If you’ve been following The Breakfast Challenge then you’ll know I’m a bit ambivalent about porridge. I’m trying to like it. Oats for breakfast are hugely healthy – low GI, cholesterol busting, lots of B vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals – but regular old porridge is a bit bland for my tastes, unless it’s loaded up with brown sugar and cream, which sort of defeats the purpose.
I’m on a mission to lower my “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. I already eat really well, and I can’t bring myself to consider the “proven to lower cholesterol” margarines so there’s not a lot to play with. Oats, lots of oats, and oat bran, linseeds, and macadamia oil are just about the limit of the adjustments I can make.
If you’ve been following the Breakfast Challenge series at all, you’ll know that “my current favourite” breakfast is usually only the current favourite for a few weeks. Partly that’s because what is best, in taste and in health and in cost, is always based on the fruits and nuts and grains and vegetables that are in season.
I actually like my oats better savory than sweet, and in a pressure cooker, steel cut oats will cook quickly enough to be a good option.
I found this gem iron in an op shop. It took me several months and quite a few goes to learn how to use it, but now it is one of my favourite kitchen tools.
I have a theory that bitter tastes are often acquired tastes, because bitter foods are usually either medicinal or poisonous. So natural selection would favour tasters who were very tentative and cautious at first, but if there were no adverse effects, decided they really liked the flavour.
This is porridge to convert non-porridge eaters!
I have been waiting for apple season to post this recipe. It is, like all the Muesli Bar Challenge recipes, fast and easy enough to knock up on a weeknight, and low fat, low sugar, low GI enough to belong in everyday school or work lunch boxes.
The first of the new season apples have just arrived at our local Farmers Market, coming down from the Tablelands (within our 160 km range as the crow flies), and there are still some late season peaches too, so just for a few weeks the seasons overlap.
Banana season peaks in February in this part of the world (northern NSW).