Rediscover the pleasure of a healthy
breakfast with these delicious ideas from The Pure Package recipe book
When starting out on a new diet, many of us
at the first hurdle – breakfast. Making healthy, balanced choices first thing
in the morning can be a chore if you don’t have the time or just can’t stomach
a meal. But missing out, or reaching for a quick bowl of sugary, carb-loaded
cereal will start the day off on a slippery slope and can impact the rest of
your food choices.
With her love of food and desire to look
and feel healthy, Jennifer Irvine understands this problem. Based on her
philosophy of creating dishes that are both delicious and good for you, she
founded a gourmet healthfood delivery service, The Pure Package, to make it
easier for people to make healthy choices on a daily basis. Delivering tasty,
nutritionally balanced meals to your door. The Pure Package is designed to be a
stress-free way of having a healthy diet.
Obviously bespoke menu plans don’t come
cheap, so Irvine has now written The Pure Package: The Diet for Food Lovers
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, $31) to make her secrets available to everyone.
With delicious recipes, including muffins, curries, salads and snacks, and
tempting photographs, it’s hard to believe it’s a recipe book that’s good for
you. But with Irvine’s healthy tips, simple rules on portion sizes, fresh
ingredients and a three-week diet plan, the book offers everything you need to
manage a healthy lifestyle while enjoying your food.
Revealing her most important tip for a
healthier life, Irvine compares having breakfasts to stoking a fire. “If you
want to a good fire with lots of energy, you have to fuel it,” she says. It’s
the same with your metabolism – it works depending on when and what you eat for
breakfast. The better the fuel, the better your body will work. That means
breaking your overnight fast with complex carbs and protein. But the key is not
to get stuck in the same breakfast routine, says Irvine. She advises you to
“Explore some of the nutritious and delicious options out there.” With this in
mind, here are some of Irvine’s breakfast recipes, with deliciously balanced
sweet and savoury options. So mix things up, find your favourites, and start
fuelling your body for a healthier way of life.
Quick tip:
“Weather influences cravings so check the forecast when planning your meals, if
you’ve had your porridge you won’t give into that latté on a miserable
morning.”
Apple and blackberry porridge
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Per serving:
257 calories; 8g protein; 8g fat (of which 3g saturated fat); 38g carbs (of
which 14g sugar); 7g fibre; 0.1g salt
160 jumbo porridge oats
400ml whole milk
400ml water
3 large apples, cored and chopped
½ tsp ground cinnamon
100g blackberries
1.
Put the porridge oats, milk, water, apple and
cinnamon in a non-stick pan and cook over a medium heat.
2.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and
simmer for four to five minutes, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon,
until the oats are tender and creamy.
3.
Stir half the blackberries through the porridge
and remove from the heat.
4.
Spoon the porridge into warmed serving bowls and
scatter over the remaining blackberries.
Chef’s tip:
Blackberries are bursting with antioxidants, vitamins and fibre. Pretty good
for something so small!
