This is our 5-days a week, morning routine for a leaner body.  Most of us eat breakfast anyway, why not start the fat-burning process right from the start?

Whole foods like oats, fruits, nuts and milk are high in protein, ideal for fat-loss, while steadily release energy all morning long.  Our porridge recipe is quick, easy, delicious and ready in a bowl to eat under 5 minutes; heck, you can even take it to go in a travel mug.  Once you try it, you may never go back the usual cold milk with cereal.

Top Benefits of Leaner Porridge

leaner porridge recipe

Quick and easy

Most mornings, especially Monday to Friday, we are rushing to get out of the house and on with the day.  Naturally, we gravitate towards quick and easy morning meals such as milk with cereal, bagel with cream cheese or a common fast food drive-through breakfast.

Now, if you live in a cold country like us Canadians, then you often wish for something warm in the morning to go with your coffee or tea.  Well, we have the ideal recipe to satisfy these needs!  The following recipe is as easy as, putting a bowl full of oats and water in the microwave for 2 minutes, while you blend some milk, fruit and nuts to top it off.  This breakfast is as easy as pouring cold milk into a cereal bowl, and faster than waiting in any drive-thru morning line.

Excellent for weight-management

This recipe is high in fiber, low in added sugar and empty-processed calories – ideal ingredients for a leaner body.  Many of us grew up on milk and cereal breakfast, this option was convenient and acceptable due to children’s overall activity levels.  Back in the day, we could easily burn off the empty sugar filled processed cereal calories.  However, kids and adults of today are nowhere as active as they were two decades ago, hence one of the reasons for the obesity epidemic. 

Today, we have to be cognitive of the type of calories we consume.  Calories are not the enemy and are required to fuel our busy, modern lifestyles.  However, we need to transition from simple sugar calories towards sustainable ones—complex carbs.   With age, we become less physically active compared to our younger selves—running-around, climbing monkey bars, speeding on bicycles around local streets—we are unable to burn quick sugars as fast and they get stored as glycogen (or fat).  Modern lifestyle requires steady release of energy, the kind that comes from complex carbs found in whole foods such as: whole grains, fruits, nuts and milk.  Such foods are digested slowly creating an on-going release of energy and does not peaks nor valleys blood sugar levels.

As for most breakfast cereal boxes, even the “healthy” ones, the second ingredient listed on any carton is sugar, be it in one or other chemical name variant—dextrose, fructose, glucose, corn syrup and so on.  Furthermore, breakfast cereals are highly processed, removing most if not all, essential nutrients like amino acids, fiber, vitamins and minerals.  Stated nutrition facts on side of box for protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals are added back into the product—these synthetic nutrients don’t carry the same health benefits as naturally occurring counterparts.    

Satiety

Protein and fiber are the two top nutrients that aid in satiety department.  Slow-Digesting protein and complex fiber found in oats, apples and nuts slows down digestive process, keeping food in the stomach longer and creating a sense of fullness.

Energy Boost

Most of us fear the word “carb” but, carbs are synonymous with energy.  Carbs are not the weight-loss hindering opponents.  Compounds that contribute to the increasing waist lines are highly processed, simple sugars found in most breakfast cereals, bagels or toasts, often found within our breakfast staples.  Whole grains like oats, fruits (apple), and nuts (walnuts) are ideal complex carb rich breakfast options. 

Porridge Recipe – 5-minutes to Leaner

Makes 2 servings:  1.5 cup cooked serving – 360 calories, 14g fat, 48g carbs, 11g protein, 6g fiber

1 cup of quick or steal cut oatsfat-loss porridge recipe

1/4 cup of walnuts (halves)

1 medium apple

1/2 cup of milk

1 tsp sweetener (optional)

1/2 cup of berries (optional)

Choosing Oats — plain, quick oats are an excellent option here as they are cheaper than steal-cut version.  Steal-cut oats are less processed and contain more micronutrients along with whole fiber.  However, if time and cost are considerations, this recipe perfectly fits the quick-oats option.  Here, you’ll get enough micronutrients and fiber from the other whole foods such as apple and nuts, therefore cheaper quick oats are an acceptable substitution.

Cook oats as per package directions (in water).  In a blender, add milk, nuts and fruit – blend.  Add blended mixture to warm cooked oats.  Add more milk if needed to further thin out the oats. 

Option – top the porridge with some berries or other chopped fruit (i.e. banana) for sweetness and flavour.

* As we advise in our The No-Diet Book, make it a habit to slowly move away from added sweetness.  If you desire a sweet taste, it’s acceptable to add 1-2 tsp only of sugar but create a mental plan to incrementally decrease the intake.  Therefore, by mid week only use 1.5 tsp of sugar, next week add only 1 tsp and so on.  Eventually, after several weeks of eating natural sugars found in fruit and milk, your tastebuds adapt and transition to being satisfied from such foods.

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