When busy mums need a healthy and quick breakfast recipe, porridge is usually the answer. Over at the WMBT HQ, it’s a big part of our morning routine, too!
And so we bring you a healthy breakfast idea to get you and your little ones pumped up for the day.
This Porridge Top-Up Recipe takes your everyday porridge and makes it extra special.
Super simple yet scrumptious! Guaranteed to help kick-start cold-weather days with a smile. And served with porridge, it’s sure to keep you and your whole family satisfied until your next meal.
And guess what mums, if you like this recipe, you will enjoy the other eight included in WMBT’s soon-to-be-released booklet, "Tiny Mid-Week Hacks". Where you’ll find many different ways to rock kitchen preps for your family. So be sure to check that one out, too!
Breakfast For Champions
Nothing beats starting the day with a heart-warming bowl of porridge. Not only is it loaded with fiber that keeps hungry tummies fuller for longer, it’s also super tasty.
Porridge (also known as oatmeal) is traditionally made by cooking oats with water or milk. Although, it can also be made using different grains like buckwheat, quinoa, or brown rice.
Packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals, oats are considered to be one of the healthiest breakfast foods for our tiny humans.
Porridge is also a great source of:
- Calcium – helps keep bones and teeth strong
- Potassium – supports heart health
- Vitamin A - supports good eyesight
- Niacin - supports healthy digestion
- Fibre - helps prevents constipation
- Beta-glucan - can help reduce and maintain a healthy cholesterol level
Which Oats is Best?
Although there are tons of porridge types all over the world, at the WMBT HQ, our grain of choice for porridge is oats.
You get loads of nutritional bang for your buck, it’s lightning fast to make, convenient to store and it’s yummy, too. Score!
Here’s something you may not know yet, mums --- there are several types of oats to choose from, including: quick-cooking, old-fashioned or rolled and steel-cut oats.
Each differs in their nutrient profile and processing methods.
1. Steel-Cut Oats
These are closest to the original, unprocessed oat groat. Compared to rolled or quick oats, steel-cut oats have a coarser, chewier texture and nuttier flavour. They also cook for much longer, around 15-30 minutes.
2. Rolled Oats
Rolled oats (aka old-fashioned oats), have gone through a steaming and flattening process. Their flavour and texture is milder than steel-cut oats, and cooking time is much shorter as well. You’ll have a nice bowl of oats in just 2-5 minutes.
3. Quick Cooking Oats
Quick-cooking oats are rolled oats that go through further processing leading to a much shorter cooking time. These are partially cooked by steaming and then rolled even thinner than old-fashioned oats. Quick oats have a mild flavour and soft, mushy texture.
They cook in 1-3 minutes in the microwave and are therefore awesome for quick breakfasts.
Quick oats quick note: these are different from instant oats --- the most processed of all oats --- they are sometimes packaged with other ingredients like skim milk powder, sugar and flavouring.
So which one is the winner? You decide! They mostly vary with cooking time, flavour, and texture so choose the one that works best for you.
Porridge For Picky Eaters
At first glance, porridge might not seem like the most exciting breakfast in the world.
But, whoever said porridge was boring will be proven wrong today! Far from it --- it’s actually a super versatile meal that can be tailored to suit your family’s personal taste.
The big kids might like it fruity, toddlers might choose sweet, you might like it nutty, and baby daddy might even prefer savory. Whatever your ideal bowl looks like, we’ve got a few healthy topping ideas you can use to create a culinary treat the whole family will be jumping out of bed for.
This Porridge Top-Up recipe is a great starter to getting our fussy eaters gobbling up a nutritilicious meal to jump start their day.
And because it doesn’t take much to get this kid-friendly recipe prepped and ready, it’s also a fun activity for tiny hands to get involved in. Simply gather all the ingredients beforehand so they can take turns identifying and washing the fruits.
Plus, prepping it in such an adorable freeze and bake tray makes it even more of a treat!
We love our WMBT Freeze & Bake Poddies. They make creating kitchen masterpieces easy and efficient. No messy leftovers or boring square pegs, please!
When the munchkins ask for their munchies, simply pop out two poddies and stir through a bowl of hot porridge. Tadaa!
Porridge Top-Up Recipe
Makes 2 Mini Poddies | Prep 5 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 large pear, thinly sliced
- 1 large apple, thinly sliced
- 2 plums, thinly slice
Method
Steam the fruit for 5-10 minutes, until soft.
Allow to cool slightly before puréeing with a hand blender and transferring to We Might Be Tiny Mini Poddies.
Freeze for up to 3 months.
Simply pop out a porridge top-up or two when ready to enjoy stirred through a bowl of hot porridge.
We also love to sprinkle on some chopped nuts and coconut.
Hungry for more?
We love this recipe as it is over at the WMBT HQ. In fact, we enjoy it so much we’ve also used these super cute poddies and blitzed them in yoghurt smoothies, chia seed pudding, and mixed them in overnight oats to pump up the flavour.
The great news is, this recipe also works with other seasonal fruits so you’d have tons of fun options if you want to switch it up!
Here are a few of our other favorites:
- Banana, peanut butter, cocoa powder
- Blackberries, blueberries and raspberries, topped with granola
- Strawberries, pear and dried cranberries with cinnamon & nutmeg
- Pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and topped with chopped pecans
- Pureed mango topped with coconut shavings, and pistachios
- Squash, sweet potatoes and applesauce
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