Porridge!

Porridge is an excellent way to start the day, particularly if you have a long ride ahead, or it’s a cold winter morning and a long day at work, school or college beckons.

A very cheap yet nutritious meal packed with slow burning energy it may be, however it is probably fair to say it doesn’t taste of much on its own. Think of it more as a blank canvass for what you can embellish it with to suit you.

We have a suggestion for you here, weighing in at 716 calories, or a morning in the saddle.

Ingredients

You will need:

• Porridge Oats (60g)
• Dried mixed fruit (90g)
• Semi-skimmed milk (400ml)
• Sugar (1tsp)
• Cinnamon (ground)

There’s an easy trick where it comes to preparing porridge. Grab a mug and half fill it with porridge oats. Pour that into a small saucepan.

With the same mug, half fill it with mixed fruit and pour that in with the oats. Using the same mug again, pour one and a half mugs of milk into the saucepan, along with a teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of cinnamon to taste.

Gently heat the mixture and give it a good stir every so often. Keep stirring as the milk starts to bubble. Give it a taste and when you are happy with the consistency, pour it into a bowl.

Nutrition information

We put this recipe through MyFitnessPal and it came up with the following:

• Calories – 716
• Fat – 5g saturated; 2g monounsaturated; 2g polyunsaturated; 0g trans fat (25% RDA)
• Cholesterol – 0g
• Sodium – 36mg (2% RDA)
• Carbohydrate – 125g (42% RDA)
• Dietary fibre – 8g (32% RDA)
• Protein – 23g (46% RDA)
• Calcium – 63% RDA
• Iron – 1% RDA

All being well, this should keep you going for a good few hours. A large bag of porridge oats cost us 75p; a bag of mixed fruit around £1.50 and a large bottle of milk around £1.50. Apart from the milk, you should be able to make that last a couple of weeks.

If you don’t like the mixed fruit, you could try blueberries, golden syrup, honey or whatever you have to hand. Porridge is nothing if not versatile.