Breakfast Breakthrough

Remember my no-sugar dream?  It’s implementation time!  I have decided to work at it one meal at a time, starting with… Breakfast!  The first meal of the day, and some say, the most important.  In 2016, the Straits Times reported that a local study by the Clinical Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC) found that people who have a low glycaemic index (GI) breakfast and afternoon snack have significantly less sugar in their blood for the rest of the day.  GI measures how quickly carbohydrates are digested and absorbed into the bloodstream as glucose.  The report went on to say that “having high levels of sugar in the blood stresses the pancreas… over time, too much stress decreases the effectiveness of the pancreas.  When the pancreas is consistently unable to clear the sugar, people become diabetic.  High levels of sugar in the blood also significantly raise the risk of cardiovascular disease, blindness and kidney failure.”  That said, it is worth highlighting that not everyone agrees on the usefulness of GI values.  Dr. Ang Poon Liat, a consultant paediatrician in Thomson Paediatric Centre, is of the view that “since there are many factors that can greatly affect the GI (of foods), it is actually quite meaningless to be (sic) make healthy food choices based solely on GI values.  At best, the GI should serve only as a rough guideline.”

Guideline or holy-grail, it is worth bearing in mind.  My focus will however be on serving a whole food breakfast with as little sugar and refined carbohydrates (e.g. white flour) as possible.  Oh, that and a breakfast that can be prepared the night before.  Baby D still keeps me awakenights and I can’t bring myself to get up at 5am to prepare breakfast for my school going kids.

Overnight Oats

After many attempts, only one such breakfast item has passed the family’s taste test – Overnight oats.  It’s so good that my dad (who makes it a point not to eat anything I make) has taken to making his own overnight oats for breakfast (secretly of course).  As its name suggests, overnight oats consist of oats soaked overnight in liquid, resulting in a slightly chewy and pleasant texture.  You can flavour the oats with anything thanks to its neutral flavour, making it a versatile dish that can be repeated without boring the tastebuds.  A godsend given that I only have one breakfast item on my menu.  Overnight oats also require minimal preparation the night before and its just out of the fridge and into the mouth the next morning.  The recipes below are most popular with my family.  But go ahead, be bold and invent your own recipes!

But first, some oat-ucation:  Oats are a whole food and have thus far not been subject to the GMO revolution.  Rich in fiber, oats have been said to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease and colorectal cancer and (as my dad attests to) lower cholesterol levels.  A bowl of oatmeal also has a low GI value of 55, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Banana Overnight Oats

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 2 medium sized bananas (more if you want it sweeter)
• 1 cup rolled oats (not instant oats)
• 1 cup unsweetened soy milk (feel free to substitute this with any kind of milk, juice or liquid)
• (optional) 1 tsp chia seeds
• (optional) Any kind of seeds, nuts and/or fruits

Directions:

• Mash the bananas with a fork in the container that you wish to keep your overnight oats in.  The container should have a lid.
• Add rolled oats and chia seeds (if using)
• Add enough milk to cover the oats (add more milk if you prefer softer oats)
• Cover and refrigerate overnight
• Add seed, nut and/or fruit topping just before eating

Variations:

• Add 2 tsp cocoa powder for chocolate overnight oats
• Add 2 tbsp peanut butter + 2 tsp cacao nibs for chocolate peanut butter overnight oats (this is Chubs favourite).  I use Adams Peanut Butter as it contains only peanuts and salt
• Add 1/2 cup chopped strawberries for strawberry overnight oats

Kai’s Overnight Oats

Overnight oats are so easy to prepare that the kids are able to make them on their own.  Kai came up with this recipe and it is his favourite by far:

Ingredients (serves 2):

• 3/4 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup milk (feel free to substitute this with any kind of milk, juice or liquid)
• 2 tbsp jam.  I use St Dalfour Jam as it has no added sugar.

Directions:

• Put jam and oats in the container that you wish to keep your overnight oats in.
• Add milk
• Cover and refrigerate overnight

Our weekly dessert

Ice cream!  Yup, we have soft-serve ice cream at least once a week.  But this is no ordinary ice cream.  It is made entirely from blended frozen bananas!  I stumbled upon this recipe some time ago and have not looked back since.  If only McdDonald’s knew about this recipe and served it as part of their Despicable Me promotion.

Can’t wait to try?  Here’s the recipe so that you too can enjoy delicious wholesome soft-serve ice cream minus the sugar.

Soft-serve Ice Cream (serves 1)

Ingredients & Directions

• Slice bananas evenly (about 1/2 inch) and freeze them.  Any kind of bananas will do, just make sure that they are ripe and preferably overripe.  I recommend using  Dole bananas for their creamy texture and sweet flavour.  Dole bananas are readily available in NTUC.
• 5 min before serving, take the frozen banana slices out of the freezer to thaw just enough to break into small chunks to put into the blender.
• Blend required amount of frozen banana slices and enjoy your ice-cream!

Tip: If you can’t get your kids (or anyone) to drink milk kefir, the sweet bananas allow you to add at least 1/4 cup of milk kefir for every 2 bananas without anyone noticing.

Variations

Bananas have a mild taste when frozen, which makes this recipe easy to vary.  Our favourites include:

• Peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream – add 1 tbsp peanut butter and 2 tsp cacao nibs per serve
• Strawberry ice cream – add frozen strawberries to taste.  Tastes like sorbet.  Yums.  

Tip: I buy the frozen strawberries from QB Food Trading Pte Ltd. They are much cheaper than those sold in NTUC or fresh strawberries.

• Mint chocolate chip ice cream – add 1/4 cup mint flavoured milk (see recipe below) and 2 tsp cacao nibs per serve

Mint Flavoured Milk

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup milk (or any liquid)
• 1 generous bunch of mint leaves and stalks (mine are harvested straight from my mini herb garden)

Directions

• Heat the milk in a pot and turn off the heat just before it boils
• Throw the mint leaves and stalks into the hot milk
• Cover the pot and let the mint steep for 2 hours
• Strain the mixture, pressing on the mint leave with a spoon to get all the liquid out

Tip: According to this site, blending the mint leaves would lose all its subtlety, and introduce unwelcome tannic and oxidized flavors to the mix.  

Top 3 sugar alternatives

Sugar increases the risk of heart disease, obesity and dental cavities.  It also delivers “empty calories” i.e. calories unaccompanied by fibre, vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that can crowd healthier foods from a person’s diet.  Reasons enough to reduce one’s sugar intake?  Nope, not in my family.  We LOVE our sweet treats and cold logic never trumps a slice of gorgeous chocolate cake, a scoop of ice cream or even a small unassuming candy.  To reduce the consumption of hidden and non-hidden sugars, I bake my own no-sugar snacks and desserts whenever I can with the help of my favourite sugar alternatives – Banana, Apple and Dates.

Banana

My absolute favourite sweetener for cakes, overnight oats and ice-cream.  Bananas are sweet, versatile, easy to work with and cheaply available all year round.  Choose the overripe bananas which are the sweetest and hope for a discount from your fruit stall uncle.

Bananas are power packed with nutrition.  High in potassium (regulates heartbeat, lowers blood pressure and builds bones), pectin (fruit fibre) and antioxidants.  They are also a good source of magnesium and vitamins B and C6.  If all that doesn’t make you feel better, it is said that eating bananas will, as they contain high levels of tryptophan, which the body converts to serotonin, the mood-elevating brain neurotransmitter.

So go bananas by substituting 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of mashed/pureed banana.

Apple

My children’s favourite fruit.  Thankfully, applesauce is also a versatile sweetener for cakes and cookies and is easy to make.  Just boil or steam pieces of cut apple (without the skin) until soft and blitz the softened apple in a food processor.  You can vary the taste of the applesauce by adding a squeeze of lemon juice, a pinch of cinnamon or some freshly grated lemon/orange zest.

Apples are rich in important antioxidants, flavanoids, and dietary fibre.  Apples are also  a good source of vitamins B and C, calcium, potassium and phosphorus (works together with calcium to build strong bones and teeth).

Substitute 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of applesauce.  Note that applesauce contains a fair amount of liquid and you will need to decrease the amount of liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup per cup of applesauce used.  Do also mix the applesauce in with the wet ingredients if your recipe requires separate mixing of wet and dry ingredients.

Interestingly, applesauce can also be used to replace butter in a 1:1 ratio.  Do note however that it will make the end product more dense, so substitute as appropriate.

Dates

Moist, delicious, sweet and rich in dietary fibre, anti oxidants, iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium.  They do however have a distinctive taste that may take some getting used to.  Cocoa powder can also be used to to musk its taste.  I use dates to sweeten no-bake energy balls/bars and pie crusts.

Substitute 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of date puree.

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Remember this post the next time you reach for the sugar jar and use Bananas, Apples or Dates instead!