Porridge – the healthy power breakfast!

I've been reading a lot about the negligible nutritional qualities of most big brand boxed cereals recently, and so have vowed to try and find alternative breakfasts at least half of the week. This morning, we'd run out of bread, so plans for sausage sandwiches (made with Irish sausages from The Co-op) will have to wait until tomorrow. So today was porridge day. Here's how we serve it in our house (smiley faces optional)…

– Speed is of the essence in the mornings (two full time working parents, one girl at school and one at nursery) – but we loathe instant porridge. For a start, it's more like dust than a proper porridge oat. Secondly, these varieties often have unnecessary nasties added. So we opt for thick whole flakes - they only take 5 minutes to cook.
- we don't have a microwave (don't like 'em, never needed 'em) so cook the oats on the hob in a large pan and stir occasionally with a wooden spoon
- we like half milk, half water for a creamy finish - and soya milk is really good in porridge (plus cuts down the amount of mucus-producing dairy food that your family are ingesting)
- we like a drop of sweet stuff on our porridge (although it always brings back memories of my godfather) Slan White, who used to eat his porridge with salt in the mornings). But we don't like to start the day with a refined sugar crank, so opt for agave syrup (it's low GI) plus a few raisins.
- because we're catering for littl'uns, the raisins make the face, the agave syrup the long golden hair.

Eat this for breakfast and you'll feel happy and full, and will only need a mid-morning snack of oat cakes or a piece of fruit to last you until lunch.