11 Nov The Humble Porridge Oat

I know we’re coming to the end of winter. YEAH! But there are still plenty of cold mornings ahead so a hot bowl of porridge is the perfect breakfast to fire you up. And as long as you soak them overnight they can just as easily be eaten without being cooked, so can make a great summer breakfast too.

When I was a kid my mum used to have a big pot of porridge erupting on the stove most school mornings, it was, and still is, a cheap breakfast but I had no idea how good it was for me, all I knew was that it filled me up, somehow kept me warmer and was a nightmare when you got the job of cleaning the pan out!

I have since discovered that the humble oat is loaded with nutrients and offers a good percentage of the RDA of B Vitamins, Folic Acid, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorous, Potassium and Zinc including, of course a good dose of dietary fibre to keep things moving and a number of other equally important trace elements! All in all it packs a pretty hefty nutritional punch.

Soaked overnight and then made in a pan* with half water and half milk (soy, coconut, almond, rice or dairy) and that nutritional punch increases, add a handful of blueberries or a sliced banana and up it goes again, throw on a few nuts and seeds and you are truly starting your day with a bang! It beats a bowl of ‘fortified’ cereal hands down. (They are only ‘fortified’ because they take all the goodness out during processing so feel the need to add some back in!)

So as you can see oats are one of the best whole grains around and although they contain gluten, it is not wheat gluten so is much easier to digest and causes a lot less problems. Although you can of course buy gluten free oats if concerned.

Go on give it a try and see if it works for you!

* Avoid micro waving these precious wholegrain, it has been researched and proved that micro waving food seriously depletes the nutrient content, why would you want to do that?