I firmly believe that breakfast food is the best kind of food, and I’ve recently become a bit of a porridge fangirl. Don’t judge me: it’s cheap, it’s healthy, it’s filling, and it’s damn delicious. It’s all in the toppings, guys. I was pretty excited when I found out that today – the 10th October – is World Porridge Day; a day dedicated to celebrating not only oaty deliciousness, but also the fact that porridge is helping children around the world.
Today raises money and awareness for Mary’s Meals, a Scottish based charity that provides daily school meals to over 1.1 million of the world’s poorest and starving children in under developed countries. By ensuring that every place of education delivers food to their students, children that would otherwise be forced to work or beg in order to feed themselves can attend school and have regular meals, and wherever possible, they serve locally grown and produced food, supporting the local economy and local farmers. Mary’s Meals work in Malawi, Uganda, Kenya, Thailand, Liberia, Zambia, and more, and the daily porridge that they provide to students gives them the opportunity for a brighter future. Yay, porridge!
In celebration of World Porridge Day and the work of Mary’s Meals, I’m sharing a couple of my favourite ways to pimp my morning (or afternoon, or middle-of-the-night) porridge. They’re all tasty, nutritious, and super easy to make, plus being great for cold Autumn and Winter mornings. None of them have photographed particularly well, though. Sorry about that.
Apple Pie Porridge
This is a classic porridge combo: apple and cinnamon were born to go together. It’s tasty, it’s autumnal, and it’s basically the perfect porridge.
Ingredients
- 50g porridge oats
- 350ml milk, or a mixture of milk and water
- 1 red apple, grated
- 1 tsp cinnamon, plus extra for serving
- 1 tsp honey
- 2 tbsp sultanas or raisins, plus optional extra for serving
- 1 tbsp almond butter for serving (optional)
Place all the ingredients except the almond butter into a pan, simmer gently, and stirring regularly, until the mixture has thickened. To serve, I put a big blob of almond butter in the middle, a handful of sultanas, and an extra sprinkling of cinnamon. You could add some extra chopped apple to the top too, or any other fruit you fancy, and some nuts too.
Carrot Cake Porridge
I know that the idea of carrot for breakfast is really, really weird, but you have to trust me on this one. This is literally like eating carrot cake batter, and it might even be my favourite porridge of all time. Even if it does feel really bizarre grating carrot at 8am.
Ingredients
- 50g porridge oats
- 350 ml milk, or a mixture of milk and water
- 1 small carrot, grated
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tbsp sultanas or raisins, plus optional extra for servig
- Handful of walnuts (optional)
Add all the ingredients except the walnuts into a pan, and simmer on a low heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture has thickened up. Serve it up with some walnuts and extra sultanas, plus a little sprinkle of cinnamon, and enjoy the best porridge in the whole entire world.
Chocolate Banana Nut Porridge
Chocolate and nuts? Yes. Chocolate and banana? Absolutely. Chocolate and nuts and banana? Yes, please, right now.
I used cacao powder here (because I’m an insufferable health food idiot) and it’s got a quite bitter aftertaste, so I added in some honey. If you switch the cacao out for normal cocoa powder or a big blob of Nutella, you probably won’t need to add in the extra sweetener. Unless you like your porridge super sweet. You do you, boo.
Ingredients
- 50g porridge oats
- 350 ml milk, or a mixture of milk and water
- 1/2 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder, or a spoonful of Nutella
- 1 tsp honey (if using cacao powder)
- 1 banana, diced
- Handful of almonds
- 1 tbsp almond butter (optional)
Add all the ingredients except half the banana, the almonds, and the almond butter into a pan, and simmer on a low heat, stirring regularly, until the mixture has thickened up. Serve with sliced banana on top, a sprinkle of almonds and a big blog of almond butter, and then dig into chocolate-y, banana-y heaven.
Mary’s Meals are running a social media porridge competition, where they’re asking people to create smiley faces on their porridge and upload it with #PorridgeSmiles – if you make any of these porridges, why not give it a go? Make porridge art!
For more information about Mary’s Meals, what they do, and how to get involved this World Porridge Day, check out their website, and be sure to folow their Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.