Are you in your porridge bread era?
Protein at breakfast time is the key to a better day
You’ll know if you’re in your porridge bread era.
Firstly, you’ll be aware that supermarket bread is often highly processed and contains - shock! horror! etc - additives. You’ll have read Dr Chris Van Tullenken’s Ultra Processed People, and pre-ordered nutritionist Emma Bardwell’s book The 30g Plan. Hopefully, you’ve also read the book that I co-wrote with Mariella Frostrup - Cracking the Menopause (it’s excellent). It’s entirely possible that you are a little bit smug about your declining or non-existent sugar, wheat and alcohol consumption. But you are probably in midlife and fighting (and sometimes losing) against plenty of lows - oestrogen, collagen, bone density, muscle mass, energy and mood. If you feel smug in any way at all, go with it, I say.
Of all the tips and tricks I’ve been told over the years, one of the most recent, but most absolute game-changer ones ever, has been to eat protein for breakfast. And the ultimate divine way of getting this is, in my opinion, by making your own porridge bread, packed with oats, seeds and yoghurt or cottage cheese, and toasting a slice or two every morning.
I am currently a healthy-eating-trend-whore. I’ve given up sugar and taken it up again, cut down on alcohol, given it up, binged and stopped again. Work (in the form of a health story) once made me give up gluten for a month (annoyingly, I felt amazing) to prove a point that I can’t now remember. But protein for breakfast stops you snacking, maintains blood sugar levels and sets you up for a day of (reasonably) healthy eating. I also think it helps me focus first thing, and it’s a habit I started and - amazingly - have adhered to for the last year or so.
That’s where porridge bread comes in. This divine phenomenon comes via a dear Irish friend, who is also a member of my running group. It’s strongly recommended by Mariella Frostrup, who did an exclusive demonstration of the delicacy at a recent Yeotown retreat, as an intro to the recipes in her forthcoming cookery book, Menolicious. And it was following that trip to Yeotown - no sugar, no alcohol, no wheat etc, when I returned energised and sans midlife muffin top, that I decided to fully embrace weekly porridge bread making.
So every Sunday night, I concoct a loaf. It comes steaming hot out of the oven and I instantly eat a slice with butter (I think this is a law). Then I slice the rest and freeze it, so I can have it every day with eggs, avocado, houmous or marmite. I slosh in chia seeds as well as lots of nuts and seeds - all of which count towards your 30 a week (keep up - that’s how many fruit and veg we’re now supposed to have). As I live with teenagers (on and off), I’m the only one who eats it. Responses range from ‘yuck’ to ‘what’s wrong with normal bread?’
I don’t know how much protein is in porridge bread. But I’m going with ‘enough’ (Googling suggests around 9g a slice). And once you’ve added in a couple of eggs (about 6g each), it takes it up to ‘loads’. There are masses of recipes on-line - pop ‘porridge bread, yoghurt’ into your search engine and you’ll find one. Pre-order Mariella’s book, ready for August, and below is a link to PT Kate Rowe-Ham’s delicious viral recipe (reproduced with permission. The pic above is my own, less photogenic offering). I use full-fat yoghurt rather than 0% and you can vary seeds etc. She suggests eating it with peanut butter.
I’m not religious, but it’s always nice to have rituals, and Sunday night porridge bread making is my promise to myself that I’ll start every day well.
