Morning has broken

I thought today it might be nice to write something which can draw us away from the topic that seems to dominate most of our conversations at the moment.  By no means am I suggesting that it is not important and real, but I do believe a distraction is valuable now and then.  Therefore, I thought I’d chuck in a recipe today.  Not a classic evening meal, but a breakfast. 

How do you like to start your day?  There are so many answers to that question and everybody has their ideal and their reality.  For me, I love to be up early.  There is something quite exciting (and I know a lot of you will roll your eyes at me or think “what is she talking about”) about being the first up and out and welcoming in the day.  When I can I like to get out of the house for some form of exercise.  This gets my body and mind going and I feel fresher and clearer as a result.  A run or a cycle provides me with an opportunity for peace and prayer which gets my soul up for the day too.  But then there’s breakfast.  Getting the right start to the day can be a make or break sometimes.

I know a lot of people who don’t eat breakfast (something I could never do) and, generally, they seem ok with that.  But is that because they don’t know what to have?  Breakfast in the UK is a bit of a bore.  We don’t experiment very much and tend to stick to what we know…cereal or toast.  Daf and Poppi are big cereal lovers.  I am probably even more boring and tend to opt for porridge.  Cereal was developed in the late 19^th Century and has become more and more popular.  It was classed as “healthy” as it contained grains and fibre.  However, the cereal industry went mad and by the 2000s there were nearly 5000 different brands.  Many are now packed full of sugar and the original grain-based are slowly falling off the shelves. 

We all need a good start to the day.  So, here is a cereal which you can tick some of those original health benefits but be more than just a bowl of plain oats.

Morning Museli

Ingredients

400g oats

100g puffed buckwheat (optional – if not using increase oats to 500g)

100g mixed seeds

150g mixed nuts (lightly toasted and roughly chopped)

200g mixed dried fruit

2 tbsp honey (melted – depending on how sweet you like it you could add more)   

2 tbsp coconut oil

2 tbsp coconut flakes (lightly toasted)

Method

Mix together dry ingredients

Add oil and melted honey and stir well till mostly coated

Bake on a very low heat (100°C) for 20 minutes

Add nuts and dried fruit and bake for a further 10 minutes

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Meanwhile, lightly toast coconut

Remove from oven and stir coconut through

Allow to cool

Serve with your choice of milk or yogurt and fresh berries.

Perhaps a creative little activity whilst we’re stuck at home?