Porridge Topping Du Semaine

The wearing of the green was a bit of a week-long thing for me, as I got a lil bit festive with my brekkie and, not content with eating my morning oats from a green bowl, I got in another of the 40 shades with a good glug of apple juice. I've been reading about soaking oats in juice here and there, and the only reason I've avoided doing it up until now is that I have an aversion to fruit juices; stick to the real thing, I feel, as it is sugary enough as it is and shouldn't really comprise the greater part of your five-a-day - unless you're after the face-full-of-brown-teeth look. Things like juice tend to spend a bit of time hanging out in my fridge, hogging space while more popular ingredients come and go as they jostle for space and get used up very quickly. I was looking for something to complement some lovely fat sultanas, though, and this was just the job. A little calcium-anxiety kicked in, when I realised that milk would not feature in the basic equation, and so a blob of very indulgent yogurt on top made a more balanced start to the day.

I soaked the oats the night before - one cup of porridge to one cup of apple juice - and when I went to check them out the next morning, why those greedy oats had gobbled it right up! They were quite swollen and puffed-up.

In with another cup of liquid, this time water - I assumed that adding milk to the mix would make for a pretty disgusting, curdled concoction. Some fat, juicy sultanas got in there too, with cinnamon and nutmeg to provide some early morning spicy warmth. 

I had suspected that using juice instead of milk would make the final product a little unappealingly thin, but when I spooned it out into the bowl it was thick and substantial.

In my calcium-quest, yogurt seemed an obvious choice for a topping (well I was hardly going to melt a load of Cashel blue on top, now was I? Heston Blumenthal I aint) - but far be it for me to opt for something healthy and fruity and light. Oh no, I launched my spoon into a luscious pot of wonder, one of the fancy Superquinn yogurts that I've been resisting for quite a while. I have no idea why I insisted on denying myself these beauties, though it may be something to do with my willingness to form food habits and addictions that aren't always healthy or restrained. I'll be back to that shelf of the supermarket in the near future anyhow - delicious. 

And, of course, the perfect complement to that appley-sultanay-spicy bowl of heat.

All in all a rather dessert-y breakfast, I think. Maybe a little self-indulgent, (I won't even attempt to calculate the calories, as I prefer to avoid that practice, in general), but the morning should set the tone for the rest of the day, and if you know how to get it off to a very wonderful start, well then, why deny yourself? Life is hard enough as it is, be nice to you.