Do it right and breakfasts can be the desserts of the morning (naturally sweet of course!!). We all know breakfasts are the most important meal of the day and if I ever have the chance to sit down and enjoy it most days, it’s my favourite meal of the day! Regardless of the weather I like to choose my breakfasts and ingredients seasonally and I do like to put in that extra effort just to start the day I want. You know you’ve achieved success when the plate looks instagram worthy and you’ve used mostly natural and minimally processed ingredients! Start healthy!

So here are some ideas to spice up the morning – of course you don’t need to be Jamie Oliver to accomplish any of these:

Added some stewed fruits after draining them
from the saucepan :)

1. Porridge – Maybe save this more for cold-cool mornings like from Autumn to Spring. While the sachets from the supermarket may seem enticing with all the fruity flavours (Porridge in 90 seconds they claim!!) I would rather see all the sugar that goes into these products and add them to their utmost minimum while still keeping it nice!

Start with your basic porridge then dress it up how you want (some of my favourites are suggested below):

¼ C quick oats
½ C skim milk or water
1. All in the microwave for 1 minute to begin with then 30 seconds thereafter until the individual oats have softened (watch out for the bubbling – cleaning the microwave dish after is the biggest trek!)
OR
Combine into a pot and cook on low-medium heat until oats look softened! Keep stirring when it bubbles (we don’t want a layer of porridge at the bottom – also very hard to clean!)


Serving Suggestions (The fun part)

Pantry Ingredients Sprinkle a pinch of desiccated coconut then drizzle with honey/maple syrup Sultanas, some flax seeds stirred through and drizzle of honey/maple syrup Crushed Brazil nuts (Low in GI, full for longer!) with drizzled honey/maple syrup Light dust of cinnamon with drizzle of honey/maple syrup (simple but good :D) Dried apples sliced , sultanas and a dust of cinnamon! 1 tsp cocoa powder stirred through porridge with a drizzle of honey/maple syrup and sprinkle of desiccated coconut (just like a lamington :P)

Fresh ingredients Flaked almonds, half a banana thinly sliced with a drizzle of honey/maple syrup Top with softened apple (slice into saucepan), drizzle of honey/maple syrup and dust of cinnamon! Diced peach slightly softened in a saucepan onto the porridge with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut! Small handful of frozen mixed berries with crushed brazil nuts! Caramelised pears (slice into saucepan with some water and sugar) with halved pistachios

Of course there are many more toppings and infusions!!

Take every opportunity to add seasonal  

2. Mixed Muesli and dried fruit with milk – Simpler and much more refreshing for the hotter days!
Most supermarkets sell already mixed muesli with the fruit which is such a time saver but feel free to customize your own with rolled oats, seeds and your chosen fruits and sliced nuts! Any milk will do, the sweetness of the muesli flavours it so well and I’m recently getting into having it with my soy milk – on point!

Personally I like to let my milk and muesli sit for about 3 mins before I dig in just to get the oats softened just that little bit J




3. All Natural Yoghurt with whatever the heck you want – So so so refreshing and addictive that yoghurt by the 2 kg load always stocks my fridge!

Let your kitchen become a yoghurt parlour for the morning! Load up on 4 tablespoons of yoghurt and then comes the toppings! Choose from fresh and dried cut fruits, nuts, bircher muesli, mixed berries, honey and fruit syrups (watch the sugar in these)!!

4. Brekkie smoothie on the GO – You can still enjoy a good brekkie on the run, just transition into the sippy kind with a straw! There is no one recipe for this since ingredients are seasonal! Just stick with the base ingredients – 1 cup of milk, 1.5 tablespoons of quick oats, sweet fresh fruits sliced up first (strawberries, banana, peaches, apples, apricots to name a few) all into a blender and watch it go like a kid in a candy store! I haven’t experimented with cocoa smoothies yet so I can’t advise you here!

While Up and Go’s were my best friends in my dark times of braces and early school mornings I would much prefer to mix my own in the blender before heading off! Up and Go keeps long for a reason – that’s right preservatives and emulsifiers! So how hard can it really be?

Add to the blender: 1 cup of skim milk (or any milk), 2 weetbix, 1 tablespoon of caramel syrup and a quick squeeze of honey. Optional: add 1 tsp chocolate powder and 1 tsp coffee powder for a mocha creation!

"Forever Alone" Egg Fritter with a green juice last weekend
Great meal to check your social networking to :D

5. Toast with mashed avocado- let's get one thing straight here, your avos are filled with all the good sorts of fats and are lower in carbs than a banana! From now on avocados will be your friend!

Just mash a small cut enough to spread over the whole toast (even the edges)! Crack over some salt and pepper or even a drizzle of honey/syrup and voila!







6. Egg fritter - this is one of my sisters creations (here she is) which we cook for one in this little "forever alone" (as we like to call it) saucepan we got from IKEA!

All you need:
- small portions of chopped tomato, chickpeas, diced ham (or any left over meat)
- 1 egg pre whisked in a bowl with a tbsp of milk and pinch of mixed herbs.

1. All into a small saucepan or egg template (toppings first for a little sizzle then egg mix last) with some canola oil spray!
2. Turn off heat and cover saucepan with foil to completely cook the egg.

Level up from scrambled eggs! Score!



That's all for now! Of course give these a go with your own personal spin and let me know what you think! For now I'll be working on how to master the overnight oats and incorporating tea infusions to the porridges! It all has to begin with some sort of disaster!

So stay cool for the summer and go find yourself some seasonal fruit to kick start your day! 

Home is where the jaffle is

Aren't the shapes just Art? Great if you like your
bread cut in triangles like me :P

We all have that distinct smell in our homes of a Saturday morning, when most parents are at home having a well deserved sleep in and the kids open one eye to catch the sunlight dancing on their bed, snuggling further into the recesses of their pillows and blankets. The house is serene, basking in the early sun almost like a lazing lizard on a spot of rock on this great earth. Paint begins to peel and flake on its exterior, signs of the Australian sun at work. For now the sun is modest, it rises above the trees to warm the leaves the pavement. For me, sunlight would explode into the bedroom and I would lie awake for a while watching the rays catch the dust swirling stealthily about the room. An occasional magpie would venture to perch on the window sill crooning over its shoulder into the rows of roses and pumpkins that was our garden below. The parents are already out of bed and that is when the first sounds are heard from the kitchen.

The time had come and was marked by the sweet smell of butter instilled in the air. The ingredients in their isolation smell of nothing until layered into the jaffle hot plate to pop out as crisp, golden sandwiches that break effortlessly to form triangle slices. The machine even imprinted neat lines on each triangle and you would know when it was ready by the flick of the green light and the sizzle as the edges finally gave way to the cheese.

Its contents ooze a little though the sealed edges, cheese comes first and maybe some toasted sliced tomato. We used to make ours with ham, cheese and tomato – simple yet it endured every Saturday, a welcoming change from porridge in winter and cereal in summers before school. It transcended all seasons and my sister and I would pick them up with little fingers and nibble cautiously in case the goodness scolded our tongues (yes too much goodness can harm you :P). You simply could not leave it on the bench to cool! 

I know what you’re thinking. It’s a jaffle maker, it makes jaffles (duh) and so what? Do we not link smells to a time in the past, an exact place and location? A place that may not be present or standing anymore as in my case? How times have changed when you look back and see how our breakfasts have evolved (just an odd thought), often the first smells and sounds of the morning amidst the rush to start the day. The fact is childhood memories manifest in different ways that we often don’t realise and recognise. Little does that magpie know that it is instilled in a childhood memory, wherever it may be now.

Nowadays I make the jaffles for the household. We used to call it “Breville” after the brand of our jaffle maker. “Breville” itself sounds kind of snug and homey just like the sandwich itself. Now in our teens we promoted ourselves to adding a little salami too but the classic from the past always has a place on the hot plates. I thought it was important to put this simple memory into writing – in a few decades it may be a lasting memory to sustain us all!

I’ll leave you with some thoughts for jaffle toppings I’ve tried in the past. You may soon realise the jaffle maker is one of the best kitchen investments you’ve made (no exaggeration here :P )
No more boring sandwiches and toast!!

Just top up one slice with either (you choose the ingredient portions):
- a few spoons of canned baked beans and some cheese :P
- a few twirls of canned spaghetti
- Tomato, diced (or slice of) ham and cheese (any cheese!)
- Avocado, tomato, ham and cheese
- leftover macaroni cheese (dare I say- which some like but I still can’t warm up to after trying!)

Nothing beats the "Big Cheese" everrrrrr!!

Well I hope the above won’t be the first quirky thought you’ve encountered today but I think its nice thinking about our childhood every now and then (even though I’m not that old yet!). Some we can recall with remarkable clarity – a chain of thoughts and senses that string together – and I love the excitement as you and your friends/family can fill in the details together and remember the exact same memory as it happened J

See if you can recall something from your childhood! The trick is not to think too hard!

Toodles for now!
Mimi