To my mind, this porridge is nowhere near as good as my chocolate porridge, but I've been lead to believe that there are some people in the world, among them my brother and my husband, who actually prefer vanilla over chocolate. While I firmly believe this to be a very weird preference, they are family, so I must respect their preferences.

Until such a time as I can persuade them of the superiority of chocolate, here's a vanilla breakfast alternative.

Vanilla berry porridge

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 
  
  1 large overripe banana, or 1.5 small ones
• Generous pinch shredded coconut (about 1 tablespoon)
• Scant 1/3 cup rolled oats (you may want more if you have a large appetite in the morning)
• 1 to 1 1/3 cups soymilk, or to desired consistency, I like mine pretty loose
• 2 teaspoons vanilla 
• a few grains of salt
• Small handful of berries to top

Method

1. Mash the banana
   

2. Mix in coconut and oats

3. Mix in soymilk.

4. Cover with a plate, and microwave for 1 minute, then wander off and do something, turn on the computer, check blog feeds, get dressed or whatever, for about 3-5 minutes.
5. Mix thoroughly, then return to microwave, and repeat step 4.
6. Stir in vanilla
7. Top with strawberries

Spiced blueberry porridge

A few weeks ago, disaster struck. I was out of cocoa powder. I couldn't have my favourite everyday breakfast. After a brief period of denial, anger and depression (I skipped the bargaining stage), I accepted that there was no cocoa to be had. I therefore set about finding a way of making chocolate-free but nevertheless tasty porridge, and hit upon spiced blueberry porridge.

Spiced blueberry porridge

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 
  
  1 large overripe banana, or 1.5 small ones
• 1/8 teaspoon mixed spice (two shakes)
• 1/16 teaspoon ground cardamom (one shake)
• Generous pinch shredded coconut (about 1 tablespoon)
• Scant 1/3 cup rolled oats (you may want more if you have a large appetite in the morning)
• 1 cup soymilk, or to desired consistency
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• Small handful of blueberries to top

Method

1. Mash the banana.
   
2. Mix in the spices, coconut and oats.
3. Mix in soymilk.
4. Cover with a plate, and microwave for 1 minute, then wander off and do something, turn on the computer, check blog feeds, get dressed or whatever, for about 3-5 minutes.
5. Mix thoroughly, then return to microwave, and repeat step 4.
6. Stir in vanilla
7. Top with blueberries. You may wish to return to microwave for a further 30 seconds, or just stir through and let the heat from the porridge melt them.

Vegan apple pancakes

Weekends are for slightly more involved breakfasts. During semester, I rarely have the energy, but now that I'm on break, I get to have fun. Enter Apple Pie Pancakes from Chocolate Covered Katie, topped with vegan butter and stewed apples:

I used plain flour, grated the apple instead of finely slicing it (just over half an apple), used sugar rather than the stevia, and included the coconut oil. They were delicious, an opinion seconded by the resident omnivore. My only complaint is that what you see in the pictures is all that the recipe made, so Hunter and I only had 1.5 pancakes each. I'm not sure we would have managed to finish a double batch as they were quite thick, but, then again, who objects to leftover pancakes? Next time, I'll make double, which should serve 3 light eaters, or 2 hungry people.

Chocolate porridge

So here goes my first real post, a recipe, albeit a very simple one, chocolately, to fit in with the name of my blog. It's not so much a recipe really, as a breakfast idea, which can be easily tweaked to suit your tastes.

Until quite recently, I thought porridge was disgusting. This may have had something to do with the fact that when I was a kid, Mum thought that porridge was best served completely plain and unadorned, just oats, water and a bit of milk. I now know better, and now that it's winter, I have porridge for breakfast almost every morning.

I've tried a few variations, but this is the one I have most often, because chocolate. You can add a little sugar if you need it, but taste it first without as the banana adds quite a bit of sweetness, while the banana flavour is mostly masked by the cocoa.

Chocolate Porridge

Serves: 1

Ingredients

• 
  1 large overripe banana, or 1.5 small ones
• 1 heaped teaspoon cocoa (when I say heaped, I mean heaped... it's probably closer to a tablespoon, but I think I feel better about myself when I can call it a teaspoon)
• Generous pinch shredded coconut (about 1 tablespoon)
• Scant 1/3 cup rolled oats (you may want more if you have a large appetite in the morning)
• 1 to 1 1/3 cups soymilk, or to desired consistency, I like mine pretty loose
• Small handful of berries to top - I'm currently using either frozen raspberries or frozen blueberries, but strawberries are great too, and fresh is better. If you're using larger berries, cut them up first (don't do what I did in the last picture, it's a pain to eat)

Method

1. Mash the banana
   

2. Mix in the cocoa

3. Mix in coconut and oats

4. Mix in soymilk, cover with a plate, and microwave for 1 minute, then wander off and do something, turn on the computer, check blog feeds, get dressed or whatever, for about 3-5 minutes.
5. Mix thoroughly, then return to microwave, and repeat step 4.
6. Top with berries. If the berries are frozen, you may wish to return to microwave for a further 30 seconds, or just stir through and let the heat from the porridge melt them.

What's your favourite everyday breakfast?