Breakfast, most important meal of the day

14th September 2015

Let whatever you do today be enough.

I enjoyed myself a roast beef dinner yesterday, after spending the morning in the garden with mom, my idea of a perfect Sunday!  

I watched Jamie Oliver's new series last night, Super Foods, I'd only see ten minutes and I found myself ordering his book online, I just love that he wants to make healthy food tasty, it was great to see him use a teaspoon of oil and not a glug!  I've just looked at his website and I've got to agree with his top ten tips, I think Weight Watchers already promote these, but i'm going to share them with you anyway.

1. Cook from scratch

This is one of the most important life skills you can learn. It allows you to have complete control of what goes into your food.

2. Eat a balanced diet

Aim to eat a balanced diet that contains each of the food groups in the correct proportions.

3. Variety is key – eat the rainbow

Fill your diet with a wide range of fruits, vegetables, lean meats, fish, eggs, pulses, nuts, seeds, wholegrains and naturally low fat dairy foods. When it comes to fruit and veg, different colours provide your body with the different nutrients it needs to stay strong and healthy – it's not just greens that are good for you!

4. Understand what you're eating

Make an effort to learn about the food you're eating – we all need to understand where food comes from and how it affects our bodies.

5. Eat nutritious calories

Make sure the majority of your energy intake comes from nutritious calories that also provide your body with nutrients like vitamins, minerals, protein, fibre and good fats. Avoid empty calories.

6. Don't skip breakfast

Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism and helps you to be alert and awake throughout the day. Make sure you always eat a nutritious breakfast. Make it wholesome and make it count.

7. Read the small print

It's important to read packaging correctly. Be aware of the recommended portion sizes, and the sugar, salt and saturated fat contents. Remember that not all E-numbers are bad, but too many is often a bad sign.

8. Drink more water

Water is an essential part of your diet. Drink plenty of water and avoid empty calories from things such as fizzy drinks, energy drinks or juices with added sugar. Eat your calories don't drink them.

9. Keep active

Exercise is an extremely important factor in staying healthy so try to be as active as you can.

10. Sleep well

Make sure you get enough sleep – it's an essential part of being healthy and directly affects how well we are able to learn, grow and act in life. While we're asleep, our bodies have that all-important time to repair.

I think that sums up healthy eating really well, and here's the recipe he cooked at the start of the programme, it looked mmmm

 

Berry pocket eggy bread ,pistachios, yoghurt, honey & cinnamon

Serves 2

2 large free-range eggs (6pp)

1 small ripe banana

ground nutmeg

ground cinnamon

2 thick slices of seeded wholemeal bread (100g = 10pp)

150 g raspberries

olive oil (1tsp = 1pp)

20 g shelled pistachios (15 = 3pp)

4 heaped tablespoons fat-free natural yoghurt (2pp)

manuka honey (1 tsp = 1pp)

In a blender, blitz the eggs, peeled banana, and 1 pinch each of nutmeg and cinnamon until smooth, then pour into a wide shallow bowl. Cut your bread 2½cm thick, then cut a slit into the longest side of each slice and wiggle your knife inside to make a pocket. Use your finger to stuff the raspberries inside – pack as many in as you can, but be gentle so you don't tear the bread. Lay in the eggy mixture and gently squash the bread so it soaks up the eggs.

Meanwhile, put a large non-stick frying pan on a medium-low heat with 1 teaspoon of oil, then wipe it around and out with kitchen paper. Pour half the excess egg mixture into one side of the pan, then place a piece of soaked bread on top to give it a lovely pancake layer. Repeat with the rest of the mixture and the other slice alongside it. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until golden, then confidently flip over to cook for the same amount of time. Meanwhile, smash up the pistachios in a pestle and mortar – toast them first, if you like.

Serve the eggy bread dolloped with yoghurt, sprinkled with pistachios and an extra pinch of cinnamon and drizzled with a little honey.

Nutritional Information Amount per serving:

• Calories 246
• Carbs 18.7g
• Sugar 1.7g
• Fat 13.7g
• Saturates 2.9g
• Protein 11.3g

Using the nutritional info it's 10pp a portion, obviously it depends on how thick you cut the bread!

He also made a delicious looking Dhal, click http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/delicious-squash-daal/#TQ2bYdeB5uzgAtSS.97 to find the recipe.

Right moms just woke up, every fibre of her hurts when she gets out of bed, so I'm off to make her a cuppa tea and a toasted teacake, that's her perfect breakfast, although she had crumpets yesterday.   If I had crusty bread, I'd make her the eggy bread.  This was my breakfast yesterday, egg ham crumpets mmm, slice in half and soak the crumpets in egg, then put a slice of ham inbetween and fry in a little spray light.

Catch ya tomorrow!