It’s the first week in October and that can only mean one thing, National Porridge Week is here!! To celebrate the week (4th-10th October) Flahavan’s, Ireland’s best loved Oat brand, are inviting families all across Ireland to take the Porridge Pledge by committing to incorporate healthy wholesome porridge oats into their diet every day and making a positive change to their health.
Flahavan’s “Porridge Pledge” campaign, launched in celebration of National Porridge Week 2021, encourages people to re-assess the way they start each day and make a healthy nutritious breakfast choice. To entice consumers get onboard, Flahavan’s have called in the help of some well-known faces to inspire consumers with their favourite oat-based recipes and advice. Fitness expert and TV personality, Karl Henry, along with dietician, nutritionist and TV personality Aveen Bannon share their recipes as well as some delicious recipes from the Oat experts themselves Flahavan’s have shared their simple, wholesome recipes containing natural oats as their key ingredient.
Here are five tasty and nutritious porridge recipes, created specially for Flahavan’s.
Flahavan’s - Baked Oats with Walnuts and Figs
Serves 6 | Prep time: 30mins
Ingredients:
180g Flahavan’s Progress Oats
80G walnuts, chopped
100g dried figs, chopped
1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
50g butter, melted
3 tablespoons of runny honey
2 eggs, beaten
200ml milk of choice
2 fresh figs, sliced
Method:
• Preheat the oven to 180c / gas 4. Grease or line a 20cm/8” square dish.
• Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
• Whisk the eggs, honey and milk together, add to the bowl and mix well.
• Pour into the prepared dish and arrange the fig slices on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes until firm and serve warm with an extra drizzle of honey on top. It’s also good with a dollop of yoghurt.
Any left overs can be cut into squares when cool and enjoyed with a cup of tea or for breakfast on the go.
Karl Henry 's Banana Berry Porridge
Serves 2 | Takes 5 minutes Karl always steeps his porridge overnight so it heats quicker in the morning on a medium heat. When the porridge is nice and creamy, he pour it into a bowl and add strawberries, raspberries and banana, with some honey on top. Yum!
Ingredients:
For the porridge:
80g Flahavan’s Organic Jumbo Oats 550mls Low Fat Super Milk (or milk of your choice)
For the toppings: Strawberries/Raspberries/Blueberries 1 x chopped Banana
1 tsp Honey
Method: • Add 80g of Flahavan’s Organic Jumbo Oats to a pan and stir in 550ml of milk. • Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins, stirring continuously.
• Add fruit toppings and drizzle with honey. Enjoy!
Karl Henry's Tropical Overnight Oats
Serves 3 | Takes Min. 2 hours Karl sometimes enjoys a refreshing jar of chilled overnight oats from a kilner jar when he's on the go, this being his current go-to recipe:
Ingredients:
150g Flahavan’s Organic Oats
300ml Low Fat Super Milk (or milk of your choice)
Chopped mango and pineapple pieces
Unsweetened flaked coconuts
2 tsp honey
Method:
• Place the oats in a large glass jar.
• Add the milk, enough to just cover the oats.
• Cover with a lid and leave in the fridge overnight.
• The next morning, remove oats from the fridge and pour into 3 glasses layering with the mango and pineapple pieces and topping with flaked coconut and a drizzle of honey.
Aveen Bannon's Chocolate Porridge
Serves: 4 | Prep time: 5 minutes Oats are one of the foods that are delicious, versatile and extremely nutritious. Aveen's kids love this chocolate porridge recipe and sure chocolate brings out the kid in all of us!
Ingredients:
160g or 2 cups of Flahavan’s Progress Oatlets 20g or 1 tbsp of cocoa powder 750-800mls or 3.5 cups of milk 1 cup of raspberries
Method:
• Mix oats with cocoa powder together.
• Place milk in a saucepan.
• Stir oat mix into milk.
• Bring to the boil and add the raspberries.
• Continue to simmer for 3-4 minutes until milk is absorbed and fruit softened. • Serve with some sliced banana or berries, enjoy just on its own or sweeten with a little golden syrup.
Aveen Bannon’s Autumn Oaty Bars
Serves 8 | Prep time: 35-40 minutes
Ingredients:
1 Pear chopped 1 apple chopped 2 small dates
160g of oats 1 tbsp of linseed or flaxseed 40g walnuts chopped 1/2 tsp of baking powder 1/2 tsp of cinnamon 1/ 2 tsp of ground ginger 1 tsp vanilla essence
Method:
• Preheat oven to 180”C L
• Lightly grease an 18cm/7” square tin baking tray.
• Add chopped fruit, dates and vanilla essence into bowl and liquidise to make a fruit puree
• Mix oats, ginger, cinnamon, linseed and baking powder together and mix through with fruit.
• Pour mixture into baking tray and sprinkle walnuts on top.
• Put in the oven for 35 minutes .
• Once cooked take out let it cool.
• Then cut mixture into 8 bars
Aveen Bannon’s Benefits of Oats;
Oats are one of the foods that are delicious, versatile and extremely nutritious! Oats first made health history in 1997 when they became the first food with an FDA health claim label which was that eating soluble fibre from oats could help lower the risk of Heart disease.
Heart Health -
And 20 years later the evidence to support that claim is stronger than ever! So there is a fibre in oats called beta gluten that forms a gel like structure and helps the body excrete cholesterol. Research shows that 3g of beta glucan a day can help reduce total cholesterol by 5% and LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol by 10%. A 40 g serving of oats will provide you with 2g of beta glucan.
Digestive Health -
Fibre is not only good for the heart but also for our digestive health. Adults need approx 25-35g of fibre per day. Fibre is like a natural sweeping brush for the gut and helps the body eliminate waste. Starting the day with a high fibre breakfast can be a great way to help regulate the bowel. Oats are a naturally high fibre food and one bowl of porridge will provide approx. 4g of fibre.
Healthy weight -
Oats help you feel fuller for longer. The reason is because they are high in fibre, contain protein and are considered a low Glycemic Index (GI) food which basically means they don’t cause a rapid spike to your blood sugar levels. The energy from oats is released slowly into the gut helping you feel satisfied for longer.
Blood Pressure -
New research indicates that the antioxidant avenathramide, which is present in oats, may help reduce blood pressure when eaten…so another reason to include oats in your diet!
Benefit of breakfast -
The right breakfast can really help set you up for the day. Breakfast as it implies breaks the fast from overnight and is the first meal of the day so a perfect opportunity to provide your body with good nutrition. We know that those who eat a healthy breakfast tend to be leaner, reduce their risk of type 2 diabetes and have better digestive health. Also research has shown that kids who eat a healthy breakfast perform better academically. So no excuses!
Slán go fóill,
Danny