commuter cooking:A bowl of porridge will give you plenty of energy for the day ahead. Adding nuts and fruit makes it taste more like a treat than a health food, writes Catherine Cleary
Just when it seems life cannot get any busier it invariably does. And when your brain is frazzled with work, traffic and chores, the thing that is usually nudged to the bottom of the list is food.
It is ironic that the food that can sustain and nurture us through times of crisis is usually ditched in favour of comforting sugar hits such as the bar of chocolate you eat as you queue to pay for petrol, feeling hungry and tired. We may feel healthy as we reach for the cereal box in the mornings and splash on some milk, but the sugar content can be the equivalent of glugging down a soft drink and a doughnut.
By mid-morning our sugar levels have crashed and we are ready for another hit that will lead to a certain slump by the afternoon. By the end of the day we are more exhausted than we should be, and the food we have eaten is partly to blame.
Porridge used to be a byword for purgatory and deprivation. But then the more we learned about how food energy is released into the bloodstream the more porridge regained its rightful place as an essential start to the day. A bowl in the morning can steel you to face the sea of chocolate at the checkout and not weaken.
Admittedly, plain porridge does taste a little too goody-two-shoes to get your blood pumping in the morning. The trick is to make it more like a warm muesli, with tasty nuts and fruits, but without the hidden teaspoons of sugar. Making it with milk rather than water (creamy warmth rather than grey gruel) can also make it taste more like a treat than a health food. A teaspoon or two of honey or maple syrup completes the picture.
To save time, you can make a mixture of dried fruit, nuts and seeds and store it in a jar or plastic container ready to be sprinkled over the cooked porridge with a drizzle of honey when it's cooked.
You can cook porridge in a microwave, but it takes just five minutes to cook on a hob. Think of it as a moment of morning meditation, sorting out all that lies ahead as you stir.
Now that summer fruit is coming, smoothies are a great way to get five-a-day, or more, in one sitting. Yes, there are fantastic smoothies in the shops, but home-made ones have not been pasteurised so the flavours sing out that bit more.
And finally, a home-made muffin that can be made at the weekend and frozen is the perfect take-it-and-run breakfast. Just remember to take one out of the freezer the night before.
PERFECTLY TASTY PORRIDGE
Quantities are per person
1 cup porridge oats
1 cup full fat milk (or half milk, half water if you
prefer)
Two tbsp of a mixture of any or all of the
following: sultanas, raisins, pumpkin seeds,
sesame seeds, toasted hazelnuts, chopped brazil
nuts, flaked almonds
1 tsp honey or maple syrup
Put the porridge and milk (or milk and water) into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat on the hob. You can turn it on and walk away and get away with a final stir at the end, but the consistency is better if you stir during the cooking. Cook until the porridge is creamy and the oats have lost their hard edges. Add more liquid if you prefer a runnier porridge. When it cools, the porridge thickens, so add more milk if you are reheating it. Sprinkle some of the fruit/nut/seed mixture over the top and drizzle with honey or maple syrup.
BREAKFAST MUFFINS
Makes nine small muffins or five to six larger
ones
30g butter
1 large mashed banana
2 handfuls sultanas
1 handful chopped walnuts
100g wholemeal flour (or spelt flour)
1 tsp baking powder
30g brown sugar
1 egg
50g frozen raspberries, blackberries or blueberries
Heat the oven to a hot setting of around 200 degrees. Melt the butter in a pan and add it to the mashed banana, sultanas and walnuts. Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar together and then add the melted butter mixture and the egg. Stir the frozen fruit into the mixture. Use the fruit straight from the freezer and it won't dry out in the cooking. Spoon the mixture into a muffin tray lined with paper cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the muffins have risen and browned. Cool on a wire tray and freeze.
BREAKFAST SMOOTHIES
Serves two
2 kiwi fruit
1 large banana
A handful frozen raspberries
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
300ml apple or orange juice
Peel and chop the fruit and put it in a blender and blitz. Add the raspberries, yoghurt and enough juice to make it as runny as you like.