Alternative to porridge

Tramdodger

You could try not cooking the porridge. There’s a Jamie Oliver recipe that is really tasty. I can’t remember the exact details but essentially the night before you mix a grated apple, oats, some dates and some milk, put it in the fridge and by morning the oats have absorbed the milk. It is great when it’s too warm for hot porridge.

CrackFox

Tramdodger wrote:

You could try not cooking the porridge. There’s a Jamie Oliver recipe that is really tasty. I can’t remember the exact details but essentially the night before you mix a grated apple, oats, some dates and some milk, put it in the fridge and by morning the oats have absorbed the milk. It is great when it’s too warm for hot porridge.

Bircher muesli?

http://www.sanitarium.co.nz/recipes/bircher-muesli.aspx

suzyb

I have a Low GI Diet cook book that has a recepie like that in it. Large flake oats I think it specifies soaked in milk overnight.

davis

Wow, so much consideration has been paid to horse food....

(reading this over a bowl of porridge...)

In an attempt to actually answer your question, bran flakes, and a banana. Or toast and a glass of smoothie.

Not a lot beats porridge though; neither of the two alternatives I gave come very close. I'm not hugely keen on it either and have to add seeds and dried fruit to be able to eat it.

wgwarburton

suzyb wrote:

I know it's a good energy food but both times I've tried porridge it's looked like wallpaper paste and taster marginally worse.

What would be a good alternative.

Kellogs Bran Flakes (not supermarket own-brand), or muesli.

Lots of choices with muesli. Try a few until you get one you like, or mix your own.

Cheers,
W.

tailwindhome

Ulster Fry?

jeepie

Returning to the original question - how about couscous and these --> http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes/ch ... e_p_1.html. Make a batch at the weekend and will do three breakfasts. No need to add the garlic either if you get breath of death.

CiB

Lord above - what's all this about buying only the best oats you can find, or only dining on honey dew, drinking the milk of paradise etc. [Xanadu by Rush... ]

Anyhow; let's get real here. Porridge is a base food, v simple and perfectly fine as it comes, even like I said in the big bags of it from Asda for 70p that probably include floor sweepings and bits of field in there. It's a base foodstuff and doesn't need any additional faffing.

Cooking it is simple, and optional. Bottom line is if you don't like it don't stick at it - it's supposed to be enjoyable, loading up on slow burn energy for a bike ride. If either is a chore do something different. No-one else in my house can bear weetabix, which is great for me as I get it all, same with porridge. Weetabix with porridge + a coffee is my perfect pre-ride breakfast; others have elaborate routines that involve making 3 course meals with multi-fruit drinks etc.

Alternatives to porridge? Reddy Brek with sugar might do it for you. Toast with plenty of butter & marmalade, or a big fry up of bacon, eggs, beans & mushrooms. That might work.

andrewc3142

Home made granola (the one on the BBC site is good). Or Jordan's crunchy with strawberries or raspberries is also pretty tasty.

dcurzon

put porridge in bowl, add generous amount of milk. pop in microwave for a couple of minutes. Remove, stir, put back in m/w for another minute. Enjoy! Problem is, texture and taste preference is very individual, so you'll need to experiment to get it to how YOU like it. You'll get there if you persevere.

I like to switch between porridge, and weetabix. Weetabix, i zap the milk on its own, then add the bix's after, else it all gets too thick for my palate.

Cafewanda

Alternative to porride - fryup and a hot drink of your choice

tjwood

itsbruce wrote:

tjwood wrote:

Cereal works for me. Bran flakes or fruit and fibre usually.

Nutritionally they're not that different from porridge

The other points are a matter of taste, but I'd question that. Most breakfast cereals would have almost no nutritional value if it weren't for the added vitamins, and they're held together with way too much added sugar and salt. Porridge doesn't need those additives, has protein, a healthy amount of fat, soluble fibre and a significantly lower GI, which means it delivers the energy over a longer period rather than the energy spike you'll get from a more processed cereal.

None of which helps if you hate the taste or consistency, of course.

Some nutritional info. The left is 100g of Sainsburys Taste The Difference porridge oats (as they were mentioned earlier as being "good quality"). The right is 100g of Sainsburys Bran Flakes.

Energy                  1503kJ  1411kJ
                        356kcal 333kcal
Protein                 11.0g   10.3g
Carbohydrate            60.0g   67.4g
Sugars                  1.1g    17.0g
Starch                  58.9g   50.4g
Fat                     8.0g    2.5g
Saturates               1.5g    0.5g
Mono unsaturates        3.8g    0.4g
Polyunsaturates         2.7g    1.6g
Fibre                   9.0g    14.3g
Salt                    trace   0.73g
Sodium                  trace   0.29g

Neither take into account the milk so it's a fair comparison there. Energy, protein, carbs are virtually the same. Bran flakes are higher sugar but then lots of people add sugar to porridge. Bran flakes are lower fat and higher fibre. Slight salt content but then some people add salt to porridge.

Small differences maybe but nothing to get worked up over.

Frosties etc might be a different matter though!

always_tyred

TailWindHome wrote:

Ulster Fry?

Batter shorts.

Grabeef

Many, many years ago when we stayed at our grandparents the Sunday morning treat (before being dragged off to church) was porridge. One thing Grandad excelled at was making porridge. His cheese and spring onion sandwiches were a close second. Porridge goes in a huge saucepan with milk and salt. Wait for it to boil then bring to a simmer and get one small child with a wooden spoon to stir for at least 1/2 hour watching it go "gloop, gloop".
Serve in nice big deep bowls and pour cream around the edges (very important as you eat it from the outside in and this cools the outside) until the porridge floats on a sea of cream. Then sprinkle caster sugar on top. Enjoy.
Nowdays I throw it in a bowl, add plenty of milk, trial and error gets this right, microwave for 3 mins, stir and microwave for another 2 mins. If you get it right it should be soft and creamy, not chewy. I find that cooking it for less time leaves it too raw. And use milk, not water.

Another +1 for golden syrup.

Jay dubbleU

suzyb wrote:

It was Scotts porridge oats I used (the blue box). That plus water into the microwave as per the box instructions. I'm not sure whether I over cooked it as it had boiled over a bit (where it became as sticky as wallpaper paste and damn difficult to remove from the outside of the bowl) but I can't see my bad cooking making it that bad.

Microwave ? MICROWAVE ? - are you mad ? Porridge requires proper cooking - half a cup of oats, one cup of 50/50 water and milk, pinch of salt to be eaten with either cream and honey or golden syrup - please don't use the "M" word in this connection again :roll:

meanredspider

Jay dubbleU wrote:

Microwave ? MICROWAVE ? - are you mad ? Porridge requires proper cooking - half a cup of oats, one cup of 50/50 water and milk, pinch of salt to be eaten with either cream and honey or golden syrup - please don't use the "M" word in this connection again :roll:

Luddite

deptfordmarmoset

Suzyb, you may simply not like porridge! Which would be a shame but maybe you could think of the basic oats bit as being like simple flour. Mix it with water and it's not much better than wallpaper paste. But think about all the different things you can put into a cake; starting from the same flour base and you have an infinite number of possibilities - from plain and simple to exotic spices and all sorts of sweet things. (And ''sweet'' can be healthy... luckily!)

Christophe3967

Maxticate wrote:

Lots of oat snobbery going on in this thread.

Oat cuisine, innit.

Jay dubbleU

Christophe3967 wrote:

Maxticate wrote:

Lots of oat snobbery going on in this thread.

Oat cuisine, innit.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh! - another keyboard

Norky

lastant wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

I have mine with sliced banana and a dash of maple syrup - fantastic and so good for you.

I use Tesco Organic rolled oats - they're thicker - and use one cup of oats, one cup of semi-skimmed mik and one of water - then just stick in the microwave (8.5 mins for those quantities)

Listen to the Scot, they know best*!

davis might disagree with you on that one. He tried cheese in porridge on the advice of a Scottish fellow. I think the gentleman was pulling his leg.

Regarding possible alternatives to porridge for breakfast: gin. Possibly with grapefruit juice if you're health-conscious.

meanredspider

Norky wrote:

davis might disagree with you on that one. He tried cheese in porridge on the advice of a Scottish fellow. I think the Scot was pulling his leg.

PMSL

prawny

The thread made me have porridge for breakfast this morning, it was lovely.

WesternWay

Have you tried one of the all liquid breakfasts

like gin?

lucus_j

Summer alternative could be Bircher Muesli.

Takes a little bit of effort but worth it.

Ingredients:
Oats
Natural Apple juice
Semi-skimmed Milk

1) Take a big bowl of oats
2) Cover with equal parts milk and apple juice and stir
3) Cover with clingfilm or a saucer and leave overnight.

Serving:
Get a small pot of fruity yoghurt. Empty into a bowl. Add 3 or four scoops of your oats. Stir. Add other things as you like - grated apple is nice.

A big bowl of these oats will last five days in the fridge.

Tasty-good.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_a ... 973471.ece
http://editor.nourishedmagazine.com.au/ ... her-muesli
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muesli

always_tyred

lucus_j wrote:

Muesli.

Soooo..... cold porridge with rasins?

Ian.B

suzyb wrote:

both times I've tried porridge it's looked like wallpaper paste

I'm afraid to me it always looks like something rather worse than wallpaper paste....

What would be a good alternative.

Almost anything!

wgwarburton

lucus_j wrote:

...Semi-skimmed Milk...

What is this obsession with half-milk? You want the full fat stuff, it tastes better!

What's the point in cycling for exercise if you still have to eat badly?

Cheers,
W.

frankieh

1/2kg of greek yogurt 8)

lost_in_thought

What if you really hate milk and want to make your porridge with just water and a wee bit of salt?

A swedish girl made porridge for me once with salt, it was really nice. I've never managed to make it the same.

meanredspider

lost_in_thought wrote:

What if you really hate milk and want to make your porridge with just water and a wee bit of salt?

That's allowed - especially in this part of the world where it's very much approved of...