Porridge Cake

I cannot claim credit for this recipe as I have pinched it from this lady HERE.  I have modified it a bit but not enough to make it a different recipe altogether so if you want to try it, and I suggest you do, then do use her recipe page as the starting point.

This is a really nourishing healthy breakfast (made less so by us eating it with cream some days lol).  It's also convenient, can be packed 'to go' and eaten on the run or out on the finca.

I used water and yoghurt to soak the oats but I am thinking of using apple juice or orange juice next time.  I also did not have any raisons so I used chopped dried prunes and almonds instead of walnuts (the first time I made it I used chopped hazlenuts and sultanas and it was great).

OK... apologies once again, being an American recipe its measured in cups, but I don't think the exact quantities are crucial as I did play a little fast and loose with the quantities and it still came out fine.

Soak your oats with water or juice and add some yoghurt or buttermilk or whey.  Leave them overnight or for 24 hours.

Add eggs (this recipe took 8 eggs... hoorah! For those of us with hens this is a fab way to use up the egg mountain. Add butter and molasses (here in Spain I used Miel de Cana which is the closest I could get to molasses - its like treacle but not quite as bitter as treacle.  Add cinnamon ( I used mixed spice), nuts and dried fruit, salt and mix it very well.  Its quite hard to mix up but the better you mix it, the better it turns out.

The original recipe calls for a very large tin to put it in which was impractical for me so the first time I did this recipe I cut it in half and used a 22cm cake mould.  This time I was making the full recipe amount so I split it between two cake moulds.  You will have to use your judgement on this if you deviate from the recipe.

I baked my two porridge cakes for 35 minutes at 180C but they were still underdone so I gave them another 8 minutes.  I cooled them in the moulds.

the porridge cake is cut and put into freezer bags in twos.  That's breakfasts sorted for the next couple of weeks. (So tasty served with banana and yoghurt and a spoonful of honey).

Mexican Style Breakfast

I cannot claim to have made this one up as the whole idea came from Jaime Oliver and if you would prefer to see his version then do click here.  As always with me I have a habit of not following recipes exactly.  When I do they turn out just as they are supposed to but if I don't have all the ingredients to hand but enough of them and with suitable substitutions I will go ahead anyway.  I am seldom disappointed with the results.

And so it was with my Mexican style breakfast....

I haven't seen any tins or jars of black beans here - it's Spain, there should be such things but perhaps the supermarket where I shop is not a very good one?? who knows... but you can buy the dried beans so I began my version the day before when I soaked the beans for several hours and then cooked them in my pressure cooker.  The pressure cooker really takes the hassle and time out of cooking dried beans and I definitely would recommend it.

So in the morning I whizzed up a couple of avocado's and added some lemon juice and fresh home grown chopped chillies.  As it turned out the chillies were not really very hot... I can't bring myself to try them before putting them into food so its always a bit of a guessing game with me.

I fried the beans.  This time I actually heated my pan first before adding the olive oil and then the beans... it worked very well.. much better than how I usually do it.  I think I always thought it would ruin the pan... !  Once the beans were a little frazzled on the edges I cooked the omelette with a little cheese inside.  Much thinner omelettes than I usually do... and they rolled up really well.

I served the omelette and beans and avocado with some chopped tomatoes (at room temperature, this is soooo important) garnished only with a little salt.  Really really good.