A dear friend of mine asked me to recommend something for breakfast.  The brief was a good simple porridge with chia seeds.  Something healthy but filling and that keeps you full for ages and is low in sugar.  To remain sated for a long time a meal needs to have a low GI that is, to not give you a blood sugar spike.  The meal should contain protein and good fat plus, for health, some raw fruits and/or veggies.

This is a porridge I made for Harvey recently.  In the base of the bowl is a mashed banana.  I made porridge with unsweetened soya milk and added in some cashew nuts instead of chia seeds.  The nuts had been soaked and then blitzed in the coffee grinder so they resembled a cashew nut butter.  This was served with some fresh raspberries  and a heaped tsp of honey which you could leave out. The breakfast Harvey and I both enjoyed today is another I would recommend.  It is particularly good for busy parents or working people as it can be made the night before and popped in the fridge.  In fact it has to be.

Overnight Oats

Ingredients

• 40 g oats
• 200ml milk of choice (I used almond milk)
• 10g chia seeds
• Fruit of choice (I added an orange today)
• Handful of nuts e.g. today I added 10 pecans and 10 almonds (optional)

Method

• The night before you want to eat breakfast, place oats, milk and chia seeds in a dish or tupperware pot and mix well
• Add fruit
• Cover and leave in fridge overnight
• In the morning, add nuts

By the morning, the chia seeds and oats will have absorbed the milk.  This leaves a thick and creamy “porridge” consistency.  Oats and milk are quite sweet anyway so they do not need sugar and adding fresh fruit makes it even sweeter.

The first time you make this, I recommend following the proportions given above so you end up with the correct consistency but then fiddle around with it to suit you.
Harvey loved this and ate it at home before hopping on the school bus.  I took mine to work today and enjoyed eating it at my desk with a mug of black tea.  A delicious start to the day and it kept me full for hours.

538 calories I was very organised on Sunday evening as not only did I make breakfast the night before but I also made lunch.  It was very satisfying to go to bed and know I had healthy meals prepared and some good leftovers in the fridge to make mid week suppers quicker and therefore easier.

Lunch was a huge bowl of salad with another portion of the spicy peanut sauce. 423 calories I didn’t have many calories left for dinner.  I earned 93 calories for doing a 20 minute walk at lunch time so I just had enough for spaghetti bolognaise because I made the “pasta” from spiralled courgette. The bolognaise is left over mince from Friday’s dinner and left over cooked carrots so that was a really quick and easy dinner.  Harvey had spaghetti instead of courgette so I lightly steamed the courgettes over the pasta water.

303 caloriesAnother day of eating within calories, eating healthily and some exercise.