Tag: Easy breakfast

Coffee, Banana and Vanilla Smoothie

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We’re in the middle of a heatwave, and you’d be forgiven for thinking I had lost the plot as it may sound like a weird combination, but honestly you have to try it before you judge. I also think the secret is the perfect pairing is with the use of Alpro Soya Vanilla drink. Completely unendorsed, I fell in love with this product many moons ago whilst at university studying for my undergraduate nutrition degree and stumbled upon this. The combination of flavours which worked so well it became my signature drink of choice. Perfect as both breakfast on the go, or as a mid-morning snack along side a coffee pick me up when packaged away in a thermos flask to keep it nicely chilled.

It’s the perfect smoothie for a heatwave where you would love a coffee but don’t want a hot drink. Also great for preventing any banana wastage as once they start turning spotty brown simply peel and freeze in chunks ready to make this drink.

Each serving provides you with:

  • 1 of you 5 a day
  • 35% of your daily calcium requirements
  • 18% of your potassium requirements
  • Source of fluids for hydration

Serves 1

Ingredients

  • 1 banana, frozen overnight
  • 50ml coffee of choice
  • 200ml Alpro Soya Vanilla drink

Method

  • Place all of the ingredients in a high-speed blender till smooth.
  • Pour into a glass, or into a thermos flask to save for later.
Coffee, Banana & Vanilla Smoothie

Hot Cross Bun French Toast

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Leftover hot cross buns? Fancy an alternative breakfast this Easter weekend? Here is a delicious way to enjoy your hot cross buns. You can use shop-bought, or try my delicious Best of Both Apple & Cinnamon, or my vegan St. Clement recipes.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 2 hot cross buns
  • 1 egg
  • 50ml milk of choice
  • Pinch of cinnamon
  • 5g butter or cooking oil

To serve

  • Yoghurt
  • Berries

Method

  • In a flat-bottomed container, mix the egg, milk, and cinnamon.
  • Slice the hot cross buns in half and soak in the mixture for 5 minutes.
  • Heat a pan over a medium heat, and add the butter or oil.
  • Cook the soaked buns in the pan for 2-3 minutes per side till golden brown.
  • Serve hot with yoghurt and berries

Porridge Pancakes

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A delicious and easy way to start the day. Perfect for Pancake Day, or make a stash for on the go. Naturally sweet from the banana, these have no added sugar. You could further flavour the pancakes with fruits such as blueberries, or use dark chocolate chips for an extra sweet kick.

Use gluten-free oats to make this gluten-free, or dairy-free by using a milk alternative and yoghurt alternative (I have used soya products in this recipe).

Porridge Pancakes

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 large banana
  • 1 egg
  • 100g rolled oats
  • 50ml milk of choice
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)
  • Oil for frying

To serve

  • 150g strawberries
  • 80g raspberries
  • 160g yoghurt (I have used soya yoghurt)
  • A few mint leaves

Method

  • Mash the banana in a bowl with a fork till you have very small lumps.
  • Add the remaining ingredients, except for the oil, and mix well.
  • Heat a frying pan over a low heat.
  • Wipe 1/4 tsp of oil around the pan before adding spoonfuls of the mixture, spaced out. You should be able to make 6-8 pancakes from the batter.
  • Cook for 2 minutes, before flipping and cooking for a further 2 minutes.
  • Serve in stacks with yoghurt, berries and mint.
Delicious served with fruit and yoghurt

Per serving*: 430kcal/ 11g fat/ 1.9g saturated fat/ 60g carbohydrates/ 12g fibre/ 15g protein

*Analysis based on unsweetened soya milk and unsweetened soya yoghurt

Bakewell Breakfast Bar

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Get a head start on the week by whipping up a batch of my Bakewell Breakfast Bars. Naturally sweetened using dates and cherries, these bars contain no added sugar. They also pack some wholesome goodness in the form of oats and wholemeal flour meaning they contain 5.5g of fibre per bar as well as some healthy fats from the seeds and nuts.

If you don’t have cherries you can substitute in other dried fruits such as apricots, raisins, sultanas or even blueberries – just watch out that the dried fruits don’t contain added sweeteners such as glucose or apple juice. You can also swap the almonds and almond butter for other nuts or nut butter, or top with coconut chips.

These are great for on-the-go in the morning or as an afternoon snack. Keep in an airtight Tupperware container for 4-5 days or alternatively freeze them for longer-term storage.

Makes 9 squares

Ingredients

  • 100g pitted dates
  • 25g linseeds
  • 60g dried unsweetened cherries
  • 50g skin-on almonds
  • 75g butter or vegan butter
  • 25g almond butter
  • 100g wholemeal flour
  • 100g oats
  • 15g sliced almonds

Method

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 25x25cm baking tin with baking parchment.
  • Soak the pitted dates in 50ml boiling water and the linseeds in 50ml tap water for 5 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, roughly chop the almonds and cherries by hand or using a food processor. If using a food processor remove once chopped.
  • After the dates have soaked for 5 minutes transfer them to the food processor and blitz to a paste*
  • Add the butter, almond butter and soaked linseeds with the water and blend together.
  • Add the flour to form a sticky dough.
  • Add the oats and chopped almonds and cherries and pulse until it just comes together. If you want a smoother consistency pulse for longer.
  • Press into the lined tin and top with flaked almonds before baking for 20 minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing.
Bakewell Breakfast Bars

Courgette, Feta and Mint Fritters

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At present I currently have courgettes coming out of my ears! 1 courgette plant would be sufficient to feed a small family with a steady supply of courgettes each week. So naturally we have 10 plants (not to mention the questionable marrow-looking plants) and I am spending all my free time trying to work out new ways of giving courgettes away to unwilling neighbours – they are all currently sick of courgettes too!

Making these super light fritters is the perfect way of using up a courgette or two. You simply do not realise you are eating courgette till you have wiped the plate clean.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 1 medium courgette, around 180g, grated
  • 1 medium egg
  • 50g wholemeal flour
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 50ml milk
  • 10 mint leaves, finely sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, finely grated
  • 40g flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
  • 70g feta cheese, crumbled
  • Chilli flakes to taste
  • Extra virgin olive oil to fry

Options to serve with:

  • Sour cream
  • Poached egg
  • Avocado
  • Smoked salmon
  • Salad

Method

  • Combine the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl and mix. Season with pepper to taste.
  • Add the milk and egg to make a batter. Add the remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
  • Heat a pan with 1/2 tsp olive oil and add a spoonful of batter into the pan, spreading them out so each round does not touch another. You should be able to make around 6 fritters in total.
  • Fry each fritter for 2 minutes per side till golden brown. Repeat till all the batter is used. If you are making a larger quantity keep them warm on a tray in a pre-heated oven set to 100°C.
  • Serve hot with your toppings of choice.

Per 3 fritters: 265kcal/ 12.3g fat/ 7.1g saturated fat/ 23.6g carbohydrates/ 4.3g fibre/ 15.0g protein

Wholemeal Pancakes

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Start the day right with my wholemeal pancakes. These breakfast treats are delicious straight out of the pan and finished with your favourite toppings. You can go classic with berries and yoghurt as I have done below, or make a drizzle of tahini and honey, or even go more savoury with bacon and eggs.

Each portion of pancakes on their provides you with 6.4g fibre. That’s 21% of your daily fibre recommendation without having even added anything to them, so it really is a perfect way to start you day.

What if you don’t have wholemeal flour to hand? Not a problem, you can use plain flour, but this drastically reduces the fibre content down to just 1.8g per portion of pancakes, so if possible, add some high fibre ingredients back in such as ground linseeds, or try topping with my chia and blueberry compote.

Serves 2

Ingredients

  • 120g wholemeal flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp caster sugar
  • 1 medium egg
  • 80ml milk of choice (I’ve used almond)
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + extra for cooking

Method

  • Mix the dry ingredients together
  • Mix the wet ingredients together, then combine with the dry ingredients.
  • Heat a pan over a medium heat with a drizzle of oil and drop a spoonful of batter into the pan. Add more batter depending on the size of you pan.
  • Turn the pancake over after 2 minutes, ensuring they are golden brown. Cook for a further 2 minutes on the second side.
  • Best served immediately from the pan with your favourite pancake topping.

Per 3 pancake serving: 384kcal/ 18.1g fat/ 2.9g saturated fat/ 46.0g carbohydrates/ 6.4g fibre/ 9.7g protein

Frozen Berry Overnight Oats

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Overnight oats are a fantastic way of getting a quick and nutritious breakfast. So easy to make, taking just 5 minutes, and you can use whatever you have in stock at home. Then, just let it sit in the fridge overnight, and it’s hassle free grab-and-go breakfast in the morning.

In a recent publication, researchers at The University of Leeds reinvestigated the sugar content of yoghurts available in UK supermarkets. This was in response to their previous investigations published in 2018 with BJM which looked at the nutrient content of yoghurts back in 2016.

Yoghurt is often described as a healthy food, which it is, but the original study highlighted that less than 10% of available yoghurts were low in sugar, that’s <5g free sugar per 100g. Startlingly, almost no yoghurts aimed at children were low in sugar, which could contribute to childhood obesity and dental caries.

In their new paper, they compared the sugar content of the same yoghurts from 2016, and found that there was a 13% decrease in the sugar content over the past 2 years, highlighting a potentially positive effect public policy can have. Additionally, the greatest reduction in sugar were seen in children’s drinks and fruit yoghurts, while the number of different children’s and organic products also decreased by 23% and 27% respectively since the original dataset taken in 2016.

Overnight oats with frozen berries

Using a plain yoghurt is considered the best option, sweetening it yourself with whole fruit, which can be fresh or frozen.

Ingredients

  • 40g whole oats
  • 10g chia seeds
  • 10g sultanas
  • 80g plain yoghurt
  • 80ml milk, I have used kefir
  • 50g frozen cherries
  • 50g frozen blackcurrants
  • 15g chopped almonds

Method

  • Mix the oats, chia seeds, sultanas, yoghurt and milk together till there are no lumps.
  • Top with the frozen fruit, cover, and leave overnight in the fridge.
  • Add the chopped almonds just before eating.
Overnight oats with nuts and berries