Breakfast ideas
Five-minute breakfast
'Grab and go' breakfast bar
Makes: 6 bars Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 25 minutes Calories per portion (one bar): 300kcal (1,255kJ)
Ingredients: 150g jumbo oats 2 medium very ripe bananas 60g melted butter 60g cherries 60g cranberries 40g sunflower seeds 40g pumpkin seeds
Mornings can be a bit of a rush. Make a batch of these granola bars, made with no added sugar, in advance for a healthy breakfast on the go.
Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan 180°C, gas mark 6). In a bowl, mix together the oats, cherries, cranberries and seeds. Pour in the melted butter and mix in thoroughly to make sure the oats are well coated. On a separate plate, mash the bananas into a pulp with a fork, add to the oat mixture and mix well. Spread the mixture into a 30cm x 20cm tin. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Once cooked, transfer to a wire rack to cool, then cut into six bars.
Tips:
Press the mixture into the baking tin well to help the binding process, but not too hard or it may affect the flavour.
If your first batch is more crumbly than you'd like, try increasing the amount of mashed banana to moisten the mixture before baking
Research suggests that people who eat breakfast are slimmer because they tend to eat less during the day, especially high-calorie snacks.
If you're short on time in the morning, think about ways of gaining time by keeping breakfast simple, either by waking up 10 minutes earlier or getting other chores out of the way ahead of time.
Energy-boosting breakfast
'Apple pie' porridge
Serves: one adult
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes Calories per portion: 345kcal (1,443kJ)
Ingredients: 50g porridge oats 200ml apple juice (with no added sugar) 100ml semi-skimmed milk
1 medium dessert apple, diced 1 pinch of cinnamon
A warm and comforting porridge spiced up with the classic flavours of a homemade apple pie.
Throw all the ingredients into a saucepan. Heat and stir until boiling, then lower the heat and simmer gently for five minutes, stirring often. Spoon the porridge into a serving bowl and add a sprinkling of cinnamon.
Protein-packed breakfast
Scrambled eggs (with optional wholemeal toast)
Serves: one adult Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 5 minutes Calories per portion: scrambled eggs: 247kcal (1,033kJ) 2 slices of wholemeal toast: 190kcal (795kJ)
Ingredients: 2 eggs 4 tbsp semi-skimmed milk 2 slices wholemeal toast 2 tsp low-fat spread 1 pinch of black pepper Optional sprinkling of chopped chives (calories nominal)
The secret to perfect scrambled eggs is to fold them gently in the pan to get curds, rather than a dried, quivering mess.
Lightly mix the eggs and milk in a bowl. Melt the low-fat spread in a pan and add the egg mixture. Cook over a medium-high heat, stirring slowly and gently until they're just set with big soft curds. Serve the eggs on the slices of toast, sprinkle over the chives and season with some pepper.
Tips:
To make green eggs, scramble your eggs with a handful (40g) of spinach (30kcal/125kJ).
Lighter bite
Green smoothie
Serves: one adult Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: none Calories per portion: 140kcal (586kJ)
Ingredients: 40g tinned mango slices (discard liquid) 40g tinned peach slices (discard liquid) 40g frozen spinach 1 medium banana 200ml water (or as required)
A great breakfast if you don't normally have much of an appetite early on. They're also a good portable option.
Compared with some hardcore green smoothie recipes, our green smoothie is a softer version that is quite sweet and fruity, while still giving you a healthy serving of greens. Blend all the ingredients together until smooth.
Tips:
Instead of tinned fruit, you can also use frozen or fresh fruit.
150ml of this smoothie provides two of your 5 A Day. No matter how much you drink, smoothies can only make up two portions of your 5 A Day.
(receipees taken from www.nhs.uk/)
Comments