Can I hijack this thread for a bit ??
I want to talk about breakfast.
As some of you know, I'm type 2 diabetic and have to monitor how I live quite closely.
I was diagnosed about six years ago and since then I have barely touched chocolate, cakes, biscuits and all that processed sugary crap.
Occasionally, I will have the odd bite - someone gave me a Snickers yesterday for doing a good job at work and it was only the second "candy bar" kind of thing I'd eaten in the period since my doctor first broke the news to me.
It was amazing - small, though - but it also kinda made me feel a bit sick, it was that rich ..
Anyway, I digress.
Fresh foods, fruit, veg, meat and pulses are all good. I make a lot of soup and eat meat and two/three/four generally without carbs and starches like potatoes or rice. I do have a bit of pasta now and then, but not often.
I've cut down on bread too and this is where I'm going with all this : carbs are pretty bad generally so if you can cut most of them out, you're well on the way to healthy living.
A friend told me about banana muffins.
They're amazing.
They're what I eat for breakfast every day now, after getting in from work in the morning.
BANANA MUFFIN RECIPE (basic)
- Two bananas (preferably ripe)
- Four eggs
- A cup of fresh berries (blueberries are my favourite)
Pre-heat the oven to 190'.
Mash the bananas in a bowl or chuck them in a blender if you're lazy. If they're yellowy-green and not quite ripe, try and "roll" them on the counter a bit to squish them up but do it with their skins on, obviously.
Add the eggs and stir/whisk/bully the mixture till it looks like batter.
Take a cupcake tray and give each hole a squirt of that spray oil stuff - I find the coconut one works best.
Now put five or six berries into each hole.
Gently (!!) pour the banana batter over the berries in each hole, roughly 3/4 of the way up as they will rise.
Cook for about 12 minutes, turning the tray once halfway through so they brown equally.
Leave to stand before serving or store in the fridge for up to three days.
Now, I've been playing with the recipe and find that adding flaked almonds after adding the mixture to the tray really gives it a little crunch.
I've also made pancakes using the mixture. The trick is to add half a cup of porridge oats and a splash of milk and not make them large and thin like British pancakes, but smaller and thicker, American-style. Put a knob of butter in a pan on high heat and add the mixture so it spreads to about the same size as a CD (about 5") then place half a dozen berries in the middle. Cook for a minute or two and flip it with a spatula so it's nicely browned. You can make 4-6 pancakes with HALF the ingredients above (perfect for one) so for two people use the same ratios I listed for the basic recipe.
This is good, healthy food that fills you up but has the slow energy release of bananas rather than the instant hit of toast/bread/cereal.
Give it a go and see what you think
