Everyone has a preference. Scrambled, Poached, Fried (sunny side up, over easy ), boiled. For some reason I always feel at ease with my kids if they have an egg, nothing else in their diet for that day matters, I know they have had a good dose of goodness. This is one versatile ingredient, putting aside soufflé, angel food cakes, pavlova and anything requiring an egg to make the recipe work. …
Early Riser
My year so far has consisted of fairly good eating, but I have to admit the morsel of chocolate after dinner or my afternoon diet coke (affectionately known as ‘poison’ by my work colleagues) is what keeps me going through the end of the day. I know, I know, perhaps giving up the poison will be my 2014 resolution….
I am always surprised at how many people do not have breakfast. I have no idea how they function at the start of the day, let alone keep going until lunch time. Breakfast is I think my favourite meal of the day, cafes are often providing an all day breakfast menu, that’s how good this meal is!!!
Some friends have recently moved to Dubai to take up a job which is located a good 1 hour commute or further from Dubai. This is not unusual here, lots of people commute to other Emirates from where they reside.
This often means leaving home in the morning at unimaginable hours. In this case, I can understand why one may prioritise an extra 15 minutes sleep over a bowl of cereal when they have to leave home at 6am, or in our friend’s case, 4.30am!
When my husband and I were living in Sydney, we were very busy and started work early. Buying breakfast every morning was not a budget friendly or healthy option (more of a Friday treat), so I started making this breakfast loaf, a recipe by Bill Granger. Over the years I have adapted it to be my own loaf recipe. It is super healthy and contains everything you might normally find in a bowl of museli. It can be made on the weekend, sliced up and frozen. It is great fresh, toasted and buttered (if you really want it) and is quite filling. Most importantly it is a great breakfast on the go, whether you are commuting, rushing to do the school run, or also a great breakfast to have a work a little later if you really can’t stomach breakfast as soon as you wake up.
Bircher Loaf (Breakfast on the Run)
One loaf yields about 12 slices
Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius (my gas oven was at 190 degrees)
Ingredients
- 3/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
- 360ml low fat milk
- 1 cup wholemeal plain flour
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup oatbran
- 1/4 cup ground flaxseed
- 1/4 cup mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds
- 50g sultanas
- 100g dried apricots
- 1 small to medium apple coarsely grated
- 1 small to medium banana mashed
- 1 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
To Make
- Grease and line a loaf tin.
- Place the oats in a bowl with the milk and allow to soak while preparing the rest of the ingredients. I also put the eggs, honey, banana and apple into this bowl of wet ingredients.
- Sift the flours and baking powder into a bowl.
- Add the sultanas, apricots, cinnamon, oatbran, flax seeds and sunflowers and pumpkin seeds.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix gently until combined.
- Pour mix into the loaf tin and bake in the oven for 50 – 60 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
PS – Feel free to add whatever dried fruits take your fancy such as dried figs or cranberries. The seeds can also be replaced with chopped walnuts for a nuttier version.
Fuel Food
It’s running season in Dubai. During the cooler part of the year every weekend there is some interesting sporting event (the world parachuting championships is in a few weeks – you wont see me jumping out of a plane!), and usually also a run whether it’s a charity walk, a night run, the marathon for the hard core (a lot of admiration for these slightly insane people), or a running relay through the mountains.
On Friday (here our weekends are Friday and Saturday) I ran in a 10km ladies run on the Palm Jumeirah. This has been my mini project for the last 10 weeks and I joined a fab running group to help motivate me. I am not a keen runner (I prefer to walk), but I do like a sporting challenge, and it’s been while between competitions (I was cooking a couple of little people in the meantime).
So I survived and thought I should post a recipe that I could categorise as Nutritious. I have been making these muesli bars in copious quantities since I found the recipe. The boxed ones at the store are ok (but I know they have too much sugar and salt) but the range is very limited and the amounts that my son likes to consume makes for a costly shopping trolley. He is not a huge breakfast person but since introducing these oat packed bars I am happy he has his share of morning nutrition. I don’t indulge too much with kids treats but if it’s home made I feel that it’s ok to have a cake in the house or some fresh baked cookies.
The introduction of this new staple food in our house has also been a way for my husband to stave off the 9am hunger monster and save his lunch for actual ‘lunch time’. Because it’s full of oats and seeds, it has all the good fats and energy that should keep you satisfied for longer. In my case I have been hoping they are contributing to my fitness / training and will eventually help to get me over the finish line of my race! I did, so it must have worked!
I have made these in many different varieties, the beauty of them is that you can add whatever goodness you choose – the dried fruit aspect I think makes them more appealing for children and you can easily substitute the nuts for more seeds or dried fruit. You can also choose dried fruit that doesn’t require chopping so it makes the recipe a simple pour, mix and bake process, so there’s no excuse of not having the culinary skills or time to make them (just the 1 hour for baking )
The original inspiration for the recipe came from one of Bill Granger’s books and it falls in the chapter ‘Breakfast on the Run’. I am a big fan of breakfast so these bars make a perfect midmorning snack for me. But if you are not good with food first thing, then this should help get you started in the mornings.
Back to the run; it was hot and hilly and I a) finished in one piece and b) almost reached my target time, so I’m thrilled and the bars must have helped! So much so I have signed up for another 10km race in January, I want to beat my time! I think I have a lot of bars to bake!!
Muesli Bars
Preheat the oven to 130 degrees (I have 150 degrees with my gas oven)
You will need a brownie tin or similar appox 35cm x 25cm lined with baking paper
Dry Ingredient Mix
3 ½ cups of oats (I used quick cooking, the large rolled oats are pricey here)
½ cup powdered coconut (finer than shredded, but use if you prefer)
½ cup oatbran (if not just substitute with more oats)
½ cup sliced almonds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup ground flax seeds (linseed), optional
¼ cup raisins or sultanas
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup dried apricots (sliced or sniped with scissors)
Combine the dry mix in a bowl
Wet Ingredient Mix
¾ cup honey
¼ cup firmly packed brown sugar
½ cup vegetable oil (I use light olive oil, grapeseed is also very good)
Put the wet mix in a small saucepan on a low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
- Pour the wet mix into the bowl with the dry mix and combine. It will seem quite dry at first, I use my hands.
- Tip into pan and press firmly until evenly spread (I had a good helper!)
- Bake for about 50 – 60 min until golden brown. Take out of oven and cool slightly (if you take out of tin while hot it will fall apart), then cut into pieces with a big sharp knife. As it cools the bars will become quite firm.
P.S – The dry ingredient mix would be a fantastic muesli mix to have for breakfast with milk and yoghurt. For bircher muesli (a family favourite), soak the mix in some apple juice or sparkling apple juice overnight and serve with yoghurt – another good breakfast to have when you get to work.
