Easy Oatmeal Breakfast: Recipe

I’m not the biggest fan of oatmeal. Not in its purest form that is. Give me oatmeal with some milk (warm or cold), big chance that I’ll stop eating after two bites or so. I simply don’t like the texture of it. But I do know the benefits of eating oatmeal and a while ago I was looking for an alternative instead of the bread I usually eat. My solution? Easy: make some oatmeal and pimp it with loads of fruit, raisins, nuts or whatever you find tasteful. Oh, and instead of regular milk, I use soya milk. It adds just that extra bit of taste!

How I do it:

Ingredients
60 g oatmeal
cold soya milk (make sure all the oatmeal is covered with milk)
a handful of strawberries
half a banana
an apple
raisins
Pour the soya milk over the oatmeal and put it in the fridge. The oatmeal will absorb the milk and meanwhile the ‘porridge’ stays cold. Cut the fruit into tiny pieces. Put everything together and enjoy your healthy breakfast!

Banana-chocolate-strawberry-raisin Bread

When I see ripe bananas, the first word that pops into my head is: banana-bread. Add some strawberries, chocolate and raisins et voila: a delicious banana-chocolate-strawberry-raisin bread is born! For me, chocolate is an absolute must. But to be honest, the combination of strawberries, bananas and raisins makes it so tasteful that this recipe could do without.
If you already have your own banana-bread recipe, just add some strawberries (make sure to cut them in thin slices) and some raisins. If you’re new to this whole banana-bread-hype: follow the recipe below. Anyhow, enjoy!

Ingredients

2 or 3 ripe bananas (the riper they are, the more flavour you’ll get!)
a handful of strawberries
some raisins
150 g self-raising flour
75 g sugar
50 g butter
1 egg (beaten)
optional: chocolate
Mingle the butter and the sugar. Add the egg and the flour. Then cut the bananas in tiny pieces and flatten them, so you’ll get a smooth mush. Add the bananamush to the dough with the raisins. (This mixture is truly delicious, I can’t help myself of having a little taste!) Last of all, cut the strawberries in thin pieces and mingle them carefully through the dough.
Greas your cake pan and pour the dough in it. Preheat your oven on 170-180 degrees and bake the bread in the oven for about 40 minutes. Taste and enjoy!

Autumn breakfast: Homemade muesli & Apples

Autumn is finally kicking in and that calls for a change in food. All of a sudden it’s still dark when I’m leaving the house early in the morning. The fresh summer breeze has switched places with a cold cutting wind. I wake up and all I want to do is turn around and go back to sleep, now more than ever. My body still needs to adjust to the abrupt change in weather. This homemade muesli with cinnamon apples is my way of holding on to that warm sleepy feeling a little longer, before heading off to work and facing the autumn weather.

Homemade muesli

Sometimes I buy muesli in the store, but muesli is actually something that you can very easily make at home. Choose your favourite nuts (walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds…) and some dried fruit you really like. Follow the recipe below and make a huge portion of homemade muesli. This muesli can be the basis for a lot of different breakfast recipes. For the ultimate autumn feeling I combined it with cinnamon apples and yoghurt. Imagine this: waking up, preparing this breakfast and before you know it your whole house smells like apple pie. Best of all: it’s much healthier than apple pie. (And so much faster to make!)

Ingredients

I could list up the specific amounts of each ingredient that I use, but I’d rather not. It all depends on the size of the baking dish that you use and your personal taste. Oatmeal, orange juice and maple syrup are essential ingredients, the rest is up to you.
– Oatmeal
– Hazelnuts
– Almonds
– Walnuts
– Pecan nuts
– Raisins
– Dried apricots
– Dried figs
– Orange juice (1 dl)
– Maple syrup ( about 5 tbs)

How to Prepare muesli & Apples?

Take a large bowl and add the oatmeal. Cut the dried fruit in tiny pieces and add it to the oatmeal. Pour the orange juice over the mixture and mix everything thoroughly. The oatmeal will absorb the orange juice. Do the same with the maple syrup.

Take a sheet of baking paper, place it in a baking dish and pour the mixture in the dish. Make sure that it is divided equally. Put it in preheated oven of 160° for about 20 min. (This may vary according to the amount of muesli. Make sure to keep an eye on the oven so it doesn’t burn.)
This muesli can be served hot or cold and you can preserve what’s left in a closed jar.

Homemade muesli with cinnamon apples and yoghurt

For this recipe I added warm cinnamon apples and yoghurt. I used one apple for each person. Cut the apple in tiny pieces. Put the apples in a large pan together with a drizzle of olive oil. Spice the apples with cinnamon and fry them for a few minutes on each side.

Serve the cinnamon apples with some cold yoghurt and some homemade muesli. Et voila: autumn in a bowl! Enjoy!